Did someone else get a hold of your FT login password?
In the past you’ve participated in non-violent protests, and you don’t think highly of citizen gun ownership.
He could have had an epiphany. Anything's possible.
Lots of people are waking up to the fact that it's darn close to Claire Wolfe Time. Or to put it another way: "[W]hen a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security"
__________________ Department of Homeland Security sounds better in the original German: Heimatsicherheitsministerium
The legal term is "reasonable articulatable suspicion". Reasonable suspicion is evaluated using the "reasonable officer" standard, in which said person in the same circumstances could reasonably believe a person has been, is, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity. Such suspicion is not a mere hunch.
Neither is DWB (driving while brown), which is what the stops the OP is experiencing boil down to.
That's the legal theory, anyway. In real life, PC and RAS are whatever the cop says it is, unless you've got a real stickler for a judge. Most judges give law enforcement a wide latitude of allowable judgments, in most cases way too much latitude IMNSHO.
No, the term is "mere suspicion." "Reasonable suspicion" is something else. Reasonable suspicion is not probable cause, and mere suspicion is not reasonable suspicion. They are all different gradiants.
And it's mere suspicion of a crime, Top Tier.
__________________
We do not rise to the level of our expectations, but fall to the level of our training.
There are a lot of people attempting various legal/non-violent solutions to this problem -- protesting, blocking checkpoints, suing, etc.
Hopefully, one of these will work, but I am increasingly convinced that with respect to these assaults on our liberties, there is no viable non-violent solution -- only when someone stands up and takes back their rights at the barrel of a gun will these transgressions come to an end. Either way, whether these so-called "cops" end up in prison or on a morgue slab, it's all the same to me.
I had a lot of respect for you Polonius, even though we differ in opinion quite often, until this post.
__________________
We do not rise to the level of our expectations, but fall to the level of our training.
I traveled between Phoenix and LA or San Diego for 2 years in a Company car that was a dark blue dodge intrepid. I could not pass a check point without either getting a walk around the car by the agent or being directed to secondary inspection. Any time I was in a different car I was not even given a second glance.
What I really loved is in the late 80s and early 90s I could not pass through the check point between San Diego and LA when wearing wrap around sun glasses with out getting a walk around. I was directed to secondary several times. When I did not wear the glasses I would not get stopped. I guess they figured I was a Hell's Angel with the glasses.
So even if you are Caucasian you can get harassed. It became comical to go though the check point.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by N965VJ
Did someone else get a hold of your FT login password?
In the past you’ve participated in non-violent protests, and you don’t think highly of citizen gun ownership.
I never said it was an option for me -- I just noted that:
a) I'm becoming pessimistic that any non-violent approach will work, because such an approach is only effective when the violators actually have a sense of morality that can be stimulated by non-violent resistence and
b) although I wouldn't undertake a violent approach myself, I certainly won't shed any tears if/when someone finally gives these guys what they've got coming
I never said it was an option for me -- I just noted that:
a) I'm becoming pessimistic that any non-violent approach will work, because such an approach is only effective when the violators actually have a sense of morality that can be stimulated by non-violent resistence and
b) although I wouldn't undertake a violent approach myself, I certainly won't shed any tears if/when someone finally gives these guys what they've got coming
I never said it was an option for me -- I just noted that:
a) I'm becoming pessimistic that any non-violent approach will work, because such an approach is only effective when the violators actually have a sense of morality that can be stimulated by non-violent resistence and
b) although I wouldn't undertake a violent approach myself, I certainly won't shed any tears if/when someone finally gives these guys what they've got coming
Our government doesn't usually remove rights overnight. Instead they nibble away at the edges. Government employees forgot who they work for and who they ultimately answer to. Instead they herd us around like cattle. DHS, CBP, etc. all nibble away at our Constitutional rights.
The Declaration of Independence is a very radical document. I will read it and the Constitution on the 4th of July.
Anyone ever had enough guts to go against a bp agent? To me they are just too intimidating to do anything else
Look at CheckpointUSA.org. There's a guy in AZ who has posted over a dozen videos of his encounters. He's won a couple of court cases as well. I admire the living daylights out of the guy.
__________________ Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it. --
Mark Twain
It is clearly getting worse. I've had a couple of comical run ins, nothing serious. My favorite was when I moved to Michigan from New Mexico and had NM plates on the car. Went to Canada for dinner with friends and on my return, the CPB guy asked the usual questions, glanced at my US PP and then asked me why I was driving a Mexican car. Huh? We went round and round about it until I told him to take a good look at the New Mexico USA on the bottom of the tag. I'm not sure he figured it out but he let me go.
On a far more serious note, the Baja Pilots Association is asking any private pilot who has had any problems with CPB to report this after an incident last month in Long Beach California.
A brand new rule was issued requiring all private pilots who ordinarily only fly with close friends and family in 4-6 seat airplanes to submit a flight manifest listing all passengers and their passport numbers, a minimum of 1 hour before crossing the border--inbound or OUTbound. We've always had to file flight plans and notify customs in advance of arrivals for clearance coming in, but now they want us to use the new internet system called eAPIS. There are a large number of logistical problems with this, such as where in the heck do I get telephone, let alone internet access at a wilderness lake in a seaplane in northern Manitoba, but that's another story.
The real story is that now, before we LEAVE or enter the country, we must obtain email permission from customs to make the flight. No permission, no departure. My understanding of this is that US citizens must now obtain what is tantamount to an exit visa!
Here's how CBP is using that information and why the Baja Pilots' Assn is upset.
A pilot properly filed every flight plan, advance notice of arrival and eAPIS, received his exit visae, and was ready for engine start to depart for his vacation home in Baja, when a team of squad cars with lights blazing arrived, Long Beach Police, US CBP agents, according to the pilot surrounded the airplane, and lowered automatic weapons and ordered them from the aircraft at gunpoint with their hands up felony style. They then proceeded to search the aircraft and released the pilot and his passengers to proceed on their way.
Customs later described this as a "routine" search. A more senior customs spokesman described it as that isn't the way we ordinarily do business.
However, Janet Napoleon has stated, private aircraft owners are upset, just wait till the boat owners find out what we need to do. TSA and CBP work for the same bosses.
The Baja web site has details. As for me, a felony stop with weapons lowered would likely result in me doing exactly what they say, but as soon as those weapons are put away....
I cannot for the life of me see how the government requiring an exit visa is not a violation of the right to association guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and affirmed by the Supreme Court (Bates v. Little Rock, 361 US 516 1960, NAACP v. Alabama 1958). And after granting one, to bring lethal force to bear on unarmed and unthreatening US citizens refusing to divulge their reasons under the color of Sensitive Security Information.
It is clearly getting worse. I've had a couple of comical run ins, nothing serious. My favorite was when I moved to Michigan from New Mexico and had NM plates on the car. Went to Canada for dinner with friends and on my return, the CPB guy asked the usual questions, glanced at my US PP and then asked me why I was driving a Mexican car. Huh? We went round and round about it until I told him to take a good look at the New Mexico USA on the bottom of the tag. I'm not sure he figured it out but he let me go.
On a far more serious note, the Baja Pilots Association is asking any private pilot who has had any problems with CPB to report this after an incident last month in Long Beach California.
A brand new rule was issued requiring all private pilots who ordinarily only fly with close friends and family in 4-6 seat airplanes to submit a flight manifest listing all passengers and their passport numbers, a minimum of 1 hour before crossing the border--inbound or OUTbound. We've always had to file flight plans and notify customs in advance of arrivals for clearance coming in, but now they want us to use the new internet system called eAPIS. There are a large number of logistical problems with this, such as where in the heck do I get telephone, let alone internet access at a wilderness lake in a seaplane in northern Manitoba, but that's another story.
The real story is that now, before we LEAVE or enter the country, we must obtain email permission from customs to make the flight. No permission, no departure. My understanding of this is that US citizens must now obtain what is tantamount to an exit visa!
Here's how CBP is using that information and why the Baja Pilots' Assn is upset.
A pilot properly filed every flight plan, advance notice of arrival and eAPIS, received his exit visae, and was ready for engine start to depart for his vacation home in Baja, when a team of squad cars with lights blazing arrived, Long Beach Police, US CBP agents, according to the pilot surrounded the airplane, and lowered automatic weapons and ordered them from the aircraft at gunpoint with their hands up felony style. They then proceeded to search the aircraft and released the pilot and his passengers to proceed on their way.
Customs later described this as a "routine" search. A more senior customs spokesman described it as that isn't the way we ordinarily do business.
However, Janet Napoleon has stated, private aircraft owners are upset, just wait till the boat owners find out what we need to do. TSA and CBP work for the same bosses.
The Baja web site has details. As for me, a felony stop with weapons lowered would likely result in me doing exactly what they say, but as soon as those weapons are put away....
I cannot for the life of me see how the government requiring an exit visa is not a violation of the right to association guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and affirmed by the Supreme Court (Bates v. Little Rock, 361 US 516 1960, NAACP v. Alabama 1958). And after granting one, to bring lethal force to bear on unarmed and unthreatening US citizens refusing to divulge their reasons under the color of Sensitive Security Information.
I'm glad that you posted this. As much as I detest TSA my problems have always been with CBP. I have missed several connections trying to get back home after landing in the US because CBP cannot get it's act together. I have gone on interviews to answer questions and been told that I should have no problems hereafter. I always do and am always told that I should never have a problem again. It is not just TSA, all of US security is incompetent.
I'm glad that you posted this. As much as I detest TSA my problems have always been with CBP. I have missed several connections trying to get back home after landing in the US because CBP cannot get it's act together. I have gone on interviews to answer questions and been told that I should have no problems hereafter. I always do and am always told that I should never have a problem again. It is not just TSA, all of US security is incompetent.
On the contrary. I think that most of the US security forces are extremely competent. I think we, like most nations need to have secure borders and certain actions need to be taken to insure that that is indeed the case. The problem is we are not seeing this at the front door. My guess is many if not all of the mid-level analysts and operations guys have a great deal of competence. It is their political bosses where we are having the problem. And those political bosses, as well as the low end workers who give direction. Hopefully, as these excesses become more commonly known and more and more judges become aware, the specific sections of our constitution will again be enforced to reign in the abuses which in my mind are caused by incompetent bureaucrats who thwart the very real and necessary missions of the agencies. The formation of Department of Homeland Security was and is a mistake, which is now trying to perpetuate itself and should be disbanded.
