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.
Actually I believe they all did show ID's and succesfully boarded. And your point? Oh, I know. We should never under any circumstances show ID's because of our right to not show ID's as written in the constitution (I forget again where is the ID thing written there?)
(And now I'll wait for all the constitutional scholars here to respond about the various amendments protecting rights against search and seizure, etc.)
The scenario where somebody grows a brain and stops running public bus lines through a secure facility. Duh.
Do police states start off with draconian measures or reasonable ones?
Yes, correct, but what if a threat of someone going thru that station who is not going to disembark, just explode?
I am positive there would be a lockdown and ID check...
and which side is that?
Actually my point is that showing IDs does absolutely nothing toward stopping a terrorist attack.
Well, we can be sure of one thing. If nothing is done, then there is a 100% chance he will detonate. I think common sense would tell us then the more that is done that the 100% would start to reduce. ID isn't the solution, it can be part of the solution..
If there is a "lockdown," the buses won't be going through that area anyway, so ID checks on the buses aren't going to happen anyway.
"A cursory look at an ID isn't going to protect anything terrorist related."
Would it be fair to say, that if I can provide for you one instance where an ID check stopped a crime, that you will cease from the obsession with ID checks????
So! I am not impressed by the fact it is a federal facility. That simply means we paid for it. Do federal employees get special protection (????) not offered to the rest of us? What makes them so special just because they get paid by us? Are they a higher class citizen? Why not show your ID no matter where you go on a public bus or do you think like I do that this will come soon enough? Being employed by the feds should never entitle you to special treatment. However, if the feds want to ask for ID for someone getting off the bus then that is a horse of a different color.
Did Ben say this after, how many homicide bombings, or planes into buildings????
Good old Ben. Always pull him out as needed..
Ah, yes; if only the cops had looked as his ID, specifically at the "SUICIDE BOMBER _YES _NO" check box. (I think it's between "ORGAN DONOR _YES _NO" and "CORRECTIVE LENSES REQUIRED _YES _NO".)
So if someone attacks us, we respond by giving up our freedoms? That seems like a raw deal.
Are you saying that we should be under martial law?
now that I like
Saddams police state started off with the slaughter of 450 of his 'enemies' I call that not reasonable. What other police states are you interested in??
Now you are making a little more sense. If they want to secure the facility, do it in a productive way. Assuming that forcing someone to show an ID will keep them from misbehaving accomplishes nothing. Make the actions worthwhile. Consistently enforce them.
In all honesty, I am in agreement with others that if the facility needs to be secured, and people entering need to be screened, then close the facility. Only allow in those who will be screened, stop the bus transiting the facility.
If you want to keep the facility open, then screen people at the entrance to the buildings they want to enter.
But to tell people that by checking ID's you are "securing the facility" is patently untrue.
Remember, they hate us for our freedom. We must appease then enemy.
"Actually my point is that showing IDs does absolutely nothing toward stopping a terrorist attack."
Yeah, I got that point. Its been written here a time or two. I just disagree.
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