Read this! The short version is that an American woman, wife, and mother and the two Indian men she was randomly assigned to sit next to were detained, questioned, and *strip-searched* in the grubbiest of holding cells after their flight landed at Detroit Metro on September 11, 2011. These people did not know each other before the flight and didn’t even talk to each other on the plane. The men visited the bathroom in succession and someone panicked about “suspicious activity” and, well, just read it. I cannot describe it.

This is a perfect example of what I was struggling to say in my September 11th post. I hadn’t planned on writing a September 11 post at all. I do not have a personal story about that date. I don’t know anyone who died in the attacks and, other than being terrified for a while, it did not touch me in a personal way. In the end, I wrote my post but only because I hate what our country has turned into in the 10 years since the original attacks.

I almost don’t have any words. Using the bathroom on a plane is suspicious behavior? And what about our civil rights here? Was this woman given an opportunity to call a lawyer (or even her husband)? No. She was handcuffed and taken to a holding cell, questioned and searched. And why a strip search? The plane had already landed. Why would she be a threat to anyone at that point? Some people (here at the Landfill) are saying that she didn’t exercise her civil rights by refusing to answer questions without the presence of a lawyer. Okay. I understand that. But I think that this woman was feeling intimidated and, if I were in that position, I would be TERRIFIED. I am a rule follower. In this case, the “police” were not following the rules. I would probably freak out and maybe even lash out and then things would escalate and I would cross some sort of line, resisting the poleese, maybe… I don’t even want to think about it.

We can’t keep doing this kind of stuff to our fellow citizens. If we really need the level of security screening of average American citizens that is currently in place, we need to make crystal clear rules and find a way to communicate those rules not only to our air travelers but to our so-called “security” police. We need to hire people who don’t freak out so easily and who don’t let power go to their heads. And I think that the airport police thugs and FBI agents involved in this particular charade should be reassigned to a job cleaning toilets. I am wondering how they sleep at night.

We need to take our country back!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.