October 24, 2008

Welcome To The Constituton Free Zone

Here is the ACLU of Washington's tips on your rights, such as they are, when stopped.

  • American people are not generally subject to random and arbitrary stops and searches.
  • The border, however, has always been an exception. There, the longstanding view is that the normal rules do not apply. For example the authorities do not need a warrant or probable cause to conduct a “routine search.”
  • But what is “the border”? According to the government, it is a 100-mile wide strip that wraps around the “external boundary” of the United States.
  • As a result of this claimed authority, individuals who are far away from the border, American citizens traveling from one place in America to another, are being stopped and harassed in ways that our Constitution does not permit.
  • Border Patrol has been setting up checkpoints inland — on highways in states such as California, Texas and Arizona, and at ferry terminals in Washington State. Typically, the agents ask drivers and passengers about their citizenship. Unfortunately, our courts so far have permitted these kinds of checkpoints – legally speaking, they are “administrative” stops that are permitted only for the specific purpose of protecting the nation’s borders. They cannot become general drug-search or other law enforcement efforts.
  • However, these stops by Border Patrol agents are not remaining confined to that border security purpose. On the roads of California and elsewhere in the nation – places far removed from the actual border – agents are stopping, interrogating, and searching Americans on an everyday basis with absolutely no suspicion of wrongdoing.
  • The bottom line is that the extraordinary authorities that the government possesses at the border are spilling into regular American streets.

5 Comments:

Blogger Viceroy De Los Osos said...

Google Maps reports that it is 51.1 miles – about 1 hour 4 mins, to the hood canal checkpoint from the Port Angeles Ferry, the only cross border ferry on the peninsula.

I might add that these Border Patrol Agents are not your average, apologetic local police, roped into Homeland Security duty. By all accounts, these Fuckers are having a good time.

October 24, 2008 at 11:12 AM  
Blogger Viceroy De Los Osos said...

There are roughly 36,000 Americans living on the North Olympic Peninsula within range of the Border Patrol checkpoints. This chokepoint is used by residents, visitors from Seattle and California. Even Joe the Plumber uses it. This year I would estimate that I have traveled accross the Hood Canal Bridge 25 times.


Perhaps the smallest percentage of users on this list are travelers heading toward Seattle from the Port Angeles Ferry.

October 24, 2008 at 11:19 AM  
Blogger Viceroy De Los Osos said...

Am I fucking outraged about this? You bet. Welcome to the fucking "occupation".

October 24, 2008 at 11:19 AM  
Blogger JAB said...

We need to let our own party fellows have it over yet another gutting of the letter and spirit of Constitution of the United States. No slacking off.

It's not acceptable. Not in the United States. And some Ds have wussed out on legislation like this.

The argument is essentially that if you live near a border, like ALL OF US do, you have the same absence of rights you do at the border.

V is right - border agents can often have a police state bent. If you're stopped, take notes, and consider participating in legal action.

October 24, 2008 at 11:57 AM  
Blogger The Front said...

Why do I get the sense the 'enforcement' will be a little more aggressive in Florida than in Maine...?

October 25, 2008 at 5:35 PM  

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