Just Say No

One of the things I find amusing about living next to a large city is the comedy byproduct from watching well-intentioned but clueless bureaucrats try to solve the seemingly intractable problems resulting from cramming an assload of Americans into a geographically limited space. The District of Columbia, a shambling lurching golem of dysfunction, has for years been some of the best comedy gold. Now, a new plan has oozed from the city that brought you Marion Barry.

The DC cops want to go house to house asking people to consent to warrantless searches and promising amnesty. Strangely enough, the people aren’t buying it. Some folks think it’s a bad idea to let the po-po into your house. Imagine that. I live in the ‘burbs, do nothing illegal, and am generally a fairly respectable citizen in my old age. I still wouldn’t let any agent of the state into my house without a warrant. I can only imagine some inner-city residents of DC have more grievances against the police than I do. Having officers go door to door asking to be let in strikes me as a fabulous waste of time. I also don’t believe the cops when they talk about amnesty. If I let them in and there’s a severed human head on my coffee table, I don’t think they’ll let that one slide. Of course, whatever they see is considered probable cause for a follow-up warrant, right? At which point, I’m sure amnesty is completely out of the question. At least the DC residents aren’t swallowing the bullshit. Remember, folks, the agents of the state, while occasionally useful, are not looking out for you. It is rarely in your best interest to cooperate unconditionally with them.

I will be curious to see how this plays out later in terms of how many people actually let them in. Somehow, I don’t think it’ll be very many.