Okay, about a month ago I responded to a Facebook poll, comment, or something (I don't even remember now) about mass drug testing, and came out against it.
I received an email from someone whose screen name, at least, is Darlene Mesa:
If you aren't taking drugs, what do you care if you get tested or not?
Since this person was apparently not too savvy on the Constitution, nor too terribly concerned with Constitutional rights, I attempted to enlighten her.
That's like saying, "If you have nothing to hide, why do you care if the cops search your house/car/computer?" I have a right to privacy, that's why, and a right not to be searched without cause. That's what living in a democracy is supposed to be about. You know? The Constitution and all? The prohibition against being searched without due cause? For some strange reason, I just have a thing against being treated like I live in a dictatorship. Odd, that, eh?
But I guess the difference between living in a police state and living in a democracy was just too much to wrap her mind around. She came back today with this:
Like I said, if there is nothing to hide...why worry? If you give someone reason to think they have to drug test you or search your possesions, than that is on you. You obviously are on something.
See the mindset? If I don't agree that unlimited police search and seizure is A-OK, then it's because I am "on something." It doesn't enter what passes for her mind that I might have a principled stand against police-state tactics. Not to mention that she assumes that any kind of drug test or search can only occur if I "give someone reason to think they have to drug test [me] or search [my] possessions."
How fucking naive can you be??
It's "on me" if the cops do an illegal search of me or my possessions? Sorry, babe. We do have that little piece of paper, shredded though it is, that does guarantee us certain rights. One of which is the right not to be searched without due cause.
I wrote back with my usual restraint:
Nope. Have never taken illegal drugs in my life (I do like wine, though). It's the principle of the thing, dearie. And the principle is that there has to be a reason for a search -- OMG, it's even in the Constitution!! Have you ever read that document? We as citizens have a right not to be hassled by the police without due cause. That's what is supposed to make us a democracy, as opposed to a police state. In a democracy, people have actual rights.
By your reasoning, any asshole cop could come into my house at any time to search for anything, and I shouldn't care a bit about having someone violate my privacy as long as I had nothing to hide. Fuck that shit! I have a right to a private life unviolated by the police as long as there is no due cause.
It's very telling that you think a principled stand against police state tactics indicates a drug problem. Jesus H Christ on a popsicle stick. Educate yourself.
Actually, now that I think about it, I probably have ingested illegal substances at some point in my life ... I don't count pot, though. (What reasonable person does?)
I just can't stand that excuse for police-state tactics: "What do you care if you have nothing to hide?" I'll tell you--at some point people who have done nothing wrong but militate against state power are targets of the police, FBI, or whatever, and the only thing keeping us from mass arrests and state coercion is the Constitution. Not that I have much faith in our current Supreme Court to keep the Constitution viable.
Just another day in Amerika.
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