As a parent, your behavior becomes important not just for how it affects your own life. It's also an example. What you do is often passed on to your children in ways as unexpected, and unstoppable, as your genetics.
When you're the President of the United States, the values you evince in your governance are often reflected at all levels. In the case of the Bush administration, a general disrespect for human rights, for individual freedoms, and for the protections promised in the Constitution, has infused their every action. That disdain for personal liberty is reflected in everything from the scandals at the Justice Department to the invasion of Iraq.
So the story that Wired is carrying should not be too surprising. DEA agents, seeking to convict a drug trafficker, staged a car accident, then staged a carjacking, and finally lied to a judge, all in an effort to get a suspected dealer out of his vehicle long enough for them to conduct a surreptitious search.
Ascension Alverez-Tejeda and his girlfriend were stopped at a traffic light near La Pine Oregon, and when the light turned green, the car in front of them stalled. Alverez-Tejeda stopped in time but a pickup truck behind him rear-ended him. When he got out to look at his bumper, the police showed up and arrested the truck driver for drinking and driving. The cops then convinced Alverez-Tejeda and his girlfriend to go to a nearby parking lot, ordered them out of their car and into in the back of the cop car for 'processing.' While they were in the cruiser, a person jumped in their car and took off. The cops ordered the pair out and set off in full pursuit up the road. A few minutes later, the stolen car comes flying back down the road with the police cruiser in pursuit. The pursuing officer returns alone with the woman's purse, telling the duo that the carjacker thrown it out the car window and escaped. The woman is so upset she hurls and the police put the distraught couple up in a motel.
Quite a performance. While it might be shocking to someone who has never been the target of a police investigation, the truth is that law enforcement officers lie all the time in attempts to trap offenders (I'd highly recommend David Simon's book Homicide for terrific examples). What's different in this case is the level to which the DEA took their lies. They not only damaged the car, they quite literally stole it and the couple's personal effects -- all without a warrant. When they did go to get a warrant, they lied to the judge about the circumstances. In the meantime, they held the couple essentially hostage without even letting them know they were under investigation.
So can law enforcement lie, cheat, steal, and kidnap to get their man? Yes, says the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Though a lower court had held that there had to be some limits to this kind of behavior or else the Fourth Amendment was worthless, the Ninth declared, as the Bush administration has done in so many ways, that good intentions justify almost any means. Even more disturbing is that that Ninth Circuit has a reputation as being the most liberal of the appeals courts with a (slight) majority of judges being appointed by Democrats.
The idea that it's okay to violate someone's rights if you have "good reason," may be the most pervasive, and the most corrosive, legacy of the last six years.
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