How did our country get to this point?
Oct. 2nd, 2011 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasJust got through security at Tampa airport. Opted for a patdown instead of the backscatter. Am still shaking from anger. Didn't show any upset to the agents; not their fault, and didn't want to be arrested for causing a problem. But how the HELL did out country get to the point that we are willing to be treated as probable-cause criminals for traveling? It's unAmerican. It's against everything a free country is supposed to be. And I have no choice! If I'm to visit Lis's family, I have to accept this infringement of my right to not undergo a search.
I have to accept that free movement around my country is now probable cause for criminal activity. How the hell is this acceptable?
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Re: Security Theatre
Date: 2011-10-03 02:55 am (UTC)More on the Tampa / Burbank situation and what appears to be a hole in the law big enough to drive a terrorist bus thru.
As we all know, the Fourth Amendment (theoretically) prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, which was then reinterpreted over and over again to allow one exception to another.
Check out the Border Search Exception:
Searches conducted at the United States border or the equivalent of the border (such as an international airport) may be conducted without a warrant or probable cause subject to the "border-search" exception.
Most border searches may be conducted entirely at random, without any level of suspicion, pursuant to U.S. Customs and Border Protection plenary search authority. However, searches that intrude upon a traveler's personal dignity and privacy interests, such as strip and body cavity searches, must be supported by "reasonable suspicion.
Yup, Tampa is an "International Airport" so they can do what they want. Burbank (and Manchester NH, et al) are not "international airports", so theoretically all searches there must be supported by "reasonable suspicion".
Makes you wonder about the legality of it all. So, if I were really a terrorist would I even bother with Tampa? or select a softer target (like Burbank or Manchester). As I said earlier, it's all Theatre, and not particularly well thought out theatre, either.
Re: Security Theatre
Date: 2011-10-03 11:03 pm (UTC)"According to the government, (the 'border') 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." -- http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/fact-sheet-us-constitution-free-zone
The ACLU also provides a nifty map of the "Constitution-Free Zone." It includes nearly 2/3 of the population of the U.S., including all of Massachusetts.
Re: Security Theatre
Date: 2011-10-04 02:58 am (UTC)Driving on US Interstate 10 in New Mexico (eg US highway within the Continental United States) ALL traffic in both directions is routed off I-10 and into a Border Patrol checkpoint. "Documents Please" and where are you coming from and where are you going?
We have been turned into a country where you are presumed guilty until proven innocent. It only took 10 years to turn this country into the Bizarro United States.