WE SHOULD ALL BE WARY

Re: Resist insidious searches.

It is not ironic that in the same Times issue that Robyn Blumner brings to
our consciousness the erosion of the Fourth Amendment through "special
needs" exceptions, Bill Maxwell offers his thoughtful description of his
visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

I am writing to head off the inevitable letter challenging Blumner's
caution on the erosion of the Fourth Amendment's right to privacy and
freedom from search without cause.

The inevitable argument casually dismisses the freedom from search by any
authority with the blind assertion that "if you have nothing to hide then
you have nothing to fear."

That argument in favor of such invasions is obtuse and irrelevant. Those
Jews deported and murdered in the camps were often pointed out by
"innocent" neighbors who felt secure that their Aryan ancestry protected
them and that they themselves had nothing to fear.

When your neighbor is subject to a witch-hunt search and detention, who is
to say who will be searched next? Do you have a "pornographic" magazine in
your closet? Did your child leave a marijuana cigarette in your car, or was
it one of his friends? And will you be arrested for the find? In effect,
you will now have to wear a yellow Star of David on your lapel, indicating
that you are now subject to search and seizure at any time or any place. In
effect there will be no Fourth Amendment privilege and you must take care
and always check your rear- view mirror.

That is what our founding fathers wanted Americans to be protected from: a
tyranny of government in the name of "security." Even the privileged will
take their turn in the defendant's box! Let us all be wary.

Joel Hersch, Clearwater