Truck Driver Stands Up To Unconstitutional Checkpoint

Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com October 22, 2012 A truck driver who passed through an unconstitutional checkpoint 30 miles from the Mexican border stood up for his 4th Amendment rights by refusing to answer questions in another example of how Americans are re-asserting their liberties. A You Tube video shows the truck driver approaching a checkpoint manned by U.S. Border Patrol agents. The checkpoint is situated in Texas at least 30 miles from the border with Mexico. After a Border Patrol agent asks the man if he is has any passengers and is a U.S. citizen, the truck driver refuses to answer any questions, only asking, “Am I free to go?” The truck driver asks if he crossed the border, who which the Border Patrol agent responds, “No, sir.” The agent repeats his questions and subsequently calls over his superior who starts to become visibly annoyed with the truck driver after he refuses to answer any more questions and pleads the 5th amendment. “Do you have anything to hide, are you breaking the law right now?,” asks the Border Patrol agent, adding, “Are you hiding anything in there – tell me.” The Border Patrol agent is forced to back down, telling the man to be “more co-operative” next time he passes through the checkpoint. “Is being co-operative giving up my rights?,” asks the truck driver as he drives away. This is just the latest in a series of confrontations caught on video showing Americans standing up to 4th Amendment-violating checkpoints that are creeping further and further inside America, in some cases as much as 100 miles from the border. Back in July, we reported on the case of Steven Anderson, who refused to show his papers at another Border Patrol checkpoint while traveling through California. Since the checkpoints are situated far away from the Mexican border, they are clearly a violation of the 4th Amendment, which protects, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Although the U.S. Supreme Court, which once ruled that black people were slaves, has upheld these “interior checkpoints” as constitutional, the ACLU has dubbed the 100-mile area the “Constitution-free Zone,” noting that 2 out of 3 Americans live within this buffer zone – around 190 million people in total. Not all Americans who refuse to have their rights violated have been as successful as the truck driver in the video clip. In 2008, retired San Diego social worker Vince Peppard and his wife had their car ransacked after refusing to consent to being searched. Alex Jones has also encountered similar “interior checkpoints” on numerous occasions, including the incident documented in the video below.