At the New Year, many working people in California, particularly Latinos heaved a collective sigh of relief as a law, which will reduce unconstitutional vehicle checkpoint searches.
The 4th Amendment of the US Constitution provides in part, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause…” In general, that means that the police shouldn’t enter homes (or vehicles) without getting a written warrant (court order) based on the police showing there is reasonable cause to believe the person has committed a crime or is in possession of contraband.
In the early history of the American colonies, when they were territories owned by England, the American colonists were very opposed to English soldiers coming into colonists’ homes and searching them and arresting people. After the Revolutionary War, when the Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments to the US Constitution, to protect our freedoms) was adopted, the new government acted to limit government entry into homes. Other than right on the border, all vehicle checkpoint searches violate these basic constitutional protections.
Many undocumented were stopped at so-called DUI (drunk driving) checkpoints, and California, where the undocumented cannot obtain drivers licenses, took the oppressiveness of these checkpoints to an extreme. When an unlicensed driver was snared at a checkpoint, California was the only state where the law required police to impound the car for 30 days, resulting in so many fees that the car would be lost.
A superb report by California Watch stated: “Most of the state’s 3,200 roadblocks over the past two years occurred in or near Hispanic neighborhoods, 61% of the checkpoints took place in locations with at least 3% Hispanic population.”
The car-impounding scheme was a great way for local governments to make money. The main expense for checkpoints is officer overtime, and in California, for example, that was paid by the federal government with about $30 million annually going to fund drunken driving checkpoints.
Vehicle impounds at checkpoints in 2009 generated $40 million in towing fees and police fines. No wonder California state officials declared that 2010 would be the “year of the checkpoint.” This oppression created widespread opposition in the Latino community, supported by civil rights groups, including the ACLU.
To lessen the outrage, the California legislature, effective 1/1/2012, repealed the law which called for 30-day impounds, and this was certainly a good thing. But, as the capitalists consistently do, they used the change in the law as an opportunity to take away freedoms from the entire population, documented and undocumented. In the past under state law a motorist approaching a DUI checkpoint could just turn around, and if they didn’t commit any traffic violation or have any equipment violation, the police couldn’t stop them.
The new law permits vehicle inspection checkpoints for smoky vehicles (using a new pretext for the checkpoints) and says that motorists shall stop at these checkpoints. This is a serious move toward realigning our country to prepare it for fascism, which is the open terrorist dictatorship of capital against the vast majority of the population, especially the new class of the recently dispossessed.
So there was some relief from the vehicle seizures, and this is really important. But were those opposing the law, which called for a 30-day impounds, manipulated to give up some of our fundamental rights?
In the long run, what was lost may be much more important than what was gained. We must study and become aware of the political situation in the US so that we can make our way through a very complicated landscape. As the capitalists maneuver the US towards fascism to protect their immense wealth, they will try to use our deep hopes and fears to manipulate us into supporting their objectives. We need to be able to analyze things independently for ourselves.
