Dwelling on the Fourth Amendment

More thoughts on the Fourth Amendment, because it is seems like it is in the news a lot lately.

I wonder if where our individual rights stop and where others rights began can ever be clearly defined. If I own my own property and I decide that I don’t want to live in the rain, so I build myself a simple shelter, what business is it of anyone else’s? What business is it of anyone if I build a greenhouse? I shouldn’t even need a permit, unless it is going to affect someone else, like a septic system that may fail onto other properties.

I can understand that my problems shouldn’t extend beyond my property lines, but if they don’t, nobody has the right to step on my property without my permission.

I really don’t believe that any of us has given our government all of this control over us, I think that they took it while they were busy picking on people that we don’t like anyway, and we didn’t feel sorry for. Now they are after us, and checking our property without permission. This is what happens when we don’t defend the rights of ALL of us.

Same as with helmet laws, who cares about bikers anyway, and we don’t want to pay for their medical expenses. Seatbelts are the same, everybody should wear their seatbelt, so we don’t feel sorry for them. Sex causes venereal disease, when they pass a condom law are we going to feel bad? How about when you can no longer cook chicken without washing your hands before and after, that should be a law, think of the lives that would be saved with that one. You cant make a u-turn on the freeway, no matter how safely you do it, can not being allowed to cross the street be far behind? Just think how many people are killed in crosswalks. I know I’m off subject!

Like my friend said when they inspected his greenhouse, it’s funny at first, then it makes you mad. I’ve often laughed myself about what would happen it they raided my house. I speculated that I would invite them in offer them a cup of coffee and admonish then to not make a mess. But after the following true story it makes me shudder to think what might have happened to me, if things were a little different.

A few years ago, my wife was going through unclaimed packages that had been returned or damage through our shipping department at the store. Most things just get tossed into the garbage, but this one package was filled with some local coffees, and some herbal teas that she especially likes. So she took them home. They sat in the cupboard for quite some time, then one night she ran out of tea, so she open one of the packages that was tightly sealed. When she got the package opened, she discovered that it was loose-leaf tea. She started to make some tea out of it, then she sniffed it. She woke me up laughing. When I asked what was up, she said that we have had a box of Marijuana in our cupboard for over a year!

The next morning I took the stuff out and sprinkled in in the berry brush, and put the box in a State Park garbage can. I shuddered at the thought of my cavalier attitude about searching my house. That night I got to thinking about the other teas and coffee that she had brought home. Sure enough, more pot. What ever kind of critters lived in that berry bush must have had a high time for awhile.

What would have happened if I had been searched? Would they have shot my dog? Would they have held my mother at gunpoint? Would they have handcuffed me in my underwear? (All stuff that I have read about lately)

How would I have claimed that I was innocent? It would certainly have entailed significant lawyer fees, even to be let off. Shouldn’t people be entitled to make a mistake in their own homes?