Lucente: Still, in the end, it was just a crime (emphasis added). It certainly did not warrant the behavior of the police and military in the conduct of its “manhunt.”
There's a rewrite of history going on here. It wasn't just a crime. After all, the suspected bomber had possibly caused many people to die and many others to be injured. And authorities didn't know when the carnage was going to stop. So I'd say that martial law was appropriate for this situation. And if martial law was not appropriate, then when is martial law appropriate?
Also, let's say that all the neighbors had firearms to protect themselves. But are we to assume that the neighbors had trained themselves to not kill each other in their own crossfire when trying to take down a possibly armed suspect? (I suppose that if you live in Hollywood then you don't have to worry about crossfire.)
Also, given unknown time restraints, I think it's ludicrous to expect some judge to have to take the time to evaluate every search warrant request for every house in the neighborhood where the bomber was finally captured. (On the other hand, I know that Hollywood could make a scene of a judge doing just that. After all, Hollywood is a master of time dilation.)
Okay, what am I overlooking?
You are overlooking the fact that they knew who they were looking for and the fact that under the 4th amendment all of this was illegal.
When the blond blue eyed folk or the black folk came to the door, it would be a pretty good bet it wasn’t the bomber. Then the treated them like criminals.
Disgusting.
As it was, the schmuck was hiding where they already searched. So much for that.
I don’t care if it was Osama Bin Laden hiding there...you do not treat citizens like the criminals you are looking for. This writer is totally correct.
The other thing he is missing is that they did not declare martial law. This was police work by local cops. A governor or President is required to declare martial law, and then, the military is in charge with the rules of war applying.
Same as all the other Lov Information Citizens (LIC) who have pontificated here on this issue. Just do some reading: http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/amdt4frag3_user.html especially the part that says:
The exceptions are said to be "jealously and carefully drawn,"
Next think about the fact that the police lost the suspect so the only applicable exception, hot pursuit, no longer applied. If in your reading you find another exception to the 4th from case law, please post. What you cannot do is pretend that undeclared martial law is ok unless you show some case law that it is.