Constitutional rights at risk
Toolbox
Published: March 24, 2009
Recently the Missouri Information Analysis Center (a joint division of the Department of Homeland Security and Missouri Law Enforcement agencies) circulated a memo intended to help officers identify domestic terrorists. Among the things this memo says to look for are: bumper stickers advertising mainstream political candidates/organizations, and copies of the U.S. Constitution.
Please read that last sentence, again.
Do those of you who put the sticker of a presidential candidate on your bumper expect to get profiled as a possible domestic terrorist? I suspect not. If you live in Missouri, however, there is a state agency telling all of the state's law enforcement community that this is what you may be. So, if visiting Missouri, do you continue to display the sticker and risk being 'profiled'? Or, do you let your First Amendment guarantee of free speech slide by the wayside, and peel it off?
This is America? We profile people for advertising their favorite candidates, (in this case GOP and others)? Your candidate may not be on Missouri's list — at the moment — but if we let them get away with this, your candidate could easily be next.
As for copies of the Constitution — the document is the supreme law of this land. The rule in this nation is 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse.' And yet, if peaceful people carry a copy of the constitution, they are now at risk of being 'profiled' as potential threats?
Because the memo was released by a state task force in cooperation with the DHS, it is not outrageous to assume that Missouri is not the only state involved. This is chilling news to those of us who look beyond the headlines, and damning evidence of a creeping disease rotting America.
Jessica Bernier
Barre
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