by Charles Coughlin

I bet you thought police had to announce themselves before they broke down your front door. Well, you’re wrong. The Supreme Court just ruled that police can break down doors without even giving a home owner a chance to answer. Naturally, conservatives are claiming that this will only be used against illegal drug labs and terrorists, but I’m not so sure. How long will it be before some completely innocent political dissident finds his door smashed down in a blatant effort to chill free speech?

A recent news article reports “The Supreme Court made it easier Thursday for police to barge into homes and seize evidence without knocking or waiting, a sign of the court’s new conservatism with Samuel Alito on board. The court, on a 5-4 vote, said judges cannot throw out evidence collected by police who have search warrants but do not properly announce their arrival. It was a significant rollback of earlier rulings protective of homeowners… Dissenting justices predicted that police will now feel free to ignore previous court rulings requiring officers with search warrants to knock and announce themselves to avoid running afoul of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.”

The US has just joined the ranks of the Soviet Union and Red China in stripping its citizens of the right to live safely in their own homes. Is it really that big a hardship for the police to get a warrant AND to announce themselves before they enter your home? Or does the Bush administration want to create an all-powerful police state that tramples what few Rights we still have left? It should be noted that the US is one of a very small number of countries which has used TANKS against its own people. What’s that? You don’t think the US ever used tanks against American civilians. Well, it happened –twice. The first time was in the 1930s when the “Bonus Marchers” were chased out of Washington, DC by the US Army. The second time was at Waco, Texas when the Branch Davidians were massacred.

In a famous case in California, a man who owned some land that the state park department coveted, had his home raided by police, who were hoping to find illicit drugs so they could confiscate his land. The police failed to announce themselves, the homeowner thought his home was being invaded by criminals, grabbed his gun and was shot dead by police inside his home. The only justice in that case was that the widow successfully sued the state for millions. Thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision, surviving family members would not even have the right to sue. It would just be tough luck.

Thanks to Bush’s illegal wiretaps, the Feds could discover that you have some illegal drugs or weapons in your home. They then could pass this information on to police, who could kick down your door in the middle of the night, drag you off to jail, and confiscate your house as a penalty. And it would all be legal. If anyone doesn’t think the Bush regime has gone too far destroying the Bill of Rights, he hasn’t been paying attention.