On the 9th of December 2005, Deborah Davis will be arraigned in U.S. District Court in a case that will determine whether Deb and the rest of us in the USA live in a free society, or in a country where we must show “papers” whenever a cop demands them.
One morning in late September 2005, Deb was riding the public bus to work. She was minding her own business, reading a book and planning for work, when a security guard got on this public bus and demanded that every passenger show their ID. Deb, having done nothing wrong, declined. The guard called in federal cops, and she was arrested and charged with federal criminal misdemeanors after refusing to show ID on demand.
Read more about this at http://www.papersplease.org/davis/. Contact your elected officials and let them know how outrageous this is!
Hmmm. This website has a very biased approach and I’m still struggling with some of the basic issues.
1. Is there a difference in federal and state law here?
2. If you were walking on federal property or in a federal building, would you expect this level of questioning and security? Maybe in a federal building, but not just because you were on federal property. This would constitute being “on notice.” Riding a public bus is not “notice.”
3. Is there anything in the Patriot act about this?
4. Why is a public bus going through federal property? Probably for people that work at those federal buildings.
Regardless of the answers to the above questions, I sincerely hope that her record is expunged and the government gives her a formal apology. This is not a police state.