Scott Cumbie

Without question, the captured “Boston” bomber should be speedily tried and then quickly executed for his crime.

With that statement as the backdrop, were you troubled by what happened this week in Boston, not with the bomber, but with the “good guys”? I was amazed that “the People” of Boston allowed military-style uniformed police with fully automatic weapons in armored vehicles to lock down their cities and patrol their streets. This action was nothing short of martial law. I was even more amazed that “the People” then walked out of their homes when instructed and allowed their homes to be searched without protest, with no warrant, and with no probable cause of any crime and with no evidence of any criminal harbored inside their homes.

Can you imagine our founders in Boston in a similar situation? Someone sets off a homemade bomb and then the “good guys”, the British soldiers, start a house to house search for the bomber(s). The citizens of Boston would have pulled out their guns and said, “Oh, no you don’t!”, or maybe in the more eloquent colonial style, “You have gone too far! You shall not enter these premises except on pain of death.” This underscores why the 2nd Amendment is so vitally important.

It was exactly this reason that the founders wrote the 3rd and 4th Amendments to the Constitution. In the Declaration of Independence, four of the “abuses and usurpations” that are listed were addressed by the 3rd and 4th Amendments to the Constitution.

• Number 11: He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
• Number 12: He has affected to render the Military independent and superior to the Civil power.
• Number 14: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.
• Number 15: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.

It was these sorts of abuses by government officials (the British troops) in Boston and other American towns that our founders drew a clear line that government officials could not cross:

• Amendment 3: No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
• Amendment 4: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Your person, your houses, your papers (electronic or printed) and your belongings are sacred and you should be secure in knowing that no one is permitted to search any of these without your consent or without a warrant issued by a judge on probable cause of a crime. We’ve allowed the TSA to search our persons at the airports with no probable cause. “The People” of Boston have now allowed their homes to be searched without protest.

This past week, “the People” allowed their homes to be searched in pursuit of a real criminal. What about next week? What if law enforcement classified you or your neighbors as a potential terrorist threat based on a “tip”? Has a line been crossed? Do they now have precedent to search our homes and seize our property at will and without warrant? Is the security this promises to afford worth the steep price of eroded liberty?

Have we become a nation of sheep? What’s next, the slaughter? Benjamin Franklin warned of this very day when he said, “Those who give up their liberty for more security neither deserve liberty nor security.”

The following link will take you to a great article on this subject. I have no idea what the authors political affiliation is, but he clearly understands the danger of what occurred this week in Boston: About that Boston thing: America, I have some questions.