"Court upholds pat-down searches at 49er games"
This is a piece I published in the San Francisco Chronicle on July 20
garybrune wrote:
So I see that the Napoleonic Code has arrived in American jurisprudence. For the uninitiated that means that one is guilty until proven innocent.
This willingness by the courts of the United States to bend our Constitution into a pretzel so that the individual has no rights is exactly what I feared after 9-11. This decision to search all fans to prove that they are okay people irks me to no end.
Looks like I'll be watching my 49ers on television because the court feels that the safety of all outweighs the rights of the individual. Not only does this mean that the National Football League does not trust me, neither does my government. This is the same attitude that prevailed during the All-Star "festivities".
So even though I'm a non-drinking, non-smoking second generation Californian without a criminal record, I guess that means nothing. It won't be long before I have to establish my bona fides to every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a badge. And this is a free country?
Posted 7/20/2007 9:17:13 PM
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/comments/view?f=/c/a/2007/07/18/BAGIUR2CPM1.DTL&o=1