Eric Holder, Do Americans Have Constitutional Rights Or Not? - FDL

[WillyT]

Eric Holder, Do Americans Have Constitutional Rights or Not?
By: Jon Walker - FDL
Tuesday November 22, 2011 9:42 am

<snip>

As part of the basic social contract, we as a society have given the police the awesome responsibility of protecting public safety by having a monopoly on the legal use of force. We do not provide police this awesome power because we think society would be better off if a special group of sadists could go around torturing any regular citizens they want without fear of repercussions. The police are given this power and responsibility because there are some people determined to use violence against others. Sometimes selective, legal use of force by authorized law enforcement is the only way to stop those who would harm others.

While police are the special set of individuals modern societies have legally empowered to use violence to maintain peace, that empowerment is only to prevent individuals from using violence against others. Under our Constitution, the empowerment laws are not intended to give police carte blanche authority to use violence against individuals who pose no threat or harm to anyone. For law enforcement to use violence outside these specific conditions is itself a crime. That is what appears to have happened at UC Davis, according to numerous videos and eye witness accounts, though all are legally presumed innocent until proven guilty.

What the videos and accounts describe appears to be an unlawful act of aggressive and brutal violence against individuals who posed zero danger. That would make it an assault. And since the victims were essentially under police control, and the pepper spraying extremely painful, the actions seem little different from an act of torture against a detainee. What we see is an apparent criminal act, and even worse, we see an egregious abuse of the special authority society grants law enforcement.

<And...>

That is why I demand the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division launch an investigation into this incident. This is exactly the type of crime — authority using violence to stop people from exercising their basic constitutional rights — that the Civil Rights Division was created to stop. It is important not just to get justice for this event, but to send a clear message to law enforcement throughout the country that such violations of rights will not be tolerated by the federal government.

<snip>

Link: http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/11/22/eric-holder-do-americans-have-constiutional-rights-or-not/

:kick:

[Demeter]

1. Maybe If We Incorporated

99% Ink.

[gratuitous]

2. The short answer is "no"

And we got to this point by celebrating things like the extra-legal execution of people we were assured were very, very bad. No trial, no presentment of evidence, no due process was necessary. Just send in a SEAL team, or have someone push a button on a controller while looking at a viewscreen, and *poof*! the very, very bad person is gone. If Osama bin Laden doesn't have constitutional rights, if some nameless schmuck at Guantanamo Bay doesn't have constitutional rights, if our own citizens don't have constitutional rights as long as someone high enough up in the government says so, then what makes you think you have constitutional rights? And what makes you think the Department of Justice gives a tin shit about it one way or the other?

Liberal Democrats just lurve the Obama administration! 84% worth! Gallup says so, and vox Gallupi est vox dei. So there.

I hope that satisfies your morbid curiosity on this subject.

[WillyT]

3. Thanks... I Think...

;)

[WillyT]

4. Damn... We Got One Unrec For Our Constitutional Rights, So Far...

:evilgrin:

[woo me with science]

8. Says a lot, huh. nt

[WillyT]

5. Kick !!!

:kick:

[WillyT]

6. Last...

:kick:

[woo me with science]

7. K&R It's as simple as that.