And for those areas that are sufficiently fenced in, the Supreme Court had blessed low-level helicopter flights to search for any illicit plants on the ground. The Supreme Court decision, which has been cited in over 600 subsequent federal and state court decisions, nullified hundreds of years of common-law precedents limiting the power of government agents. In a raid outside Elba, N.Y., at least one INS agent opened fire on fleeing farm workers. Police also possess the right to destroy property they search. The damage resulted from a single, isolated incidence of alleged negligence.
Renters fare even worse.
Park Forest, Ill. in 1994 enacted an ordinance that authorizes warrantless searches of every single-family rental home by a city inspector or police officer, Mr. Bovard continues, who are authorized to invade rental units at all reasonable times. No limit was placed on the power of the inspectors to search through people s homes, and tenants were prohibited from denying entry to government agents. Federal Judge Joan Gottschall struck down the searches as unconstitutional in February 1998, but her decision will have little or no effect on the numerous other localities that authorize similar invasions of privacy. We are now involved in a war in this nation, a last-ditch struggle in which the other side contends only the king s men are allowed to use force or the threat of force, and that any uppity peasant finally rendered so desperate as to employ the same kind of armed force routinely employed by our oppressors must surely be a lone madman who snapped for no reason. No, we should not and do not endorse or approve the individual choices of Carl Drega, or Stuart Alexander, or Garry Watson.