I refused to answer questions tonight at an interior border checkpoint
Tonight I drove to Yuma Arizona to hear G. Edward Griffin speak. On the way back I had to stop at a border patrol checkpoint (80 Miles from the border) I was a little nervous because I just put "9/11 was an inside job" and "Don't blame me I voted for Ron Paul" bumper stickers on my back window. Plus, my wife is an immigrant and I told her and my passenger that I was not going to cooperate with their unconstitutional questions.
Anyway, I roll up to the check point and an agent asks me what country I am from. I said America. He then asked, "where are you coming from?" I asked him if that was a legal question. To my surprise he said no. He then asked me where I was going and I again asked him if that was a legal question. He didn't say anything but immediately asked me if I was in Mexico at all. I again asked him if that was a legal question. About that time a man walked around the back of my car and saw my bumper stickers and said something from the back of my car to the guy asking me questions, who then said "have a good night". I had my video camera rolling, asked him for his name and he gave it to me and waved me on through.
It was great to question them like this but what was even better was that they must've been so flustered that they didn't even ask my wife anything. Every other time we go through this gestapo checkpoint they talk to her and have us go to "secondary" where they have the drug dog search our car while they look at her "papers". Didn't happen tonight though. I think it was the combination of me asking them questions, me filming, and them seeing the stickers that did it. Also, my glock was proudly sitting on my dash.
It was 12:30 in the morning, nobody else was on the road, and when we pulled away all I could do was laugh because for the first time I didn't answer any of the questions they have no legal right to, and they wanted us out of there pretty damn fast.
Question Authority!!!
It's quite possible that
It's quite possible that these things are changing because of people like you being fair and consistent in always challenging these unconstitutional and often illegal checkpoints.
Well done!
...
This issue is a problem created by government for us to react.
I think some people need to step back and analyze the situation a little closer. Why does the government want to restrict guns as was done in Germany? Why does the government create tension between residents and immigrants as was done in Germany? It is the government that creates the motivation for immigrants to come and receive benefits, so it is the government who is to blame. Government creates problems so that it can solve problems. Drug War, War on Terrorism, War against Immigrants and so on and so on.
We have immigrants coming to this country, that is not the problem, government gives free benefits,spends too much of our money and creates money from thin air, those are the problems.
Government enlists our men to go and be "illegal temporary immigrants" in Iraq and any other country it chooses to attack.
Let's not play their game, let's educate immigrants to be free, free to come and free to leave. I prefer to treat them as would any good Christian would and educate them the advantage of speaking english, to have a good work ethic and learn the American way.
I believe God created everything and that includes the whole world, not just that within my countries borders and not just those who are Americans, land of the free home of the brave, I would like some day for the whole world to be the land of free and home of the brave and not separated by borders that benefit not the people but governments.
grant
good job
good job
You, sir, deserve high honor
Ira Freeman, you are a true patriot: courageous, educated, and freedom-loving. You are a model for us all.
God bless you. Keep up the eternal vigilance, and being an example to all those around you and on this website.
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." - Henry Ford
Definitely!!!
Bravo, Bravo for standing up. Keep the Constitution alive.
Exactly...
...right. These actions slamming the Border Patrol and being provocateurs promotes open borders plain and simple. Calling them 'Getapo' is childish.
The majority of border checkpoints
are not even near the border. They are many, many miles inland.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/ACLU_highlights_ConstitutionFr...
”The means of defense against foreign dangers have historically become the instruments of tyranny at home.”
”Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety and will lose both.”
I think you need to wake up
I think you need to wake up and smell the tyranny.
You Judge A Tree By It's Fruit, NOT its Flower
Open borders...
...is not supported, rightly so, by most Americans because it is one step in the process of a world government. Arguments against the BP (and the provocative acts against them at the checkpoints ) is an attack on US sovereignty.
You should have a look at
The Northern Hemisphere Travel Initiative - since you brought up world government. It advocates closed borders but tracking you like cattle everywhere you go, even within our own borders.
We can have open borders and still retain national sovereignty. Sovereignty has nothing to do with fences and machine guns along borders; it has to do with laws for a given nation. Closed borders does not equal sovereignty.
Funny thing is that same
Funny thing is that same politicians who opposed Berlin Wall support building THE FENCE... you are right they treat people like a cattle.
Sorry, but that doesn't make sense.
Borders require that you have to be registered with government in order to go from one place to another. How is that freedom? I don't agree, borders and checkpoints are a step in the process of a one world government. If you were truely sovereign you could go anywhere in the world without a passport, world sovereignty. Borders are not only to keep people out but they keep you in. Of course this is a separate issue from property rights, since you have the right to keep people off your property. But public ways? Public ways whether owned by the government or operated by the private sector should allow freedom of movement. Centralized Governments want to control the movement of people, tag them, claim them as property so they can be taxed. Then they will make deals with other governments for them to do the same and then they will merge into one government. If people were to move freely without control, how would central governments know where to find and tag them?
Local communities can manage problems without government intervention, individuals will solve problems without borders and checkpoints. I don't need government protection, I don't need mafia protection...
grant
A border secure enough to keep them out...
is a border secure enough to keep us in.
My point exactly!
Always want to leave that as an option.
Another point has to do with private property.
Those on the border should protect their own land from trespassers, but not at my expense. If you live on the coast and a hurricane comes, you take that risk freely or else you move. Same goes for owning land on the border. Now that problem would be eliminated if there was open borders for people to come in and out of via roads, then no one would have to trespass on someone's property to get in or out! As we know much of the land on the boarder of Mexico is the property of large land owners, sometimes 1000s of acres, some a 100,000 acres or more. Anyone with that much land should be able to protect it, since it should be the responsibility of an owner to protect his property and not the taxpayer.
grant
Agreed
You might want to read this quickly: http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?A...
The reason I say that is because it was all over the mainstream news a couple of weeks ago, but all mainstream news outlets, in unison, have removed the story.
I saw some of the border residents interviewed and they all said, essentially (paraphrased) – they don't understand why such a big deal is being made, that there is no reason to send in elite teams to confront the problem because they (the residents) can handle it just fine, and that encounters they've had with trespassers have been minimal (in number) and not dangerous.
We do have plenty of roads going across the southern border. The problem is the gestapo checkpoints on them.
Honestly, I don't care who comes to this country, as long as they respect it, learn the language and act as productive contributors. I would impose the same expectations on myself when going to any other country. Problems arise when illegal aliens are given special rights – above and beyond our own. That has to stop.
Border control is tyranny, those who have property on border
should have the right to protect their property and defend it against trespassers, but not at other taxpayer's expense.
Open the border and immigrants won't need to trespass to get into the country, take away benefits and only those who come to work and earn a living will stay.
The issue of "illegal" immigration is used to get people to accept government control They did this in German and I won't let them do it here! Sure it is wrong that immigrants come and take benefits, but that is the fault of the law. Take away the authority of the government to steal out money and there won't be benefits given to those who haven't earned them. Church run on donations, why can't the government?
grant
A church operates on
A church operates on donations. A government operates by force, at the end of a gun.
You Judge A Tree By It's Fruit, NOT its Flower
What is wrong with open
What is wrong with open borders? Border Patrol means that we have to pay more taxes to protect borders. Open the borders and immigrants won't have to invade private property to get in, that solves that problem, eliminate benefits that bring people who don't want to work into the country and that solves that problem. If someone wants to come here and work great, it means more production and cheaper goods, but again that is because someone here is willing to hire. As for English, I think it is very important for those who live here to speak English, but at the same time government shouldn't demand that they speak English. They can use sign language as far as I am concerned (we all know that secret societies do it all the time), speaking English is to their benefit since the majority of us speak English, but we should do so freely, not because we are forced to do so. I know many Germans in Michigan that have lived here for 40-50 years and still don't speak English, they work very hard, have few friends because they don't speak English, but not being able to speak English doesn't make me have an bad opinion about them. Now if they wanted to bring their family here and not support them by the fruit of their own labor than that is another issue. The issue is abuse of and the socialist system and the socialist system is created by those in Washington. In a free market language and culture are also allow to compete. Centralized planning is what we need to attack.
grant
Regarding the cost of securing the borders...
Remember that the Minute Men were willing to step in, in number, to secure the southern border, at no cost to taxpayers, but Big Brother stepped in to shut them down. What does that tell you? To me it says that the issue is not so much about security of the border as it is about who gets to control it.
It is all about control.
That's the way it should be, if they are protecting private land it should have no cost to taxpayers.
grant
Roadblock
Sounds like you ran across some fairly reasonable police officers who had better things to do than start a confrontation with a questioning individual who was known to have at least one machine gun that can be held in a persons hand. Congradulations on having survived the evening. I personally have been arrested and/or stopped and searched 25-30 times, but that was in Chicago. The Bill of Rights disappeared from Chicago about 35 or 40 years ago.
You know...
You don't have to answer their question about your citizenship. If you really want to make full use of your right to remain silent, I would print something like the following (modified from http://www.winyourdui.com/california_drunk_driving/sobriety_...) and hand it to the Agent:
http://2-by-sea.blogspot.com/
http://2-by-sea.blogspot.com/
I have a question
Just curious. If you get pulled over for no apparent reason that you are aware of and you ask the officer what the problem is are you required to give your license and registration before he tells you why?
I got pulled a couple weeks ago and I asked ans he said very firmly"I will tell you after you show me your license and registration" So I did and he said my tags were expired. I didn't realize it. I hardly ever drive the car and we usually do it through the mail when they send us the renewal form.which in retrospect we realized they didn't do for that car, but did our other 2 vehicles. There goes an $84.00 oversight. He was nice other than the tone when asking for my info. But I felt he could have told me why he pulled me while I was getting the stuff. He even told me that was all he was out there looking for was expired tags. Gotta get that quota. They should allow a warning on stupid little things like that. Thes was in a tiny town 4 miles from my rural home. I went to pick up some invitations for a pig roast for a fund raiser for Ken Cuccinelli for Attorney General. So I gave one to the cop LOL I joked with him about my RP sticker and asked him if he pulled me because he thought I was a terrorist. He said "Who is Ron Paul? Oh yeah he ran for president. Libertarian?"
No, the officer MUST tell
No, the officer MUST tell you why he stopped you, otherwise, this could easily be transformed into random search stops.
However, the fact that you have a drivers license and registration is fact of your previous agreement to stop whenever he says.
read:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/travel.htm
Yes
If you are the driver of the car, you must identify yourself. I don't think there are any judges out there that will care if the officer told you why he pulled you over before or after. For more information on when you must identify yourself to the police, check out this small article I wrote on the subject.
http://2-by-sea.blogspot.com/
http://2-by-sea.blogspot.com/
Your papers now! You must produce your papers!
Obedience is mandatory, right? You will produce your papers, or else, right?
I find such an attitude to be pathetic. Are you somone's property, or are you free?
\\m//
Rock on, Freeman!
RON PAUL PHONE FROM HOME
R[̲̅ə̲̅٨̲̅٥̲̅٦̲̅]ution 2012!
Mises.org
Good job
Sounds like the agent knows and respects the law. Maybe he's an RP supporter. Maybe he's ordered to ask these questions, but understands they are quasi legal. An oath keeper?
At any rate, way to go. There's no telling the result of the actions of a free man who is prepared for consequences. Sounds like a transaction that was very much in the spirit of the good Dr.
Doesnt it feel GREAT to
Doesnt it feel GREAT to stand up for your rights???
This is how I feel EVERY time I get pulled over these days.
Congrats, Imagine if EVERYONE did this?!?!
Bravo to you sir.
Eternal Vigilance is the price of Freedom.
Your actions embody that.