Posted on 12/08/2005 8:55:00 AM PST by JTN
Federal prosecutors have dropped charges against Deborah Davis, the 53-year-old Arvada woman who refused to show her identification to federal police officers on an RTD bus traveling through the Federal Center in Lakewood.
Davis' supporters, at first jubilant to learn Wednesday morning that she will not be prosecuted, were dismayed to learn hours later that officers of the Federal Protective Service still will ask passengers on the public bus to show their identification. The policy applies to all passengers, including those, as in Davis' case, who are traveling through the Federal Center and not getting off the bus there.
Federal officials said the Davis case was closed because of a technicality involving a problem with a sign at the Federal Center at the time Davis was ticketed. The sign was supposed to inform people that their IDs would be checked.
"The policy hasn't changed," said Jamie Zuieback, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, of which the Federal Protective Service is a part. "There are no plans to change our procedures."
Davis' lawyers said the battle is likely to continue.
"We're very pleased that they dropped charges against Ms. Davis," said Davis' volunteer lawyer, Gail Johnson, of the Denver law firm Haddon, Morgan, Mueller, Jordan, Mackey & Foreman. "But sign or no sign, she and other Colorado citizens continue to have the constitutional right to travel by public bus without being forced to show identification to federal agents."
"I think if the government is going to insist on continuing to violate the constitutional rights of our citizens, then they're going to find themselves back in court on this one," Johnson said. "We're not interested in the Deborah Davis exception."
Johnson said lawyers from outside Colorado had volunteered to help represent Davis following nationwide publicity about the controversy, and that other bus passengers who refuse to show identification likely could find legal representation as well.
"There are plenty of lawyers in Denver who would be happy to help people," she said.
Davis had been scheduled to appear for arraignment before a U.S. magistrate judge in Denver on Friday. She could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
Bill Scannell, a spokesman for Davis and an activist who has helped publicize other challenges to government identification requests, said a rally outside the courthouse, at 19th and Champa streets, will occur at 8:30 a.m. Friday as planned.
He said Davis will speak during the rally and she and her supporters will ride through the Federal Center on the Regional Transportation District's Bus 100 - the one from which Davis was removed for not showing her ID.
Scannell called it "a victory ride," even after he learned that the policy has not changed.
"My anticipation is that the victory riders will be fully exercising their constitutional rights to travel freely in their own country on a public bus," he said.
Asked if some or all of the riders might refuse to show their IDs to Federal Center police, he said, "I think that's a fair assumption."
Zuieback, the spokeswoman for ICE in Washington, D.C., declined to discuss how federal officers would respond to any such refusals.
"We never speculate about what our response is going to be to a specific situation," she said.
She said the dispute isn't about the bus or its passengers, but about the security of a federal facility.
"It's not a city bus on a city road," Zuieback said. "It is entering a federal facility."
Two RTD buses, the 3 and the 100, pass through the Federal Center several times a day. Thousands of people work at the Federal Center, and thousands more visit some of its agencies, including a popular map sales office and a heavily used depository for genealogical information.
In addition, the road through the Federal Center leads from South Kipling Street on the east side of the facility to the Cold Spring park-n-ride at the Federal Center's northwest corner, a major connecting point for buses bound elsewhere.
RTD officials have said some passengers have complained in the past about the federal police ID checks, which began after the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City. The bus routes through the Federal Center had existed for many years before that.
"It's clearly not an ideal situation for RTD or our passengers, but it is controlled wholly by the federal police at that site," RTD spokesman Scott Reed said Wednesday.
"We hope there will be some resolution of this, and we are doing the best we can to comply with their regulations while providing a long- standing service to our passengers," he said.
Davis, who routinely rode RTD's 100 bus through the Federal Center to get to her job at a small business in Lakewood, said she first showed her ID to federal police who boarded the bus and asked to see all passengers' identification, but it bothered her.
She then spent several days telling the officers she didn't have her ID with her and wasn't getting off the bus in the Federal Center anyway. Officers eventually told her she had to bring her ID or she couldn't ride the bus.
Finally, Davis refused on Sept. 26 to show her ID and was removed from the bus, handcuffed, placed in the back of a patrol car and taken to a police station in the Federal Center. She was later released after officers issued her petty offense tickets.
Zuieback said the ID checks are only one part of "many layers of security." She would not discuss the other parts.
"Looking at that ID, having that initial contact with an individual, does allow us to know that that person is who they say they are," she said.
Asked how officers know a person's ID is genuine, she said, "We have trained professionals doing that work."
Who are you?
• The Federal Protective Service says its policy of checking IDs of bus riders at the Denver Federal Center has not changed. Here are the RTD bus routes that enter the center on at least some runs (some routes vary with time of day):
3 Alameda Crosstown 5x Cold Springs Express 14 West Florida 100 Kipling Crosstown G Golden/Boulder
All pass through the Cold Springs Park-n-Ride at Fourth Avenue and Union Boulevard on the northeast corner of the Federal Center.
Exactly - government has never made any mistake or overstepped their powers.
Oh,m i get it. You;re in the 'do nothing at all' camp.
Here: you have 1000 people on mass transit and a threat. Scenario 1 - all ID's are checked. Scenario 2, because of people who think like you no ID's are checked, nothing is done. Under which scenario (and please be honest) is there more likelihood of stopping the threat???
"Basically they found a loophole to make this one case go away so they continue to prevent freedom of movement."
BS and you know it. She is free to go anywhere she wishes, including the secure federal facility. She just has to show her ID to enter it, like everybody else. "Freedom of movement" (whatever that is) is in NO WAY prevented.
If you all are in such a bunch about this, I suggest you go to your nearest secure federal facility and demand to enter without ID. Come on, put your money where your mouths are if you feel your rights are being taken away. Throw a big childish hissy in front of the other people there and the LEOs that have no say in the matter, like this woman did. Maybe you too with be a hero to the kooky liberals and anti-government paranoids.
No, I am in the camp that if you are going to "secure" an area, secure it. Record the names. Compare who is entering against lists. Verify information. I am against wasting taxpayer dollars on a false sense of security measures.
If you are going to fake security, don't waste taxpayers dollars on it, don't waste peoples time on it.
http://www.papersplease.org/davis/index1.html
Check it out, especially the "Press Room" link.
They have exactly the same likelihood of stopping a threat. Look, this is not a secured federal facility - it even has a sign saying "Visitors Welcome".
If a person wanted to do harm to the various buildings, all they would have to do is drive through the gate, show ID, and then walk into one the buildings.
I don't know the policy, but I am positive, that if there was a credible threat at several of the stops (one goes almost directly beneath the Pentagon), that yes, ID's would be checked, along with bags and other personal belongings. They have a lot of security measures in place there. After the london bombings police were swarming everywhere. They absolutely would have checked an ID if they suspected something.
Thats a wacky thing to say. What relevence does it have to this?? Or you have nothing better to do than berate people who have a different perspective than you?
She is on a public bus and is not getting off on the property. If the facility is to be secured, then it should not allow public transportation to use the property as a shortcut.
"Trained professionals" cannot tell a quality fake ID from a real one just by looking at it no matter how well "trained" they are. If you, or anyone else thinks they can, then you are seriously delusional. Only when you check with the issuing authority can you verify that it is real. Verifying that the person showing it is the person it describes requires another whole level of checks above that.
And before you start arguing, remember that providing fake ID is a huge business in America and they wouldn't exist if it weren't effective.
Just so you know what is being "threatened" - from the background article:
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."Somehow, this does not strike me as being a high-priority target for terrorists. I don't see why it should be subject to any greater security than Brookfield Zoo.
But they don't check it on a daily basis for passengers not disembarking?
"
If you all are in such a bunch about this, I suggest you go to your nearest secure federal facility and demand to enter without ID. Come on, put your money where your mouths are if you feel your rights are being taken away. Throw a big childish hissy in front of the other people there and the LEOs that have no say in the matter, like this woman did. Maybe you too with be a hero to the kooky liberals and anti-government paranoids."
I have to concede you have a point - the previous article I had read had not made it clear that the buss was passing through a Federal facility and I didn't read this article closely enough.
But in general, requiring ID to pass freely on the streets has been historically used to restrict freedom of movement and our country is moving closer to that - rather than being severe with violators our country has a tendency to simply reduce everyone's rights.
Explain please, what is 'fake security'? I don't see it here. If you are going to claim that checking ID's does nothing, then don't bother, just re-read my post above and give me your answer. (1000) people on mass transit scenario)
Gee, gridlock...looks like you "get it" now too... :-)
Question...is it still an "open" facility or "closed" facility? If it's a "closed" facility, then where's the registration of every passenger? If they aren't doing that, shouldn't the "official" be charged with violating the first section?
The protest needs to go to the transit authority now, pressuring the city not to send its buses into a Federal facility. At the very least, they need to put up signs warning passengers, and understanding that by driving on the facility road, they are not serving the needs of those passengers who choose not to provide ID.
Man, this explains it all. She's a Dem operative....!
I am sure if she simply would have told the officer she has done nothing wrong, that they would have said, 'oh excuse us please, carry on.'
There are many federal offices where you can just walk in. SBA offices are mostly like this.
Reread my post, I explained my position.
If you are going to secure the facility, really secure it. Verify the information on the ID's. Record the data. Compare the information against watch lists. Just glancing at will not prevent a terrorist from detonating his/her bomb 3 blocks down.
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