Retired NC Police Chief Detained by CBP at JFK
Mar 19, 2017, 3:49 pm
#1
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Retired NC Police Chief Detained by CBP at JFK
Former Greenville Police Chief allegedly detained at JFK airport
Excerpts:
Excerpts:
Former Greenville Police Chief Hassan Aden said he was unreasonably detained, after allegedly being forced to sit in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention center for an hour and a half, which he detailed in a Facebook post earlier this evening.
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Aden said the officer who stopped him asked if he was traveling alone and then proceeded to escort him to a back room. He told the officers numerous times of his past experience as a police chief, but they continued to hold him saying someone on the watch list was using his name as an alias.
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He went on to include in his post that when he tried to take up his complaints with the CBP, they claimed he was not being detained. “I was in a room with no access to my mobile phone to communicate with my wife and family about what was happening, my movements were restricted to a chair, and they had my passport, and he had the audacity to tell me I was not being detained,” Aden said.
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Aden said the officer who stopped him asked if he was traveling alone and then proceeded to escort him to a back room. He told the officers numerous times of his past experience as a police chief, but they continued to hold him saying someone on the watch list was using his name as an alias.
***
He went on to include in his post that when he tried to take up his complaints with the CBP, they claimed he was not being detained. “I was in a room with no access to my mobile phone to communicate with my wife and family about what was happening, my movements were restricted to a chair, and they had my passport, and he had the audacity to tell me I was not being detained,” Aden said.
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Mar 19, 2017, 4:30 pm
#2
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You would think they could resolve this pretty quickly-- quicker than 90 minutes anyway. Nonetheless, the article seems to imply that he should have been treated better because he is a former police chief and I don't care for that implication.
Mar 19, 2017, 6:35 pm
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I thought the reason he pointed out his time as a policeman was because it meant he's already in the government databases - fingerprints, photos, records. CBP should have more easily accessible reliable information because of his background than they might have on someone who had never submitted fingerprints to the government for any reason.
Mar 19, 2017, 7:41 pm
#4
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I thought the reason he pointed out his time as a policeman was because it meant he's already in the government databases - fingerprints, photos, records. CBP should have more easily accessible reliable information because of his background than they might have on someone who had never submitted fingerprints to the government for any reason.
From his Facebook post (link in the above quoted article, I'm unable to link it directly):
By this point I had informed CBP Officer <redacted>, the one that initially detained me, that I was a retired police chief and a career police officer AND a US citizen-he stated that he had no control over the circumstance and that it didn’t matter what my occupation was. He handed my passport off to another CBP officer who was working at one of the desks. The second CBP officer was indeed kind and appreciated the fact that I was a career police officer and tried to be helpful. He explained that my name was used as an alias by someone on some watch list.
I spent nearly 30 years serving the public in law enforcement. Since I retired as the Chief of Police in Greenville, NC, I founded a successful consulting firm that is involved in virtually every aspect of police and criminal justice reform. I interface with high level U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Court officials almost daily. Prior to this administration, I frequently attended meetings at the White House and advised on national police policy reforms-all that to say that If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone with attributes that can be “profiled”. No one is safe from this type of unlawful government intrusion.
Mar 19, 2017, 7:46 pm
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While he is right on concerning being detained, part of me also thinks that he was trying to invoke the "police courtesy card" of the "Good Ol' Boy" network.
Mar 19, 2017, 10:49 pm
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I thought the reason he pointed out his time as a policeman was because it meant he's already in the government databases - fingerprints, photos, records. CBP should have more easily accessible reliable information because of his background than they might have on someone who had never submitted fingerprints to the government for any reason.
Mar 19, 2017, 11:34 pm
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Just another sign that US blacklisting policies and practices are lousy and lazy and that the government would rather run a big dragnet operation that inconveniences mostly the innocent amongst Americans than run a better tailored operation that further limits these kind of ridiculous outcomes.
I seriously doubt that "Hassan Aden" being allegedly used as an "alias" is anything new. His being hit by a more aggressive blacklisting operation? Now, that is something I wouldn't rule out.
By the way, his name puts him in the "Muslim" category, and it always has.
It is ridiculous that an otherwise free US citizen with an easily accessible public record is detained by CBP longer than non-US citizens at secondary. Any bet it has to do with his being in the "Muslim" category? I wouldn't rule it out at this point.
I seriously doubt that "Hassan Aden" being allegedly used as an "alias" is anything new. His being hit by a more aggressive blacklisting operation? Now, that is something I wouldn't rule out.
By the way, his name puts him in the "Muslim" category, and it always has.
It is ridiculous that an otherwise free US citizen with an easily accessible public record is detained by CBP longer than non-US citizens at secondary. Any bet it has to do with his being in the "Muslim" category? I wouldn't rule it out at this point.
Mar 20, 2017, 3:32 am
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He used to live pretty close to our neighborhood, by the way. I think he was number two or so in managing a LE agency in Alexandria (VA). My bet is that he's had more than his fair share of federal LEOs trying to play that card around the area.
Mar 20, 2017, 5:01 am
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Unfortunately border/travel security seems to be focusing on name/origin, rather than the actual person standing in front of them.
Mar 20, 2017, 10:12 am
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I'm also thoroughly disgusted at CBP's unprofessional, purely gratuitous nastiness. It sounds like they deliberately dragged their heels, left him to 'cool off' (and miss any connecting flights and drive anyone waiting on his arrival crazy wondering what has happened to him and where he is). This crap of sitting in a room for 90 minutes, unable to even stand up or pace, when it's perfectly clear that a few keystrokes or a phone call were more than enough to 'clear' this guy - no excuse for it.
Just another example of CBP (like TSA and many LEs) deliberately mistreating people who have done nothing wrong. And frankly, even if they have done something wrong, it is not CBP's place to )mete out 'punishment' in the form of gratuitous harassment.
Just another example of CBP (like TSA and many LEs) deliberately mistreating people who have done nothing wrong. And frankly, even if they have done something wrong, it is not CBP's place to )mete out 'punishment' in the form of gratuitous harassment.