How To Deal With A Government Checkpoint
This article was written by Mac Slavo and originally published at SHTFplan.com
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.
-The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
With local, state and DHS checkpoints randomly popping up all over America many of our citizens believe that we must comply with what more often than not amounts to unlawful requests and orders from law enforcement officials.
While driving through California, Steven Anderson came upon three such checkpoints and he chose not to play ball with officers who asked him, among other things, to prove his citizenship, prove his identity and pull over for further inspection and questioning.
When asked whether he was a citizen Anderson’s immediate response was, “that’s my business.” When advised that it was the officer’s job to ask the question, Anderson calmly responds by saying, “I don’t have to answer you, because I have rights as an American.” The law enforcement official courteously asks Mr. Anderson to do him a favor and pull over for further questioning, no doubt expecting Anderson to comply. But not today, as Anderson patently refuses to do so per his Fourth Amendment Constitutional protections. He subsequently makes his own request, saying to the officer, “no thanks, I’d like to just go on my way.”
All of it was recorded on a digital camera in Anderson’s car and out of view of officers.
What you’ll see below is a crash course in exercising your Constitutional rights when faced with the threat of detention, interrogation and random searches by Federal or local law enforcement officials. You won’t see this one in mainstream media, and it’s something they certainly don’t teach in college:
Anderson: Is this Nazi Germany now, that I have to show my papers?
Officer: It’s a simple yes or no. I need an answer or we can detain you until we figure out whether you’re a U.S. citizen.
Anderson: Well, you know what’s more simple is the fact that my freedom is a little more important than you seem to think. Seting up checkpoints where people have to prove that they’re a citizen is not something that America is supposed to be about. So, I’m not sure if you understand that.
Supervisor enters scene: Grunt
Anderson: Grunt
Supervisor: Just pull up over there (points to line of detained cars)
Anderson: No, thank you… I want to go free on my way. Here I am just going about my own business and I don’t need to stop at a checkpoint to prove who I am because this is America. Correct me if I’m wrong – did I stumble into Mexico or is this still the United States?
Supervisor: This is the United States.
Anderson: Therefore, I should have the freedom to travel unmolested, because I’m in America here.
(pause)
Supervisor: Ok, go ahead and go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fDCXzqgD99o
Score one for liberty and the US Constitution.
It really is that simple.
Sure, some officers will overstep their bounds in an attempt to intimidate and instill fear, but in this case cooler heads prevailed and the officer in charge understood that Mr. Anderson was on the right side of the law, and that their requests for him pulling over and showing identification at a random checkpoint were nothing more than requests, as no such mandate exists without probable cause that criminal activity is taking place.
Mr. Anderson stood up for his rights – his own individual rights. To be free and to enjoy the liberties reserved and protected for the people by the Constitution of the United States it falls upon each of us, as individuals, to ensure the rule of law.
On another day Mr. Anderson may have been detained, perhaps even arrested (unlawfully).
But today in America freedom prevailed.
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July 16th, 2012 at 6:08 pm
This all sounds fine and dandy, but obviously the system is not working. ICE hauled off 150 illegal mexicans from my area in December of 2006. Within 3 weeks everyone of these criminals were right back here. Many of these are gang members, like MS13. The majority of drugs coming into this are from these exact people. The Law looks the other way, and allows these Laws to be broken. As a matter of fact, right after the ICE Raid our local sheriff (Lynn Nelson) had his deputies posting ads on the front page of the local newspaper, telling all the illegal mexicans they were not looking for anyone, and to go back to work because their employers needed them.
I have yet to see one border patrol agent in this area, but we have wall to wall illegal mexicans. I am not pointing my fingers at most the agents themselves, rather then the flawed procedures in place to deal with this terrible problem. I have been on the border helping to secure it, but if you think the border is secure, you are absolutely mistaken. Here, take a look… http://www.americanborderpatrol.com/
I have spent over ten years researching and trying to get the border secure, but it has only got worse. Helped setup and promoted http://www.NumbersUSA.com, http://www.firecoalition.com, and the list goes on and on. After all of this, I watched Mr. Anderson’s time being wasted because of a very inefficient government program. So the next time you feel you need to call someone a punk, maybe you need to take a look at your job.
July 18th, 2012 at 6:49 am
Over the last two years, I’ve spent over 4 months total driving the Texas border from Laredo to El Paso, and the Border Patrol was EVERYWHERE in numbers doing their job politely and well. I went through many checkpoints with no problems and patrolling agents even checked me out when I stopped along the highway to take pictures. THAT’S THEIR JOB! IT’S WHAT I WANT TO SEE THEM DOING! The only way to make a bigger dent in smuggling and illegal immigration would be to militarize the border and put several hundred thousand troops down there. Now consider the costs and consequences (intended and unintended) of that. The best things we could do to clean up the border would be to clean up our own drug-sucking US citizen neighbors and make Congress come up with workable immigration reform and a legitimate guest-worker program.
July 18th, 2012 at 3:20 pm
I’m kind of surprised no one else here has opined on this yet.
The fourth amendment defends individuals from “unreasonable” search and seizures. Remember everyone, the guys that wrote and passed these amendments were lawyers, they understood the meanings of each and every word and how they are malleable. The word unreasonable was not included by mistake.
It’s important to denote that the fourth amendment does not explicitly *prohibit* all search and seizures, only *unreasonable* ones.
Take that as you will. I’m a die-hard constitutionalist, and probably much as the framers intended, the precise meaning of the amendments takes different facets of interpretation over time.
So in summary:
> Traffic checkpoint at a border crossing? Not all that unreasonable.
> Coming to your door unannounced and demanding to search your effects w/o a warrant? Completely unreasonable.
And as always, there is the massive amount of gray area in-between.
July 25th, 2012 at 4:49 am
I see people on both sides of this issue. The point is, that THE government is CONDITIONING all of us to get used to “showing our papers”, and subjecting us to interogation. This is specifically NOT allowed by our Constitution. The traveler did the right thing by resisting unlawful requests. He placed himself in a potentially compromising situation, which is valuable for us to witness. His little episode allowed us to conclude that Citizens do not need to obey unlawful interogation, but more importantly, that for the moment the officers have the freedom to let us go about our business IF we know our Rights. They were just doing their job. Their “requests” were stern but not demanding THIS TIME. It’s up to us to stand our ground and resist unlawful requests. Our actions MAY allow all officers to question themselves if their orders are lawful or not. Let’s CONDITION them right back! They are just following orders, but it’s our job to say no, it’s unlawful!
August 17th, 2012 at 12:27 pm
this is what you get when you eleect people who say we need more secure borders…
see the ‘Secure Fence Act of 2006′
thanks to Bush / Cheney for the DHS.