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Home Front: Culture Wars
Boston police set to search for guns at homes
2008-02-11
Nope, can't happen here.

Boston Police prepare for a warrantless search:
As Boston police prepare to go into some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods, knock on doors of private houses, and ask if they can search for illegal guns without a warrant, officials are trying to pitch the idea of the plan as friendly cooperation to residents who still see it as a threatening intrusion.

A friendly looking logo - a drawing of a house surrounded by the sun - adorns the brochure police have drafted to explain and promote the initiative, "Safe Homes." Photos of officers playing baseball with children and chatting with teenagers dot the pamphlet. Twice, police have taken calls from listeners on a black radio station in Roxbury.

By the time they start going door to door next month, police hope they will have reassured clergy, neighborhood leaders, and parents who still see the program as a way to violate the privacy of residents in neighborhoods with a large population of minority-group members and and immigrants.
Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy

#16  Not long ago I remember a thread here about the Supreme Court reviewing the second ammendment, with the odds very good many if not all "Gun Laws" being abolished entirely, now this.

It looks to me like a sorta pre-emptive strike BEFORE it gete declared clearly illegal to enforce (Current) gun laws.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2008-02-11 22:27  

#15  And the parents can't do the search of their kids' rooms because???
Posted by: Darrell   2008-02-11 21:13  

#14  You wanna know where the 4th Amend. came from? Seriously? It came from the colonists being pissed off at the Red Coats unfettered power to stop a wagon on the road to do a search for no good reason except that they had the power to do so. It came from the Red Coats unfettered power to walk into your busniess establishment to search for contraband or anything they wanted to search for simply because they could (and they had the guns). It came from the Red Coats unfettered power to walk into your home in the middle of the night to search it - top to bottom - for no good reasin except that they had the power to do so at their whim.

The folk who lived under that system for years and years didn't like it. Got so pissed off they took up arms against the King. The rest is history. Smile.

Sadly...we're back to pretty much where the colonists were in about...oh say...1770. Our present day Gov't (fed/state/local) doesn't understand the historical analogy. But then - at the time - King George didn't understand either. Because King Geo. had reason to believe he had "2/3's of the people" on his side. AND HE DID. Look it up: It was only about 1/3 of the people who rose up against England. The other 2/3 tried to sit it out thinking King Geo would win. Some didn't sit it out and tried to help King Geo. (Those that did died early...hehehe).

We're closer to sheep than we are to men when we ALLOW the Gov't to barge unmolested into our homes because it makes us closer to the subjects of King Geo anytime the Red Coats can come into our homes without a warrant signed by a neutral judge.

Think I'm full of sh*t? Then you don't know your history friend. Look it up.

I know we've got many law and order folk on this website. Currently employed or retired cops? Right? Part of the law we have is the 4th Amend. a law that is forgotten in great part because of the war on drugs.

Here's my take: a real good cop doesn't go into a man's house without a warrant signed by a judge (except for a damn good exception: did you see a fleeing felon go inside or are you going in to save someone's ass cause you hear them crying for help)....very narrow exceptions.

Think this is all BS? Think it through real hard before you call this BS. A war was fought in 1776 for the same kind of heavy handed police tactics that are going down now in cities across the USA. It can happen again. I'm not saying the GOOD guys will win a second time (they won the first one) - got more "Red Coats" (COPS) on the home turf this time - but I know the GOOD guys where the ones who said f*ck this Red Coat BS! They WON the first time around. That's where I stand. Live free or die. You gotta love it.
Posted by: MarkZ   2008-02-11 20:57  

#13  I think Ben Franklin has a saying or two that covers this.

My answer would be a firm No.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2008-02-11 18:42  

#12  Sooo...now they think the guys with illegal guns are going to invite the police to come in and search the place?? Who is the rocket scientist that thought this one up!
Posted by: dave s.   2008-02-11 18:10  

#11  Would the most dangerous neighborhoods be the italian, irish, asian, mexican, samoan, black or muslim ones? Just wondering.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-02-11 17:23  

#10  If they really want to crack down on gangs or violent juveniles, they should follow the injunction route.

A judge can slap a standard injunction on individuals, even minors, any violation of which puts them right before the judge, *not* for the violation itself, but for contempt. This means no need for any evidence other than the testimony of a policeman, and no jury trial. If the judge finds against them, they go right to jail.

Injunctions can totally ignore most constitutional rights. For example, a gang member can be prohibited from free speech, free association, wearing certain clothing, being in particular neighborhoods, even using telephones or vehicles.

An injunction may require them to submit to personal and room searches, drug tests, ankle bracelets, appearances at school, with counselors or other supervisory personnel, etc.

If done properly, they can totally neutralize an offender. They were first devised against rum runner during prohibition, when no jury would convict them.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-02-11 17:18  

#9  What will they do if they find drugs? or p0rn? or crying kids? or copies of Liberal Facism?

What will they do with the lists of families who refuse them entance?
Posted by: DoDo   2008-02-11 16:32  

#8  Who's going to adorn the light on the Old North Church?

Obviously, the stasis police don't study history, which is ok when you've banned the teaching of the real history of Massachusetts within the state.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-02-11 16:00  

#7  Atomic Conspiracy: That's even more puzzling. The last I heard, the typical Russian cigarette was a nasty, harsh, tarry affair rolled in newsprint. The very idea of smoking a filtered cigarette, to a Russian would seem positively dainty. They pretty much abhor American and Turkish tobacco as having little or no "bite".
Posted by: Anonymoose   2008-02-11 15:17  

#6  And where have I seen pictures like smiling cops and kids playing ball?
Oh, yeah. North Korean propaganda posters...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-02-11 15:06  

#5  Btw, the guys in the pic are not really Boston cops (except perhaps in spirit of portrayal) and they are not even real Nazis.
Note that the guy on the left is lighting a filter cigarette.
For the record, they are re-enactors at a recent event in Saint Petersburg.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2008-02-11 15:04  

#4  Stand by for the Invasion of the Mattress Tag Police
Posted by: USN,Ret.   2008-02-11 14:57  

#3  This story is in The Globe, where it's seen as a good thing, since it's in The Hood and appears to be "for the children". It's not like the cops are trying to get gay marriage on the ballot or something like that. That would be "Orwellian" or...sumthin.
But have the cops be knocking on doors out in Dover or Weston, where the Globies live, and asking just to come in and "look around" and the outrage would be deafening...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-02-11 14:55  

#2  Folks, when you give permission for a warrantless search there is NO restriction on the "places to be searched and the things to be seized", it's an invitation to a fishing expedition...

I say again: People are Stupid.
Posted by: mojo   2008-02-11 14:48  

#1  The fascist left of Americka does not want you armed.
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-02-11 14:36  

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