FlyerTalk Forums - New security realities ground plane watcher

Quote:

Originally Posted by GradGirl

You are right on about the reasoning here. I firmly believe that the limitation of government power and the mistrust of government that engendered it are the true strength of the American system. The FF'ers fight against invasive TSA practices are just an extension of the same principle: mistrust the government, and limit its powers.

It's not true that on 9/11 everything changed. This is not a new era, it's the same old era all over again. The threat from our Japanese-American enemies in WWII, our communist enemies in the Cold War, et cetera, have all been used wrongly to justify repressive measures like spying on US citizens or interning them in camps without due process.

What do you think about this specific incident, law dawg? It's a difficult call because the cop there had no legal backing behind making the guy stop watching airplanes. The only way for the LEO to achieve his objective was to lie and scare the watcher, since arresting the watcher for breaking a non-existent law wouldn't be an option.

I think he was probably told by his superiors to keep people off this area (and someone told them, etc.) and this was the only way he could. Doesn't make it right, but it also doesn't mean he woke up that morning looking for someone's rights to violate.

And it is a new era, just like WWII was new, the Civil War was new (when Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus), etc. We so far haven't done nearly the bending of the Constitution that has been done before.