Current mood:	apathetic
Current music:	"Alles" -Der drei Musketiere
Entry tags:	civil rights

"atmosphere of obedience"?
Opinions regarding this? Personally, I disagree with his actions. Yes, you do have the right to privacy, not having your bags searched, etc., but does anyone really care? When I read stories like that guy's, I don't really feel that he's standing up for civil rights; rather, it just seems to me like it all could have been avoided. Perhaps if the issue were more serious I would concur with Mr. Righi, but some guy just asked to search his bag! Big freaking deal. That happens all the time and no one (that I personally know) even gives it a second thought.

Contrary to what Mr. Righi stated in his entry, that an "atmosphere of obedience" is being created by this sort of thing, I think that we merely have to accept normal procedures. At least be happy that you don't like in freaking Iraq or something, where people have almost NO civil liberties! What irritates me is that people object to these silly, trivial matters when they have more rights than most people do in the world.

And what irritates me more is that the guy is somewhat intentionally antagonizing people, like the Circuit City employees. It's not as if those people have some malicious intention to eradicate all freedoms in America! They're just trying to do their job so they can get paid and pay off college or feed their families or whatever.
(EDIT: Yikes, there were about 1000 conjunctions in that last sentence.)

Okay, bottom line: I recognize that this is definitely a violation of civil rights and Mr. Righi shouldn't have been asked to reveal his purchases/driver's license, but it wasn't directly harming him. I recognize moreover that it was illegal for the Circuit City employee to bar him from leaving by force and the cop could have diffused the situation by inspecting Mr. Righi's bag and finding nothing stolen. Still, the entire matter could have been prevented by Mr. Righi himself; I almost feel as if he was asking, perhaps, for a little trouble.

(Note: I am generally left-wing, so I think this is my conservative side rearing its ugly head. ;))