Highway Checkpoints Coming to Wisconsin?
October 25, 2011 in Freedom
If you have ever traveled to the third world you may have some familiarity with checkpoints on the highway. In Central America, for example, it is not uncommon to have your vehicle stopped, surrounded by troops with machine guns and have your possessions searched by military personnel.
I have always found these checkpoints intimidating. There is the clear feeling that you are guilty until proven innocent. I remember sitting in one of these checkpoints and feeling thankful that I live in a free country where we are not subjected to this humiliating treatment.
Unfortunately America is slowly adopting the oppressive policies of a third-world police state. Over the past month there has been increasing use of domestic roadside checkpoints here in the United States. Our leaders continue to reject the principles of freedom that made this country a decent and respectable place to live and instead drive us further toward despotism.
The TSA has already expanded its role from the airports to the rail and bus system and now is quietly moving onto the nations highways as well. So-called “VIPR” teams are now operating in Tennessee. The TSA is running up to seven simultaneous checkpoints in Tennessee “looking for terrorists” on the highways. Clearly this program is being used as a test with the goal of rolling this program out nationwide in the months and years to come.
Checkpoints are also hitting closer to home as motorists in Michigan are being targeted by highway checkpoints as well. Drivers near Flint Michigan are now being stopped at narcotics checkpoints and sniffed over by drug dogs.
This new trend in roadside checkpoints is very disturbing and raises many questions. Is this a free country? Does the government exist to protect our rights? Will the leaders of Wisconsin’s government protect its citizens from such authoritarian policies? Will Wisconsin’s citizens demand that they do so?
Or will we here in America, like so many other nations, be continually searched and interrogated as we attempt to travel in this once free land. Lets work together to make sure that Wisconsin is a national leader on this issue and a powerful advocate for civil rights.



