Roadblocks an abuse of privacy

To the Editor:

Most people don't realize just how much of their rights have already been taken from them. Police "Roadblocks" that are being employed by law enforcement all too often these days is yet another assault on our freedom. After reviewing several court decisions involving roadblocks and related search and seizure cases the trends are fairly obvious--and ominous. Our personal privacy is an endangered right. The rationalizations by our courts that have legalized roadblocks for law enforcement purposes can be summed up as contorted, convoluted, and blind to the abuses it has unleashed. The principle of individual privacy that we hold dear--the right to be left alone--has repeatedly been diluted and undermined in the name of safety, national security, and crime prevention.

The stated purposes for roadblocks is usually for sobriety checks, license and registration verification, proof of insurance, and seatbelt usage, but in practice the police use them as legalized excuses to stop and scrutinize motorists for which there would otherwise be no reason to do so. Even when the courts disallow roadblocks for certain purposes, e.g., the recent cases prohibiting roadblocks from being used to identify drug users or couriers, the law enforcement agencies just claim another purpose for the roadblocks and it's business as usual. The courts have gone out of their way to allow the police great latitude in what they can do once they have you stopped and under their control, so with practically no restraints on them they do pretty much what they please. Therefore, if you are stopped by a roadblock, you have nothing to gain by launching into a tirade over the constitutionality of their actions. Your best course of action is to take names and record everything that transpires if possible.

A friend of mind in his 60s who has diabetes was recently snared in a roadblock on Highway T in Wappapello and searched for illegal drugs. Luckily he had prescriptions for all his medications. Another friend who has stage-four colon cancer was pulled over near the same location last year three miles from his home and also searched for drugs. He had some pain pills in a container other than the original one and when he couldn't produce his prescription he was arrested and hauled to jail. The charges were later dropped when he proved his innocence, which is backwards from the way it is supposed to work. But my point is that neither was doing anything to be stopped in the first place, so according to the fourth-amendment of our constitution not only were they illegally stopped, but illegally searched as well.

It is a sad commentary on the state of affairs today, but occurrences like these should be expected when government endorses and condones "police state" tactics to intimidate common citizens. The desired effect is to establish a sense of fear and intimidation among the population, and sadly it is working. I have talked to people who are so intimidated by the prospect of being stopped by a roadblock they are afraid to drive, even though they are legal divers and law-abiding citizens. Sobriety roadblocks are usually set up at night and can be quite unnerving, with the bright lights, the orchestrated show of force, and flashlights thrust in drivers' faces. I sense a growing distrust of the police and the courts. Whether true or not is impossible to know, but I've heard stories of police officers planting evidence in the cars of suspected drug users and dealers at roadblocks whom they haven't been able to legitimately catch in order to arrest them.

In my opinion the only justification for stopping citizens under a roadblock scenario is to look for a dangerous fugitive or warn them of an unseen peril that could cause injury or death to an unsuspecting motorist. The so-called "sobriety check points," or the myriad of other excuses the police concoct to harass and intimidate citizens is unconstitutional and in direct contradiction to any honest definition or freedom. Roadblocks have a net zero influence on public safety, but even if there were a safety benefit it would not outweigh the totalitarian nature of this practice. A free and open society that champions individual liberty, as we tell the world America represents, cannot condone the arbitrary stopping, interrogating, intimidation and searching of citizens whose only crime is peacefully traveling on a public highway. Currently there are 12 states whose constitutions prohibit police sobriety checkpoints. Write or call your State Senator and Representative and demand that our state constitution be changed to put an end to this blatant unconstitutional practice in Missouri as well.

Bill Cox

Fairdealing, Mo