I really don’t know how many times I’m going to beat my head against a wall before I just give up and realize that the United States Constitution is dead. And that no one cares.

These days, anything the police wish to do is not only justified, but considered a-ok, no problemo, what-the-hell-are-you-complaining-for?-we’re-just-trying-to-keep-everyone-safe. Anderson Cooper goes so far as to complain about stupid people (kids, in this case) who “waste time” by protesting the abuse of their civil rights.

In my job as a defense attorney, I’m having to file motions to obtain the most basic of my clients’ rights. People who have been arrested, apparently, no longer have them. Just because they were arrested. Forget preliminary examinations; forget trials; forget due process of law. Our nation no longer follows the rule of law. Instead, we have the rule of law enforcement. And anything goes.

Sheriff wants to put intercom systems into all interview rooms where attorneys meet with clients, so they can listen in at the flip of a switch? So what. It’s for “safety” purposes. Police want to invade parties because they see kids drinking from red cups? So what. “Safety” is the issue. Our President wants to invade countries that have not attacked the United States? So? Again, it’s safety.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if safety actually mattered. But it doesn’t. “Safety” is the pretense that allows the State to do whatever it wants. The State may violate any law — it matters not that the laws may have been enacted hundreds of years ago to constrain the State.

No one, no law, no Constitution must stand in the way of “safety.”