First off a suspect has always had the right to refuse to answer questions put to him by police officers during a Terry stop. And the Fifth Amendment privilege had always automatically attached during custodial interrogations by any agent of the state because information extorted by the police during such interrogations is unavoidably testimonial.
Why else would the police demand a person’s name or identification, if not to determine whether that person was either wanted for committing a crime or directly suspected of committing a crime.
We live in a society that prizes the right to privacy, of which anonymity is a facet. If we do not guard our privacy and the option of our anonymity, it WILL be taken away from us. If convenience, terror and illegal immigration convince us that it costs little to discard the right to privacy in our own names, we will have lost something. Furthermore, its true value may not yet be apparent.
This is nothing more than a slippery slope.
Why stop here, since the logic is that nearly all hispanic or hispanic appearing people are most likely illegal.
Lets go further, since the FBI UCR Data tells us that Blacks are 2.5 times more likely to commit crimes than any other race, why not allow the cops to stop any black he or she finds in an areas they deem "a high crime area".
Whats next, our very own Night and Fog Decree?
Its stuff like this that makes me sick to my stomach to call myself a conservative, knowing that I'm being associated with people who think this way. All because they don;t like the color of a persons skin.
Your argument may sound good to you, but it's BS down at the courthouse.
You should go try and see your favorite judge to fix a ticket sometime. They got these big burly guys in uniforms manning the metal detectors and you'd better have a valid ID!
BTW, when you file a Change of Address Order with the Postal Service, you best be able to back it up with a valid ID if querried. Else, you might find yourself being prosecuted for attempting to divert someone else's mail to your custody improperly. It's a felony with a LONG LONG LONG jail term.
So much for claiming privacy rights supremacy.
See ya' in Petersburg ~ there's a Postal Wing down there ~ you'll have lots of knowledgeable custody ~ maybe even talk to a letter carrier or two who knows other schemes.
Is that you Dane?
I’ve got a law in mind - tell me if this is unconstitutional:
If you can’t speak English, and don’t have a driver’s license or other credible form of ID suggesting you are legal, you may be detained until you can demonstrate you are legal.