Written 2005-12-02
A few notes regarding my earlier note about a woman’s refusal to show ID to federal ‘police’.
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.” — Mark Twain
One of the related articles asked: “Why don’t the feds card visitors at the center buildings’ doors?” Indeed.
I wonder if they ‘card’ the bus driver on each such occasion. Not that seeing his ID is a substitute for bomb-sniffing dogs and such. It isn’t.
Though ostensibly done for ‘security’ purposes, the ID check does nothing to enhance security. Since the ID is not used to bar entry (not compared to some watch list), this ID check is really just a ‘compliance test’ to ensure that we sheeple will yield to the authority of someone in a uniform.
“A society of sheep must, in time, beget a government of wolves.” — Bertrand de Juvenal.
It sounds as though Deborah Davis did some homework before actually refusing to show her ID. I’d have done it somewhat differently by first asking for a citation of the law or regulation that required me to show my ID in that circumstance.
Of course, there will always be the folks who will say, “If you have nothing to hide, then what’s the problem?” The problem is the principle involved. Do you have to do everything a police officer says, just because it’s a police officer? No. Thank goodness Deborah Davis and a very small percentage of others understand this, and are willing to be inconvenienced to defend a principle. Of course there are things which an officer may request and which you MUST do. It’s not always easy knowing the difference.
There was a case some years ago where police routinely boarded inter-city busses before they left the terminal and sometimes asked to search passengers’ luggage. One fellow refused to give his permission, was hauled off the bus and a warrant was obtained to search. They found illegal drugs. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court where it was decided that refusing to voluntarily consent to a search was not grounds to obtain a warrant to search.
You have a right to exercise your rights. The Authorities don’t much like it when you know your rights and really get peeved when you actually exercise those rights. All the more reason to do so, if you ask me. We mustn’t let the police believe that we have to do everything they say, just because they are the police. You have a DUTY to exercise your rights.
“The strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it….” –Thomas Paine
Many of today’s ‘security’ checks do little to actually improve security; their main purpose is to give the impression — the illusion — of good security. Appearances are far more important than reality. Government officials know this all too well.
If a poll had asked, on 9/10/2001, whether government was doing a Good Job with airline security, I daresay most people would have answered in the affirmative. Heck, we had security checkpoints, metal detectors and other accoutrements of airline safety. Of course we were safe. Asking the same people the same question on 9/12/2001 would have resulted in a far different response from most people.
Actions since 9/11 have been primarily directed at restoring Americans’ faith in the safety of air travel. I remember going to the airport in Phoenix a couple of years ago to pick up someone. On the entry ramp to the parking garage was a uniformed fellow with a flashlight. He signaled me to stop and directed his light into the rear of the Ford Explorer I was driving. At the time, I had a couple of closed cardboard cartons in the back. He peered through the tinted glass and, apparently, saw the cartons. Finding nothing suspicious (presumably!), he signaled me to proceed.
He had no way of knowing what I was transporting. What was he looking for, a wooden crate with EXPLOSIVE stenciled on the side? What purpose did this man’s job serve? It gave the appearance of heightened security while getting us accustomed to minor privacy intrusions in the name of security.
One thing of which you can be sure, there will always be an incremental ‘ratchet’ effect. We have seen it time and again over the years. Each new incursion into your privacy and personal freedoms is just a small additional violation. We become accustomed to it and then later the ratchet clicks again as some new feature is added. Today Mr. Uniformed Guard is just shining his light in. Tomorrow he may ask that we open the vehicle for a closer look. Sometime later, they’ll be wanting to dig through our stuff.
“The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” — Edmund Burke
It is best to nip such things in the bud, before we all — us and the Authorities — come to accept them as normal. My hat’s off to Deborah Davis for resisting this ID check.
“Liberty has never come from the government…. The history of liberty is the history of resistance… a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.” — Woodrow Wilson
[Followup: Charges dismissed against Deborah Davis. Fed center ID protest sidetracked.]
“Your rights will atrophy if you don’t exercise them.” — Mickey Michelsen