Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
Less than two weeks after Memorial Day, where we celebrated our soldiers who fell protecting our Constitution, the powers that be in Newport Beach presented a document which would create an unconstitutional police state, enabling officers to enter any boat dwelling without a warrant or consent– with one of the attendees at last night’s harbor commission meeting calling the 4th Amendment an “arcane law”. Yes– seriously.
At the Newport Beach Harbor Commission meeting, the idea was floated to allow officers to board and enter private vessels without a warrant. The pretext of this was that they want to put dye-tablets in toilets to see if they are leaking sewage– a noble end-game, but a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment is not solely applicable to ones house, but according to the Supreme Court of the United States, also extends to their effects– including both vehicles and boats. In its entirety, it states:
Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
“But what about Avalon?”, cried the peanut gallery at the Harbor Commission Meeting. For those who don’t know, Avalon regularly boards boats to drop dye cabinets into toilets… but according to the Avalon Harbor Patrol themselves, of the tens of thousands of boats that visit them every year and the countless amounts of money they spend violating privacy– they have about 6 incidents of spillage annually, and 90% of those are due to novice partyboaters who have too many people on their boat and allow the bilge to overflow through the vents– something that is far less common in Newport– but wait: aside from the impracticality of what Avalon is doing, let’s take a look at the legality. Let’s pretend these aren’t boats for a moment; let’s pretend these are something a bit more traditional: Cars.
If Costa Mesa said that if you wanted to drive through their city, you would need to let them search your vehicle and forfeit your constitutional rights you would exclaim that this is clearly outrageous and completely illegal. But you likely drive in Costa Mesa far more than you vacation in Avalon, so you would naturally put more time and effort into fighting something as absurd as this. This is an obvious and blatant violation of the 4th Amendment.
Now, boarding a boat is one thing, but entering a boats cabin is quite another. While boarding a boat is akin to walking on your property and knocking on your door– entering a cabin is equivalent to entering a home– something that requires either a warrant, probable cause, or consent. We know that we have a drug problem in our schools in Newport Beach. We know that somewhere, somehow, there are drugs in some house in Newport Beach. But the police can’t forcefully enter the homes of all houses to search for those drugs. Likewise, while some people may have a propensity to leak sewage, the city cannot authorize any authority to forcefully enter any cabin to check the plumbing.
Those who have been around the bay for more than a few years know how easy it is to identify which boat has an idiot who dumped their bilge. It’s usually accidental, but it does happen– and it’s obvious who did it. In those cases, those people have still broken the law– and a dye tablet will not shed any additional light as to who has done it.
And no, City of Newport: you cannot mandatorily revoke a right preserved by the US Constitution in exchange for using public property as a “condition of use”. (If you were to invite me to your house and as a condition of visiting I had to let you search my vehicle– that would be technically legal because it is your property, but a very rude move on your part. Government, however, cannot revoke the Constitutional rights in exchange for government services or in exchange for access to a harbor that you– as the public– own.) It is as simple as that.
“But I thought you could be boarded at high seas no matter what”– no. Not “no matter what”. It has to be by the Coast Guard and these rights are afforded to the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard only, due to Title 14 section 89 of the United States Code. This does *not* apply to auxiliary organizations such as Harbor Patrol.
We cannot make city ordinances that supersede the US Constitution. Anyone who has ever served our country and taken the oath to defend our Constitution with their very lives should be outraged at this.
Less than two weeks after Memorial Day, our Constitution was referred to an “arcane law”. Having lost more than one friend to war, I cannot even tell you how that makes me feel.
If you are as outraged about this as I am, I encourage you to write the Newport Beach Harbor Commission, here:
dave@girlingreig.com
paul@clevernate.com
joems55@gmail.com
brad@occsailing.com
bill@thekenneycompany.com
duncan@goboating.com
douglasmwest@mac.com
cmiller@newportbeachca.gov
sllevin@newportbeachca.gov
And write in to our local Papers:
dailypilot@latimes.com
christopher@firebrandmediainc.
peakins@ocregister.com
If you haven’t already, please sign below and share with your friends:
Supporters:
| 30 | Brett Ryan | Jun 30, 2016 |
| 29 | Jeff Herdman | Jun 19, 2016 |
| 28 | Helga Mcclung | Jun 16, 2016 |
| 27 | Chad Smith | Jun 16, 2016 |
| 26 | Anita Seiveley | Jun 16, 2016 |
| 25 | Jon Pedersen | Jun 16, 2016 |
| 24 | Jennifer Perez | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 23 | Benton Carpenter | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 22 | Patricia Cangelosi | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 21 | danielle Gormley | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 20 | Andrew Xagorarakis | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 19 | Clayton Warwick | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 18 | Michele Glenn | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 17 | Mark Morton | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 16 | Katherine Ballard | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 15 | Alaina Cerbasi | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 14 | Wendy Hawkins | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 13 | Shaun Land | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 12 | Matt Weiss | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 11 | Erik Ctvrtlik | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 10 | Robert Bents | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 9 | Diana Davis | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 8 | levi tovar | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 7 | Forest Knott | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 6 | Tim Hamilton | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 5 | Oscar Viramontes | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 4 | Michael Rolfes | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 3 | Alex Welton | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 2 | Caroline Morgan | Jun 15, 2016 |
| 1 | Mike Glenn | Jun 15, 2016 |
