Posted on 11/27/2005 8:46:58 AM PST by aynrandy
Deborah Davis doesn't consider herself a hero. Certainly not a modern-day champion of the Constitution. Yet, in her own way, she might be a little of both.
Two months ago, this 50-year-old mother of four was reading a book while riding to work on RTD's Route 100. When the bus rolled up to the gates of the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, a guard climbed on and demanded Davis, as well as everyone else on board, produce identification.
Perhaps it was that inherent American distaste for producing papers on demand, but Davis, who had gone through this drill before, decided to pass.
"I told him that I did have identification, but I wasn't going to show it to him," Davis explains. "I knew that I wasn't required by law to show ID and that's why I decided I wasn't going to. The whole thing seemed to be more about compliance than security."
According to Davis, the guard proceeded to call on federal cops, who then dragged Davis off a public bus, handcuffed her, shoved her into the back seat of a police car and drove off to a police station within the Federal Center.
While I was unable to reach anyone at the Department of Homeland Security on Friday to comment on Davis' case, the offense/incident report corroborates her basic story.
Though, it should be noted that, according to the arresting officer, Davis became "argumentative" before she "was physically removed from the bus and placed under arrest."
Good for her.
Davis - whose middle son is risking his life in Iraq while the federal government is demanding papers from and arresting his middle-aged mom - is scheduled to be arraigned on Dec. 9 and could face up to 60 days in jail.
Gail Johnson, a volunteer ACLU lawyer who practices at a prominent Colorado criminal defense firm, will defend Davis without charge. She expects the government to arraign Davis on two federal criminal misdemeanors, if not more.
The first states that citizens must "when requested, display Government or other identifying credentials to Federal police officers or other authorized individuals." The second says that citizens must comply with "the lawful direction of Federal police officers and other authorized individuals."
As Johnson sees it, there are numerous problems with the charges and she plans to fight them "vigorously." "She was a passenger on a public bus," explains Johnson, who believes this case is about the fundamental right to travel. "She got on the bus outside of the federal area and she wanted to get off the bus outside the federal area. It's not her fault buses run along this route."
Legal issues notwithstanding, you have to wonder what ever happened to common sense? What exactly were the guards, who merely glanced at the IDs, doing? Is there a "no-bus rider" terrorist list in Lakewood? And if there is, how would the guards be able to differentiate between real and fake IDs?
And no, we needn't be absolutists about freedom. There are potentially a whole host of justifiable reasons for enhanced security.
In this instance, however, the Federal Center houses the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Geological Survey and a section of the National Archives.
Not exactly Dick Cheney's super-secret underground bunker.
If safety at the center was a question of national security, why have a public bus route running through the facility in the first place?
"I'm just a regular, normal, everyday person," Davis says. "There is nothing really far out about me. I have been laid off. I pay my taxes. I have my problems. I am no different than anyone else. It just didn't seem right."
Ah, but here she's wrong.
She's not like anyone else. So let's hope more Americans act like Deb Davis, not another partisan hack acting the victim, but an average American who questions government intrusion into our private and public lives for freedom's sake.
David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
That's exactly my point. "Getting around" security is doing things outside what is protected by security. Exploiting the inevitable design flaws.
There is no "perfect" security. We had spies crawling all over Nazi Germany, despite all sorts of internal security that only a totalitarian country in the middle of total war can do.
I'm waiting for someone to steal a Jet parked overnight at a deserted airport after they've jumped the fence. You ever see double fences and guard towers around DFW airport? There you go, a security "design flaw".
And then how does she get to her destination? She was not traveling TO the federal property. She was on a conveyance of public transportation, going to a private destination, and the bus passes through federal property. It is not reasonable to expect her to get off, walk around the federal property (of unknown but possibly large size), and find her way to a bus stop on the other side
It sounds like a setup because she had been riding this route previously and had shown her ID then. She just decided that she didn't need to show it anymore. She told the guard that she had ID but wasn't going to let him see it. She wanted a confrontation and she got it.
The bus was about to enter Federal Property where access is not allowed without proper ID. This is no different than me showing ID in order to drive onto FT Jackson. You don't have to show ID. You can turn around and leave.""
The bus route needs to be changed.
Why should an ordinary citizen be examined like this just for riding the bus?
For years they have tried to get us on mass transit and out of our cars.
This is the result? A pox on them all.
My point was that after 9/11 everybody turned and blamed it on the "inept security people," who were merely doing their job exactly as they had been told to. There is no evidence whatsoever that what happened on 9/11 had anything to do with security personnel not doing their job properly.
So what if she took that route on purpose? Rosa Parks' refusal to go to the back of the bus was also a pre-planned exercise to produce a test case to challenge the legitimacy of segregation
The problem here is the feds have locked down all kinds of places that just house bureaucrats. We're not talking about classified information, or Air Traffic Control, or weapons storage. We're just talking about cube farms. Why should this kind of area be "protected" at all?
Yeah, sure we had Timmy mcvey and the OKC federal building. But I doubt this place has barriers to prevent a truck from blowing through, and what good does an ID check do at all?
FedGov needs to come down off it's high horse a bit. Those people in government cube farms aren't deserving of any more protection than I do. And they're no more at risk of attack than I am.
How come FEDERAL property is to be protected more than other? Are these bureaucrats more important than the people working/shopping at a mall? Or a NASCAR race?
Remember how they turned Boston and NYC into spider holes for the '04 conventions? Are 10,000 party hacks more important than the people who go to the Super Bowl?
Welcome to the USSA, lady!
So if you were robbed before but the next time you decide to resist, you are in the wrong.
Nope - just pointing out that she was being deliberately confrontational. The article makes it sound like she was just minding her own business and was taken unawares.
I am an American citizen and am not required, under the constitution, to show ID to any government A**hole who asks. Long live America and the constitution, may we take it back soon.
Rosa Parks wasn't exactly random.
It's SOP to be required to show proper ID when entering some federal buildings, isn't it?
Pardon, but your rights to resist evaporated with the passage of the Patriot Act.
Standing up to thugs is a good thing.
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