Update on my Ex-Sister-in-law Please read.

[King Coal]

On the 9th of December 2005, a Denver woman is scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court. Her crime: refusing to show ID on a public bus. At stake is nothing less than the right of Americans to travel freely in their
own country.

The woman who is fighting the good fight is named Deborah Davis. She's a 50 year-old mother of four who lives and works in Denver, Colorado. Her kids are all grown-up: her middle son is a soldier fighting in Iraq.

One morning in late September 2005, Deb was riding the public bus to work. She was minding her own business, reading a book and planning for work, when a security guard got on this public bus and demanded that every passenger show their ID. Deb, having done nothing wrong, declined. The guard called in federal cops, and she was arrested and charged with federal criminal misdemeanors after refusing to show ID on demand.

She hasn't commuted by public bus since that day.

For further information, please visit:

http://www.papersplease.org/davis/

[Stephanie]

1. Wow

A security guard? What was he trying to establish anyway? What was the point of looking at the IDs?

[RB TexLa]

3. That's what I thought too

Unless you are entering private property such as a building or other private site, I can't see any legal obligation to show private security ID.

[LostinVA]

18. I would think you legally wouldn't have to

on a public bus. I would think even law enforcement would have to have a reason.... but a security guard???

[Hekate]

40. One of the many bad things about privatizing law enforcement...

...is there is no public oversight or accountability for rent-a-cops. Just think that one through. What standards are they following? Who knows? Who do they answer to? Certainly not you and me.

Your local police station or sheriff's department ultimately and in a very real sense -- yours. They are ultimately answerable to the people and the people's elected representatives.

We need more of them, not fewer -- if law enforcement becomes another underfunded item in the budget, people and businesses with enough money will inevitably hire their own.

This is an incredibly creepy and disturbing event.

Hekate

[Marie26]

46. It's especially scary

since the US keeps hiring outside firms like Blackwater to do "security" in places like New Orleans and Iraq - they're not police, they're not soldiers. So what rules apply? Who knows.

[qanda]

2. Unreal

[Gabi Hayes]

4. why does she hate Amerika?

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Just the beginning of "Papers Please" all over the place!!!

Sounds like your sister-in-law may have been inspired by Rosa Parks.
She is very courageous. Please keep us posted. I have bookmarked her website.

Wow! I got to be the fifth recommendation for GREATEST PAGE!!

[Clark2008]

6. Different bus, different scenario, same cause: Individual Human Rights

[0rganism]

14. You vill be showink your paperz, yes? Ah, zey are not in order.

You are please to be comink vith us, now, yes. Right zis vay, vee vill processink you in some time soon now. Nyet, you are not now usink zee cellular telephone, you not beeink arrest, only detainink you temporarily-so.

[elehhhhna]

28. It's actually "Papier, bitte."

[YOY]

48. Nyet???

You mean "Nein!" right.

Those who said Nyet had a different steriotypical accent.

[0rganism]

49. Hehe, I'm trying to go trans-stereotype here

Pretty soon we'll be able to stereotype it with a midwest drawl.

[YOY]

51. It's cool...you got a whole "Boris and Natasha" thing going there

and unfortunately Potsylvania does not exist...

[BanzaiBonnie]

15. Didn't the government get a favorable ruling...

when that one fellow tried to contest giving his name on demand? Is that case going any further?

This seems to be the same sort of thing: restriction on freedom of travel.

[WolverineDG]

20. that case involved

an actual law enforcement officer investigating a complaint. what it sounds like here involves a rent-a-cop.

dg

[sarcasmo]

33. I agree, Papers please we will be hearing at a booth when we cross a

State line in the not so distant future.

[hobbit709]

7. "We don't need no stinking badges"

Wonder what Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, etc. would have said

[ReadTomPaine]

41. Paine would have started a revolution.

As a matter of fact, he did.

[knitter4democracy]

8. Just when I think it can't get worse,

it does.

That's disgusting. Why haven't we read about this in the MSM? Why would they go after anyone's ID on a bus? What the hell is this country coming to?

[texpatriot2004]

9. That's outrageous. Is Ms. Davis suing? nm

[stop the bleeding]

12. lets wait for her to get through the criminal proceedings before she

starts the civil hearings.

[warrens]

10. Somebody ought to just kick that rent-a-cop's fucking ass

Everyday for a couple of months.

[Hello_Kitty]

11. Unbelievable

How does showing an ID prevent someone from committing a terrorist act against that Federal Center? The website does a great job of pointing out the absurdity of that. People really need to wake up to the fact that our civil liberties are being stripped from us for our "protection". Kudos to Deb for standing up for her rights.

[walldude]

13. I ride the bus in Denver all the time

and have never heard of something so outrageous. I would have done the same thing. That is total bullshit! I may just have to show up at the court house on the 9th to show my support...

[donheld]

23. I ride the bus in Denver all the time too

and I also would refuse this also.

[noiretextatique]

16. thanks...i hadn't heard of this case

it will be interesting to see how it plays out. and i hope she is intending to file a civil suit because the way the cops treated her is outrageous.

[DIKB]

17. This is bullshit

How can these people keep pretending this isn't Fascism ?

[Catherine Vincent]

19. Wow! That's frightening.

[NV Whino]

21. Umm, let's see

They are arraigning her, which means they must have seen ID at some point. It makes the original charge sort of pointless, not to mention wasting more taxpayer money.

i hope she does sue them. And good for her for standing up for, not only her rights, but ours!

[1620rock]

22. Grab your ass because...

I am a federal officer with US Customs and Border Protection under the dept. of Homeland Security. By January 2007 you will need a passport just to travel back and forth to Canada. Coming soon, a national ID card with built in bio-metric data. Already here, boi-metric data gathered on every visitor to the US with the exception of Canadian citizens...for now. Big Brother is here and growing bigger every passing day. :scared:

[knitter4democracy]

27. Good thing I'm renewing mine, then.

That's frickin' scary.

[longship]

24. Your papers, please!

Sounds more like the gestapo.

[Neil Lisst]

25. It's the rightwingers running the federal courts.

They bless all this gestapo stuff.

Basically, you no longer have the right in America to refuse to show ID. That is the real TERROR threat, the terror of living in a country that has forgotten who we are and what our Bill of Rights says.

The pukes have raped the 4th amendment. You're guilty, now shut up and let us give you a body cavity search.

[dmr]

26. If that public bus poses any danger to the Denver Federal Center,

then the most responsible thing would be for it to go around and not into the Center.

Either there is no potential danger or if the potential is there, then the guards, and subsequently Homeland Security are just going through the motions of being proactive. But proactive would be no public bus on the Center's grounds, right? If they are not looking at the reqested ID, then they are pretending to be serious about security. It makes me think the motions they go through are for documentation purposes only - to justify their alloted Homeland Security grants.

It must've been not only scary, but humiliating for Deb to be jerked around, yanked off that bus and be arrested. I'd only hope I would be as brave.

This needs to be reported in the news. I did a Google search to see if there were any news articles on this; there is none.

[KamaAina]

50. They already have an "alternate route used when Federal Center is closed".

They could just a) always use the alternate route, if the feds are hell-bent on banning people from commuting, or b) set up a transit center on the center's grounds which would be the only stop, and would let you off in an enclosed, gated facility. Sheesh. "Paranoia will destroy ya"...

Plus, imagine how late(r) it makes the bus to have that goon check everyone's ID?

[KamaAina]

53. Idea: Split the route into two, both terminating inside the center

but with a transfer point between the two available outisde, for patriots like Deb.

Looking at the map above, obviously they want to serve Cold Spring Park & Ride, so there's your transfer point. The south branch would be rerouted via Alameda and Union into the Park & Ride and thence into the center. That way only passengers bound for the center need to "show their papers".

Miles-long bus routes don't work anyway. They're prone to "bunching" in which one bus is late and ends up picking up more than its share of passengers while the one behind it breezes along and eventually catches up to the first one, resulting in "bus rage" when commuters like myself wait a half-hour only to have two (or more!) buses show up at once! :grr:

edit: Alameda. I used to live in Alameda Co. Sheesh.; papers

[elehhhhna]

29. Rosa Parks Smiles on Deborah Davis.

[bmbmd]

30. Here's a related story.

John Gilmore, a partner in Sun Microsystems and civil libertarian, is currently involved in a process to insure one's right to anonymous travel.

http://cryptome.org/freetotravel.htm and
http://papersplease.org/gilmore/

By the way, wasn't that "Walking Man" from a few years back-tall black guy in a white suit with Rasta braids who walked around in affluent neighborhoods getting arrested for being black-from Denver???

[Lusted4]

31. Has she asked for help from the ACLU ? n/t

[High Plains]

32. No, San Diego, I think... n/t

[hunter]

34. Wait a minute... I have to carry ID on a bus?

Before I was married-with-kids I never carried ID unless I knew I was going to need it. I didn't even carry ID when I was driving. The two times I was pulled over by the cops I told the police I didn't have my drivers license but offered that I knew the number, and they were satisfied with that once they'd radioed the number in.

Another time I was staying with friends when the police busted in and searched the place. The officers didn't seem disturbed that I didn't have identification, probably because they didn't find whatever it was they were looking for and they'd assumed I was some sort of inconsequential loser. I sure felt that way, standing there in my underwear!

My wife says I didn't get into more trouble with the police because I'm a white guy. Getting harassed for your identification is much more common if you are black or brown.

[Pachamama]

35. Good point...what if she just said "sorry, I'm not carrying any ID w/ me".

Would that Security Officer have the right to search her? Without due cause (or jurisdiction for that matter) wouldn't that be called illegal search and seizure? :shrug: Or is this where we citizens are finally starting to see where the Patriot Act has eroded our civil liberties and protections?

Would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if she had just smiled real nice and said she didn't carry ID. What would the guard have done? Assault her and forceably search her purse and body to see if she had an id?

[FightingIrish]

36. I've traveled in foreign countries where this kind of harassment

is fairly routine. It was always frightening and I took great comfort and pride that it didn't happen in my country. Lately I'm not sure I have a country anymore.

[FreedomAngel82]

37. Why did they ask for people's ID?

:shrug:

[caligirl]

38. sent to the SF chronicle.

[MADem]

44. Keith Olbermann might be interested in it too

The Rent a Cop sounds like a candidate for WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD!

[EFerrari]

39. You know, we should all start carrying those pocket size

copies of the Constitution.

Especially if we are women or colorful or gay or minors.

Geezus. Thank her from my family.

[1monster]

47. I keep one in my purse at all times..... But I think there are Homeland

Security laws out there regarding I.D. that we the people are NOT permitted to know about. I have read that this is true in air travel. Perhaps they have extended that to bus travel.

(How do you obey or contest a law that is classified?)

[EFerrari]

54. I can imagine. "You can identify a leftist terrorist by . . . "

Do you really carry a copy in your purse? That's awesome.

Think I'll buy one for my giftlist this Christmas. Here in San Francisco, we still have this "It can't happen here" attitude that is just out of touch with reality. It can and it will.

:hi:

[tyedyeto]

42. I recall something similar a while back

So, googling came up with this:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0130-05.htm

Published on Friday, January 30, 2004 by the Portland Press Herald (Maine)
Homeland Security?
Search for Illegal Aliens Alienates City

by Bill Nemitz

Their boss insists that they're not trying to act like jerks. It's just that the border patrol agents who descended on Portland last weekend are new to Maine and, this being the dead of winter and all, they apparently can't help themselves.

"A lot of our agents are just off the southern (U.S.) border and there's a different atmosphere down there," said Monte J. Bennett, assistant chief patrol agent for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Houlton. "There are a lot more numbers down there. Things are more aggressive."

In other words, if you're an immigrant in Maine these days, you'd best double-check your papers before you go anywhere and learn to say "Yes, sir" and "No, sir" to anyone in a black uniform and boots. And oh yes, try not to look suspicious.
<snip>

Further down the article is this paragraph:

(Lest we all think the agents' attitudes began and ended with immigrants, consider my daughter's welcome Saturday upon arriving in Portland by bus from Boston: After she gave a border agent her license, he demanded her passport. She correctly told him that U.S. citizens don't need passports for interstate travel. "Let me give you a word of advice," he replied tersely. "You need to learn to watch your mouth.")
<emphasis mine>

[Festivito]

43. Either they charge her, or she was kidnapped.

I'm curious as to the name of the "misdemeanors" charged.

[dmr]

56. Here's what she was charged with:

From the documents posted on the website:

"Subject refused to show proper identification when requested upon attempting to enter the Denver Federal Center."

"Subject refused to follow directions of security personnel and law enforcement officers when attempting to enter Denver Federal Center."

"She was cited under 41 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for Admissions to Property and Conformity With Signs and Directions, and Title 18 United States Code (USC) Part 1 Chap. 7 Section III(a)(1)."

[MADem]

45. Great website--this 'dishonest ID' featured on it tells the tale

Shaking down honest people is absurd in the extreme. And the dishonest will do like Monkey's little twin!

[sakabatou]

52. WTH?!

[ThePopulist]

55. That's Fucking Fascist Bullshit

I seriously hope she's already filed a suit. The right to mind your own fucking business is one of our most basic, inalienable rights. And this thing stinks to high heaven of a police state.