16 June 2006

Knock and Announce

Like Bill Gates, I am considering stepping down from my day-today duties and devoting myself, full-time, to the management of my Foundation. This could be opportunity knocking.

I think it is time to make the annoucement. I have helped drive my corporation, one with a storied history, into a desperate embrace with a handsome foreign competitor. I have watched the number of my co-workers dwindle until the cube-farms are desolate gray places for storing boxes, and am prepared for the eventual move to a distant and lower-rent industrial park near Dulles airport.

My work here is nearly done. Naturally, there will be a transition period. I have selected which boxes I will leave strewn about my office to convey a sense of gravitas about the departure, and which memo I will print out and leave in the desk drawer of my modular office unit to be found by a new generation of tenants.

I am thinking about leaving the little mound of ceremonial chocolate stacked next to the computer monitor. Something to convey to the cleaning crew that there was sweetness here once, and a sort of whimsy.

The only real question now is what focus the foundation will have. I do not have the luxury of scale that Mr. Gates enjoys, since he contributed an irritating operating system to the world. He is said to be the richest man in the world, a potentate of capital. He has the luxury of taking on world health, and education.

I will have to husband my more limited resources, and concentrate them for maximum effect.

I suspect the focus of the Socotra Foundation will be devoted to single-issue crank e-mail campaigns, at least while the it still has the resources to keep the power on and the lap-top connected.

We also have dynamic plans for a sustainable future. In the event that we must vacate our posh headquarters suit at Big Pin, our long-range strategic planning shop has identified a Starbucks with a wi-fi hot spot and a live power outlet used by the custodian at the public library for periodic re-charging of the battery and vitriol.

The Foundation has identified its first major issue, and it should be a pretty easy one to resolve. The 4th Amendment to the Constitution was lost yesterday, apparently being misplaced during deliberations at the Supreme Court. It may have slipped out of the legal papers the high court examined, and I believe the Foundation has a civic duty to find a copy and mail it to newly installed Chief Justice Roberts. He will probably be grateful to have it in the future.

The Bill of Rights was the only way that the Founders were able to sell a strong central government to the suspicious States. They were justly afraid that without specific and unambiguous language, the new Federal government would gradually usurp the sanctity of the citizenry in the sanctity of their homes.

I'm sure you know the words by heart, just as the Justices should. They are clear, an unambiguous. Here they are as a civics refresher:

“Amendment IV:

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, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

The case before the Court was from Detroit, and was heard for a second time. That is why I found it so curious that the Justices could not find the Fourth Amendment. The facts in the matter are fairly straightforward, and I had the Foundation's legal staff go back and review several episodes of Law and Order to confirm our opinion.

Illegally obtained evidence must be excluded from trial, even if the suspect has a bad haircut.

Detroit Police arrived at the residence of a citizen and announced that they had a search warrant and were going to come it. They are supposed to knock on the door, too. That goes back to a decision in 1914, that is in turn based on English common law tradition that goes back the 13th Century.

It is called “knock and announce,” and it has been part of our legal canon for eight hundred years. Something about a person's home being their castle or something. I have the staff checking.

The Detroit cops announced, but did not knock. I do not know how loudly they announced. It could have been brisk and audible, or it could have been sotto vocce. Then they kicked in the door, and found the citizen in his pajamas, in possession of a hand gun, which is, as I understand it, permitted under the provisions of the Second Amendment. I have asked the legal staff to check on it.

There was also a small amount of cocaine, and that is what got citizen Hudson 18 months probation, and the use of that evidence, which should have been excluded, is what eventually produced a case that had to be argued twice in front of the Supreme Court.

The Court voted, 5-4, that even if the cops did not knock, they probably would have found the drugs anyway and the evidence would stand. Bang! Next case!

The Foundation is not in favor of cocaine, or bad haircuts, for that matter. It is also explicit in its support of the Second and Fourth Amendments. It even has a fondness for Articles I, III, V, VI and many of the others.

This was not a big case, per se, though the Foundation notes that the casual dismissal of legal precedence that dates the better part of a thousand years is fairly breathtaking.

I have directed the legal staff to mail a copy of the entire Bill of Rights to the Supreme Court, just in case they have misplaced their copy. I have also directed the legal staff to be vigilant, in case the Court loses the copy we are sending. If they continue to misplace the founding document, this small decision could be a sign of things to come.

As a matter for future Foundation agendas, are there any rights you are particularly interested in?

Copyright 2006 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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