Raid

All of the cool bloggers are linking to this chilling article. Glad to see we live in a police state now.

Glenn Reynolds says that the raid “seems heavyhanded, but not dreadful. (Certainly not as bad as this pre-911 raid, which wasn’t even especially famous).” I certainly agree that it could have been worse, but it is different from the story he linked since it took place in a crowded restaurant, with customers who were certainly innocent. Glenn also questions why both the feds and the NYPD were involved. Though I am no expert in these things, it seems they often work together in urban areas.

Volokh conspirator Orin Kerr, wonders about the article’s legitimacy :

The idea that the author was told that he was “being held under the Patriot Act” sounds particularly unlikely to me. I can’t find a section of the Patriot Act that could conceivably apply to this.

They weren’t held by the Patriot Act, they were being held by men with guns claiming to act within the authority of the Patriot Act. The cops’ attitude was based more on the climate that generated the Patriot Act, rather than the actual legalities of the act.