I Already Googled It

Writing letters like crazy of late.

In response to this:

It would seem – judging from his letter printed on the 18^th – that the abuses that expanded government judicial authority and discretion brings are lost on John Laidlaw.  “[I]f we do not drink and drive, it is impossible for us to be charged” is one of the most strikingly naïve things I have read recently.  Perhaps Mr. Laidlaw could explain how then how wrongful convictions come to be?

Trusting the state to execute perfect justice is demonstrably misplaced trust.  It is the reason why court systems and rights exist.  Quips like “if you haven’t broken the law, you have nothing to hide” and “if we do not drink and drive, it is impossible for us to be charged” demonstrate not only such misplaced trust, but also ignorance of the abuse that increased power invites.

Mr. Laidlaw would do himself service to consider why, exactly, he believes that he and others are merely chattel before the whims of the state.  Perhaps he would do well to remember that the building blocks of modern, constitutional democracies is that they are founded to maintain the sovereignty of the individuals who form and maintain them, not so that those individuals may conversely be sacrificed to maintain the sovereignty of the state.

“[W]hatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes.  Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass.” –Thomas Jefferson