PATTERN OF STATE TERRORIZATION OF CITIZENS
Briefly:
POLICE STATE TERRORIZATION TACTICS, ACT I: Random Arrests -- Mistaken ID.
govexec.com
Quote: "In the wake of Sept. 11, most Americans were willing to give law enforcement agencies wide latitude in rounding up illegal aliens, seeking to question Arab-Americans, and detaining myriad suspects without charge. I felt similarly blase about these tactics, chalking them up as extraordinary methods for extraordinary times. I did, that is, until I joined the list of detainees."
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POLICE STATE TERRORIZATION TACTICS, Act 2: Terror in the air --
TSA- State Terrorization Appartus - Transport Security Administration runs amok: This is getting really scary. The TSA appears to be designed to terrorize us and keep us in the dark. All investigations into the flights on 9/11/02 have been stripped from the NTSB and hidden in the bowels of the TSA, probably to be surpressed forever.
nytimes.com
Innocent airline passenger held for watching Air Marshall's "too closely". Entire plane terrorized by gun-wielding "Rambos", or is that Rambozos?
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IN DEPTH:
Speaking of mistakes, this is another chilling tale from the gleaming new BUSH POLICE STATE(TM):
ABSTRACT: Police mistake Shawn Zeller for Peter Zeller, scare the bejesus out of him, spend hours figuring out they got the wrong man and then have a good laugh about it after "work".
govexec.com
September 30, 2002
"Brush with the law" By Shawn Zeller, National Journal
In the wake of Sept. 11, most Americans were willing to give law enforcement agencies wide latitude in rounding up illegal aliens, seeking to question Arab-Americans, and detaining myriad suspects without charge. I felt similarly blase about these tactics, chalking them up as extraordinary methods for extraordinary times.
I did, that is, until I joined the list of detainees. Planning to go to lunch on Aug. 19 with a friend who works at the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, I was instead arrested, handcuffed, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, and chained to a chair for two and a half hours.
Now, I'll admit that, on its face, my detention had nothing to do with terrorism. As my Secret Service captors explained to me, I was wanted for grand larceny and writing bad checks in Fredericksburg, Va. But when officers later told me about the "evidence" justifying my detention, I couldn't help but wonder whether I had been giving our law enforcement agencies too much latitude, not just in their efforts to apprehend terrorists, but in their regular duties as well.
As you might imagine, being handcuffed by Secret Service agents is a frightening experience. I nearly fainted when the officers surrounded me inside the lobby of the OEOB and told me I was under arrest. It's embarrassing when your friend looks at you dumbfounded, and when you're marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in plain view of tourists. It's frustrating when your captors won't listen to your pleas of innocence, or even to any exculpatory information.
It makes you angry when you sit chained to a chair without access to a telephone, a lawyer, a toilet, or even a glass of water. It makes you angry when your captors tell you that the information you had provided that morning to the Secret Service for the standard background check on White House visitors—your name, date of birth, and Social Security number—had matched perfectly with those of a "fugitive from justice." Indeed, it's frustrating when your captors tell you that there can be no mistake (even though there clearly is) and that you'll be shipped off to the D.C. jail and then extradited to Fredericksburg.
I still don't really know why the Secret Service eventually released me. They'd seemed so sure that I was the guy when they cuffed me at 1:40 p.m. But by 4:00, the tide had turned. The Fredericksburg police said they could not confirm a match. I was going to be released. Would I answer some questions to help prove my identity? Would I let an officer call my mother to check my answers? If I would, then there would be no need for them to take a digital photo that the Fredericksburg PD could run against its picture of the real wanted fugitive. I answered every question, but I couldn't help but wonder why this hadn't been Step No. 1.
After the cuffs were removed, the officers changed their tune. No longer was I just another lowlife trying to lie his way out of a bind. Ultimately, they figured out there was no evidence to prove that I was Paul Zeller, the man who is accused of bouncing checks in Fredericksburg and who, by chance, shares my birth date.
I'm sure that it was probably a rare coincidence to find two Zellers who were born on the same day. But when I learned that this alone was the evidence justifying my detention, I was amazed. That's all it took? What if my name were Smith, instead of Zeller? What if I were a well-known figure, instead of an unknown one? Clearly, in those cases, the Secret Service would not have used the same standard for detaining me.
In my case, someone made a judgment call, and that's what disturbs me. The Secret Service had received my background-check information at 9:30 that morning. They had plenty of time to check it out and find that my last name and date of birth matched those of Paul Zeller. They had time to contact the Fredericksburg police to determine that the warrant against Paul Zeller was still active, and to find out if Fredericksburg wanted them to extradite me. But they apparently did not take the time to run further checks of my Social Security number, which would have revealed that a real Shawn Zeller does exist, that he shares the birth date of Paul Zeller, but has no criminal record.
Instead, they decided to arrest me, to handcuff me, to embarrass me in front of a friend and many strangers, and to scare the bejesus out of me. Since my arrest, I can't help but wonder why it wouldn't have been easier for the Secret Service to run the Social Security check, or simply to ask me to help them sort out the problem. During my confinement, I dealt with five officers. Two spent the entire two and a half hours filling out papers detailing my arrest and (within earshot) debating my guilt.
In the end, the officers were apologetic, and they escorted me back to my friend's office. But they offered no assurance that the same thing might not happen again if I were to return to the White House. They told me it was my responsibility to call the Fredericksburg police and ask them to add a notation to their warrant that I was not their target.
So it gives me pause now whenever I read about another person being detained without charge, another closed hearing, another innocent man released from prison after waiting years for exoneration—or another assurance that we should just trust the government to do the right thing. |
