Only in the land of the free: Interior border stops


I have been known to criticize the media at times, but there is one young intrepid, astute reporter for the Boston Globe who is so good (and so obviously deserving of a Pulitzer) that I have set up a Google alert to apprise me of his every article. Today Google tells me that he has published yet another gem. (In the same alert Google also informs me of yet more feats of athletic heroism by one Kate Wirzbicki (no relation), who is often caught up in Google's dragnet, though it was designed to catch other fish).

It so happens that the article in question covers territory previously covered in this very blog: the irritating, unconstitutional "interior border" (isn't that a contradiction in terms?) stops in New Hampshire and Vermont. It seems that some of the dirty hippies in Vermont are a bit irritated at being stopped by the border patrol as they go about their business:

Some Vermonters are complaining about the patrol's more aggressive tactics, especially the use of highway checkpoints as far as 100 miles from the border. They say the random checkpoints -- which stop all passing cars inside the state, even if they're not headed to or from the border -- can make driving within their state feel like being in Eastern Europe under communism.

"If they're decreasing personal civil liberties for these Keystone Kop exercises to catch drug smugglers, that's not a fair trade," said Keith Aten, a lawyer in Montpelier and a board member of the state's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has blasted the use of interior Border Patrol checkpoints.

"I can't drive from one part of Vermont to another part without going through what is basically a border crossing," he said. The checkpoints on interstate highways within the state borders operated occasionally before Sept. 11 but became much more frequent as part of the overall build up of border security -- which included motion sensors, night-vision equipment, and more personnel.

Care to guess how many terrorists they've caught, in round numbers? If you guessed the roundest of them all, you'd be right.

Lest anyone think that the chip got the idea for the article from the block, rest assured that while I religiously read and save every article written by this ace reporter, he just as religiously (so far as I know) avoids wasting his time by reading this blog. So this is just another one of those occasions in which great minds think alike.
Posted: Tuesday - December 19, 2006 at 10:21 PM          

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