TRI In The News

Intrusions and Injuries in America

From The Daily Progress

Original article available here

Civil libertarian John Whitehead drew gasps from the audience as he surveyed the parlous state of American freedoms last week during his turn at the Distinguished Speakers series at Farmington County Club.

» The decline in civics education, resulting in a dangerous illiteracy about the Bill of Rights and the fact that 11 percent of young adults cannot even find the United States on a world map. (Gasps.)

» The rise in zero-tolerance policies at public schools, suspending children from school for months on end and traumatizing children with handcuffed arrests for minor pranks and misdemeanors. For instance: A 6-year-old boy was accused of sexual harassment for a game of tag on the school ground in which he tagged a girl player by touching her. Another 6-year-old was arrested, handcuffed and suspended for throwing a temper tantrum. (Gasps.)

» The increase of electronic surveillance, including aerial drones already spying on Americans, a practice that will only increase as new federal law is implemented. Drones even have the capability of spying on unaware citizens in the privacy of their own homes, whether they are in bed with their spouse, in the shower or engaged in other intimate personal pursuits. (Gasps.) And currently, there are insufficient safeguards to ensure that such surveillance is employed in accordance with the Fourth Amendment to protect citizens from such intrusions.

» The intrusion of Transportation Security Administration searches, including an aggressive patdown of a breast cancer survivor after she told agents about her mastectomy and an aggressive patdown of a male business traveler after he told them about a genital deformity. The businessman offered to leave and forego flying, but that only provoked agents into detaining him and subjecting him to an enhanced patdown. The experience reduced him to tears. (Groans and gasps.)

Intrusions and injuries such as these have occurred because Americans have become disengaged from their government, because they have become apathetic, and because they have come to prefer security to freedom, Mr. Whitehead said. Drone surveillance, for instance, has burgeoned because we did not stand up for civil liberties at the early stages of implementation. We thought only about the safety that surveillance might provide — until we wake up to find that government potentially knows everything about us and cannot necessarily be trusted to use that knowledge wisely.

We have given up the right to free speech by allowing it to be marginalized into free-speech zones. Whereas the Constitution protects speech everywhere, we want free speech to be relegated to out-of-the-way ghettos that we can easily avoid. We have become primarily interested in protecting ourselves from the discomfort — even from the mere annoyance — that might arise from speech we don’t agree with.

Tellingly, despite all the gasps over constitutional violations, questions from the audience mostly centered on the very local issue of panhandlers on the Downtown Mall or the Corner — and those asking the questions seemed to care more about not being offended or annoyed by free speech than, in this case, protecting it.

Indeed, the panhandler case is a prime example of how constitutional generalities can impact everyday life, compelling us to choose freedom or comfort.

“We must face up to the grim realities of the day,” said Mr. Whitehead, head of the Rutherford Institute, “realizing that reclaiming our liberties will entail sacrifice and hard work.”

Patdown victims, students arrested for minor infractions, citizens surveilled without a warrant — these have sacrificed greatly. Sometimes the only sacrifice asked of us is to endure a little annoyance for the sake of a greater good — the cause of freedom.