Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
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rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Judge rules patdowns at football games unreasonable
Security "pat-downs" of fans at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games are unconstitutional and unreasonable, a federal judge ruled Friday, throwing into question the practice at NFL games nationwide.
U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore issued an order siding with a season-ticket holder who had sued to stop the fan searches that began last season after the NFL implemented enhanced security measures.
High school civics teacher Gordon Johnson sued the Tampa Sports Authority, which operates the stadium, to stop officials from conducting the "suspicionless" searches. A state judge agreed with Johnston that the searches are likely unconstitutional and halted them.
The case was later moved to federal court, where the sports authority sought to have that order thrown out. Whittemore refused Friday, writing that the pat-downs "constitute unreasonable searches under the Florida Constitution and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution."
Further, Whittemore said the Tampa Sports Authority failed to establish that the risks outweigh the need to protect the public from unreasonable searches.
Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, which sued on Johnston's behalf, said Whittemore's decision could turn out to be significant.
"It's obviously not going to govern what's happening around the country, but it's certainly going to be an influential precedent," Simon said. "Other courts may look at it."
Simon said he thinks the decision shows that courts are "pushing back" at governmental attempts to violate citizens' civil rights on the basis of a perceived threat of terrorism or crime.
Rick Zabak, an attorney for Tampa Sports Authority, said the decision will be appealed.
"We're disappointed, and we respectfully disagree with the judge's conclusions," Zabak said.
Calls to an NFL spokesman were not immediately returned Friday. In a previous statement, the NFL said "these limited screenings are reasonable and important to the protection of our fans."
Another NFL pat-down case made it into federal court last week when the Chicago Park District sued in federal court to challenge the planned searches by police at Chicago Bears games.
http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/9576028
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:38 AM
matt@lefande.com
Twice in a week: Officer Attacked By Dogs, Accidentally Shot
A Hollywood police officer was attacked by pit bulls and accidentally shot by other officers while serving a search warrant Thursday evening, police said.
Nearly a dozen undercover officers were about to serve a search warrant in the 6300 block of Dawson Street when they approached a male resident outside.
"The suspect sees uniformed officers and attempts to run back inside the house. As officers attempt to run toward him, out come two of three pit bulls that are inside the home," said Capt. Tony Rode of the Hollywood Police Department. "One pit bull did attack one of our supervisors, a sergeant. He was bitten by the animal. At that point, three, possibly four, officers opened fire."
In the hail of gunfire, a sergeant was shot in the leg. One dog was killed and a second was injured and taken by animal control officers.
"It's possible the officers that did fire, one of the bullets actually did a through-and-through -- through the animal and into the officer's leg," Rode said.
A second officer was grazed by a bullet and is said to be OK.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14068684/
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:16 AM
matt@lefande.com
DUI Police Academy instructor charged with DUI, caught driving without pants
A Plantation, Florida Police Academy DUI instructor was charged with drunken driving after she was clocked doing 90 mph and found to be lacking any pants.
The Plantation Police Internal Affairs report released this week says Officer Laurie Primeau had an open bottle of Southern Comfort in her car when she was arrested on Dec. 9. But her lawyer said the booze was merely a training device for cadets, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
The Orange County Sheriff's deputy who pulled Primeau over for speeding after she nearly collided with his cruiser said he was “kinda shocked” to realize the woman flying down the highway with two dogs in her car was naked from the waist down, the report said.
He said he immediately requested backup because “I didn't want to be alone too long with a naked female on the side of the road.” Primeau, 47, spent five days in jail after her arrest and was convicted of drunken driving at a jury trial in January.
The 27-year veteran of the force and 1994 Plantation Officer of the Year was suspended without pay on June 27. She will work road patrol when her suspension ends in early August, the report said.
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=36218
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:09 AM
matt@lefande.com
Frequent-flier data used to track movements of CIA operatives
The man and woman were pretending to be American business executives on international assignments, so they did what globe-trotting executives do. While traveling abroad they used their frequent-flier cards as often as possible to gain credits toward free flights.
In fact, the two were covert operatives working for the CIA. Thanks to their diligent use of frequent-flier programs, Italian prosecutors have been able to reconstruct much of their itinerary during 2003, including trips to Brussels, Venice, London, Copenhagen, Vienna and Oslo.
The Norway visit has assumed particular importance because it represents the first independent confirmation that CIA operatives were in that country at the same time an Oslo resident named Mullah Krekar was being warned that he was the target of a planned CIA abduction.
Weeks before arriving in Norway, prosecutors say, the two operatives were among more than two dozen CIA personnel who participated in the February 2003 abduction of a radical Islamic preacher named Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, as he walked to a mosque in Milan.
Aides to former CIA Director Porter Goss have used the word "horrified" to describe Goss' reaction to the sloppiness of the Milan operation, which Italian police were able to reconstruct through the CIA operatives' imprudent use of cell phones and other violations of basic CIA "tradecraft."
Goss ordered a sweeping review of the agency's field operations before stepping down in May, aides said.
It is unclear whether the CIA operatives intended to take advantage of the free flights garnered at government expense - CIA personnel on such assignments are permitted to fly expensive international business class_or whether they simply were attempting to bolster their covers as private-sector executives.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/15106577.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:59 PM
matt@lefande.com
Police Officer Reprimanded For Calling Prostitute 82 Times
A Daytona Beach police officer was reprimanded for associating with a prostitute and calling her 82 times over a three-month period. Officer Thomas Lopez said he called prostitute Tara Price to collect information from her for his cases and he wants to appeal the reprimand.
Investigators said Lopez violated a departmental rule that states that police officers are not supposed to associate socially with known criminals. But Lopez said he was confused by the reprimand.
"We talk to criminals all day long," he said.
Investigation reports showed Lopez called Price from his personal cell phone and mostly while off-duty.
Price accused Lopez of having sex with her four times while he was on duty and providing her with crack cocaine as payment, but those allegations were unfounded.
Lopez has been with the police department for almost two years.
http://www.wftv.com/news/9584170/detail.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:19 AM
matt@lefande.com
Drug dealer shot by own gun accidentally during frisk
A Jersey City man being busted for drug distribution was shot in the foot by his own gun, which a cop dropped while frisking him, according to police reports.
Dayton Jackson, 18, of Ocean and Seaview avenues, was arrested at Ocean Avenue and Wegman Parkway at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and charged with numerous drug distribution charges and weapons offenses after cops reportedly saw him sell cocaine.
A cop frisking Jackson found 32 vials of suspected heroin as well as a .22-caliber revolver in Jackson's back pocket. The cop attempted to pull out the gun, but it got snagged on the pocket flap and fell to the ground. When it hit the sidewalk, the gun went off, reports said.
"I'm shot in the foot!" Jackson shouted as cops saw blood spurt from his right foot.
Jackson was taken to the Jersey City Medical Center, where $230 in suspected drug proceeds was found in his bloody sneaker, reports said.
Also arrested on drug charges was Michael Bell, 52, of Jersey City, who allegedly bought cocaine from Jackson.
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1153983296104720.xml&coll=3
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:25 AM
matt@lefande.com
Police say mob kept them away from victim of shooting
It started out as a call about an early morning shooting in San Francisco's Western Addition, nothing too out-of-the-ordinary for an often-troubled neighborhood.
But after that, there was nothing routine about what happened.
Police say a mob prevented officers and paramedics from helping a fatally wounded man -- even engaging in a tug-of-war for his body at one point. Residents in the neighborhood deny they got in the way, but they say they were angry because officers were doing nothing for the victim and appeared to be in no hurry to summon help.
The victim, 23-year-old John Brown, whose family lives in the Western Addition, was found under a truck at 2:40 a.m. Saturday at Larch Way near Laguna Street. He had been shot several times and, police said, was motionless and bleeding heavily.
The first officers who responded said they encountered a hostile crowd of as many as 40 people on the one-way street and that some of them prevented help from getting to Brown.
"It's one of the worst (situations) I've seen,'' said Capt. Kevin Dillon of Northern Station, who said he based his conclusions on his officers' accounts of what happened.
The crowd pushed one officer back when he tried to feel Brown's pulse, Dillon said. When paramedics arrived, some in the crowd grabbed Brown's legs and tried to drag him away, the officer said in his incident report.
Eventually, more than a dozen officers were on the scene trying to control the crowd. Continuous threats were coming from bystanders, Dillon said. Paramedics finally were able to load Brown into an ambulance, but officers first "had to hold the crowd back to make a path," the captain said.
No officers were hurt, and it's difficult to tell whether the delay made any difference in efforts to save Brown's life, Dillon said. Brown was declared dead at the scene at 2:50 a.m.
Sgt. Mikail Ali of the gang task force, who reviewed the police report, said he was dumbfounded by the crowd's response.
"Here the officers were there to help this guy when he was shot,'' he said. "The officers went to render aid, and (people in the crowd) are pulling at the officers, creating skirmish lines and not allowing the officers to get to him.
"It's insanity," he said. "It doesn't make any sense.''
Assistant Fire Chief Johnny Lo said he had spoken to the supervisor on the fire engine that responded to the call. "When he got there, there was a big crowd already there, and they were screaming racial slurs at the cops,'' Lo said.
The first police at the scene told the fire crew that Brown was dead, and paramedics who examined him agreed, Lo said.
Normally, the paramedics would have left Brown's body there while homicide investigators went over the scene for clues, Lo said. But in this case, "they felt the urgency to get the hell out of there" and take the body with them, he said. "They felt unsafe, totally unsafe."
The crowd accused firefighters of arriving late "because it was the ghetto," Lo said. "But we got there in 2 minutes and 16 seconds.''
Gary Delagnes, head of the police officers union, acknowledged a tremendous disconnect between some people in the community and the police. He said many residents want more help from police. But he also said it wouldn't surprise him if there were people who would block police from helping a wounded man.
"In these high-crime areas, people have to realize that the cops are not the problem," Delagnes said. "These areas need to take a look at themselves and not be pointing fingers at the Police Department to solve their problems."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/26/MNG7TK5DRE1.DTL
posted by Matthew LeFande 4:25 PM
matt@lefande.com
House votes to block police from seizing legal guns in disasters
The House voted Tuesday to prevent law enforcement officers from confiscating legally owned guns during a national disaster or emergency.
Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana lawmaker who sponsored the bill, said firearms seizures after Hurricane Katrina left residents unable to defend themselves.
"Many of them were sitting in their homes without power, without water, without communication," he said. "It was literally impossible to pick up a phone and call 911."
The House voted 322-99 in support of the bill. Senators voted 84-16 earlier this month to include a similar prohibition in a homeland security funding bill.
The limitation would apply to federal law enforcement or military officers, along with local police that receive federal funds.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., repeatedly called the bill "insane."
He and some Democrats said the bill might satisfy the gun lobby, but it would put people into more danger during already perilous disasters.
"The streets of an American city immediately after a disaster are no place to abandon common sense," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y.
The Fraternal Order of Police endorsed the measure. In a letter to Jindal, National President Chuck Canterbury said law enforcement officials concentrate on search and rescue during major disasters, and breakdowns in communications and transportation can lengthen police response times to calls.
"A law-abiding citizen who possesses a firearm lawfully represents no danger to law enforcement officers or any other first responder," Canterbury wrote.
The National Rifle Association also supported the bill and has been asking police chiefs and mayors to pledge they will not forcibly disarm law-abiding citizens.
Jindal said the bill does not inhibit police from enforcing gun laws, nor does it overwrite state and local laws prohibiting people from bringing guns into shelters.
Nadler said the bill would prevent police from picking up guns that could be seized by looters. Police and other law enforcement officials could face a personal lawsuit for picking up guns they later found to be legally owned, he said.
The bill allows the Coast Guard to require that people surrender their weapons before boarding a rescue vehicle.
http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=5196532
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:25 AM
matt@lefande.com
3 NYC Cops Shot in Friendly Fire Incident
Three police officers were accidentally shot Sunday as one or more officers took aim at a pit bull attacking a member of their crew, police said. All were in stable condition.
The three officers suffered minor graze wounds and a fourth was bitten, said police Officer Doris Garcia.
The men had been responding to a dispute between a landlord and tenant in a Bronx building when the animal ran from another floor and attacked one of the officers, police said. The dog was killed by the gunfire.
The four remained hospitalized at Lincoln Medical Center following the shooting, which took place at about 12:10 a.m. on Concord Avenue.
The identities of the officers were not immediately released, and no further information was immediately available, police said.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2225778
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:38 AM
matt@lefande.com
DMV to toss tickets not processed promptly
Nearly two of every 10 parking tickets issued by Metropolitan Police officers would be dismissed under a pending policy change by the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
The motor vehicles agency is planning to begin throwing out parking tickets that are not entered into its computer system within two weeks.
"We have amended DMV policy," DMV Director Anne Witt has told her personnel. "Any ticket we haven't received within two weeks will automatically be dismissed."
Most parking tickets are issued electronically by the city's Department of Public Works, which hires 175 parking enforcers to patrol 3,500 city blocks on weekdays.
But 28 other law-enforcement agencies in the District -- including Metropolitan Police and U.S. Park Police -- can issue handwritten tickets that are not always entered promptly into DMV's electronic payment system, officials said.
Parking tickets issued by public works personnel are linked overnight to DMV's payment system. Tickets issued by other agencies must be mailed to DMV and processed before they can be paid electronically.
Many of those handwritten tickets are sent to DMV after the deadline or never sent at all, officials said.
The Metropolitan Police Department issues the majority of handwritten tickets and is responsible for parking enforcement on weekends. This year, police officers have written about 79,480 tickets, officials said.
About 12,230 -- or 15 percent -- of those tickets were not forwarded within the allotted time, police spokesman Kevin Morison said.
Officials would not say how much the new policy will cost the District in ticket revenue, which becomes part of the city general fund.
In fiscal 2005, the District issued a total of $69 million worth of parking tickets, which range in value from $20 to $100 before late fees are assessed. The average value is about $62, according to officials.
If the DMV's pending policy had been in effect since January, the city would have lost about $760,000 in dismissed parking tickets issued by the police department.
The tickets are supposed to be submitted to a supervisor at the conclusion of the issuing member's tour of duty," Mr. Morison said. "The receiving supervisor is responsible for ensuring that the infractions are valid and the fines accurately reflected.
"Once this process has been completed, the supervisor forwards the infractions to an administrative clerk, who must record the infractions on a transmittal form so that tickets are transported to DMV by 9 a.m. the next business day," he said.
DMV officials said last month that the policy would take effect July 1. But agency spokeswoman Janis Hazel said officials are waiting on the development of new business practices before the policy takes effect.
Tickets typically must be paid within 30 days of being issued, and fines double for tardy tickets.
Drivers may not be able to pay them on time electronically if agencies do not quickly forward tickets to DMV, officials said.
However, the new policy should not be an excuse for motorists to ignore tickets, Miss Hazel said. "People can and should still pay their tickets."
Drivers who receive handwritten tickets can pay over the phone, in person or by mail regardless of whether the tickets appear online, she said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060720-105038-6625r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:26 AM
matt@lefande.com
Cop censured for under the covers work
A woman police officer moonlighting as a prostitute has got off with a caution, New Zealand police said Thursday.
The unidentified officer, stationed in the country's biggest city Auckland, was discovered last year to have been a prostitute for a short time.
"The officer concerned has been counseled. Under police procedures this amounts to a censure," Deputy Police Commissioner Lyn Provost said in a statement.
The police officer, who was understood to be having financial difficulties, had not sought permission to have a second job. Such applications are considered on a case-by-case basis.
"This type of secondary employment would never be approved given that the type of work is inappropriate and incompatible with policing," Provost said.
New Zealand made prostitution legal in 2003.
An Auckland spokeswoman for the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective -- a welfare and lobby group for sex workers -- told the NZ Press Association that a prostitute might earn as much as NZ$500 ($312) on a busy night.
Asked if she had heard of other police officers moonlighting as sex workers, she said: "We have law students that are sex workers, we have doctors that are sex workers. I mean anyone can be a sex worker."
http://reuters.iwon.com/article/20060720/2006-07-20T121844Z_01_WEL135203_RTRIDST_0_ODD-NEWZEALAND-POLICE-DC.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:23 AM
matt@lefande.com
Police: 911 isn't a dating service
An Aloha, Oregon woman who called 911 to get "the cutest cop I've seen" sent back to her home got a date all right -- a court date.
The same sheriff's deputy arrested her on charges of misuse of the emergency dispatch system.
Washington County Sheriff's Sgt. David Thompson told KGW-TV of Portland it all started with a noise complaint called in last month by neighbors of Lorna Jeanne Dudash. The deputy sent to check on the complaint knocked on her door, then left.
Thompson said Dudash then called 911, asking that the "cutie pie" deputy return.
"He's the cutest cop I've seen in a long time. I just want to know his name," Dudash told the dispatcher. "Heck, it doesn't come very often a good man comes to your doorstep."
After listening to some more, followed by a bit of silence, the dispatcher asked again why Dudash needed the deputy to return.
"Honey, I'm just going to be honest with you, OK? I just thought he was cute. I'm 45 years old and I'd just like to meet him again, but I don't know how to go about doing that without calling 911," she said.
"I know this is absolutely not in any way, shape or form an emergency, but if you would give the officer my phone number and ask him to come back, would you mind?"
The deputy returned, verified that there was no emergency and arrested her for misusing the 911 system, an offense punishable by a fine of up to several thousand dollars and a year in jail.
Thompson said Thursday it was the first case he knew of in which someone called the emergency line for such a personal reason.
"That's taking up valuable time from dispatchers who could be taking true emergency calls," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/14/911.misuse.ap/index.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:01 AM
matt@lefande.com
Senate bill may restrict police
State and local police would be prohibited in key ways from helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement combat illegal immigration under Senate legislation, a wall that opponents say would lead to rampant fraud, hamper efforts to deport future illegals and threaten national security.
"The Senate bill would actually make us less safe," said Rep. Ed Royce, California Republican and chairman of the International Relations Committee's subcommittee on international terrorism and nonproliferation. It "would roll back the ability for state and local officials to cooperate with federal officials."
Out of deference to the confidentiality concerns of foreigners in the U.S., the bill would bar state and local police from detaining aliens simply for being in the U.S. illegally. Police could arrest the aliens only if they commit certain additional violations of federal immigration law such as marriage fraud or document counterfeiting.
"This is a time bomb that is just waiting to do a lot of damage," former U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Kris Kobach said yesterday. "Either it will be the damage done by terrorists in this country or it will be the damage done to our ability to control illegal immigration."
The wall -- which opponents say is similar to the one criticized by the September 11 commission for hampering efforts to prevent terrorist attacks -- is getting closer attention after Mr. Royce held immigration hearings last week in California and Texas. Mr. Kobach, who served as counsel to former Attorney General John Ashcroft and now teaches at University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law, was among those who testified.
Under current law, he said, a police officer may in the course of his duties ask a suspect about his immigration status. For verification, the officer can call the Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC), a database in Vermont that maintains the status and identities of aliens suspected, arrested or convicted of criminal activity. If it turns out that the suspect is in the U.S. illegally, the officer may arrest the alien.
But under the Senate bill, the officer's power to arrest would be curtailed, Mr. Kobach said. State and local police would no longer be permitted to arrest aliens for "civil" violations of federal immigration laws, such as overstaying their visas or failing to attend the classes required under their student visas.
Mr. Kobach told the House panel last week that four of the 19 September 11 hijackers had committed immigration violations and had been stopped by state and local police before the attacks. In particular, he pointed to Ziad Samir Jarrah, the Lebanese terrorist in the country on a six-month tourist visa that he had overstayed.
On Sept. 9, 2001, Jarrah was stopped going 90 mph on Interstate 95 in Maryland and given a $270 speeding ticket, which was later found in the glove compartment at the Newark airport in New Jersey, where he boarded United Flight 93.
"If the officer had asked a few questions and determined that he was illegal, he could have made the arrest," Mr. Kobach said. "If the officer had called the Law Enforcement Support Center, which operates 24/7 out of Vermont, the officer could have concluded that he was illegal and could have made the arrest."
Since September 11, Mr. Kobach said, the Justice Department has encouraged state and local law-enforcement agencies to step up their use of the LESC during routine police work.
The center now gets more than 500,000 calls a year. But if the Senate bill becomes law, the officer who stopped Jarrah on Sept. 9 would not be permitted to arrest him for having overstayed his tourist visa.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060710-115221-4749r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:33 AM
matt@lefande.com
What's So Great About America?
The newcomer who sees America for the first time typically experiences emotions that alternate between wonder and delight. Here is a country where everything works: The roads are paper-smooth, the highway signs are clear and accurate, the public toilets function properly, when you pick up the telephone you get a dial tone. You can even buy things from the store and then take them back if you change your mind. For the Third World visitor, the American supermarket is a marvel to behold: endless aisles of every imaginable product, 50 different types of cereal, multiple flavors of ice cream, countless unappreciated inventions like quilted toilet paper, fabric softener, roll-on deodorant, disposable diapers.
The immigrant cannot help noticing that America is a country where the poor live comparatively well. This fact was dramatized in the 1980s, when CBS television broadcast an anti-Reagan documentary, “People Like Us,” which was intended to show the miseries of the poor during an American recession. The Soviet Union also broadcast the documentary, with the intention of embarrassing the Reagan administration. But it had the opposite effect. Ordinary people across the Soviet Union saw that the poorest Americans had television sets and cars. They arrived at the same conclusion that I witnessed in a friend of mine from Bombay who has been trying unsuccessfully to move to the United States for nearly a decade. I asked him, “Why are you so eager to come to America?” He replied, “Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat.”
The point is that the United States is a country where the ordinary guy has a good life. This is what distinguishes America from so many other countries. Everywhere in the world, the rich person lives well. Indeed, a good case can be made that if you are rich, you live better in countries other than America, because you enjoy the pleasures of aristocracy. In India, the wealthy have innumerable servants and toadies groveling before them and attending to their every need.
In the United States, on the other hand, the social ethic is egalitarian, regardless of wealth. For all his riches, Bill Gates could not approach a homeless person and say, “Here’s a $100 bill. I’ll give it to you if you kiss my feet.” Most likely the homeless guy would tell Gates to go to hell. The American view is that the rich guy may have more money, but he isn’t in any fundamental sense better than you are. The American janitor or waiter sees himself as performing a service, but he doesn’t see himself as inferior to those he serves. And neither do the customers see him that way: They are generally happy to show him respect and appreciation on a plane of equality. America is the only country in the world where we call the waiter “Sir,” as if he were a knight.
The moral triumph of America is that it has extended the benefits of comfort and affluence, traditionally enjoyed by very few, to a large segment of society. Very few people in America have to wonder where their next meal is coming from. Even sick people who don’t have money or insurance will receive medical care at hospital emergency rooms. The poorest American girls are not humiliated by having to wear torn clothes. Every child is given an education, and most have the chance to go on to college. The common man can expect to live long enough and have enough free time to play with his grandchildren.
Ordinary Americans not only enjoy security and dignity, but also comforts that other societies reserve for the elite. We now live in a country where construction workers regularly pay $4 for a cappuccino, where maids drive nice cars, where plumbers take their families on vacation to Europe. As Irving Kristol once observed, there is virtually no restaurant in America to which a CEO can go to lunch with the absolute assurance that he will not find his secretary also dining there. Given the standard of living of the ordinary American, it is no wonder that socialist or revolutionary schemes have never found a wide constituency in the United States. As Werner Sombart observed, all socialist utopias in America have come to grief on roast beef and apple pie.
If there is a single phrase that encapsulates life in the Third World, it is that “birth is destiny.” A great deal of importance is attached to what tribe you come from, whether you are male or female, and whether you are the eldest son or not. Once your tribe, caste, sex and family position have been established at birth, your life takes a course that is largely determined for you.
In America, by contrast, you get to write the script of your own life. When your parents say to you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” the question is open ended, it is you who supply the answer. Your parents can advise you: “Have you considered law school?” “Why not become the first doctor in the family?” It is considered very improper, however, for them to try to force your decision. Indeed, American parents typically send their teenage children away to college where they live on their own and learn independence. This is part of the process of forming your mind, choosing a field of interest for yourself, and developing your identity.
It is not uncommon in the United States for two brothers who come from the same gene pool and were raised in similar circumstances to do quite different things: The eldest becomes a gas station attendant, the younger moves up to be vice president at Oracle; the eldest marries his high-school sweetheart and raises four kids; the youngest refuses to settle down; one is the Methodist that he was raised to be, the other becomes a Christian Scientist. What to be, where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, what religion to practice—these are all decisions that Americans make for themselves.
In America your destiny is not prescribed; it is constructed. Your life is like a blank sheet of paper and you are the artist. This notion of being the architect of your own destiny is the incredibly powerful idea that is behind the worldwide appeal of America. Young people especially find the prospect of authoring their own lives irresistible. The immigrant discovers that America permits him to break free of the constraints that have held him captive, so that the future becomes a landscape of his own choosing.
If there is a single phrase that captures this, it is “the pursuit of happiness.” As writer V. S. Naipaul notes, “much is contained” in that simple phrase: “the idea of the individual, responsibility, choice, the life of the intellect, the idea of vocation, perfectibility, and achievement. It is an immense human idea. It cannot be reduced to a fixed system. It cannot generate fanaticism. But it is known [around the world] to exist; and because of that, other more rigid systems in the end blow away.”
But where did the “pursuit of happiness” come from? And why has it come in America to mean something much more than simple selfishness? America’s founders were religious men. They believed that political legitimacy derives from God. Yet they were determined not to permit theological differences to become the basis for political conflict.
The American system refused to establish a national church, instead recognizing all citizens as free to practice their own religion. From the beginning the United States was made up of numerous sects. The Puritans dominated in Massachusetts, the Anglicans in Virginia, the Catholics were concentrated in Maryland, so it was in every group’s interest to “live and let live.” The ingenuity of the American solution is evident in Voltaire’s remark that where there is one religion, you have tyranny; where there are two, you have religious war; but where they are many, you have freedom.
One reason the American founders were able to avoid religious oppression and conflict is that they found a way to channel people’s energies away from theological quarrels and into commercial activity. The American system is founded on property rights and trade, and The Federalist tells us that protection of the obtaining of property is “the first object of government.” The founders reasoned that people who are working assiduously to better their condition are not likely to go around spearing their neighbors.
Capitalism gives America a this-worldly focus that allows death and the afterlife to recede from everyday view. Along with their heavenly aspirations, the gaze of the people is shifted to earthly progress. This “lowering of the sights” convinces many critics that American capitalism is a base, degraded system and that the energies that drive it are crass and immoral.
These modern critiques draw on some very old prejudices. In the ancient world, labor was generally despised. The Greeks looked down on merchants and traders as low-lifes. “The gentleman understands what is noble,” Confucius writes in his Analects, “the small man understands what is profitable.” In the Indian caste system the vaisya or trader occupies nearly the lowest rung of the ladder—one step up from the despised “untouchable.” The Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun suggests that even gain by conquest is preferable to gain by trade, because conquest embodies the virtues of courage and manliness. In these traditions, the honorable life is devoted to philosophy or the priesthood or military valor. “Making a living” was considered a necessary, but undignified, pursuit. Far better to rout your adversary, kill the men, enslave the women and children, and make off with a bunch of loot than to improve your lot by buying and selling stuff.
Drawing on the inspiration of philosophers like John Locke and Adam Smith, the American founders altered this moral hierarchy. They argued that trade based on consent and mutual gain was preferable to plunder. The founders established a regime in which the self-interest of entrepreneurs and workers would be directed toward serving the wants and needs of others. In this view, the ordinary life, devoted to production, serving the customer, and supporting a family, is a noble and dignified endeavor. Hard work, once considered a curse, now becomes socially acceptable, even honorable. Commerce, formerly a degraded thing, now becomes a virtue.
Of course the founders recognized that in both the private and the public sphere, greedy and ambitious people can pose a danger to the well-being of others. Instead of trying to outlaw these passions, the founders attempted a different approach. As the fifty-first book of The Federalist puts it, “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” In a free society, “the security for civil rights [consists] in the multiplicity of interests.” The framers of the Constitution reasoned that by setting interests against each other, by making them compete, no single one could become strong enough to imperil the welfare of the whole.
In the public sphere the founders took special care to devise a system that would minimize the abuse of power. They established limited government, in order that the power of the state would remain confined. They divided authority between the national and state governments. Within the national framework, they provided for separation of powers, so that the legislature, executive, and judiciary would each have its own domain of authority. They insisted upon checks and balances, to enhance accountability.
The founders didn’t ignore the importance of virtue, but they knew that virtue is not always in abundant supply. According to Christianity, the problem of the bad person is that his will is corrupted, a fault endemic to human nature. America’s founders knew they could not transform human nature, so they devised a system that would thwart the schemes of the wicked and channel the energies of flawed persons toward the public good.
The experiment that the founders embarked upon more than two centuries ago has largely succeeded in achieving its goals. Tribal and religious battles such as we see in Lebanon, Mogadishu, Kashmir, and Belfast don’t happen here. Whites and African Americans have lunch together. Americans of Jewish and Palestinian descent collaborate on software problems and play racquetball after work. Hindus and Muslims, Serbs and Croats, Turks and Armenians, Irish Catholics and British Protestants, all seem to have forgotten their ancestral differences and joined the vast and varied American parade. Everybody wants to “make it,” to “get ahead,” to “hit it big.” And even as they compete, people recognize that somehow they are all in this together, in pursuit of some great, elusive American dream. In this respect America is a glittering symbol to the world.
America’s founders solved two great problems which are a source of perennial misery and conflict in many other societies—the problem of scarcity, and the problem of religious and tribal conflict. They invented a new regime in which citizens would enjoy a wide range of freedoms—economic freedom, political freedom, and freedom of speech and religion—in order to shape their own lives and pursue happiness. By protecting religion and government from each other, and by directing the energies of the citizens toward trade and commerce, the American founders created a rich, dynamic, and peaceful society. It is now the hope of countless millions all across the world.
http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.19267/article_detail.asp
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:32 AM
matt@lefande.com
