Michael Swickard
What bothers me most about illegal drugs and terrorists is they are causing the American police state. With these perceived needs, the police authorities can abuse citizens with impunity. Example: Leaving Boston’s Logan International several years ago I went problem-free through the screening until I handed my itinerary to the last agent, who said, “Your itinerary is incorrect. Go back and correct it.”
“What do I need to correct?”
His eyes narrowed. “Your itinerary is incorrect. Go back and correct it.”
At the airline’s counter the agent looked carefully at my itinerary and ticket. “No, this is correct. Go back and tell that TSA guy he is full of crap.”
I blurted, “Not in this lifetime or the next am I telling a TSA official he is full of crap.”
So I wandered back to the security checkpoint. The official who screened me was busy with someone else so I presented my itinerary to another screener. “Go ahead,” he said.
In the last few years I have been inconvenienced, menaced and intimidated by the very American authorities who are fighting to protect us. This is the product of the War on Illegal Drugs and the War on Terror.
Consider the Border Patrol checkpoints in Southern New Mexico. There are three checkpoints near Las Cruces. For decades each time I drive through one I am asked my citizenship even though I am inside my own country a hundred miles. Day after day what they are really looking for is illegal drugs. That is why a drug sniffing dog circles my car, pronouncing it uninteresting.
Commanded to stop
Recently in a column I made a reference to the Andy Griffith Show, with easy going Andy Taylor and excitable Barney Fife as law enforcement officers. Andy does not regularly carry a weapon; Barney does and has his one bullet in his shirt pocket. He puts his hand on his pistol to emphasize his authority while Andy looks for ways to defuse conflict.
On my radio talk show, News New Mexico, we have been talking about the conflict of authorities and regular citizens. Then it happened to me. Last week I noticed a lifeguard helicopter taking off and stopped to take a picture. I love anything that flies, especially helicopters. I was behind the helicopter so could not see either the patient or the pilots.
Two members of the authorities hustled over to me and told me that taking a picture of a lifeguard helicopter violates the federal HIPAA privacy rule because there might be a patient onboard. They said that I was violating a federal law. They commanded me to stop right then and obey their commands.
I reasoned that this did not seem correct because people take pictures of ambulances and helicopters often. So I asserted that it was my legal right to shoot a picture of a helicopter. I pointed out no one could see the patient from where I was if they were worried about that.
Rather than them saying, “Oh,” and walking away, this cranked them into overdrive. They stepped menacingly in front of me and ordered, “Put the camera away now.”
We then had a brisk conversation where I successfully resisted calling the more aggressive one Barney but stood my ground. Then it appeared to me that I was about to be arrested for not following a command if I did not back down. So I apologized profusely and, in their security room, removed the offending picture from my camera phone. They let me go with the warning to follow orders.
My offense
My offense was not doing instantly what a person of authority told me to do. That is the police state mentality. Incidentally, I had so much on my plate at that moment that I could not do the “good fight” right then. So I backed down, but it bothered me quite a bit.
The wars on illegal drugs and terrorists have created a police state that requires Americans to be instantly obedient to the authorities or be crushed by the full force of our government. The illegal drugs and terrorists are not harming our country as much we Americans are harming ourselves by creating an American police state.
Swickard is co-host of the radio talk show News New Mexico, which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on KSNM-AM 570 in Las Cruces and throughout the state through streaming. His e-mail address is michael@swickard.com.