February 11, 2000

The War on Drugs is being re-escalated on a local, regional, national, and international level. Could it be that as violent crime rates continue to drop, law-enforcement agencies are redoubling their efforts against drug violators in order to maintain their workforces? The trend would echo homocide departments reexamining old unsolved cases because the murder rates are down.

Such redirection of manpower can be a wonderful opportunity to free the innocent, convinct the guilty, and eradicate more insidious crime. Mind you, most law officers battle criminal acts with the best of intentions, and to save the rest of our derrieres when bad guys run amok. But is the intensified push against the public safety effects of drug abuse and home drug labs perhaps getting extreme enough to be a serious threat to citizens' rights to privacy?

Three days ago, CHP officers stopped a Buick Century on I-505 for unclear reasons, set their police dog into action, and eventually found a hidden compartment where $71,000 was stashed. They proceeded to seize that booty, another $9,000 on the occupants' persons, their car, and then arrested the two for having the false compartment "believed" to be there for smuggling drugs. I have a problem with that.

Now these guys might be the baddest boys ever to pass through Solano County's drug underworld and deserve to be punished for a variety of criminal acts. Or they might not be. When their car--or anyone's car--is pulled over for "unclear reasons," everyone's civil rights are threatened. Think not?

Last week, sons Spencer and Alex took the trolley from San Diego to Tijuana for a very short visit to Mexico. On their way back through U.S. customs, they were pulled out of the line, questioned, frisked, and had some trinkets seized and broken. When pre-law student Spencer dared to ask why, the customs agent said, "Do you want to make this an incident?" and promptly filled out an "incident report."

Spencer later discovered that their reason was legal and carefully spelled out in the books: Virtually anything being brought into the country can be construed as drug paraphenalia, including spoons, mirrors, razor blades, etc. Their $14 worth of "paraphenalia" bought as souvenirs was lost forever, Spencer was three minutes late for his philosophy of law class, and both boys learned a frightening lesson. Still feel your civil rights are intact?

© 2000 Cynthia Hahn