Category Archives: Private Property

Letter of the Week: Your Home is the Government's Castle' By Carolus

Drug War, Private Property

I have very ambivalent feelings about drug legalization, though I can certainly understand the arguments that have been advanced for it in libertarian circles. The thing I oppose here is the destruction of the fourth amendment that this type of thing represents and the gross abuse of such ‘no-knock’ warrants by prosecutors, judges, and police.

Such warrants are routinely sought by careerist DA’s, rubber-stamped by moronic judges, and carried out with blind stupidity by police. The list of innocent victims of such abuse grows every day. While there might be a rare in extremis instance where such a raid might possibly be justified (against a cell of jihadis preparing an terrorist attack, for example), that’s not what’s going on day after day in city after city.

Instead, we end up with innocent victims of prosecutorial, judicial, and police misconduct and incompetence, for whom there is zero recourse. Yes, there will no doubt be an official investigation and yes, no doubt the shooting of the 92-year-old woman will be ruled “justified.” It’s as predictable as the sun rising in the east. I think a more appropriate response for this type of wanton stupidity would be: 1) the summary dismissal with prejudice of the officers involved (meaning they will never wear a badge again); 2) the removal of the prosecutor who sought the warrant; 3) the summary removal of the jurist who signed the warrant. In all, the guilty parties should have their careers ruined for good.

If a doctor screws up and kills a patient, the odds are high that he will be carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey by hungry trial lawyers via malpractice suits. If prosecutors, judges, and police screw up and an innocent person dies, they are all quite immune from lawsuits since they are acting in official capacity as government employees.

–CAROLUS

Drug-War Goons Gun Down Granny

Criminal Injustice, Drug War, Private Property

It goes without saying that the late Kathryn Johnston, a heroic 92-year-old pistol packing Atlanta resident, had every right and reason to open fire on the goons who were in the process of breaking down her front door. But they were the law, so they shot her dead.

Armed to the teeth, wearing bulletproof riot vests, and carrying riot shields, these big, “brave” men killed a very old lady in her own home. She was armed with a “rusty old revolver,” meant to repel the neighborhood rapists and drug dealers.

The goons have backup. Although neighbors say Miss Johnston lived alone, the Assistant Chief of the Atlanta Police Department and the County district attorney are claiming their “undercover officers bought illegal drugs from a man at the house in the afternoon and the officers returned in the evening to execute a ‘no knock’ warrant, which is used in cases where officers believe that a suspect may have time to hide evidence or escape if given time to answer the door…”

According to FMNN columnist, Radley Balko

a ‘no-knock’ raid occurs when police forcibly enter a private residence without first knocking and announcing that they’re the police. These raids are often launched on tips from notoriously unreliable confidential informants. Rubber-stamp judges, dicey informants, and aggressive policing have thus given rise to the countless examples of ‘wrong door’ raids we read about in the news. In fact, there’s a disturbingly long list of completely innocent people who’ve been killed in ‘wrong door’ raids.
No-knock raids are typically carried out by masked, heavily armed SWAT teams using paramilitary tactics more appropriate for the battlefield than the living room. No-knock raids have been justified on the flimsiest of reasons, including that the suspect was a licensed, registered gun owner (NRA, take note!)

Basically, the protocol followed is for the police to announce themselves, wait a couple of seconds, and then force the door. Imagine how scared and confused a 92-year-old woman would have been. She probably knew nothing about the “no-knock” abomination and failed to spot the “comforting” sight of the marked patrol car in front of the home she thought was her castle, but was in fact the government’s.

Flying Free

America, Government, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Liberty, Private Property

As travel by air becomes more tormenting, charter planes are going to become a viable option. In fact, I’d be investing in these companies now. As charter planes are used with greater frequency, more suppliers will enter the market to take care of demand. Eventually, prices will become more feasible.

Charter companies, I am sure, are putting together good packages as we speak, for business people who have to fly frequently. Or for people like me who tolerated the odd pat down, but refuse to let the Transportation Security Administration thieves steal my Rene Guinot toner and my powder compact.

I can’t afford a charter flight, but longtime reader Robert Rupard might change that. Other than his splendid reading habits, Robert is president of the charter “Wings Air“—it offers great rates. His motto: “On Wings Air, You’re Already There.” Fly with Robert, and you can avoid the mandatory molestations in the state-occupied airports. No lost Baggage either.

If you’re going to any of the destinations Robert frequents, be sure to make your reservations. Also check out my weekly column tonight, which deals with government goons gone wild in the airports. And while you’re at it, why not read a golden oldie, “Whose Property is it Anyway?”.

Brokeback Mountain Revisited

Film, Hollywood, Homosexuality, Media, Private Property

From “Brokeback Mountain Revisited“:

“That gays have such a vested interest in this dreary and dull film indicates that, like Hollywood, they too have become colossal bores. Once interesting and iconoclastic, all gays seem to crave now is the State’s pension and seal of approval. They ought to go back to the days of the Stonewall Riots, when the police’s violations of privacy—and private property—were the object of their anger and activism.

More poignantly, if, in Ayn Rand’s magnificent words, ‘civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy,’ then sexual activism or exhibitionism—homo or hetero—is anathema. All in all, it’s most regrettable that the closet has come to signify oppression rather than discretion”.