Mar 26 2003
Land of the Free, As Long as You Agree II
Just another friendly reminder of how the freedoms we’ve enjoyed for so many years(!) are being trampled on in the mad dash to ’secure’ our country: A Washingtop Post reporter asked National Park Service folks what a five-foot-tall metal box was near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C.:
“Let me see your ID,” Spilde said.
“Why?” I asked.
Wrong response.
“Call for backup,” Spilde eventually told Ramirez as he seized my notebook and pen and began to search me. Was I being arrested, I asked before turning over my driver’s license.
Eight officers responded to the call for backup. One told me that, legally, I was not being arrested, just subject to “investigative detention.”
Said Sgt. R.J. Steinheimer, “There have been reports of suspicious activity regarding you.”
“By whom?” I asked.
“Can’t tell you that,” he replied.
Remember citizens, if you ask questions, you’re under suspicion!
I can honestly say that this is one of the saddest things I have ever read. What I find the most disturbing was that he actually was reported by a fellow tourist. When I first read that he had been reported by a tourist, I assumed that was protocol BS and that he had been watched by some mutation of a law enforcement agency. But, no, the fellow tourist was the one who was scared about this reporter’s action.
I could argue either way about law enforcement racial profiling. But racial profiling or profiling of any kind by Jane Citizen is fucking scary.
Great times we live in. Now, if you don’t mind, I must use the restroom and wipe my ass with the U.S. Constitution and its amendments, while listening to the Canadian national anthem.