While everyone has been enthralled with the Boston Marathon Bombing for the last week, there have been a few things that slipped under the radar. First, amidst the hunt for the bombing suspects was the push to try an American as an “enemy combatant”, police cordoned off 20 blocks to do house-to-house searches without a warrant, and then arrested the surviving suspect without reading him his Miranda Rights.
Regardless of how you feel about whether or not this cat deserves the whole American-citizen-as-enemy-combatant soap opera, it has to be a little scary that our government can now do this to anyone. All they have to do is insist you’re an enemy combatant, and the media, instead of questioning the government, now blithely plays along. And while police certainly can search houses without warrants in an “exigent” circumstance, a 20 block radius isn’t probable cause, it’s a search grid. It’s one of those times I like to think I would have refused police entry into my house, but seeing the firepower those guys were packing would have made it a little hard to say, “I don’t consent to warrantless searches.” Since most of us grew up on a steady diet of Law & Order, we all probably have Miranda memorized, and I would hope this young man knew that much, even if prosecutors don’t really need his statements to be admissible in court…… To Read More…
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