ACLU Teaching Children How To Be Good Criminals
My bad!, I made the mistake of trusting a news source. Flex Your Rights created this video, and credit must go where it is deserved. My critique still stands on the video, and its endorsement by the ACLU representatives.
If there is one thing that American needs more of, especially our children, it is to learn how to take responsibility for our actions and to realize that our actions have consequences. The ACLU are working hard to teach our children just the opposite. When they are not teaching our children that abstinence is harmful, abortion shouldn’t require parental consent, the Bible is the enemy, teachers that pray are like terrorists, or fighting away the military recruiters, they may be teaching them how to keep their drugs well hidden from authorities.
Students crowded 107 Keith Hall Thursday night to learn how to properly respond to and protect their rights in case of police contact. Indiana Voices for Peace hosted “Busted: A Citizen’s Guide to Surviving Police Encounters,” which consisted of a short ACLU video and a question and answer session with two representatives from Pittsburgh’s chapter of the ACLU.
Jeff Burk (senior, political science), vice president of Indiana Voices for Peace, explained the purpose of holding the event before playing the video.
“The cops in this area are starting to get pretty aggressive,” he said. “We’re hoping that students will get a better understanding of what their basic rights are.”
Now before you libertarians jump down my throat, this isn’t about rights. I have no problem with the ACLU informing students of their fourth amendment, and miranda rights not to incriminate themselves, but take notice of what the ACLU are not saying, and what they are advocating. They go beyond teaching basic rights and into the realm of evasion.
In one segment of an ACLU video they showed students how to avoid being caught with marijuana in the trunk by “asserting their rights.” This one wasn’t the big deal with me, despite the fact that the best way not to get busted with marijuana is to not have possession of it. The ACLU offered no offered no discouragement there whatsover. Instead of teaching the kids to avoid being busted for something illegal, they taught the kids how to be to get away with criminal activity.
What this amounts to is an indoctrination of irresponsibility, and it a mentality that is hurting our country. My friend Gribbit described it a few days ago when talking about the ACLU’s view towards abstinence.
This is akin to telling your child not to shop lift but if they are going to anyway to not get caught. Then teaching them methods on not getting caught as opposed to teaching them to just plain not do it.
Except in this case it isn’t just akin, it is exactly what they are doing.
Now, here is where I really started having a problem….
The video also showed a segment where a young woman hosting a party got herself into a world of trouble when a guest allowed police to enter her home and find drug paraphernalia.
According to the ACLU video, however, “getting busted is no party.”
They suggested a number of ways the young woman in the video, and viewers, could protect herself from a police violation of her rights. The ACLU recommended that partiers:
- Know who is at the party and what they are doing.
- Keep paraphernalia and other illegal articles out of view of police.
Lets stop right there for a moment. Notice that the ACLU did not suggest the best method to keep out of trouble at a party; obeying the law. Instead they told the kids to keep their drug paraphernailia well hidden, in essense not only condoning the criminal activity of possessing it, but also of concealing it. They go on to even offer suggestions on how to do so.
Attorney Paul Berks and criminal defense lawyer Tom Farrell spoke briefly after the video and fielded questions from the audience. Berks said that police are able to search your house or car if they have “probable cause,” like detecting the odor of substances. “Shut the windows, lock the door, he said, “or your ability to keep them out is diminished.”
Teaching our children their individual rights is a good thing, however rights standing alone do not make up for a free society. Our primary focus should be teaching our children responsibility, and certainly not how to avoid it. Individual rights can not exist in a social vacuum. Any legitimate discussion of freedom must start with society, not the individual. The most important part of this discussion must start with what kind of social order is best suited to maintain the establishment of liberty. The proper exercise of rights is limited by the moral boundaries of society, otherwise known as laws.
Only morally responsible individuals are capable of exercising their rights in a way that is truly liberating, and this magnifies into society. Morally irresponsible individuals do not use rights, they abuse them, which unavoidably leads to others losing their rights in the process. The social order that is best suited to the establishment of liberty is one that respects a balance between the social authority of mediating institutions and the rights of individuals.
The primary focus our children should be learning is how to live responsibly within society. Self restraint should be the most desirable characteristic of an individual within a free society. Either people police themselves or the police will do it for them. The only alternative to those two choices is anarchy, which is not an option in a society that wants to be free. A society that fails to encourage a strong sense of responsibility in its citizens is one that is not prepared to distribute rights to individuals. Without the responsibility, liberty crumbles.
So remember people, the best way to avoid getting busted by the authorities is to do the responsible thing…not break the law. And the best way to avoid responsibility is to call the ACLU. With all the terrorists they are defending they are sure to find some kind of loop hole for a measly bag of grass.
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Posted by Jay on March 28, 2006 12:40 am
» Filed Under ACLU, Child Exploitation, News
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7 Responses to “ACLU Teaching Children How To Be Good Criminals”
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The police get no respect from teenagers anymore as it is. Thank you ACLU, for making our nation’s security, and now law enforcement that much harder.
One word… BRAVO!
You can find Scott Morgan’s smackdown here. Here’s the money quote:
“The great irony here is that despite selling 10,000 copies, BUSTED was never criticized publicly until it was mistaken for an ACLU project by a guy who hates the ACLU. We’ve received consistent praise from law-enforcement professionals who typically regard search requests as an “idiot test” and respect citizens who know how to keep their affairs private. If we’d tried to teach the 4th Amendment without depicting petty criminality, BUSTED would be more boring than a romantic evening with abstinence enthusiast Jay Stephenson.”
Wait a minute. Exactly whose morals do I have to follow in order to be free?
This web site is full of ANGRY people who use Jesus as their excuse to judge, condemn, and police others. Well who died and made you God? You all must not know much about your prophet, Jesus, who taught unconditional love. Maybe you should spend more time reading the Bible instead of condemning the beliefs of others. Anger is caused by having judgment. The judgments you have of others are the judgments you have of yourself. Look deeply at yourself. Learn to love, not hate.
This sites arguments are a joke. If I smoke marijuana I am immoral? That is not only ridiculous but a whole argument in itself. First of all, stop using the “children” reference in this article. I am a college student, I can vote, I am not a child, so do not refer to the students in this article as children. The college students whom the video was presented to should be aware of the rights meant to protect them. These are not “loop-holes,” they are actual rights meant for protection. There is no reason for someone to go to jail and not be able to get a job in the future because he/she smoked marijuana inside their home. Yes, it is illegal, but like I said that is a whole argument in itself. All of those arguments aside I like to know my rights, even if you see it as someone telling me how to break the laws. As for people who say: “The police get no respect from teenagers anymore as it is,” I ask, are you crazy? I never in my life have treated any law enforcement official with disrespect, but at the same time I have been treated with disrespect just because I was a teenager. Let me tell you a little secret, police break rules. Come over to where I live and take a look around. Let me tell you guys something, you are a joke and your political views worry me, I use to vote Conservative but not anymore, you’re all crazy.
Just because smoking pot is “against the law” doesn’t make it wrong. It’s a bad idea no doubt, but legislating against it creates a massive enforcement problem. Law enforcers almost necessarily need to become belligerent and aggressive.
The BUSTED video is a great tool with which to educate people on their rights. When you know your rights and flex them, it becomes possible to live in the world where frivolous bureaucratic “traffic” and “drug” laws and victimless “crimes” have less of an effect on you. Those laws only exist for the purpose of extorting money from people anyway.
Sometimes I think the ACLU is doing more to help the downtrodden, poor and oppressed than the Christian Right can ever dream. The ACLU busies itself with freeing prisoners and defending rights, while anti-ACLU “Christian” organizations go to war to preserve religious symbols or America’s high incarceration rate. Absolutely shameful.