Posted on 11/30/2005 11:34:30 AM PST by JTN
The first time she was asked to show identification while riding the bus to work, Deborah Davis was so startled that she complied without thinking. But the more she thought about it, the less sense it made.
That's how Davis, a 50-year-old Colorado woman with four grown children and five grandchildren, ended up getting dragged off the bus by federal security officers, who handcuffed her, took her to their station, and cited her for two misdemeanors. Davis, who is scheduled to be arraigned on December 9, is risking 60 days in jail to show her fellow Americans that they don't need to blindly obey every dictate imposed in the name of security.
The public bus that Davis took to her office job in Lakewood, Colorado, crosses the Denver Federal Center, a 90-building complex occupied by agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey, the Interior Department, the General Services Administration, and the Bureau of Land Management. "The facility is not high security," says Davis. "It's not Area 51 or NORAD or the Rocky Mountain Arsenal."
Guards nevertheless board buses as they enter the complex and demand IDs from passengers, whether or not they're getting off there. According to Davis, the guards barely glance at the IDs, let alone write down names or check them against a list.
"It's just an obedience test," says Gail Johnson, a lawyer recruited to represent Davis by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. "It does nothing for security."
Ahmad Taha, supervisory special agent with the Federal Protective Service, which is in charge of security at the Denver complex, said guards there have been checking the IDs of bus passengers since 9/11. He declined to explain the security rationale for this ritual or to comment on Davis' case.
After complying the first day she rode the bus, Davis began saying she had no ID and was not getting off at the Federal Center anyway. One Friday in late September, a guard told her she would not be permitted to ride the bus anymore without ID.
Before taking the stand that led to her arrest, Davis says, "I spent the weekend making sure that the Constitution hadn't changed since I was in the eighth grade, and it hadn't....We're not required to carry papers....We have a right to be anonymous."
Last year the Supreme Court ruled that a suspect in a criminal investigation can be required to give his name. But it has never upheld a policy of requiring ordinary citizens to carry ID and present it on demand. Davis "wasn't doing anything wrong," notes Johnson. "She wasn't suspected of doing anything wrong. She was a completely innocent person on the way to work."
Johnson plans to argue that the ID requirement violates Davis' First Amendment right to freedom of association, her Fourth Amendment right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, and her Fifth Amendment right not to be deprived of liberty (in this case, freedom of travel) without due process. A civil case raising similar issues in the context of airport ID checks is scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit the day before Davis' arraignment.
"Enough is enough," says Davis. "Our rights are being taken away a little piece at a time, and people are letting it happen."
Pulling out your driver's license may seem like a slight imposition, but the justification is even slighter. Since anyone can flash an ID, the procedure does not distinguish between people who pose a threat and people who don't. It does not even distinguish between people who are visiting the Federal Center and people who are merely riding a bus that happens to pass through it.
In a free country, citizens have no obligation to explain themselves to the government as they go about their daily lives. It's the government that owes us an explanation.
Good Lord. I'd rather take my chances with the terrorists.
I shall not.
I do not consider it to be a pretense.
Asking for and receiving and IDs would get the guard to know the people on the bus much more quickly than just standing around and observing.
Ah! Give me a break, don't pull us the hate card ...
In unbiased reporting on this incident it's reported there are signs stating ID must be presented prior to entering the grounds. She'd already been through at least once and showed her ID so she was aware of the procedure.
I suppose my question would be "Since the land is owned by the Federal Government do they not have the right to demand ID be produced in order to cross their land?" Or is the position going to be that since it's federal land it isn't private property and belongs to all of us? Also, why would the bus have a sign when there are stops prior to entering federal land and no ID is required prior to entering the fed land?
Funny how you love to snoop around people's "hate" ID cards but you don't like showing mere ID...Hypcorit.
>>The article seems to disagree: "The public bus that Davis took to her office job in Lakewood, Colorado, crosses the Denver Federal Center..."
>Check it out for yourself.
Nothing on that page that suggest that the bus does not continue on to peon territory, nor that the report of her working elsewhere is incorrect.
>But a newspaper would never get anything wrong, would it?
Nor would government "law enforcers", huh?
Please explain how her destination was on the facility, yet you have no evidence that she is a government employee.
You are trying so hard to side with the enforcers, it makes me suspect you are a jackboot-licker who thinks federal government employees can do no wrong.
Better say "power" instead of "right", or the language mavens will be all over you...
Limited government means also limited local government and balance of powers between local and federal... it does not occur by absolute but by power balance.
Funny how you love to snoop around people's "hate" ID cards but you don't like showing mere ID...Hypcorit.
You know, I don't think that's what happened. I think they knew something was wrong with those men, pulled them to the side, but frightened rabbits (of crap like this) sent orders to pass them through for fear of profiling complaints.
Sorry ma'am, it's for your protection as well as for the protection of everyone else on the bus.
What's wrong with her leaving by bus? The issue isn't her having ID while on a bus, it's having ID while on "federal property" - getting off the bus doesn't change the situation.
You only have rights and freedoms if the powers at hand allow you too.
They can take away all your rights if they wanted to.
I am not talking about being oppressive or killing 6 million people, just that they can take away your rights if they say it's for national security.
There is really nothing to back up the constitution.
What are you really going to do about it?
Face it, you identify people by charicaturing them, calling them hater when the ACLU does not pass the smell test.
How is it hate to strive against degradation. You are a disgrace, you have the heart of a charicaturing degrading revolutionarian in your personal attacks.
It's not about hate of gays or the ACLU, it's about the self-love allowing the avoiding their degrading advocacies.
You are completely mixed up, and those who want to understand will understand.
And rightly so, as the ACLU are on the wrong side of liberty, decency and America in about 90% of the causes they back.
Ah! Mea culpa! I made the mistake of assigning a "right" instead of a "power" to a federal facility as I was thinking along the lines of an individual instead of a collective. As an individual I would hope I have the right to demand ID from anyone I chose before I allowed them into my home. As the federal government isn't an individual but is an entity the rules are different?
I've only been in one federal facility (courthouse) since 911 and I had to produce my DL. If I remember correctly I had to produce ID prior to 911 when I went to a national park.
A solution might be to have anyone exiting the bus onto the federal facility produce ID instead of having the blanket polity of all on the bus producing ID.
It most certainly does. The exit point was just outside of the federal center gate #4. They check IDs prior to allowing the bus onto the secured area.
They can take away all your rights if they wanted to.
A solution might be to have anyone exiting the bus onto the federal facility produce ID instead of having the blanket polity of all on the bus producing ID.
We live in Central New York State and recently took Amtrak down to New York City. In order to get round-trip tickets we had to show our drivers' licenses. It was no big deal. Over the years, before we moved up here permanently, we used Amtrak and never had to show any identification. However, America was attacked on 9/11/01 and that changed our lives forever. Show your I.D. and be glad someone's checking.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.