It could happen to anyone: Patriot Raid

[Joyce in the mts.]

If you wonder how it is to suddenly get caught up unknowingly, in a Homeland Security raud, check this out.

Oh yeah...and remember that Patriot 2 is much more stringent.

...Foreshadowing of things to come?

http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15770

Monty Python's Cardinal Fang: "Nobody ever EXPECTS the Spanish Inquisition!"

...Joyce in the mts.

[lotusdebi]

[CollegeMama]

Wow, just imagine how much more "Nazi-ish" things will get once Patriot Act 2 passes!

I've written my congressmen, begging them to vote against it, and they are hell-bent on passing it!

[JessicaS]

I have already been profiled (IE pulled over for no apparent reason, I wasn't speedng or driving erratically they didn't tell me what they pulled me over for)

I handed them my Native American ID card with my drivers license and they just let me go. I then sent a rude note to the police and informed them I wouldn't be donating to their charity anymore as well as a rude note to various other city offices..

[Deirdre]

[JessicaS]

it may not have been race though..the county next to ours likes to pull people over for having tags from the county I am in..still stupid though...

[OhMel]

This sh** makes my stomach ache. I just don't know what to do about it. I write to my congress people, but that feels so futile.

So disturbing.

[Chi-Chi Mama]

very disturbing.. can't say I'm surprised, though

land of the free, home of the brave, right?

[merpk]

abimommy, I know a bunch of folks who have at various times driven cross-country. All of them drove across the south. And all of them who drove cars with New York plates got pulled over repeatedly. The three who drove in cars with other states' plates never got pulled over even once.

Things that make you go "hmmmmm."

[Marlena]

Amy, that sort of thing happened long before 9/11, or Patriot I, or Patriot II, or the Bush administration (pick whichever bush you want). Incidently, I've found those folks with NY, CT, or MA plates get pulled over much more frequently here in the south, rather than NY alone. It's the "damn yankees" thing...or at least the ones who are perceived to be the most obnoxious.

[dfoy]

Abimommy, I live in the county you mention.

I do think that POC are pulled over more frequently than others in this county. There are so many WY county license plates in my part of the county that it would be hard to pull all of them over (I'm just across the county line) and we also have lots of MO license plates(I'm just across the state line, as well). I have noticed that most who are pulled over are POC with plates other than JO. And it usually takes 3 police cars - not just 1.

Makes me feel really safe knowing that 1/2 of the small police force in my little "city within a city" are working on one traffic stop:

As for the article, the loss of our civil rights is only going to be greater if Patriot 2 becomes law. Write your congressmen! I'm thinking about inviting Dennis Moore (US Rep from KS) to a dinner party since we've been corresponding so much!

[Hilary Briss]

We've taken a half dozen road trips to the south over the last few years, and we've never been pulled over. I guess our little Wisconsin plates are not very threatening. I always joke about getting pulled over, but it never happens.