DaedalusHKX's Journal: As a geek, which side of this fence are you on?

Act like serfs, be treated like serfs.

Do you believe that police abuses are okay, so long as the government is compassionate and absolute (socialism) or disconnected and absolute (fascism)? Or do you believe that you "were born free, will live free, to die free"?

Pay attention to the question at the end, and see if it applies to you as a "geek" or "slashdotter" or just plain "man" or "woman".

All other talk about "free speech" or "free software", or "patent enforcement" or "internet taxation" is moot, until you realize that without asserting your rights, and behaving as if you had them, you do NOT have them. Rights, like all else, are yours to lose. This article makes a good point of it. Government is the one with responsibilities, YOU as an individual are the one with rights. Authoritarians and statist totalitarians have confused everyone into believing the opposite.

That's not exactly what I take from the article

[benhocking]

We are the ones with the responsibilities: the responsibilities to make sure the government does not usurp our rights. The problem is that we've been acting as if it's the government's responsibility to do that and that if they don't, we can't do anything about it. (Obviously, it is also their responsibility, but we need to realize that the responsibility doesn't end there.)

The problem is that most of us (myself included) don't feel like interrupting our relatively peaceful lives with jail stays in order

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Indeed, but what makes you think that you'll go to jail if you resist an unlawful or just plain pointless search? You may end up assaulted, you may end up with a cop who's a peace officer and remembers this. You never know until you try. I've stood my ground on plenty of occasions and discovered something nice. If you know WHAT to say, and what to shut the hell up about, you are generally let be. Most of the time, people TALK themselves into a jail stay.

After all most "searches" are unlawful according

Maybe I'm lucky

[StalinsNotDead]

But I've only rarely had to deal with law enforcement. All of them traffic stops. All of them were above the standard level of polite (especially for cop stereotypes).

The last one was after I got my CCW and I happened to be carrying. The instructor of that class said that it was best to hand that card along with license and registration. And a good and safe way to say "I'm armed but legally so".

"Do you know why I stopped you?"
"No, sir."
Looking at the ID provided, "Are you currently carrying?"
"Yes,sir."
"Do y