Of course, the program is completely "voluntary." But a pretty, sickeningly sweet PR campaign is being built to promote the "Safe Homes" initiative. They plan to knock on doors of private houses, and ask if they can search for illegal guns without a warrant.
"To further put residents at ease, officers will wear civilian clothes and try to look like office workers on casual Friday rather than FBI agents, French said. 'They won't go in there in a three-piece suit.' "
"Some clergy members have apparently volunteered to accompany police on the searches because they are suspicious of their intent."
And records of those homeowners and residents who do NOT permit police to search their homes will not be kept, right? I haven't seen that mentioned.
Finally, will someone PLEASE tell me what an "illegal gun" is?
12 February 2008
Bostonians Prepare As Police Plan House-To-House 'Warrantless' Search For Guns
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I read fairly consistently, but I'm not up to speed on your quibble with the term "illegal gun." I get that it's not a perfect term, as I assume you are saying the "gun" didn't do anything wrong. A stolen TV is not usually called an "illegal" TV.
But a gun could be reported stolen or owned by a felon, and it's not THAT big of a stretch to call it an illegal gun. Of course it could be a gun subject to some ban that would render its possession illegal by most anybody. What term would you prefer for an illegitimately-possessed firearm?
That confusion aside, what an amazing program. If that happened in my city, I would not only refuse consent but I would make the biggest fuss I could with the police department, chief, mayor, whatever. What residents could this possibly help? Parents who are afraid of their criminally-involved teens? There's actually 4th Amendment caselaw that casts doubt on whether a parent can even consent to a search of an older child's room - depends on the kid's reasonable expectation of privacy! I guess that doesn't matter, if their true goal is to get rid of the "illegal" guns, and they are not worried about prosecuting the possessors of the illegitimately-possessed firearms (aka illegal guns :).
Post a Comment