Photo of a police officer, Boston, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There doesn’t seem to be a lack of explosive events generating tremendous controversy in the ‘Netsphere. Two weeks ago it was the Kermit Gosnell trial.
This past week it’s the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing and the
subsequent hunt for the alleged bombers. But that’s not all. The Texas
fertilizer plant also generated an explosion of comment, as did federal
legislative action taken by Congress intended to further corral the
Internet, all in the name of “security.” We begin this week’s column
with a look at a video gone viral, while we ask the question, “Is this
legal?”
Police perform house-to-house raids in Watertown
Is this a violation of our Constitutional rights? YouTube poster “rambone5″ videotaped his Watertown neighbors as they were being raided
by law enforcement searching for the 19-year-old believed to be the
second bomber in the Boston Marathon attack. Published on Saturday,
April 20, rambone5′s video was accompanied with the following note,
which included a link to a corresponding FaceBook page titled: “Police State USA: Land of the Checkpoints”
WATERTOWN, MASS. – On Friday, April 19, 2013, during a
manhunt for a bombing suspect, police and federal agents spent the day
storming people’s homes and performing illegal searches. While it was
unclear initially if the home searches were voluntary, it is now crystal
clear that they were absolutely NOT voluntary. Police were filmed
ripping people from their homes at gunpoint, marching the residents out
with their hands raised in submission and then storming the homes to
perform their illegal searches.This was part of a larger operation that involved total lockdown of
the suburban neighbor to Boston. Roads were barricaded and vehicle
traffic was prohibited. A No-Fly Zone was declared over the town. People
were “ordered” to stay indoors. Businesses were told not to open.
National Guard soldiers helped with the lockdown and were photographed
checking IDs of pedestrians on the streets. All the while, police were
performing these disgusting house-to-house searches.
The video went from 301 views on Sunday morning to over 11,000 within
an hour. Within six hours, the video’s related Facebook post had 5,221
shares and more than 1,200 comments:
