The Burden of Law

The Burden of Law



My intention in this article is to present an argument against the mandatory testing of police officers in the US.  I hope to present the effect of such a law on our society and its far reaching consequences, since one law opens up the door to more laws similar to it.

I recently reviewed an article promoting the topic, which prompted me to write the following:

Reasonable cause, is one of the foundational principals that protects our rights of privacy and is paramount to protecting our civil and human rights.

For the departments that do not test randomly, the procedures generally require that any officer who demonstrates behavior that draws suspicion regarding the use of illegal narcotics by his or her comrades or Captains, is told to have a test performed immediately.  Likewise, any officer who is involved in an accident of any sort, which might be construed as having been possibly "caused" by the officer, is also immediately drug tested.

The laws of random drug testing open the doors to additional laws which make the 4th amendment null and void.  It opens the door to what is already happening.  In our state of Ohio, it has recently been passed into law that the police can set up road blocks on holidays to randomly test citizens for alcohol. This law, as well as random drug testing, suggests that the individual is already under the suspicion of being guilty, which abruptly reverses the "innocent until proven guilty" standard, which was established by our founding fathers.

The policing of the general public comes from this kind of practice.  So many laws will be created in the domino effect from this one law, that it will eventually create a social condition of human rights violations which currently exist in China.  Right now...police departments are preparing to use drones in surveillance of the public, under the guise of public safety.

It is no doubt that we are well into living life in a "police state" where "Martial Law" will simply be a fact of life.  Within ten years, the government may very well monitor every social group, including churches, which they are already doing to some extent.

It may sound like I am trying to protect drug users, but that's not the case at all.  I'm trying to protect the Constitution, which gives us the right to freedom from having the government poke its nose into everything that everyone does.

The town that I lived in for over years had a bar on one of the main streets, where many of the Cops would stop, on and off duty.  Since it is not illegal to drink alcohol, many officers would get totally sloshed before going on the job the next day, when they would be terribly hung over...a condition which may be as bad, or worse, than many drugs might create.  Many officers have conditions that require pain medications and/or drugs for mental illnesses, which almost always have some narcotic-like symptoms.  Then as well, we have the natural hormone adrenaline, which is responsible for most of the acts of misconduct by officers on duty.  Cruel beatings of citizens are often carried out under the influence of this hormone and who knows what else.

We live in a world of imperfection.  It's the nature of this world.  For every drug that they make illegal and are tested for, humanity finds two new ones that are not on the books.  There are currently several "mind altering" drugs which are perfectly legal in the US.

The average court cost for a drug offense is $1,000.00 to $2,000.00, most funded by the taxpayer.  Many of the cases are dropped for various reasons, which is money down the drain.  It's money that American families and or society could use for much better purposes, most of which would actually accomplish something useful, like feeding the 15.9 million hungry children in this country. 

Isn't it better to protect our rights of freedom, than to fight a war that can't be won?  I have seen the 'trust factor" in America deteriorate to a ridiculous degree.  The citizens no longer trust the government, and the government no longer trusts its citizens.  We are at a stalemate in this country, and it's quickly approaching what the public in China are facing.  If we all want to avoid that, we must choose freedom and personal rights over unconstitutional and ineffective controls.  In a society where trust is fostered, trust is harvested.

I'll finish with this quote:       
"The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way you can make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him."    Henry L. Stimson                              The same goes for society.