Mr. President
BOARD PRESIDENT..carry on
- Aug 22, 2008
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And as soon as the officer can articulate what that violation is or may be, he can ask you to identify yourself all day long. That is not the problem.
The problem is trying to get to the point where failure to have ID justifies detention. Much like the person RIDING in the car, who is often asked for ID during a traffic stop. If he isn't DRIVING and the reason for the stop is a traffic violation, the passengers haven't done anything wrong, there is no violation on them. No legal grounds to identify.
This all gets back to whether or not we are ready to have cops pulling you out of the ice cream line and asking you for ID in front of your kids and your family. If you've never been in that situation, maybe you can't or don't understand what it's like to be a perfectly honest, legal Citizen with some asshole with a gun and a badge bearing down on you because he gets his jollies off being the boss of the weak, the young and the ignorant. I have been there too many times back in the day when I had enough hair to wear it long. And THAT was enough to make about half the cops I encountered decided to FUCK with me because they thought it was FUN or right or completely justified to think that someone who doesn't share their sense of a good hair cut might also be a criminal. I am not a criminal, never have been and I WILL NOT lie down and be treated as a potential criminal for a fashion decision, my skin tone or the accent I speak with.
And I understand where you are coming from. However, we also have to look at the reality that a relaxed border control policy has birthed an American society which currently houses millions of illegal immigrants. The question is now that we are in the mess what are we willing to tolerate in order to correct our mistakes, enforce a new more stringent border control policy and also have an environment conducive to minimally invasive privacy policies. While checking id's of all potential illegals is begging for lawsuits to be brought at the county, state and federal level, I don't believe we should tie the hands of law enforcement so swiftly.