Inspection warrants: Individual rights are in danger

[The Straight Story]

Inspection warrants: Individual rights are in danger

From 2001 through 2004, the state Legislature defeated five bills seeking to authorize municipalities to obtain "administrative" search warrants against the homes of innocent citizens not suspected of any offense.

Undaunted, the city of Rochester obtained 46 "administrative" warrants and searched dozens of homes.

Several residents sued, and Supreme Court, Monroe County, issued two preliminary injunctions prohibiting city officials from seeking such warrants. Defiantly, City Council is now considering passing the very type of law that the state refused to give them authority to enact.

The local legislation would authorize City Court to issue search warrants against your home without any suspicion that any crime has been committed. At the end of the search, the inspector will know what books are in your bookcase and what pictures hang from your walls. Government agents will look through your kitchen, your bathroom, your bedroom and your closets— all in an effort to impose fines for code violations.

In 2005, the city tried to throw an elderly couple in jail for "contempt" when they refused to open their door to a city inspector with an "administrative" warrant. The judge threw the city out of court. But under the current proposal, refusal to admit inspectors can get you thrown in jail for "contempt."

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090207/OPINION02/902070320/1008/OPINION

[ddeclue]

1. Another reason to flee the People's Republic of New York.

Yikes!

:hide:

[ixion]

2. nip that crap in the bud

the problems we have with law enforcement is bad enough without bureaucrats issuing their own warrants.

[The Straight Story]

3. Give it time and people will be clamoring for it - find out if smokers live there, etc

Anything we don't like we will eventually turn to our overlords to protect us from and give them the power to do it.

Look at the war on drugs. Fear sells away our rights at a cheap price.

[Ian David]

4. I've seen a town use "fire inspections" every couple of hours a night on a club they didn't like.

And when that wasn't enough, the S.W.A.T. team started doing "safety inspections" and would enter as if they were clearing a building of terrorists (short of actually knocking doors off the hinges).