The power of the police to detain people at will is the cornerstone of every police state. The implication of that ruling is that if you go, say, to attend a union organizing meeting, a cop can legally pull you over because he says you ran a stop sign (prove that you did not, he he he) and lock you up for the evening to make you miss the meeting.
I was also watching a discussion of that ruling on a "commercial" site (yahoo.com) - over 200 postings expressed different shades of the same sentiment, namely that Amerika is becoming a police state. One of the most interesting observations noted that this ruling crossed th eline between the underclass and middle class. Th efact that a middle class person can be busted in the same way as an underclass person can have a serious effect of pissing off large numbers of people.
Another inetresting posting from that listed is attached below.
So if the nine functionaries known as the "high court" can undermine the trust in the system in so many people, things aint so bad as they seem, no?
wojtek
attachment
------------- All those who say that only the people doing wrong have to worry - read this!!
"In Germany they came for the Communists,but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."
(Pastor Martin Niemoeller, 1892-1984. German Protestant churchman who broke very early with the Nazis. In 1933, he organized the Pastor's Emergency League to protect Lutheran pastors from the police. In 1934, he was one of the leading organizers of the Barmen Synod, which produced the theological basis for the Confessing Church, which despite its persecution became an enduring symbol of German resistance to Hitler.)
I also like this modern-day variant ( found at http://www.mit.edu/activities/safe/writings/misc-quotes/came-for-me )- 1992: Various Usenet personalities:
When they took the fourth amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs. When they took the sixth amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent. When they took the second amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun. Now they've come for the first amendment, and I can't say anything at all.