Loss of Privacy

Graham Wilson’s dad once tried to get the dictionary banned because it contained offensive words. Yes, it was a piss-take. It was to make a point. Graham describes his dad as an “skilled scientist; awesome chess player; devout trouble maker; wonderful dad.”

An excerpt of the transcript is as follows:

1. Nature of the objection (be specific, cite pages):

An uncountable number of unacceptable words, of which B*st*rd (p. 45), ev*l*t**n (p. 208), excr*m*nt (p. 210), f**c*s (p. 217), p*n*s (p. 457), s*x (p. 583) and v*g*n* (p. 715) are just a few examples. These are so horrible that you will understand that I cannot write them in full. To expose young minds to such filth is surely to corrupt them for life and to damn them for eternity; Better no ‘education’ at all than this.

He’s right. You should read the transcript as well as his dad’s site.

In a recent United States Supreme Court ruling, if a police officer stops you and makes you get out of your vehicle, they cannot go back and search the vehicle.

The old law gave the officers the right to always search the passenger compartment of your vehicle after the arrest in order to look for guns or drugs (or other evidence) that could be destroyed. The logic was that the officers need to protect themselves and preserve any evidence that the arrestee might destroy. In the Supreme Court case of Arizona v. Gant (April 2009), Mr. Gant had an outstanding warrant for driving on a suspended license and that his license was suspended. When he was pulled over, he exited his vehicle and was immediately placed in handcuffs and then secured in the back of the officer’s patrol car. The officer then went and searched Gant’s car and found a firearm and cocaine in the passenger compartment.

The Supreme Court held that the drugs and gun found in Gant’s car should be suppressed because the officer did not have a warrant to search Gant’s car. The prosecutors’ argued that they could search Gant’s car after they arrested him under the “search incident to arrest” rule of New York v. Belton. However, the Supreme Court said that, in Gant’s case, he was in handcuffs and secured in the back of the officer’s patrol car, there was no way that Gant could have grabbed a gun or destroyed evidence, so the officer was not allowed to go back into the car to search. Also, since the arrest was for driving on a suspended license, there was no reason to believe that evidence related to that crime would be located in the car.  If the arrest would have been for a suspected drug or gun offense, then the search would have been valid as the officers could have searched the car for evidence relevant to the offense for which Gant was arrested. However, the court ruled that the “search incident to arrest” rule does not give officers the right to rummage through a suspects vehicle for every arrest they make.

Even with this ruling, remember that the police can still lie to a citizen, while a citizen cannot lie to the police.  They will do everything in their power to convince you that it would be easier on you if you just let them have a look.  Always refuse.  Make sure that you do not remind them of this law as it could escalate to where the police would think you are a threat.  Let your lawyer do the talking for you.
If, however, you are within 100 miles of the United States border, then you are screwed as the new, bizarre laws say they can do whatever the hell they want.

This year the American Library Association’s banned books week is celebrating the freedom to read.  It’s sad to say, but books are still being challenged and/or banned in the USA in 2009.

There are many events around the nation where you can participate.

You should make a point to read all the books [pdf] that were challenged and/or banned in 2008-2009.

If you’re a UK citizen and planning to fly to Scotland, you might have to show your passport to get there.  Under new terrorism laws, the police want all British citizens to show their passports before entering Scotland.

The move emerged after five Tory front bench MPs, including Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, were among travellers ordered to show their passports when they arrived at Prestwick Airport on Wednesday.

Mr Grayling accused police of abusing powers designed to combat terrorists and warned it was “mission creep”.

He said: “”It is utterly and completely unacceptable for any police force to be doing routine identity checks on passengers travelling within the UK.

Yes, we know it’s unacceptable and we’ve been telling you for quite some time that this was going to happen, but MPs live in their own little worlds where this sort of thing would never happen to them.

“Acting like this simply undermines the credibility of our security legislation and will heighten concerns about civil liberties.”

Yeah, we told you this too, but you didn’t listen then either.

How can you get around this idiotic law?  That’s right, drive or take the train.  That is, until the police start enforcing this idea at train stations and the border between England and Scotland.