Pubdate: Fri, 01 Dec 2000
Source: Danville Register & Bee (VA)
Copyright: 2000 Register Publishing Company
Address: P.O. Box 331, Danville, Va. 24543-0331
Feedback: http://www.registerbee.com/headlines/edform.cfm
Website: http://www.registerbee.com/

TRIMMING THE DRAGNET

Our View: The rights that protect criminal suspects are, in fact, the same 
rights that protect all Americans.

What's worse, illegal drugs being transported on our highways, or being 
stopped at a police roadblock so a trained dog can sniff your car for drugs?

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on that question this week, ruling 6-3 that 
those random drug roadblocks were unconstitutional.

Civil libertarians hailed the case as a victory for the rights of 
individuals, and we agree with them.

At some point - actually, at a lot of points - we as a nation have to 
decide just how many of our rights we're going to give up to catch the bad 
guys.

Unlike sobriety checkpoints, which look for people who pose an immediate 
threat to themselves and others, the court found the drug checkpoints in 
Indianapolis went too far.

"If this case were to rest on such a high level of generality, there would 
be little check on the authorities' ability to construct roadblocks for 
almost any conceivable law enforcement purpose," Justice Sandra Day 
O'Connor wrote in the majority opinion.

Indianapolis Police stopped 1,161 cars and trucks and made 104 arrests - 
including 55 for drug charges - at six roadblocks conducted over four 
months in 1998, The Associated Press reported.

Society is better off when the cops catch the bad guys, but the innocent 
were treated to the same initial scrutiny as the criminal suspects.

Cynics will call the court's ruling a victory for what is often referred to 
as "criminal's rights," but the rights that protect criminal suspects are, 
in fact, the same rights that protect all Americans.

If we, in our fear, anger and disgust over this nation's drug problem allow 
our protections to be thrown away, then we have traded the evil of illegal 
drugs for the scourge of a police state.

How far is too far?

"While we do not limit the purposes that may justify a checkpoint program 
to any rigid set of categories, we decline to approve a program whose 
primary purpose is ultimately indistinguishable from the general interest 
in crime control," the majority opinion said.

Getting 55 drug arrests is good news, but stopping 1,161 cars and trucks to 
do it is a high price indeed to accomplish a goal that most of society 
already supports.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D