Freedom is not usually lost all at once, but rather in small increments which, like drops of water into a bucket, sooner or later will overflow. And if the leak isn’t repaired early, it becomes much harder to deal with later on. Here are three increments of lost freedom from the last week.

• Fences on our borders will keep people out, but they will also keep people in. Just ask students at Artesia High School in Artesia, Calif., who, when they tried to leave school to go to an immigration demonstration, found themselves locked in and the fences covered with wheel-bearing grease. Even so, 300 of them managed to escape.
• In Mapleton Hill, Colo., a suburb of Boulder, Megan Forbes was arrested and thrown in jail for fixing her garage door because she lives in a historic district and the neighbors didn’t like the new door.
• And in Louisiana, the state is going after people who sell items on eBay, requiring them to post a $10,000 bond and pay a $300 annual licensing fee. Barry Simpson was busted for buying things at yard sales and selling them on eBay.