Analyst's note: Are you ready for this?
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There is a legal method by which law enforcement can barge into our homes; it is called a search warrant. We, as Americans, do not have an absolute right to privacy in all instances; law enforcement officers must go to a judge and demonstrate probable cause in order to intrude upon a private citizen’s life and home. When that burden has been met, police may proceed.
It’s a simple concept with many nuances. However, what police aren’t allowed to do is enter a premises without permission from the occupant or the judicial branch. And they sure as heck aren’t allowed to fake a search warrant.
However, that is, reportedly, exactly what the Secret Service sought to do in Nashville, Tennessee.
According to Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson, Secret Service agents were recently thwarted in an attempt to enter the house of a man suspected of making inappropriate comments online about President Obama. When the man knew his rights and refused the agents entry, they turned to the police chief and asked him to fake a search warrant.
When Secret Service agents working out of the Nashville office asked to enter the premises of a man accused of making inappropriate comments online about Barack Obama, the man refused and slammed the door in his face. The agents then called local law enforcement for back-up. The Nashville Police arrived and informed the agents that the man inside, who may or may not have been armed, is a registered gun owner, had not broken any laws, and that they would need a search warrant to investigate inside the house.
According to Chief Anderson in a scathing letter to the House Committee on Oversight, “one of the agents then asked a [Nashville police] sergeant to ‘wave a piece of paper’ in an apparent effort to dupe the resident into thinking that they indeed had a warrant.”
Apparently, Nashville’s finest takes their oaths seriously and plainly refused to do anything of the sort.
However, Chief Anderson demanded accountability. He contacted then-Secret Service Director Julia Pierson and Assistant Director A.T. Smith in order to get answers. Pierson never got back to him and Smith offered a snide tone and told Anderson to, essentially, mind his own business.
Chief Anderson then went to the Secret Service office and demanded answers. In his letter to the House Committee, Anderson writes,
“Certainly, nothing was resolved in our meeting. The supervisor made it clear that my complaint was not well received. Seeing that was not going to receive any assurance that similar conduct would not occur again in the future, I asked the following questions:Do you think it is appropriate to wave a piece of paper in the air and tell him you have a warrant when you do not have a warrant?Answer: ‘Don’t know. l’m not a lawyer.’If it is a good idea to wave the paper in the air and tell him it is a warrant, why didn’t your agent do it instead of directing a Metropolitan Nashville police officer to wave the paper?Answer: ‘Wasn’t there. You will have to ask him.’”
These reports are simply outrageous and indicative of the kind of attitude that has become commonplace within the federal law enforcement environment.
As the NSA, the IRS and the CIA continue to tap, bug, investigate and harass any citizens they want for a wide variety of obscene reasons, it seems clear why trust in the federal government has plunged so low.
As the NSA, the IRS and the CIA continue to tap, bug, investigate and harass any citizens they want for a wide variety of obscene reasons, it seems clear why trust in the federal government has plunged so low.
If there is to be any silver lining in this story, it is that it serves as a refreshing reminder that while so many police officers and federal agents feel that it is acceptable to betray their oaths to protect and serve, there remains dedicated officers to whom their oaths are a bond.
