Are there any circumstances where you'd willingly surrender your Constitutional rights?

[-..__...]

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" ---- Benjamin Franklin

How much of your rights would you be willing to sacrifice in the name of safety (or the illusion of it)?

One sheriff seems to think his sheeple would willingly oblige...

For a desperate city, a defining moment
Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Sheriff Armando Fontoura sounds like a man who is ready to set fire to the Constitution if that's what it takes to stop the murders in Newark.

"I'm on the verge of telling my guys to suspend civil liberties, and start frisking everybody," he says. "I'm at that point. What's wrong with that? I think the public would support it.

"You want to live by the Constitution, but by the same token you have a responsibility to protect these people. I don't know what else to do."

Mark that comment as a measure of how desperate, even frantic, people in this battered city feel these days.

Murder is nothing new in Newark -- it happens about twice a week, on average. But not like the killings we saw on Saturday night.

Not when the victims were college kids who somehow managed to dodge every obstacle this city can throw in a child's path, until that night. Not when they were marched into a secluded lot, forced to kneel and shot in the back of the head.

8< --------------- Snip -------------- >8

"I have a community that is scared right now, and they have a right to be," he said. "They would have no problem with officers getting out and frisking people. For all the claims about civil liberties, if it's going to keep them safe, they're all for it."

Make no mistake -- these killings have created a galvanizing moment for the city, the kind that offers at least the chance to turn things around.

Fontoura won't get his wish. We have laws, and he and his officers have to obey them whether they want to or not.

More...

[JitterbugPerfume]

1. no

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. No

[tazkcmo]

3. nope

[MrSlayer]

4. No.

Things really are getting out of hand though. Particularly here in Philly. We average more than a murder a day with no end in sight. It makes such things very tempting to the authorities. A good friend of mine had both his legs removed in the past month after being shot in a bar fight he had nothing to do with.

[ben_meyers]

5. Absolutely not

They will have to pry my gun from my cold dead hand! You can't dial 911 when you're dead.

[Hepburn]

6. Negatory. n/t

[HereSince1628]

7. I did it. I volunteered for military service n/t

[GrantDem]

8. No... n/t

[peacebird]

9. none

[Selatius]

10. I think I'd rather be this man:

Before I'd go and do something stupid like giving into fear and giving up my freedom for a little temporary safety.

[-..__...]

12. Courage...

and no one stood alongside him. :-(

Has he ever been identified or does anyone know what became of him?

[Selatius]

13. From what I've read, I think it's likely he was executed in prison. Many were in the days after.

[piedmont]

11. none whatsoever. nt

[burythehatchet]

14. while everyone says no, frankly, its already happened.

[Selatius]

18. We voted no, but they didn't count the votes properly.

I wonder why. :sarcasm:

[defendandprotect]

15. N O O O O O O . . . !! . . .

[treestar]

16. NO!

What's wrong with this guy's view is that he does not have the responsibility to protect anyone. That is the illusion that makes him want the power. Rot beginning of the top, with Chimpster claiming that's his responsibility. It is not.

[ContraBass Black]

17. With a gun to my head, I'll consider it.

I might save my death for a more useful moment or for my old age.

[stillcool]

19. Long Answer...

When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History
By Thom Hartmann *
Common Dreams
March 16, 2003
The 70th anniversary wasn't noticed in the United States, and was barely reported in the corporate media. But the Germans remembered well that fateful day seventy years ago - February 27, 1933. They commemorated the anniversary by joining in demonstrations for peace that mobilized citizens all across the world.

It started when the government, in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings, but the media largely ignored his relatively small efforts. The intelligence services knew, however, that the odds were he would eventually succeed. (Historians are still arguing whether or not rogue elements in the intelligence service helped the terrorist; the most recent research implies they did not.)

But the warnings of investigators were ignored at the highest levels, in part because the government was distracted; the man who claimed to be the nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote and the majority of citizens claimed he had no right to the powers he coveted. He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world. His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret society with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved skulls and human bones.

Nonetheless, he knew the terrorist was going to strike (although he didn't know where or when), and he had already considered his response. When an aide brought him word that the nation's most prestigious building was ablaze, he verified it was the terrorist who had struck and then rushed to the scene and called a press conference.

"You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history," he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. "This fire," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "is the beginning." He used the occasion - "a sign from God," he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion.

Two weeks later, the first detention center for terrorists was built in Oranianberg to hold the first suspected allies of the infamous terrorist. In a national outburst of patriotism, the leader's flag was everywhere, even printed large in newspapers suitable for window display.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 27, 2003, was the 70th anniversary of Dutch terrorist Marinus van der Lubbe's successful firebombing of the German Parliament (Reichstag) building, the terrorist act that catapulted Hitler to legitimacy and reshaped the German constitution. By the time of his successful and brief action to seize Austria, in which almost no German blood was shed, Hitler was the most beloved and popular leader in the history of his nation. Hailed around the world, he was later Time magazine's "Man Of The Year."
http://www.globalpolicy.org/wtc/analysis/2003/0316history.htm

[C_U_L8R]

20. HELL NO !

I'd rather fight the corrupt little buggers.
And I intend to win.

[Loki]

21. No, not now, not ever.

[MadMaddie]

22. Absolutely Not...

This guys response is exactly what is wrong with the court and prison systems.....

The 31 year old that was involved in the killings...guess what he was wanted on other murder charges.....what the hell was he doing walking the streets....doesn't seem like he was a priority....


But they will put some one in jail for smoking a joint...

How about this do your fucking job...and push for the the state to change the parole laws....and ensure that criminals don't get paroled that are serious offenders..

The city needs to seriously prosecute illegal gun selling and anyone caught with an illegal gun goes to jail....that's that!

[TomClash]

23. Definitely

. . . there's a snowball's chance in hell I would.

But I fear this is coming quite soon.