Dear readers, this is a story from my youth. (Or rather, it’s about when you were young, right?)
Upon joining the Marines, I went through recruit training in San Diego, followed by three more weeks of combat training at nearby Camp Pendleton. After this, I took the bus to 29 Palms in the middle of the California desert for my next training session. One of the new experiences I had at 29 Palms was being barracked. At boot camp and MCT, everyone sleeps in squad bays (large open rooms with bunk beds). But now we were in proper barracks with separate barracks rooms. Granted, in the Marine Corps it was common for low-ranking Marines to be assigned three or four to a room, but this is incredible compared to what we’ve experienced in the past. It was so luxurious.
Early one morning, we suddenly woke up at 5am. The Marines conducting the training program lined up everyone in the hallway, searched each room one by one, summoned the Marine living in that room, and searched it from top to bottom. They had them remove the locks that kept the wall lockers safe so they could inspect everything. They were looking for unauthorized materials that someone might have. The most common thing they found was underage Marines trying to hide alcohol. Searches of this kind were carried out from time to time while I lived in the barracks.
I didn’t think much of it at the time. But later I realized something interesting. We are often told that while we are in the Marine Corps, we have no rights and that our commanders can do whatever they want. But that’s not the case. In reality, there are various rules and safeguards that must be followed during a military investigation, thresholds that must be cleared, and rules regarding how evidence is collected as evidence. So what was going on here? This was simply a large-scale search, and there was no special cause or evidence of foul play leading to it. So if they found you hiding a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in your underwear drawer, wouldn’t that be unacceptable and prevent them from pressing charges against you?
That’s true, but only if they’re actually doing a search. But they weren’t searching the barracks at 29 Palms or any other time that morning. You know, what they were actually doing was running a “health and comfort test” and they needed to cross a special threshold to run a health and comfort test that was more than “feeling good.” There is no. But if they make you unlock your gear and check your underwear drawer for wasps nesting, and you happen to find a bottle of Jack Daniels, then it’s definitely a possibility. There is a gender. used to bill you. Because I couldn’t find it during my search. They were just trying to ensure your health and comfort!
As a result, while there were, of course, rules and restrictions under the law regarding the admissibility of investigations and the evidence obtained in them, it was effectively open season and people could be investigated virtually without restriction at any time. I was able to do it. “Health and comfort tests” provided a shortcut to bypassing the need to justify a search by approaching probable cause or evidence of foul play. We also showed that when a shortcut exists to circumvent some legal protection, that shortcut quickly becomes the dominant route.
This is one reason why I reflexively oppose anything that might loosen or reduce legal protections for criminal suspects. As soon as an exception occurs, a loophole is created, or a shortcut exists, it becomes the main path. You should not pry these doors open unless you are willing to be left wide open. And you should remember to ask whether you would leave the door open for someone who is your worst political nightmare to come to power.
