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My San Francisco experience with the new regime
My girlfreind and I were subjected to harassment at the Embarcadero Center on Sunday of a most disturbing kind. This and other recent events show a pattern that points to a coup to overthrow the American system and place us undr military rule.
A Quiet Sunday Afternoon in San Francisco
This last Sunday, my girlfriend and I decided to have a relaxing day and go see a movie--the new Ed Burns movie “Streets of New York.” We looked in the paper; it was playing at the Embarcadero Landmark Cinema in downtown San Francisco. This theater is inside an indoor-outdoor mall close to the wharf in San Francisco.
After a pleasant Sunday drive to the theater I turned my Honda Civic in to the garage entrance under the Embarcadero complex. As we drove in, I noticed a small man in blue uniform who waved at me and said hello. Pleased that he was friendly, I waved back and exclaimed “Good morning” as we drove past. As we drove down the ramp, he began to yell and gesticulate. My girlfriend said, ”I think he wanted you to stop.” So I backed up the ramp to see what it was that he wanted. When I stopped, he bent toward my window and said in an accent, “Open your trunk. I need to search it.” I asked him why it was that he needed to do such a search, but he simply repeated his earlier request. I asked him what he was looking for and he said “Open your trunk or find another fucking place to park.”
Slightly taken aback by his language and obvious anger, I thought for a second and--remembering that the fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects every American against unwarranted search--I replied, “ No, you can not search my car.”
“Then you have to go someplace else,” he said.
“Fine, I’ll just turn around and leave,” I replied, wanting to avoid a confrontation with this now quite upset individual. So I pulled down to the bottom of the ramp in order to leave, only to notice that the exit lane was blocked by a number of cones of two different types. I sat for a second wondering if I should run them over, but deciding against this since it would probably seem provocative. I was forced to back up again to my earlier spot where another car waited behind me. My girlfriend asked the car behind us to please back up, and the man in uniform went to help them back into the street.
While this was going on a gray-haired gentleman in a blue uniform walked up the ramp and to my car window. He stated that they had to search my car or I could not park here. I told him that I did not want to park here; I just wanted to leave. Now the other car had backed into traffic, the first man was yelling and upset, the older man in uniform was furrowing his brow, and I was now backing up in my Honda Civic. The situation was growing very tense--there was panic in the air. Just as I got into the street, two large security men ran up to the curb, angry and ready to wrestle the would-be criminals to the ground. Only the closest thing to a criminal in the area were the men who wanted to search my car without cause. But somehow I don’t think that security were going to apprehend their own boss. My girlfriend and I were made to feel like criminals—dangerous public enemies—yet we had nothing wrong. Two innocent people were made to feel threatened and frightened for trying to fend off harassment. I think I now have had just a small taste of how a German Jew must have felt in the 1930’s. It is a special kind of fear.
We drove around the block for about fifteen minutes, looking for a parking spot. Both of us were obviously very upset by this incident. But what I think bothered me even more than the incident itself was that, as we drove around the block several times and passed the same garage, we saw person after person opening their trunks so that these security men could check it for what they would not say. Now, they never did say what they needed to open the trunk for, but I bet that everyone reading this has but one guess. In these times of terrorist paranoia, I could make only one guess. A bomb.
Why are they checking car trunks for bombs at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco? Did they receive a bomb threat? Well, if they had received a bomb threat from the Taliban, why were they only searching car trunks and not people? It is obvious that anyone who actually wanted to blow up the Embarcadero Center would drive up, see that they were searching trunks, and either hide the explosives under the back seat or put them in a gym bag and carry them in. So what is the point of this harassment? What is the reason to subject innocent American citizens going to a Sunday movie to a violation of their personal rights? Since this kind of invasion will do not one thing to stop any sort of bombing or terrorist activity it can have, in my mind, only one purpose:
To get people in America used to unwarranted searches, specifically, and used to giving up their Constitutional rights, in general. There seems to be some sort of plan afoot to get us all used to giving up our rights. As I said, the people that pulled into that garage just merrily opened their trunks, to a man that was not even a police officer, without any warrant, and without even as much as an explanation as to what was being looked for. Did these people have no care whatsoever for their own civil rights? Are they so paralyzed with fear of terrorism that they are ready to sacrifice any personal freedom in the name of security and safety? And this is San Francisco! Had any of these people even known someone who grew up in a country without freedom they would know that there is one thing more important than personal safety, one thing more important than even your life, and that is personal and civil rights, personal freedom. For without freedom and strict laws to protect that freedom, life becomes more dangerous than any terrorists’ bomb. And when it is devoid of personal choice and freedom, it becomes not worth living.
This incident has also called other less dramatic, recent experiences to my mind. First, we see President Bush setting up secret military kangaroo courts for non-citizens in direct violation of the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. Courts that spit on American ideals of justice and fairness. Gone is the right to a public trial! Gone is the right to a jury! It is also clear that this could be extended to all Americans with a single wave of the pen. We can not tolerate the destruction of America in this way.
In addition, the U.S. Justice department has instigated a dragnet to search and question immigrants, and has enlisted local police department to do their bidding for them. Very much to their credit, many police departments have refused to go along with this dangerous and illegal activity, including police in Detroit, MI; Portland, Hillsboro, and Corvallis, OR; Richardson and Austin, TX; and San Francisco and San Jose, CA.
I have also noticed that at the entrance to the bridges here in San Francisco there are what I assume are National Guard men in camouflage fatigues holding M-16 rifles and standing in front of military vehicles, as if they are watching all the cars that cross the bridge. Now what possible reason is there for this? One or two soldiers are not going to stop a bomb-loaded vehicle driving across the bridge, and they certainly can not stop a jet. I have also seen these military men in the San Francisco airport when I went to pick up my girlfriend there. I saw three soldiers at one entrance--one of them with his finger on the trigger of his machine gun! Are these men here for our safety? Are they here to stop terrorists? How? What could they possibly do to stop any terrorist? The answer is: Nothing.
So why are they there? Why are there soldiers stationed in our country! Again, I can only come up with one possible reason. To get the American public used to a permanent military presence. The only reason for this would be that there is some sort of plan in place to seize military control of America, and place it under military rule. And this threat--a far worse threat than any terrorist--comes from within. The only conclusion that I can reach is that there is a cancerous growth within the American government that is attempting, at this very moment, to seize control of our American Government and strip all Americans of their God-given rights. The Constitution of America is being violated out of hand, and we can not allow this to continue. Without a Constitution and a Bill of Rights, there will be no more America.
"[A] bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse."
--- Thomas Jefferson December 20, 1787
This culture of lawlessness and Anti-Americanism must be sought out. The perpetrators of these crimes against the American people must be found and brought to justice. With recent events we now know where to start looking for these traitors. They are people who are capable of deploying military personnel and stationing them at airports and bridges and of creating secret military kangaroo courts as well as performing illegal Justice Department interrogations. We, the American People may not know exactly who these treasonous criminals are--but now at least--We know where to start looking for them. In the military, and at the White House.
James Ferrigno
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
To read the entire Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States of America you can go to: http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/billrights/billrights.html
This last Sunday, my girlfriend and I decided to have a relaxing day and go see a movie--the new Ed Burns movie “Streets of New York.” We looked in the paper; it was playing at the Embarcadero Landmark Cinema in downtown San Francisco. This theater is inside an indoor-outdoor mall close to the wharf in San Francisco.
After a pleasant Sunday drive to the theater I turned my Honda Civic in to the garage entrance under the Embarcadero complex. As we drove in, I noticed a small man in blue uniform who waved at me and said hello. Pleased that he was friendly, I waved back and exclaimed “Good morning” as we drove past. As we drove down the ramp, he began to yell and gesticulate. My girlfriend said, ”I think he wanted you to stop.” So I backed up the ramp to see what it was that he wanted. When I stopped, he bent toward my window and said in an accent, “Open your trunk. I need to search it.” I asked him why it was that he needed to do such a search, but he simply repeated his earlier request. I asked him what he was looking for and he said “Open your trunk or find another fucking place to park.”
Slightly taken aback by his language and obvious anger, I thought for a second and--remembering that the fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects every American against unwarranted search--I replied, “ No, you can not search my car.”
“Then you have to go someplace else,” he said.
“Fine, I’ll just turn around and leave,” I replied, wanting to avoid a confrontation with this now quite upset individual. So I pulled down to the bottom of the ramp in order to leave, only to notice that the exit lane was blocked by a number of cones of two different types. I sat for a second wondering if I should run them over, but deciding against this since it would probably seem provocative. I was forced to back up again to my earlier spot where another car waited behind me. My girlfriend asked the car behind us to please back up, and the man in uniform went to help them back into the street.
While this was going on a gray-haired gentleman in a blue uniform walked up the ramp and to my car window. He stated that they had to search my car or I could not park here. I told him that I did not want to park here; I just wanted to leave. Now the other car had backed into traffic, the first man was yelling and upset, the older man in uniform was furrowing his brow, and I was now backing up in my Honda Civic. The situation was growing very tense--there was panic in the air. Just as I got into the street, two large security men ran up to the curb, angry and ready to wrestle the would-be criminals to the ground. Only the closest thing to a criminal in the area were the men who wanted to search my car without cause. But somehow I don’t think that security were going to apprehend their own boss. My girlfriend and I were made to feel like criminals—dangerous public enemies—yet we had nothing wrong. Two innocent people were made to feel threatened and frightened for trying to fend off harassment. I think I now have had just a small taste of how a German Jew must have felt in the 1930’s. It is a special kind of fear.
We drove around the block for about fifteen minutes, looking for a parking spot. Both of us were obviously very upset by this incident. But what I think bothered me even more than the incident itself was that, as we drove around the block several times and passed the same garage, we saw person after person opening their trunks so that these security men could check it for what they would not say. Now, they never did say what they needed to open the trunk for, but I bet that everyone reading this has but one guess. In these times of terrorist paranoia, I could make only one guess. A bomb.
Why are they checking car trunks for bombs at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco? Did they receive a bomb threat? Well, if they had received a bomb threat from the Taliban, why were they only searching car trunks and not people? It is obvious that anyone who actually wanted to blow up the Embarcadero Center would drive up, see that they were searching trunks, and either hide the explosives under the back seat or put them in a gym bag and carry them in. So what is the point of this harassment? What is the reason to subject innocent American citizens going to a Sunday movie to a violation of their personal rights? Since this kind of invasion will do not one thing to stop any sort of bombing or terrorist activity it can have, in my mind, only one purpose:
To get people in America used to unwarranted searches, specifically, and used to giving up their Constitutional rights, in general. There seems to be some sort of plan afoot to get us all used to giving up our rights. As I said, the people that pulled into that garage just merrily opened their trunks, to a man that was not even a police officer, without any warrant, and without even as much as an explanation as to what was being looked for. Did these people have no care whatsoever for their own civil rights? Are they so paralyzed with fear of terrorism that they are ready to sacrifice any personal freedom in the name of security and safety? And this is San Francisco! Had any of these people even known someone who grew up in a country without freedom they would know that there is one thing more important than personal safety, one thing more important than even your life, and that is personal and civil rights, personal freedom. For without freedom and strict laws to protect that freedom, life becomes more dangerous than any terrorists’ bomb. And when it is devoid of personal choice and freedom, it becomes not worth living.
This incident has also called other less dramatic, recent experiences to my mind. First, we see President Bush setting up secret military kangaroo courts for non-citizens in direct violation of the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. Courts that spit on American ideals of justice and fairness. Gone is the right to a public trial! Gone is the right to a jury! It is also clear that this could be extended to all Americans with a single wave of the pen. We can not tolerate the destruction of America in this way.
In addition, the U.S. Justice department has instigated a dragnet to search and question immigrants, and has enlisted local police department to do their bidding for them. Very much to their credit, many police departments have refused to go along with this dangerous and illegal activity, including police in Detroit, MI; Portland, Hillsboro, and Corvallis, OR; Richardson and Austin, TX; and San Francisco and San Jose, CA.
I have also noticed that at the entrance to the bridges here in San Francisco there are what I assume are National Guard men in camouflage fatigues holding M-16 rifles and standing in front of military vehicles, as if they are watching all the cars that cross the bridge. Now what possible reason is there for this? One or two soldiers are not going to stop a bomb-loaded vehicle driving across the bridge, and they certainly can not stop a jet. I have also seen these military men in the San Francisco airport when I went to pick up my girlfriend there. I saw three soldiers at one entrance--one of them with his finger on the trigger of his machine gun! Are these men here for our safety? Are they here to stop terrorists? How? What could they possibly do to stop any terrorist? The answer is: Nothing.
So why are they there? Why are there soldiers stationed in our country! Again, I can only come up with one possible reason. To get the American public used to a permanent military presence. The only reason for this would be that there is some sort of plan in place to seize military control of America, and place it under military rule. And this threat--a far worse threat than any terrorist--comes from within. The only conclusion that I can reach is that there is a cancerous growth within the American government that is attempting, at this very moment, to seize control of our American Government and strip all Americans of their God-given rights. The Constitution of America is being violated out of hand, and we can not allow this to continue. Without a Constitution and a Bill of Rights, there will be no more America.
"[A] bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse."
--- Thomas Jefferson December 20, 1787
This culture of lawlessness and Anti-Americanism must be sought out. The perpetrators of these crimes against the American people must be found and brought to justice. With recent events we now know where to start looking for these traitors. They are people who are capable of deploying military personnel and stationing them at airports and bridges and of creating secret military kangaroo courts as well as performing illegal Justice Department interrogations. We, the American People may not know exactly who these treasonous criminals are--but now at least--We know where to start looking for them. In the military, and at the White House.
James Ferrigno
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
To read the entire Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States of America you can go to: http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/billrights/billrights.html
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I have noticed that rent-a-cops are more badge-heavy if that's remotely possible than real cops. They also seem to have some new-found entitlement to be assholes since S11. And the poster's point about "why were they just searching trunks" is well taken. This is all about intimidation, not terrorism prevention.
God damn silly twit!
Stay home next time, and maybe you won't have your civil liberties trampled by some minimum wage rent-a-cop, you pathetic loser.
My acquaintance is indian, and is a wealthy patent attorney from Beverly hills. He was busy moving from his apartment somewhat near the base of the Bay Bridge, which is a pretty large area, and the police came and made him unload his uhaul truck to show that there was no bomb inside of it.
leave your stinking global warming car at home and ride a bike or take transit to embarcadaro.
http://www.criticalmasshub.com/
and oh the part about "...there is one thing more important than your life and that is civil rights..."? Um without yer life dude rights don't really apply! And lets just evaluate a bit. Searches are annoying, parking is a BITCH, if you don't have anything to hide then give the guy a glimpse of yer tire iron and be on your way. I hate
people who get crazy with the constitution and the bill of rights. Hello we are not a free country, by a long shot our rights are violated repeatedly, why focus your sudden political activism on a stupid parking attendant when there are millions of other more worthy areas that deserve your attention i.e. your kids can't attend a public school
unless they receive vaccines that are mandated by the F.B.A. Gay couples are denied hospital visits because the government doesn't recognize homosexual marriage, and why should you have to be 'family' to visit people in the hospital anyway? Suffice to say that any type of
major event in the news will undoubtedly send many people scurrying to claim that they are being victimized. Hello open yer eyes you're already under the thumb, why not move to Canada?
and oh the part about "...there is one thing more important than your life and that is civil rights..."? Um without yer life dude rights don't really apply! And lets just evaluate a bit. Searches are annoying, parking is a BITCH, if you don't have anything to hide then give the guy a glimpse of yer tire iron and be on your way. I hate
people who get crazy with the constitution and the bill of rights. Hello we are not a free country, by a long shot our rights are violated repeatedly, why focus your sudden political activism on a stupid parking attendant when there are millions of other more worthy areas that deserve your attention i.e. your kids can't attend a public school
unless they receive vaccines that are mandated by the F.B.A. Gay couples are denied hospital visits because the government doesn't recognize homosexual marriage, and why should you have to be 'family' to visit people in the hospital anyway? Suffice to say that any type of
major event in the news will undoubtedly send many people scurrying to claim that they are being victimized. Hello open yer eyes you're already under the thumb, why not move to Canada?
I am shocked at how few people care about civil rights or personal freedom.
The point of the article was that I and my girlfreind were made to feel like criminals for not submitting to a blattant unwarented search.
I know that many other people have it worse but that does not make it right. By that logic only the worst torture murder is worth anything, all other violations are not worth our time. Who cares about rape. Nobody died.
Also, I am quite aware that corporate property is considered "private" but this it self is a large problem. Part of the destruction of the Commons. Most places in "public" where people gather are now considered "private" property.
I suggest an amendment that all corporate property be made public.
In addition, in my opinion one can not begin submitting to searches by anyone for any non-valid reason. To do so is to help build your own prison and help to destroy this country for the fascists and I for one will not do it. At any level or at any time. If everyone would take this attitude you would see a quick end to most of the problems of this world.
Think about your rights. They are ideas and ideas are far more powerful than any individual.
All We are Saying Give Peace a chance.