For Brian McGacken of Farmingdale, New Jersey, an evening of loud sex resulted in a 10-year prison sentence for growing marijuana. On Feb. 17, 2007, New Jersey state troopers arrived at McGacken’s home, responding to an anonymous 911 call complaining of screams coming from McGacken’s home. McGacken explained the noise was a bout of loud sex; his girlfriend appeared at the front door and corroborated his claim. But officers searched his home anyway, and found enough marijuana — including potted plants — to put him away for 10 years on charges of producing a controlled substance. Appealing the conviction, McGacken argued that, once police knew the noise was consensual sex, they no longer had reason to search his home. But the appellate panel at the Superior Court of New Jersey disagreed. On Monday, they dismissed McGacken’s appeal, stating that “the potential for harm was too severe for the police to accept an explanation for loud screaming that could have been a cover-up of its true source.”
In addition to all of the other things I have to be concerned about these days- joblessness, writer’s block, sore joints, ADD, Joe Nathan’s elbow- now you can add another item to the list…and I don’t even have any marijuana growing in my apartment. Hmm…soundproofing would seem a good idea, eh?
Seriously, though, I can’t imagine that I’m the only one concerned about the precedent set by the court’s decision. Anyone familiar with anything resembling sexual activity knows that there’s a profound difference between screams of ecstasy and screams of terror or pain. This ain’t rocket science, y’all. If you can’t tell the difference…well, you might want to consider getting out more, knowhutimean?
Even worse, for police to execute a search of a private home without a warrant- and for a court to sanction this egregious invasion of privacy- is unconscionable. With the door thus cracked, how long before police across the country begin conducting warrantless searches on all manner of specious pretexts? And how long before courts acquiesce and rubber-stamp this sort of extraconstitutional police state excess?
OK, so McGacken was breaking the law by growing marijuana in his home. My feelings for this aside (why this is even illegal is beyond me, but that’s an argument for another time), police officers should not have forced their way into McGacken’s residence without a warrant. Don’t look know, but we’ve just started down the slippery slope that leads ultimately to a police state.
Liberty is not destroyed with a sledgehammer. It’s slowly nibbled away at by repeated blows from a rubber mallet. We may well wake up one morning to a country we no longer recognize…but that’s OK; it’s not like we’re using our civil liberties, anyway.
