BY NCVIKING:

This is just ridiculous. I chose to include the whole post from HotAir.com because I just couldn’t put it any better than this.

In the good old days of America, one could express dissent without fear of arrest. In the fascistic regime of George Bush, though, having a bumper sticker that expressed opposition meant getting pulled over by the police and having the Secret Service search your house for signs of “hate”. Thank goodness the Thought Police days are over!

What’s that? That didn’t happen during the Bush administration? Actually, it happened last week:

Chip Harrison said he was driving to work when a police car followed him for several miles and then signaled for him to pull over.

”I pulled over, knowing I hadn’t done anything wrong,” Harrison said in a recent phone interview.

When the officer asked Harrison if he knew why he had been pulled over, Harrison said he did not.

”They said, ‘It’s because of the sign in your window,’” Harrison said.

”It’s not meant to be a threat, it’s a statement about abortion,” Harrison said.

What did the sign say? “Abort Obama, not the unborn.” The police officer took that as a threat of assassination instead of its obvious meaning, which was opposition to abortion and to Obama’s support for it. The report filed by the police officer prompted their Internal Investigations group to apologize and offer to return the sign. They told Harrison that they informed the Secret Service that no threat was involved, but that didn’t cut much ice with the Treasury. They sent a pair of agents to ask for a voluntary search of the premises and an interview to make sure Harrison didn’t belong to any hate groups.

What’s next — a Fairness Doctrine for bumper stickers?

Captain Steve McCool of the Oklahoma City PD agrees now that the actions violated Harrison’s First Amendment right to free political speech, but that it was “made right” in the end by returning his sign. Unfortunately, that’s not so. The OCPD made it clear that expressions of dissent, even an obviously political one in which Harrison engaged, will be closely scrutinized to see that it passes muster with law enforcement. For that matter, the Secret Service did the same by “requesting” that Harrison account for his thought processes for publishing his critique of Obama’s policies on abortion. That does damage to the First Amendment to everyone, not just Harrison.

So much for Hope and Change.

Here is a video on the incident:

• Why Are We Still Listening to Ben Bernanke? - August 31st, 2010
• Favre Returns for One More Year - August 18th, 2010
• Mosque at Ground Zero and the First Amendment - August 18th, 2010
• NFL Predictions 2010 - August 10th, 2010
• Basil Marceaux ... Magnificent! - July 23rd, 2010