Semantics

When is a police roadblock not a police roadblock?

When it's a "safety inspection", of course.

You see, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, roadblocks are illegal. Problem? Not for the police in Washington County, Maine, who got $80,000 in Homeland Security money to pull their little scheme the other day. They decided to stop every car at a certain point on a highway, to check for "safety" violations.

What do you think of when a safety check of a car is mentioned? To me, it means that your license and registration is current, your horn works, your muffler isn't Swiss cheese, and so on. To these "authorities", a safety check means something quite different:

"What we are doing, we’re just doing an overall check. We’re looking for anything suspicious from illegal aliens, drug trafficking and safety checks."

Sounds less like "safety" and more like "fishing" to me. It's funny that the official lists "safety check" so far down his list of to-do items.

So, what types of big-time gangsters did these guys rustle up?

- A lady who had a prescription medication, but not in a legal prescription bottle.

- A lady who had a handgun under her seat. Guess what? She had a permit for it.

- A couple who had a large amount of drugs in their trunk. Oops - they worked for a pharmaceutical company. Sorry about that.

And so on.

This is what your tax money, taken from you on pain of imprisonment, is being used for in the name of "Homeland Security".

But remember, all of this is being done for your safety. Feel any safer?

Keep the following statement in mind, in case you get caught up in one of these Orwellian "papers, please" roadblocks:

"Officer, I do not consent to any search of either myself or my vehicle".

It's your rights. Use them.