And this is the way it will be as long as the US enforces it's right to maintain borders. Many people forget that a navigable waterway is a border. The rules are different on the border. If you want the 4th amendment live on land. Post 274 had the correct idea.
I don't understand the relevance of 274, but I do think that the government shouldn't have the right to cut up my home into little pieces looking for contraband because I didn't bow down low enough for some coastie and leave me with absolutely no recourse. I also think that officers of the government can be a little more polite to the people who pay their salaries. After all, they can afford to be when I'm standing on the dock in my pajamas and six young studs are covering me with their m16's.
A friend of mine had his boat destroyed by the Coast Guard drilling holes in the deck and breaking up the furniture, cutting down the rig and chopping up the mast looking for drugs that weren't there. Near as I can tell, his only offense was that he wasn't sufficiently respectful to the officer in charge of the boarding party. To add insult to injury, he was required to dispose of the derelict hulk at his own expense or face fines and possible jail time. Apparently, because they didn't find anything on the vessel, they didn't confiscate it. They gave it back to him.
He didn't even get an apology, but at least, they didn't put him in jail. In his case, not saying "Sir" cost him everything he had.
"And this is the way it will be as long as the US enforces it's right to maintain borders. Many people forget that a navigable waterway is a border."
I am convinced that some of the folks complaining the loudest on this thread are either Libertarians/liberals who hate the notion of borders, or they make their living by engaging in smuggling.