I am confused. Is this area close to the Mexican border? Are we concerned about border security or would we prefer no one be needlessly stopped and identity requested? I don’t see how one can be for greater border security (i.e. stop the illegals) and at the same time against someone being stopped and asked for id (i.e. police state). You can’t have it both ways, can you?
This is San Bernardino County, just East of Los Angeles. It is enormous, stretching due East to the border with Arizona, and North, almost to the Nevada border and Las Vegas.
20,000 square miles. And with most people in the southwest corner of the county. Way too much desert with few roads to be patrolled on the ground.
http://www.sbcounty.gov/Main/images/Homepage/county_road_map.gif
If someone is out in the desert, while they may be there for some nefarious purpose or not, even in a case like this, where the woman was in seeing distance of a highway, that may be too far for them to hike.
And that desert kills people if given half a chance.
It is about 150 miles north of the Mexican Border. The officer was with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office.
The land, I believe, is open range.
I can't think of a single reason why they would have used a helicopter to basically harass this lady. She obviously posed no danger to anyone, because the officer walked up to her alone and without any weapon drawn.
I can say this, however, his patting her down for a weapon without even a reasonable suspicion that she had or was about to commit a crime and against her permission was a criminal assault and battery.
He had no fear of her having a weapon or he would never have approached her in the middle of the desert alone and on foot.
The area seems to be near Interstate 15, just east of Cajon Pass, in San Bernardino County, Calif.
Authorities need to secure the actual border. For many years Border Patrol and others have been concentrating efforts away from the actual border, usually on major roads- state highways, freeways. These roads can be as far as 50+ miles from the actual border. Enforcement should be on the actual border, then citizens that are clearly inside the US would not need to be harassed.
