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Railfans detained for photographing trains on public property
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This still doesn't resolve the central problem I have observed over the past four years.... which is: What are Americans more willing to sacrifice, their rights or their lives? <br /> <br />Unreasonable search and seizure? Go to an airport. Since hijackings became popular in the 60's and 70's, you have been searched before you get on an airplane. Just by wandering into a secure area, you are searched. The searches were around long before Homeland Security, and people take them as part of the joy of travel. <br /> <br />Interesting quote of FDR's. During World War II, there were laws out regarding photography of "strategic installations". The saboteurs landed by Germany during the war had been trained to attack targets of "strategic importance"- including Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA. This got enforced by rationing things like film, cameras, and fuel. Lord alone knows how TRAINS magazine got published during the war years. <br /> <br />The vast majority of American people have made their decision by their vote: They want safety, and if it means a loss of convenience, or "rights", so be it. They don't want to be on planes that smack into tall buildings; they don't want to be on commuter trains that blow up; they don't want to drive on highways that might have a bomber or two getting ready to blow up a bridge out from under them. <br /> <br />The 9/11 Commission stated pretty clearly that there is no alternative in preventing a repetition of the attacks without increased searches and seizures. Keep in mind that none of the 18 hijackers violated any laws getting on board those airplanes. They might have been stopped if there was easy access to a watch list. They might have been stopped if their box cutters had been confiscated at the gate. The simple fact of the matter is that thousands- and at the holidays, hundreds of thousands- of people have to be searched, stopped, and inconvenienced by the actions of a few. <br /> <br />Americans have made their choice. They prefer being safe in their homes and in their modes of transportation over "certain inalienable rights". <br /> <br />I don't neccessarily agree with the laws, the searches, and the inconvenience, but my opinion doesn't matter. I still have to enforce the laws that are on the books. That what my county government pays me for, and that's what my commission states. How those laws are enforced, and the emphasis placed on enforcing them is a matter for the courts and the government- not the cop on the street. <br /> <br />Erik <br />
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