Impossibility

This thought burbles up every time I think about things like the Holocaust.

I want it to be impossible for the government to violate my rights, not merely forbid it or make it irritating to them.

For example: gun registration.  If there is no list of guns, the government cannot print it and go seize the guns from the registered owners.  That makes confiscation an iffy exercise.

I want it to be impossible.

Citizens being killed for defending themselves from the police breaking down the door?  That becomes impossible if we eliminate the no knock search warrant.

Prohibition II is why we have those searches.

The crime associated with drugs is real.  It was bad enough that people wanted something done about it.  We've crossed the line to where enforcing the laws concerning drugs has become worse for us than the drugs and crimes associated with them combined.

Do you worry more about the cops getting the wrong address in a drug raid or a junky mugging you?

I have laws that protect me if I do something about a mugger, I have nothing to protect me from police incompetence.  Except the police themselves.  Unfortunately they've shown they are unreliable about punishing their "bad apples".  Officer Roid Rage from Canton, Ohio will likely face no sanction to further employment as a police officer, let alone face charges of assault.  It appears likely that he would still be employed as a cop in Canton except the city council fears personal liability for lawsuits that are sure to come.

My attitude is not helped even the slightest by the most common interaction a citizen has with the police. Traffic stops.  Odds are you have been pulled over for doing something everyone else was doing at the same time and had done every day for years.  Except now it's a crime, here's your fine.  The cops enforcing traffic laws and serving fines have become tax collectors.

Red light cameras are often presented as being "for safety" but every mention of them after installation is about revenue.  Speaking of those abominations.  Farmer's Insurance is out $3,000 because the brakes on a 2008 Corvette will stop a car for a yellow light in a light rain whereas the brakes on a 1991 Tercel will not.  But I didn't have to pay a fine.  It would have been safer for me to continue on through the yellow, even it was tinged a bit red.  Instead I got a new rear fascia and some poor guy will get his rates increased.

I hesitate to hand the government at any level any power.  Once they have power, power will be abused.  Perhaps not right away, but eventually.  Power, once attained, is extremely difficult to remove.