The police state
by Greg Krehbiel on 25 January 2013
I ride public transportation on most days. As an evil conservative I would rather drive some really large old vehicle that gets awful gas mileage and is exempt from emissions control requirements — oh, and with a gun rack behind me and maybe a dead deer strapped on the roof — but … the MARC train is convenient for me.
On the MARC train you can sleep, read, write (I do a lot of that these days), study, chat — whatever you want. You can even have a beer on the ride home. I suppose you can have a beer on the ride in as well, but a man has to have barriers in his life. I imagine that privilege will disappear soon. Some nanny-state official will decide to mind our business for us.
The south end of the MARC train is D.C.’s Union Station, which is a pretty nice place. Recently, however, Union Station has been over-run by police and police dogs — to sniff for bombs, I presume. The officer walks the dog right in the middle of the crowd, perpendicular to traffic. It’s incredibly annoying and my first reaction is to try to kick the dog. Of course that’s just frustration speaking. I don’t want to kick a dog. I like dogs. I should kick the policeman. Or, rather, whoever came up with this policy.
I have seriously thought about being as disrespectful to the police officer as he is being to me, but of course I can’t do that. I’d get arrested.
And that is the problem with a police state. The police can be disrespectful and obnoxious and rude, and there isn’t much you can do about it. They know that, and … power corrupts. Sure, you can complain, but nobody will do anything. You can file suit, but nothing will happen. If you try to film them, you can get fined!
Every citizen should have an unrestricted right to film any on-duty police officer at any time, any place. In fact, that should be a federal law.
The Metro stations are also full of police these days, and they keep making announcements that they have a right to search your bags. So far I haven’t seen an actual search, but if they ask to search my bag I’m going to ask for a warrant. Announcements on the P.A. system don’t change my rights.
-- 2013-01-25 » Greg Krehbiel
25 January 2013 @ 6:43 pm
Well, you know they have to work hard to prevent the 327 deaths by terrorist attack per year…
Oh wait. That line was “accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed.”
28 January 2013 @ 8:53 am
I’d go further to say that any employee of the government, should be able to be filmed/taped, when acting in that capacity.