Talley, I wish there were more people like you who exercised their rights.
Imagine if every person in that roadblock did the same thing, it would take
so long detaining every person, they would have to let most of the cars
through, which would undermine the entire purpose. The police probably would
not create the roadblocks in the first place. I think the same is true of
fighting many kinds of traffic infractions. If everybody fought his ticket,
the state would lose more money prosecuting the cases than they gained in
the ticket fees. Writing tickets would no longer be a revenue enhancing
activity. The police would focus traffic enforcement on safety rather than
on revenue generation. Imagine that!
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Talley, Brooks
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 19:07
To: John Kelly; jeff; John J. Stimson-III; Michael R. Clements
Cc: ba-autox@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: Fw: CA Special Alert
> Observation: On the way home Sunday night after my last three
> trips to the San Diego National Tour in March ('01, '00, and
> '99), on I-15, there has been a road block slowing all
> northbound traffic to a crawl.
> Each lane advances toward a Highway Patrol officer
> who eyeballs each vehicle's occupants. Nothing is said. And
> then we're on our way.
>
> --John Kelly
This same roadblock exists on I-5, just north of Oceanside and south of
San Clemente. It's mainly staffed by INS personnel, though there are
highway patrol officers, too, in theory ready to give chase if someone
tries to run the checkpoint.
It's ostensibly to detect and stop illegal immigrants, but it's real
purpose is part of the so-called war-on-drugs / war-on-crime /
war-on-violence / war-on-whatever; they're looking for longhairs,
hippies, volkswagon vans, etc.
The funny thing is that they maintain the traffic delay at a certain
length; once it's slowed traffic too much they take a break and let cars
through indiscriminately. People who are actually trafficking in
illegals watch send "clean" cars through every 15 minutes or so, and use
cell phones to coordinate sending shipments through when the checkpoint
is in bypass mode. This is plenty well known and documented in the
SoCal press.
Anyways, when I lived in San Diego and visited Disneyland about 3 times
a month, it was routine to be stopped about once a month (1 out of 3
trips). At the time I had long hair, as did my buddy I mostly went to
DL with. We were (are) both about 20 years old and very, very
whitebread-white, and could in no way be mistaken for hispanic, but we
were driving a black '77 Trans Am. Obviously a menace to society, I
suppose.
Each time they stopped us, we'd refuse them permission to search the car
(we didn't have anything to hide, but were young and idealistic at the
time). They'd hold us for 55 minutes or so and then let us go (1 hour
being the limit at which they have to arrest you or let you go). This
happened over and over again, for two or three years. I don't think
they ever once believed that we were actually going to disneyland,
despite the fact we both had (and showed) annual passes and plenty of
parking vouchers.
Personnel rotated enough that we never saw the same person twice, at
least during the arguments about searching the car. Each time it was
the same explanation all over again, the same disbelief, the same
threats to get a warrant ("Are you going to list long hair as probably
cause? Go for it! "). It got so we planned for the 50 minute delay and
started leaving earlier accordingly ( you don't want to be in Santa Ana
at 5:15pm).
As someone who visited East Berlin and went back and forth through
Checkpoint Charlie before the wall came down, I can assure you that it
really isn't all that different here, these days. At least in Southern
California. To minimize hassle, maintain short hair, drive a late model
sedan, and be sure to smile and wave at the officers.
-b
|