Rejecting Authority at Police State Checkpoint (Liveleak video)

"Am I being detained" "Am I free to go"


That is what you say indeed.


Akin to the "safe driving reward" program in CA during xmas time. When cops in Ca were pulling over good drivers and giving out starbucks gift certificates. Just a way to visually search a car and inspect the driver.

Monkey crap !!!

In reference to Herbster's post (#7) below, how would one protect their civil rights when they are asked to open their trunk or to open their bag (or suitcase)? I remember seeing a video some time ago about protecting our civil rights during police stops, but I can't remember what the advice for those circumstances were.

If this country's police force hadn't been infected with Bushitis (they're now under "Homeland Security"), I wouldn't be so approving of noncompliance. My eyes have been opened & I've lost a lot of my respect for their motives in the past 7 years.

that's all of the title I had in my book marks. I went to the site, but the video has been removed. Here is a link to where it can be purchased. It's called "A Citizens Guide to Surviving Police Encounters".

http://www.flexyourrights.org/busted/

on edit: This looks like a free link

http://stopthedrugwar.org/videos/busted

Good advice there.

valuable information. I tend to be a law abiding citizen but have become wary of police in the last several years. Much of what you read and hear is frightening.

Peace,

freefall

"What's your name, maam?"

"Am I being detained?" "Are you refusing to allow me to go on my way?"

Ain't "friendly fascism" fun?

This is what it means to be an American. I hope to high hell that the Border Patrol Agent learned something from this patriot.

Rainbow Gatherings. There are always many LEO's out and about, stopping any one on their way in to The Gathering. My Father taught me well. I never submit to a search. I always ask "am I being detained?" through the conversation with any LEO. The first time I hear "no", I ask if I can leave....
I am always polite and courteous.
Most of these workers bee's have no clue when it comes to our basic freedoms from unlawful searches and seizures. Seems that even fewer Americans do too.

The vast majority of the commenters had no problem with.... the BORDER AGENT. Most of the commenters thought the guy was being a dick and should have answered all her questions without hesitation.

This is why the reich-wing defunded public education so deeply, people. So most of the country would be completely ignorant of their freedoms, or worse, actually hostile to the exercise of those freedoms. The driver was completely within his rights, but that doesn't matter to the people who made the majority of the comments I read (44 pages worth!). In fact, most of them were downright hostile to the idea that the driver had the rights to exercise in the first place!

We have to make education, alongside health care, a major priority in the coming years, specifically civics education. We have to reinstill a sense among young people and the public at large that our rights under the Constitution are inviolate. Our nation's future depends on it.

Why should people pay attention to those whining, namby-pamby liberals anyway?! They're just a bunch of crazy conspiracy theorists!

:sarcasm:

prostrate ourselves to 'authority': 'just do what the kindly officer says, and you won't get tasered!'

friggen sheep.

watching that video was really hard for me, b/c i've been beat up by cops before. i expected him to be hauled out of his car and held with billy clubs on the ground for "giving lip" to a person in uniform.

that i'm terrified of this situation, is all the more reason we need more people like him calling our attention to this.

long story short, I got into a very brief scuffle with friends in a McDonald's parking lot (less than 15 seconds long with no punches thrown). 2 minutes later, 5 or 6 cop cars swarmed in. And officer approached my car and tapped on the glass (i got back into my car after the scuffle). He said something, and I rolled the window down a notch. I asked him 3 times what the problem was before I understood what he wanted. I got out and was instantly thrown against the hood. I'm a middle class white guy that drives a nicer car, so I know that the rest of America isn't safe either.

when doing something illegal it is to be expected. arrest is generally a physical thing, restraint, search, a shitty process.

I have no fear of police but there is a general way to deal with them.

Even when young and stupid I knew the limits with the police. That generally separates an unpleasant experience from a really unpleasant experience.

and of your own volition? The soccer mom that called it in wasn't even there when the coppers arrived on the scene. The cops even rushed into the McD's with guns out.. Seriously?

It implies not merely heated words, but actual physical contact, and there is always a chance that it could degenerate into something worse. I think the average citizen would be very concerned if they witnessed a "scuffle" in a public place.

I'd think there was some hope for us all in spite of.

The actions of the police, as described, would dash those hopes.

whaddya gonna do.

"Would you mind opening your trunk for me, Sir"

"Would you please open your bag for me, Mam"

Takes some conviction to stand up to someone wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a deadly weapon. That video is an inspiration.

:patriot:

Someone who knows what it means to be a citizen and bothered to educate himself on the basics.

I can't K&R this post enough.

Far too many people would've just answered the officer's question without giving a second thought to the option of refusing to answer.

It takes some stones to do what that guy did; I applaud him.

Best clip I've seen all year

I'm up in Massachusetts and had absolutely no idea this was happening. And many miles inside the US?

This guy is doing a lot of work trying to get the word out on these checkpoints. I watched this video and it sent chills down my spine when the agent said, "This is authorized by the Department of Homeland Security".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irYJVn2k6zU

here's the guy's page about the checkpoints: https://www.checkpointusa.org/

Seriously.

But I'll hold my tongue. She didn't confront him - he confronted her.

Been through these things scores of times with nothing but politeness from the authorities.

Polite or not- the checkpoints and questioning
are further evidence of a police state in action.
BHN

SHE stopped HIM, not the other way around. She then used that stop to initiate a visual search of his private property, and asked him to verify that he was not potentially committing a crime.

Put yourself in the law enforcement communities shoes for a second, and keep in mind the Constitutional freedoms which must be adhered to, such as unreasonable search and seizure, in addition to the long established legal principle of presumed innocence if their is no compelling reason to believe otherwise.

Now imagine you see a vehicle driving along a roadway, not at a border crossing, but well within the United States. It's driver is breaking no traffic laws, nor are there any other legal violations obvious to the naked eye. Do you, the law enforcement officer, have any legal justification for forcing that car to stop? Do you have any justification for inspecting the vehicle up close, peering into it's interior, or to query it's driver about his or her legal status? Does the driver have a legal right to simply ignore such requests as these (remember he/she must be presumed innocent), or do they have an obligation to prove their innocence whenever requested by law enforcement?

bhn

i can totally imagine the other scenario where it's a different "cop" with a bad attitude. maybe it's a latino-looking person refusing the inspection. and the whole affair gets violent really quick.

I guess my reaction is different from others because those stops are far from new and far from controversial here.

I have to admit it: when the guy started demanding her name and wanting to know if he was being detained, I laughed.

If this is a signal of a "police state," then we've been in one for a very long time, certainly before Bush.

Though I am ashamed to admit that I have submitted myself to such stops and meekly complied even knowing they are wrong, because I really didn't feel I had the time to "create a stink" or my kids were with me, or etc. Nonetheless, they ARE wrong. These stops are inconsistent with the Constitution and established legal precedent.

This is in fact a sign of a police state, and yes it does go back quite a ways. The first time I remember encountering it was circa 1983, late on July 4. The police established a "sobriety checkpoint" on the only road available to people leaving a beach festival and fireworks display at Colonial Beach, VA. I found the whole thing to be outrageous, but the anti-drunk driving crowd was quite active at the time and the general public consensus seemed to be that "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what's the problem?". At the time though it DID at least inspire public debate, even if those of us who thought it was overly authoritarian lost that debate.

Now of course, as you say, such things are commonplace and getting more prevalent with each passing year. It's the tired old "frog in a pan of boiling water" effect, and just like that frog people in the main simply fail to notice anything wrong. I have a rather annoying (to me) tendency to think that by default people are intelligent, inspired, and engaged when in reality they are generally ignorant and apathetic. I'm a bit too young still to become a cynical old coot, but I am pretty sure that's where I'm headed.

And now they are even doing seat belt checkpoints!

I can't see how they have the right to demand license, registration, insurance when you have not committed any offense to be stopped for.

But like a sheeple I comply cause its easier than causing a stink and have them find something to hold you on.

One state police official who conducted a class I attended said she guaranteed she could find some violation on every vehicle of every student if she wanted to.

Border Patrol "checkpoint" mid-way. I really freaked me out. There mush have been a dozen or so uniformed officers standing around, near the coned single traffic lane where a large Border Patrol officer who looked like a Native American from a SW tribe checking each car in a long line. He waived my thru as I had Calif tags and I am a white middle-aged male. There was a more permanent trailer with a few temporary structures. There were several Border Patrol pick-ups and SUVs and some unmarked white vehicles. The scariest was the uniformed, bullet vest wearing officer moving his german shepared up and down the line of cars waiting to get thru this check point. I don't know how far that point was from the Mexican Border, but I felt that here I am an American Citizens being stopped within the United States traveling between cities in the US and being forced to stop to check on my identity. I wondered what if I looked something other than white, even slightly dark-skinned. I also wondered how people in Isreal who are not Isreali feel having to cross heavily guarded walled/fenced border crossings everyday to get to jobs, doctors and shopping, or how black people felt in aparthied South Africa. I felt that day on I-8 that I was in the future facistic USA that so many have predicted and there I was having my car searched by a military looking Border Officer and having his german sheppard snif my car for God knows what - illegals hiding in the truck? God help us!

I don't think you can train a dog to sniff for illegal border crossers.

I'm having trouble seeing the "fascist" component of all of this. That part of the country is really close to a porous border, over which drugs and illegal entrants come. You said yourself you were waved through, as have I been MANY times, as are almost all the cars and trucks. Drugs are currently illegal, as is illegal entry into the country. It's therefore not surprising to see the Border Patrol along I-8 in the El Centro / Calexico / Yuma corridor.

Maybe someday drugs will be legal, and smuggling them in through Mexico will just be bootlegging, and there would be no drug-sniffing dogs. Likewise for immigration.

My bad.


:eyes:

This guy is doing very important documentation-
Hope he stays off small planes.
BHN

I looked at a few of his other videos and noticed that these are in fairly remote areas. If I were in his position I would be far more concerned about what happens a few miles after leaving the checkpoint (and the goons I just pissed off) than what happened at the checkpoint itself.

Which might be a good thing actually-
If anything happened to him, I'd say it would be
a fairly reasonable conclusion as to who was
responsible.
Now whether or not they'd be brought to justice is another matter.
BHN

haven't been put to the test. Hope I never will.

Peace,

freefall

by Dave Gibson

Today, police departments across the United States more closely resemble an occupying army than they do public servants responding to calls for help. Police officers can now be seen wearing helmets and body armor and carrying AR-15's, just to deliver simple warrants. The militarization of our police departments not only gives the appearance of a military dictatorship but places the public at great risk.

No less than 70 percent of U.S. cities now have SWAT teams. In cities with a population of 50,000 or more, 90 percent have SWAT teams.

Eastern Kentucky University professor Peter Kraska told the Washington Post that SWAT teams are currently sent out 40,000 times a year in the U.S. During the 1980's, SWAT teams were only used 3,000 times a year. Most of the time, SWAT teams are being sent out to simply serve warrants on non-violent drug offenders.

Many municipalities are using Homeland Security grants to even purchase large armored vehicles. The Pittsburgh Police Department now uses their 20-ton armored truck complete with rotating turret and gun ports to deliver many of their warrants. Pittsburgh Police Sgt. Barry Budd recently told the Associate Press: "We live on being prepared for 'what if'."

Our police departments now regularly receive free surplus equipment from the U.S. military, which they readily accept. The training being given at many police academies appears to be the type of tactics one would use in Baghdad, rather than Baltimore. It would seem that our police officers are being readied for war, with the American public as the enemy. In the last several years, there has been a transformation from community policing to pre-emptive assaults

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/60717

https://www.checkpointusa.org/blog/index.php/2008/02/19/p86#more86

When All Else Fails, Silence The Messenger....


As many readers are aware, I've been documenting my recent experiences at a suspicionless internal Homeland Security checkpoint located near mile marker 146 on SR86 in Southern Arizona. I've also been reporting these experiences to readers of this blog amongst other places.

As a result of documenting these encounters and reporting on them, there are currently several efforts underway by various individuals and organizations to either shutdown my website or force me to remove content previously posted. This post provides information regarding one such recent attempt.


On or about February 14th, an individual identified as Chris Parker sent an email to my service provider attempting to force the shutdown of my website because of content related to a suspicionless Homeland Security checkpoint active along SR86 in Southern Arizona..

(snip)

An attorney, acting on behalf of my service provider, responded to Mr. Parker's attempt to interfere with the free exchange of information and ideas on this blog by setting the legal record straight.

Below appears the legal counsel's response to Mr. Parker's frivolous allegations followed by Mr. Parker's original complaint.


____________________


what follows in the comments section is a discussion between true patriots and a representative of "those who just don't get it." it's important b/c we need to understand these people "who just don't get it," as they are playing a big role as this sort of political action plays out. simply put, some (many?) people think checkpoints are a-okay, b/c they've been conditioned to think so. truthfully, it prolly wouldn't occur to me until many miles later, that my rights had been violated at one of these checkpoints.

WE pay their salary with OUR tax dollars.

This was my point when I was harassed by TIA while going
through security.
My crime?
I had the WRONG size of baggie for my liquids.
I had on my person the RIGHT size and offered to
switch baggies.
Instead the high school drop out with a badge
made me leave the line and go back into the
terminal to make the switch.
When I went back through his station- he didn't
even LOOK at the bag.
I was infuriated and found the head of TIA
in that terminal, dragged him to the checkpoint
and filed an official complaint as a taxpayer.

DON'T take this shit lying down people!


BHN

wtf.

Profits for the corporate pigs.
You have to buy their water.
And yes, there is a correct baggie size.

Un fucking believable that people are not
rioting over the police state tactics.

BHN

Is that when they pull out the crowd management
micro waving weaponry?

BHN

i think the southwest is where these political conflicts aren't just theory.

you don't see this kind of constant rubber-meets-the-road conflict in interior states (unless at an airport).

I'm relieved to know that this guy is documenting it.
BHN

if the driver did not have a video camera pointed in the agent's face. I must remember to keep one with me on Memorial Day and Fourth of July when the border nazis set up these checkpoints on I 95 in Maine...at least 100 miles from the Canadian border. It seems to happen every year and as you say, it is to get us used to the police state. I can't recommend this post enough.

That is what TIA has always been about-
Conditioning people to submit to a bunch of
high school drop outs with tin star badges.

BHN

is off the leash. Keep your papers in order people. When they came for the Gypsies I did nothing...

notice how they backed off from this citizen exercising his rights (read: not submitting to illegal detention, restriction on travel-- freedom of assembly).

you notice that *every single time* after asking them several times if he is being detained, etc. they just let him go through. 'Cause they know they have no probable cause to do shit.

It is interesting because this is not a partisan issue. The Right--Ron Paul supporters--also realize the danger of unwarranted searches and seizures. To bad they don't see the idiocy of Ron Paul on so many other things.

:hi:

This is just effin AWESOME!

the police were non-confrontational. Supreme court allows traffic stops, court allows LEO to request ID. You can be arrested for refusing to present it.

Instead if provoking him, which is not illegal, they let him go on his way.

Had he picked a guy who did not choose to give him space it could have ended with him running out of tape sitting on his ass while his identification was verified and his car was searched because it smelled like marijuana..

I dont let them run over me at a traffic stop but there are legal measures that can be used to make doing this time consuming.

I've had my share of run ins with thugs and let me tell you: if this guy wasn't on camera he likely would have been in very big trouble.

I live in Tucson, and though we have some of the highest rates of property crime in the country, the cops spend their time meeting speeding quotas. I have yet to see a cop patrolling a neighborhood or even a mini-mall. But on my way to the airport this morning I saw about 7 cops looking for speeders who were on their way to work.

They don't give two shits about protecting people, they only exist to make money for the state/city, and to keep us all afraid.

Border patrol is everywhere though. They pulled my wife over on the way to Phx late at night for no reason whatsoever and let her go on her way.

The drug war needs to be abolished immediately. This immigration war bullshit needs to be stopped dead in its tracks.

by Norman D. Livergood

SNIP

By learning from the German Nazi tragedy, we can see--in twenty-first century America--that we could easily wait too long. For example, we must look at the interesting similarity of Hitler's use of the Reichstag Fire to seize dictatorial powers and Bush's use of the September 11 terrorist attack as his excuse to move us to a police state where Bush can simply "declare" that a foreigner is a terrorist and that person's rights become almost non-existent.

Without any necessity of presenting evidence, the president can now brand a non-US-citizen--OR A US CITIZEN--a "terrorist" and the suspect is brought before a secret military tribunal where the rules of evidence and prisoner rights are drastically attenuated.

Hitler was able to brand anyone he considered an enemy and see that that person was summarily executed. How long will it be before President Bush begins to brand as "terrorist" any US citizen who disagrees with him?

The fact that ivy league university professors and other supposedly intelligent persons think Bush's seizure of such police-state powers is okay, and the civilian and military cover-up of torture in American prisons in Iraq and Cuba, proves that the fascist mentality is rampant in our society.

In the United States and the world today, we still can stop this escalating descent into total tyranny. We can learn to face up to the political, economic, and social oppression that is rampant; learn to think critically about what our leaders are doing, and join together to safeguard and re-establish our freedoms. But we must not delay, we cannot simply do nothing or we'll be plunged into the same terror that destroyed Nazi Germany.

http://www.hermes-press.com/germany1930.htm

confrontation, however one of the comments related to it is not true:

1) Effectiveness of the stop
quote
The checkpoint in this video was nearly 50 miles north of the Mexican border, so it would have been utterly pointless in stopping illegal immigration.
unquote

Because of the geography of the area with very high mountains running north/south any body coming north would be funneled through a couple of passes and that is the reason for the check points.

Secondary checkpoints used to be maintained on US 5 and 15 going north but have been abandonded in lieu of the checkpoints like this one on the 8. Illegal immigrants in this sector are now remarkably rare. They no longer try this area because they know they have the fence at the border and then the geographical walls of the mountains and the check points.

2) I have gone through these checkpoints 50 times and may have been stopped once. Usually they just wave you through.

3) Part of my business involves selling benefits to Border, Customs and Ice Agents. I find them completely representative of average Americans and are more sympathetic to the plight of the illegals than the average American. The Border Patrol Agents undergo tremendous physical stress to carry out their mission and a significant part of that is to identify and save the lives of illegal immigrants who are in distress.

4) These Government employees are active union members and they are among the most abused workers in the government system. They have a virtual universal hatred for the mangaement by the Republican administration (and this includes a group that employs a very high percentage of veterans and people who would label themselves conservative). Today I met with two Customs agents who were both navy veterans with 20 years in government service who hated the Bush administration.

Here's why

a) The administration has used the pretense of 9/11 to completely ignore all collective bargaining agreements.

b) There is no longer any consideration for the employees of the Homeland Security for their employees - it would be hard pressed to find employees in the private sector that suffer the abuse of the DHS employees.

Here is an example; Because of the antipathy against the administration turn over has skyrocketed and manpower is down. Customs agents are forced to work massive amounts of overtime. It is now typical for a customs agent to work from 0400 to 1200 and then be forced to work another 8 hour shift to 2000 and then get 8 hours off and then have to come back to work at 0400. Because of traffic and stress, etc it is not uncommon for Customs agents to only get 4 hours a sleep 3-4 nights in a row. The Customs' agent biggest fear? Falling asleep on the way home and having a fatality. Also no consideration is given to rotate work schedules so that employees get atleast one weekend a month at home, a standard practice before this Bush administration - so home life has suffered a lot and divorces are common.

...however the military or police-- or sometimes local political party representatives-- are invariably polite and easy going, even when they have fixed gun emplacements manned beside the checkpoint. I have only encountered rudeness at a Mexican checkpoint ONCE, and that was at a large military base.

On the other hand, I have only encountered politeness ONCE from U.S. Customs at the U.S. Mexico border. They are almost invariably sarcastic, rude, or just plain nasty, no matter how cooperative I and my passengers have been. It's become something of a sick joke among my friends and I-- cross the border and you'll be treated politely by Mexican authorities but treated like a criminal or a terrorist by your own countrymen on the way back. YMMV, but that's been my experience, dating back to well before 9/11/2001. I'm particularly pissed that Customs agents insist on knowing my destination even after they've confirmed that I'm a U.S. citizen-- with the freedom to travel internally without restriction.

Anyway, as an international traveler I REALLY dislike interactions with U.S. authorities at the border of my own country. The only time I've ever encountered anything like it anywhere else was during one border crossing into Guatemala years ago, but that person was merely officious, not threatening or nasty.

it is a weekly experience for them to 32 hours out of 40, and that might happen twice or three times

Besides the scheduling problems I listed above they have to go through all kinds of ridiculous and meaningless steps that cause the lines to grow longer. For example on the pedestrian side when they go to a new booth they have to log out and log back in even though they may only be relieving the person for 20 minutes and it takes 4 minutes to do so. The frustration they have is with management = if it was a private company they would go out on strike.

I'm sorry but I could only watch so much of this before I thought how ridiculous it was on BOTH ends.

Maybe they should put their checkpoints within 5 miles or less, and maybe our freeper should just answer the question and move on? ;)

:eyes:

and again. The first question is "What country are you a citizen of?", once you answer, the next question is "Where are you coming from?" followed by "Where are you going to?" followed by "What are you going there for?" and so on.

It's actually quite surprising just how intrusive they typically become in your personal affairs once you answer that first question instead of standing up to the bully.

I normally welcome new people to DU but in your case, I will make an exception.

groups as we are told, never opening mouths.

Isn't that pretty much the only option if one wishes to fly? And people are still flying...

missed plane once on a search. long story but man the lady was a bitch. and i just am not intimidate, lol. dont know how to be.

ergo, .... i refuse to hand over my money and fly.

Very straightforward, American-style, professional patriot.

I dug this. Inspiring.

our schools consistently and continuously each year taught us how fortunate it was for us to live in a democracy where we could travel from state to state and never have to worry about showing our papers or proving who we were or why we were where we were.

People couldn't do that under Communism, we were taught. Communism was bad. Democracy was good. Blood was shed for our freedom and we were to protect that freedom. Most of us kids had dads and uncles who fought in Europe and the South Pacific in WWII, our teachers reminded us. It wasn't just about reading about our founding fathers. Our own fathers put their life on the line for this freedom. Cherish it and protect it, because we were now in a fight against Communism. Goodness, air raid drills and ducking under our desks was real enough. Though my dad always told me there was nothing to worry about.

Anyway, I distinctly remember visualizing when a teacher explained how we could drive right into Ohio from Michigan with no care in the world. How we could drive over the Ambassador to Windsor by just stating our birthplace and length of visit, and then wished a pleasant time.

Yes, each year, our teachers taught us how fortunate we were to live fearless and free in America. We were also taught that we were the government and had a direct responsibility in assuring those freedoms remained. To protect it from anyone who would try to take those freedoms away.

When my son was in school, I'm the one who taught him civics. I mean real civics, not generic things like you have the right to vote and how old you have to be to run for president.

Interesting how this country plays up and uses fear in how it teaches children. How important it was to drum it into us when Communism was the Big Bad Wolf. Who's the Big Bad Wolf today? Who hates us for our freedoms? And just what brand of democracy are we trying to bring to the world, and what brand do we have in America today?

We have purposefully dumbed-down our citizens, further taught by an intellectually dishonest media and a government heavily influenced by a powerful & greedy faction of global-corporatists.

So long as you wear a flag-pin, and say angry words to anyone who dissents you are not only a good American patriot, you feel protected in your belief that all is well.

Back in the 60s there was a song, I think by Brian MacGregor, not sure of the name or spelling, but one line was "Don't Attack America, Wear it Down Gradually". I've never forgotten those words and have thought of it many, many times over the years, especially the past seven.

Sorry to babble on like this. I don't know which troubles me more. The stop in the road by agents of the government or the thought processes of the posters (at that link) who responded to it. How Americans can be so conditioned to not feel any kind of alarm at being stopped 50 miles from the border. That they can be okay with it.

< sigh >

I think it will all fall apart before it comes to that.

...on I-87 in NY. I ran into it a few weeks ago coming back from Plattsburgh. I had my camera phone running just in case, but they just waved me thru.

I'm surprised this thread isn't being flamed by the folks around here who think we should just all sit up and obey this fascist crap like a bunch of circus dogs.

And they are perfectly legal.

If you have a problem with them, why not take it up with the people who passed the laws authorizing these check points? Oh, they are all dead! Because this is such an old story it faded from the scene MANY YEARS AGO!

I find the paranoia here amusing, but the ignorance of history is not so amusing.

30 years... interesting timing.

Which laws authorize these check points?

Should I care about the feelings of those who advertise their ignorance on message boards such as this one?

Should I do your google searches for you? Are you too lazy?

OK, I'll give you a head start: Bowen v. United States, 422 U.S. 916 (1975)

http://supreme.justia.com/us/422/916/case.html

If you don't care about spreading knowledge / awareness, then by all means, keep being like you are.

If you want people to learn, then you might consider the fact that being shitty draws attention away from the information, and focuses attention on you. But perhaps that's the whole point. Yes... nevermind.

You win today's "Good American" award.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch...!

These check points have been around for over 30 years, Yet you just found your outrage today?

Why weren't you outraged 30 to 40 years ago?

After three supreme court decisions ruled that this is legal, I gave up and got over my outrage. But you want to get on my case because I put it behind me 20 years ago.

So, have you just had your head up your ass for the last 30 years or what?

That video is not news, it is drama, nothing more.

because they have been around for 30 years, that makes them OK with you?

I've known about such unconstitutional activity by our criminal rulers for many years, and yet my outrage hasn't dimmed.

Feel free to put the trashing of our Constitution "behind you." Maybe "giving up" is your style. It's not mine.

there are always those who (like you) learn nothing from history.

Many times you are just waved through.

Well, I guess the Amerikan Police State is obscene enough to qualify...

I don't think I'd have the balls to do what he did. Much "easier" just to comply. I'm also curious if the agents' knowledge that they were being filmed had anything to do with the way they were reacting.

A true patriot, indeed.

Having grown up in California, I'm used to going through these checkpoints for decades. So I never really thought about the fact they're harrassment. I must admit that the female BP agent was trying her best to not be an asshole. Let's give her that much credit.

she got a wake up call from a citizen who knows his rights.

Wayne Madsen
Online Journal
Wednesday, May 14, 2008

It is definitely fascism when it happens to you

In Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's world of an "Israelized" America, the terms SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) and BDO (Behavior Detection Officer) are the new acronyms of Stasi-like control of the American citizenry by a government that treats anyone as a suspicious person in the same manner that Israel mistreats its own Arab citizens and Palestinians.

Sunday, this editor and his colleague faced the Chertoffian menace at Washington's Reagan National Airport while heading to the gate to board a flight to Houston.

It is now clear from a review of the events that unfolded that I was pre-selected for an intensive search and battery of questions even before arriving in line for the security screening. A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screener was overheard saying, "the guy with the beard." Since I was the only person in line who also had a beard, it was evident that a red flag had earlier been raised.

SNIP

In a blatant violation of the First and Fourth Amendments, my reporter's notebooks, containing names of contacts in Houston and around the world were paged through by the screeners. Another screener asked if I minded being probed in "certain private areas." He then asked if I'd like the examination to be conducted in private. I replied, "No, let everyone see this." He then proceeded to examine my groin area.

Then came the battery of questions.

1. Are you feeling okay?

2. Where are you going today?

3. How long will you be there?

4. Why are you going there?

5. What story are you covering/

6. Who do you write for?

7. When did you move to Washington?

8. Where did you live before that?

9. What did you do for a living before?

10. Who was the most famous person you ever met?

11. What was the most famous event you ever covered?

12. What type of things do you write about?

13. What type of politics do you cover?

14. What is your place of birth?

SNIP

One other note. This editor visited the USSR and draconian nations such as Paul Kagame's Rwanda, Yoweri Museveni's Uganda, Hun Sen's Cambodia, the former military junta's Thailand, surveillance society Singapore, and Muslim monarchy Brunei Darussalam. Nothing compares to what occurred at Washington National Airport. It is yet another sign of the fact that the United States has entered a phase of fascist control. There's only one question that remains: Is the slide reversible?

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3287.shtml

Unless Obama recognizes it too and kills it in it's cradle - rampant authoritarianism will become the norm.