At some point, once the government has been given the power to do whatever it wantsâthe Constitution be damnedâit will not matter whether youâre an illegal immigrant or a citizen by birth, a law-breaker or someone who marches in lockstep with the governmentâs dictates. Government jails will detain you just as easily whether youâve obeyed every law or broken a dozen. And government agents will treat you like a suspect, whether or not youâve done anything wrong, simply because they have been trained to view and treat everyone like potential criminals.
Eventually, all that will matter is whether some government agentâpoorly trained, utterly ignorant of the Constitution, way too hyped up on the power of their badges, and authorized to detain, search, interrogate, threaten and generally harass anyone they see fitâchooses to single you out for special treatment.
Weâve been having this same debate about the perils of government overreach for the past 50-plus years, and still we donât seem to learn, or if we learn, we learn too late.
All of the excessive, abusive tactics employed by the government todayâwarrantless surveillance, stop and frisk searches, SWAT team raids, roadside strip searches, asset forfeiture schemes, private prisons, indefinite detention, militarized police, etc.âstarted out as a seemingly well-meaning plan to address some problem in society that needed a little extra help.
Be careful what you wish for: you will get more than you bargained for, especially when the governmentâs involved.
Remember, nothing is ever as simple as the government claims it is.
