Tempus Fugit

No, YOU Read the Law!

Michelle Malkin disagrees with my assessment of the case of the man who shined a laser into an airplane and is getting prosecuted under the Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act makes it illegal for terrorists and anybody else to intentionally use a “dangerous weapon” to screw around with a mass transportation vehicle or harm its driver/pilot/captain–or to do so with reckless disregard, or to attempt, threaten, or plot to do so. (Unfortunately, at least one dense judge has problems figuring out what a “mass transportation vehicle” is. But that’s another story.)

Enforcement of these provisions is not limited to terrorists. Nor should it be. If an idiot recklessly aims his new Christmas toy into a cockpit (at a time when airlines are on notice that al Qaeda may be doing the same), and if that idiot lies about what he did to FBI agents (by the way, kudos to them for tracking him down quickly), he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Read the damned law.

We are at war, fools. You really want to make this idiot a civil liberties martyr? Stop clucking and get serious.

Michelle Malkin: Lasering in on the Patriot Act

With all due respect, I did read the damn law, and your interpretation is wrong, Michelle. It’s so wrong that I’m doubting that you carefully read the law yourself. The flaws in your interpretation are glaring, and you bolded parts that have nothing to do with determining if this man indeed broke the law.

First, it was not an act of violence. No one was injured, nor was there intent to injure. Second, no life was in any real danger, so there was no reckless disregard for human life. Third, they have to prove that he meant to cause death or serious bodily harm by his actions, and there’s no way they can do that.

It’s an issue of terrorism vs. prank precisely because the law makes that distinction when it requires that there be intent to cause bodily injury or death.

The only crime for which this man should be prosecuted is for lying to the FBI, because that’s the only crime he committed.

We are at war, fools. You really want to make this idiot a civil liberties martyr? Stop clucking and get serious.

Michelle Malkin: Lasering in on the Patriot Act

If giving up civil liberties is required in order to keep us safe, screw the war on terror… it’s not worth that. Once you do away with individual liberty, there’s no point. “Live free or die” isn’t just a nice saying, it’s something that the fathers of our country believed. They truly would rather die than be slaves to a government that cared little about freedom. The day that freedom bows to safety is the day that the wisdom of the 2nd Amendment will become apparent.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The Declaration of Independence

You didn’t just think those words were meant to only apply to the King of England did you?

The Patriot Act makes it illegal for terrorists and anybody else to intentionally use a “dangerous weapon” to screw around with a mass transportation vehicle or harm its driver/pilot/captain–or to do so with reckless disregard, or to attempt, threaten, or plot to do so.

Michelle Malkin: Lasering in on the Patriot Act

WRONG!

(5) interferes with, disables, or incapacitates any dispatcher, driver, captain, or person while they are employed in dispatching, operating, or maintaining a mass transportation vehicle or ferry, with intent to endanger the safety of any passenger or employee of the mass transportation provider, or with a reckless disregard for the safety of human life;

(6) commits an act, including the use of a dangerous weapon, with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury to an employee or passenger of a mass transportation provider or any other person while any of the foregoing are on the property of a mass transportation provider;

The Patriot Act

Your point seems to be that someone doesn’t have to be a terrorist to be prosecuted under the Patriot Act. I happen to agree with that. But a person’s actions do have to meet the criteria set by the law. This act doesn’t meet that criteria. By your reckoning, a child shining a laser at a bus is as guilty as someone firing a rocket at an airplane. That equation is wrong by the Patriot Act, and wrong by objective analysis.

You don’t seem to care that it was a harmless prank, even though the law certainly does. You’d just as well lock this man away for 25 years and deprive his daughter of a father for a f**king prank that didn’t hurt anyone. Why? To show terrorists that we mean business? “We’re not afraid to lock our own citizens away for stupid pranks, so you better believe we’ll come after you if you do something that actually interferes with transportation.”

When you fight terror by sacrificing individual American freedoms, you are destroying the very thing you presume to be defending. It is a capitulation to those who hate us because we are free. Michelle, you’ve become so focused on defeating terror that you’ve forgotten why we’re fighting it.

Apologies for the harsh tone of this entry. My blood righteously boils when people suggest that giving up freedom is an acceptable price to pay for safety, and even more so when it is done by someone whose opinion I usually value.