SCORE ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS

In a crowded field, a new frontrunner has emerged for this year's worst
abuse of power in the War on Drugs. The latest harbinger of liberty's death
comes from unsuspecting Goose Creek, S. C. Last Wednesday, a small army of
cops stormed Stratford High School, following a student's tip that others
were dealing drugs.

Fourteen officers burst into a crowded hallway with guns drawn, handcuffing
students who were insufficiently submissive. Snarling drug dogs roamed the
halls sniffing for contraband.

They didn't find anything. No drugs, no weapons, pretty much no reason
whatsoever for the raid.

Missing the point entirely is Principal George McCrackin. "I'll utilize
whatever forces I deem necessary to keep this campus safe and clean," he
decreed.

It's a good thing for him that kids today don't know anything about history
or civics. If they did, they might realize that the Fourth Amendment's
protection against "unreasonable search and seizure" doesn't stop at the
schoolhouse doors. They might realize that America was supposed to be a
place where you can go about your day without being harassed by the
government. They might realize that our forefathers fought a bloody
revolution to ensure things like this wouldn't happen.

"I'm sure it was an inconvenience to those individuals who were in the
hallway, but there is a valuable experience there," the principal said.

Yes, those kids did learn an important lesson. They learned that the biggest
threat to your freedom is your own government.

The tyrant comes in the guise of savior. Power is not stolen, but swindled.
No one blinks at giving the king carte blanche to slay the dragon, but the
sword is inevitably turned upon the people.

Americans have gladly sacrificed liberty after liberty at the altar of
Ashcroft in the name of fighting the crime du jour--drugs, terrorism, it
doesn't matter. History's most egregious abuses are always born of
irrational fear--the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism and
now the War on Drugs.

I like to say that if you're free to call your country a police state, then
you don't live in one, but how long can that excuse hold up? Parents might
fear that their child will have a gun stuck in their face at school, but
until now they didn't have to worry that a cop would be on the other end of
it.

Sadly, it should come as no surprise. The Supreme Court considers
participating in any extracurricular activity at a public school probable
cause for a drug test. Maybe if we didn't treat kids like drug dealers, they
wouldn't act like them.

I mean no disrespect to police in general--by and large, they do more to
defend our rights to life, liberty and property than anyone else. But can we
not agree that a line was crossed here?

An entire school should not be treated like criminals because some people
may be breaking the law. It is not worth throwing away our basic principles
of justice and fairness to stop a few kids from getting high. No doubt the
hundreds of innocent students degraded in this incident have gained a new
respect for authority. As they lay facedown on the floor, hands behind their
heads with a German shepherd's breath on their neck, they must have been
thanking their wise elders for the opportunity to prove their innocence in
such dramatic fashion.

If there is a War on Drugs, then this was a war crime. There will be no
Nuremberg for these criminals, but their judgment will come in time. The
people of this nation are slowly realizing that drug prohibition is a moral
and practical failure, as any attempt to regulate peaceful commerce must be.

To you, Principal McCrackin, and your compatriots in fascism, I tip my
hat--slowly, with my hands where you can see them.