MAKEUP
“The fact that the Fourth Amendment was specifically adopted by the Founding Fathers to prevent arbitrary stops and searches was deemed unpersuasive” (Alexander, 68). From this point it’s apparent that our safety has taken precedent over our freedom. Strange tidings from the Land of the Free. I hope by now it’s obvious that saying something is for our safety- or better yet keeping us safe- does not make us safer or satisfy our humanity. For those of you doubting the first half, let me point out that the Nazis, slave owners and ‘red-scare politicians’ claimed their tactics were for the benefit and safety of the people. Furthermore even if something literally keeps us safe doesn’t make it good. I remember IRobot and the idea that putting people in cages is the best way to keep us safe (especially from each other). We all feel the sin in that.
“The fact that the Fourth Amendment was specifically adopted by the Founding Fathers to prevent arbitrary stops and searches was deemed unpersuasive” (Alexander, 68). From this point it’s apparent that our safety has taken precedent over our freedom. Strange tidings from the Land of the Free. I hope by now it’s obvious that saying something is for our safety- or better yet keeping us safe- does not make us safer or satisfy our humanity. For those of you doubting the first half, let me point out that the Nazis, slave owners and ‘red-scare politicians’ claimed their tactics were for the benefit and safety of the people. Furthermore even if something literally keeps us safe doesn’t make it good. I remember IRobot and the idea that putting people in cages is the best way to keep us safe (especially from each other). We all feel the sin in that.
The ideology that allows someone to say one
thing, knowing the way it will be interpreted by the populace, and meaning
another, a meaning designed for the empowered, has been around for a long time,
virtually all of history. The difference today is that the purveyors of justice,
the means of information, and the psychology of society molded by history, are
aligned against the populace. However, there is a place in our society where
even a single voice may be heard and taken heed of- the courtroom. Terry is a supreme court decision giving
law enforcement the right to, “stop, question, and frisk him or her- even in
the absence of probable cause. Justice Douglas dissented in Terry on the
grounds that ‘granting police greater power than a magistrate judge is to take
a long step down the totalitarian path” (Alexander, 63).
In a civilization so stratified and indoctrinated, on
individual and systemic levels, where is the time to allow for totalitarian
control? If stop and frisk (let alone the other atrocities of the penal system)
were distributed equally throughout America, would you not call us a police
state? And how do you think the ghettos feel?
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