3/6/10 Meeting-Stop Homeland Security’s militarizing of NW Washington!
Stop The Checkpoints meeting on Saturday, March 6 at 4:00 pm at the Port Angeles Library (Note new time – 4:00 pm) will plan actions to protest the increasing police state tactics in northwestern Washington State. Senator Murray wants funding to keep the huge homeland security headquarters in Bellingham open indefinitely. It was set up “temporarily” at a cost of millions to “protect the Winter Olympics”. We also have numerous reports of Border Patrol and ICE agents patrolling on board Washington State Ferries and alongside local law enforcement in Clallam County and sometimes even operating in plainclothes inside city hall buildings. Yakima residents are protesting the permit for a new detention center there, and ICE agents have thrown 500 apple workers out of jobs in Brewster destroying the town’s economy. Here is another example sent in by a member:
It appears that the US Border Patrol is now doing general purpose law enforcement work in the Port Angeles area.
They respond to coffee stand robberies: http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20100120/news/301209984 and DUI suspects running through the woods: http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20100121/news/301219988
What is the story behind this? The secretive nature of Homeland Security operations in our area is disturbing. Alex
An unknown adult white male showed up out of the blue at the 03/06/10 meeting at the public library. Though the meeting was open to the public, the Stop the Checkpoints group had long before voted in our points of unity (Stop the checkpoints; Defend civil liberties; No to racial profiling, raids, and detentions; Defend immigrant workers and their families; No Police State on the Olympic Peninsula or anywhere) and these were written on the board in plain view.
After introducing himself by a name that was oddly the same as that of one group member who wasn’t present, the guy went on to tell a story about his wife being a Hispanic Border Patrol agent and how they had recently moved to our area from the southwestern most community in the continental US, where they had, according to him, drunken Mexican illegal immigrants tearing through his yard at all hours of the day and night. He carried on about how the US belongs to its citizens and how we have a Constitution and that immigrants steal Americans identities (use fake IDs and American citizens’ social security numbers) and that “illegal” immigrants “take jobs from Caucasians”.
At that point, I confronted him about his racism/nationalism/classism, pointing out how he was scapegoating impoverished people who simply need work to survive while the corporate profiteers are really to blame for global poverty. He got a “how dare you challenge me!” attitude, rolled his eyes when I used the term “corporate profiteers” and denied his racism.
Later, when the guy started in again about how the immigrants were, according to him, hurting American citizens, I told the guy that I found it really hard to believe that his name was the same as this one group member who wasn’t present and he got indignant and pulled out his ID and gave it to me. I handed it back and said, “This documentation doesn’t prove anything! Why should I trust this? This could be fake; I have no evidence otherwise!” The unknown adult white male was indignant again (or still) and said something about how he had no problem with showing his ID to any Border Patrol or police officer and I confronted him again with the fact that the 4th Amendment to the Constitution that he brought up earlier is supposed to keep us free from unreasonable search and seizure and that we, under the constitution, have the right to refrain from showing our identification to any “law enforcement” agent, even when asked or ordered to show it. I told him that it appeared to me that, not only was he opposed to our point of unity supporting immigrant workers and their families, he also went against us by supporting the police-state.
The troll said something about bringing his “Hispanic”, “Border Patrol” “wife” to the next meeting, claiming that maybe she would tell us some things to “open [our] minds”. I rolled MY eyes at that nonsense and shortly afterward the guy retracted the idea of bringing his wife, stating that he “[didn't] know if she could take the heat”. One other Stop the Checkpoints member said something to him like “oh, we’re not so mean” and he looked appreciatively at her and I raised my (left) hand and said “I am! I will take the credit!” then I turned my hand into a power-to-the-people fist and pumped it in the air twice. (Spontaneous drama by TAS chillin’)
Lois,
I wanted to compose an e-mail Re: 2 short videos I made and get it out to you:
The US Border Patrol stopped doing checkpoints locally in 2008.
It looks like they have not moved on to matters of National Security.
Their web page still states:
“Apart from ongoing line-watch operations, duties in Port Angeles have recently extended to include limited Traffic Checkpoint and Boat Patrol operations.”
Local “news” papers provide very little info on local US Border Patrol activities.
Recent history- Port Angeles, WA- US Border Patrol has responded to
a construction site theft
a coffee stand robbery
an escaped drunk running through the woods
a trailer park domestic dispute in the Port Angeles area
and a bank robbery
- why?
I put together a couple of short videos- trying to look into this.
Links to all above incidents included in both videos.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uVseyI0cP8
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riKvblzh-X0
Alex