Do You Have YOUR Papers With You?

This story needs to be read by anyone who doesn't think our freedoms are eroding away bit by bit and piece by piece.

In this case, not by the Patriot Act, or by a Presidential Administration lying, then lying about the lying, then lying about lying about the lying, while defending torture and engaging in unjustified wars.

No, this time, it's about arresting people for failing to carry proper identification on a public bus. A woman named Deborah Davis rides the bus to work. The bus in question passes through the Federal Center in Lakewood, CO. It is apparently not uncommon for Federal officers to get on the bus and demand ID from everyone on board.

Now, I understand that the bus enters Federal property, but... it is also a public bus. We are not supposed to be subject to random searches, nor are we supposed to be required to present our "papers" to anyone who happens to demand them. When riding a public bus, instead of driving a car, there should be nothing illegal about traveling without ID.

Ms. Davis, after several such trips on this particular bus, decided that this was a violation of her rights, and so one day in September, she decided to refuse the request for ID. She was removed from the bus, handcuffed, placed in the back of a patrol car, and ultimately issued two tickets.

Now, I understand that many people will say "So what? It's a security matter." But they are missing the point. This is a woman on a public bus. The bus has a stop in the Federal Center for the convenience of those who work there. If it's such a security risk, have the bus go AROUND the Federal Center, drop workers off outside, and perhaps run a Federal shuttle bus if necessary.

My concern is with the whittling away of our rights. Rights don't tend to go wholesale, because no one would stand for it. If we were suddenly, and without justification, told that we had to have a permit to leave our house, or that we had to be in after dark, or that the Government was now going to assign our jobs, churches, doctors, etc, there would be a huge outcry.

But allowing this practice to stand is the first step to a Soviet Union style system where anyone in government can, at any time, demand your papers, and jail you if you don't have them. Heck, we've already got a President who has invented a new category, "Enemy Combatant", which has no rights as either a U.S. citizen or Prisoner of War. If the Feds can do it once, they can do it again.

What if next time, they decide to invent a class of "criminal" called "Seditious Non-Compliant" and declare that they, too, are exempt from protection under the Constitution. Then, defining "not presenting proper identification to a Federal officer" as sedition, and voila, Soviet Union. Here in America.

Am I being grandiose? Probably. But nevertheless, we have to fight the little battles, because if we don't, we could find ourselves having lost the war without ever having realized there WAS one, until it was far too late.

Liam.