Death of the Fourth Amendment means danger to the Second

You will often hear me voice my disdain for violations of the Fourth Amendment, freedom from unreasonable search and seizures, as I believe that it is second only to the Second Amendment with regards to importance rights enumerated by the Constitution. While the other rights are important, the 4th is supposed to protect us from warrantless midnight raids of secret police and from our person being molested by thugs on fishing trips hiding behind badges.

In a pair of disturbing violations of the Fourth Amendment, we can see the groundwork being laid to erase the Fourth from the law books and in doing so attack the 2nd Amendment directly.

The first case involved scrap metal worker David Eckert who found himself in the wrong part of town in Deming, NM and as a result was repeatedly and forcibly raped over a twelve hour period by doctors who were being ordered to do so by a pair of Deming Police Officers.

The two officers had performed a routine traffic stop on the 63 year old Eckert after he “rolled” through a stop sign. When they asked Eckert if they could physically search him Eckert refused as is his right. A minor traffic violation does not warrant the initiation of a Terry Stop and the officers had no grounds to search Eckert. As such, since Eckert told them no, the officers had no legal means for their fishing expedition. Yet, apparently in New Mexico, no doesn’t mean stop.

The officers radioed in for a judge order allowing them to do a cavity search. The probable suspicion? The officers claimed that Eckert clenched his buttocks when talking to them.

If that is not bad enough, on the affidavit the officers claim that a K-9 dog alerted them to the side of Eckert’s car. The only problem is that not only is that dog not certified in the detection of drugs it may actually just be a PET of one of the officers.

Yet, the way the officer’s made the affidavit sound you would think that they had just pulled over Pablo Escobar.

The officers took Eckert to Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver Springs after an emergency room doctor refused to perform the cavity search and colonoscopy citing that it was completely unethical. That doctor has agreed to testify for Eckert during a civil trial.

Now at the Gila Medical Center, doctors examined Eckert’s anal cavity twice with their fingers, put him through an x-ray scan and then inserted three rounds of enemas into his anus. After each enema, doctors examined the stool sample produced. Eckert was then given a second x-ray scan and forced to undergo a colonoscopy with anesthesia.

To add insult to injury the hospital had the gall to actually CHARGE Eckert $6000 for the medical procedures he involuntarily underwent.

Oh, and as for the drugs that the “drug dog” “sniffed out” and the clenched buttocks that was apparently probable cause? Not a single speck of any drug was found anywhere.

Eckert has brought a lawsuit against the officers, their department and the hospital for his rape under the guise of probably cause.

If the Fourth Amendment doesn’t protect against THIS…if THIS isn’t an unreasonable search and seizure, then what hope does the average law abiding gun owner hope to have when we can get get forcibly raped by those with badges on the assumption that we have a bullet somewhere in our body?

This is a prime example of the dangers of loosening the protection of the 4th on personal searches. Hopefully Mr. Eckert will win his lawsuit and those officers will be fired outright for both falsifying an affidavit and conspiracy to commit sexual assault. Of course the Police Department is circling the wagons releasing this statement by Deming Police Chief Brandon Gigante: “We follow the law in every aspect and we follow policies and protocols that we have in place.” If sexual assault is a protocol you have in place Chief Gigante, then perhaps more heads need to roll than just the officers involved.

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Speaking of laws, a Town of Massachusetts wants to use the act of owning a gun as reason to forfeit your right against unreasonable searches and seizures. Swampscott Selectman Barry Greenfield introduced legislation that would allow local police to enter homes without a warrant in order to inspect whether gun owners are properly storing their firearms.

On a side note, how would the police know which houses they would need to search? REGISTRATION!! Tell me again how that will never be used for malicious purposes. While Mass doesn’t call it registration, transfers of firearm ownership are required to be recorded with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

The term jack-booted thugs and Nazi have been thrown around probably too much in recent times…BUT THIS isn’t shades of 1938 Berlin, this is EXACTLY 1938 BERLIN. Police entering residences at will with no need for warrants or probable cause. Back then it was to “check your papers” and search for Jews, now it is to check your locks and search for guns. Greenfield is trying to legislate away one of the most important Amendments to the Constitution. In short, Greenfield is saying; if you exercise your 2nd Amendment then you forfeit your 4th Amendment rights.

That is not only perverse and disgusting it is about as far from American as you can get. While even if it passes it cannot stand in an honest court, the fact that some politicians feel that it is appropriate to even bring it to a vote is disgusting. What’s next? Some state wants to give slavery another go if a person refuses to quarter soldiers? Exercise your 3rd Amendment right and you forfeit your 13th?

These are just a pair of examples of the slow murder of the 4th Amendment. I don’t even need to get into the overarching NSA spying done on American citizens or the TSA’s peep show. And while it is true that the 2nd Amendment will be the last to go, this blog is named after the very concept of that being true, the attacks that will weaken the right to keep and bear arms will most often come indirectly.

Like a sapper attacking a castle wall, the controllers will slowly whittle away at the foundation of American liberty until all that is left is the right to keep and bear arms. Unfortunately by that time the only choice left will be to use them or lose them.

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