While there is no doubt that police officers fully deserve the same rights, as may be enjoyed by any other employee in the country, it is true that law enforcement holds far more authority and power, compared to an average citizen. We all know very well that the concentration of too much power always leads to corruption and abuse. Cops are human beings and they are not exempt from this basic rule. It is not unusual to hear that the constitutional rights of citizens got violated by cops. If we take a deeper look, these violations are not just the result of concentration of power and authority. The included causes are much more complicated and involve issues like improper training and a generalized misleading perception of use of authority in our society.
Our media and politicians cannot stop pretending that government is a perfect institution. It cannot do anything wrong, and causing harm to anyone is out of question. Its existence is absolutely necessary for our own good and welfare. Whatever order we find in our society, we must be thankful to the government for it. Although, a more extensive, broader and objective look will deem results, just opposite of that. The fact is that the chaos and disorder which we see in our society is because, over time, some people and institutions have acquired too much authority and power.
It has become a trend to preach and believe that it is okay to breach the basic constitutional rights of individual, for the sake of safety and security. Irony of this situation is that where ever in the world, at any point in human history, the individual rights are violated or suppressed, it is done in the name of their own good, safety and security. We cannot find even a single violator of basic human rights, throughout the course of history, who said that he was suppressing rights of people because he wanted to do that to enslave them.
Thank you God our founding fathers were so bright, intelligent and farsighted. They used the term inalienable rights, which itself means that these rights cannot be violated or suppressed, under any circumstances, by any authority. The safety and security, and people’s own good is a bogus and fraudulent argument, used to misguide the innocent and lame people. Suppression of one’s basic rights can never be good for that person. It always causes infringements on personal honor and respect.
As Thomas Jefferson, rightfully pointed out, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” The key phrase in this quote is temporary safety. It means that even if some real security is offered, it is going to be temporary, because the one who took away your liberty, will not stop there. This is like when you sleep with someone, you know that it can, and will go all the way. What he means is, if you are stupid enough to give up your liberty for temporary safety, then, be sure that you will be fooled lot more than that.
In our constitutional and political structure, courts are supposed to keep a check on constitutional violations. They are supposed to block, invalidate and stop all the legislation, enforcement and other related government activity, if it is unconstitutional. Unfortunately, our courts are hardly ever doing their primary job of protecting and upholding the constitution. Violations of constitution, on part of government are increasingly becoming a routine, and courts are mostly silent about those. From unauthorized wars to detention without due process to unwarranted wiretapping to the persecution of whistle blowers, there seems to be no check on government’s serious violations of constitutional rights.
So, this is the bottom line. Constitution is not a joke. It is the supreme law of land. Everyone who becomes a part of government takes the oath of upholding and protecting constitution. We are what we are because of our constitution. We are a constitutional Democracy. Constitutional violations are already causing us serious damages. It is due to the constitutional violations that our government has grown so big, powerful and authoritarian. It is becoming impossible to control, contain and afford this government. The enormity of its size is apparent from the fact that an over three trillion dollars revenue is now not enough to run it.
Constitutional violations have lead us to 1.6 trillion dollars military industrial complex, in a country which was not even supposed to have a standing army. It is because our leniency towards constitutional violations which has lead us into the business of policing world. Now, we all know that this business is extremely expensive, even for the world’s largest and richest economy, and impossible task. World is huge and overwhelmed with the problems and issues. There is absolutely no way that anyone, even with multi-trillion dollar resources, could ever be able to police the whole world.
It is our disregard for basic constitutional framework which has led to very expensive and unending war on drugs. Our constitution does not allow government to regulate the consumption. Government went into this business anyways, and our fate in this regard is not turning out to be any different from the fate of all such attempts in past and contemporary world. Enforcement of anti-drug laws is now a multi- billion dollar business, being run on tax payers’ money. It is ruining the lives and careers of a very large number of young people, especially from minority.
And, it is due to the unconstitutionally large government that our welfare and entitlement system has grown out of every limit posed by affordability. U. S. government’s entitlement promises are now being projected to outgrow the whole world’s GDP, not just ours. Unfortunately, many ignorant and reckless politicians and media pundits, still believe that all these issues can be resolved by expanding the governments’ revenue base. But, the reason and objectivity are dictating that no increase in revenue, doesn’t matter how big, is going to be enough to feed this monster called as U.S. government. The enormous burden of outrageous taxation is already killing our economy, businesses, and personal and family lives.
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