Thought I'd share something that happened to me on the bus back to Portland...

The bus out of Sacramento was full to the point of people standing in the aisle. I was abt 5 or 6 rows from the very back, & had just moved my seat so that a guy could sit with his friend, who he said had 'special needs'. A guy in a khaki uniform up at the front of the bus used the intercom to announce that he was with some drug interdiction task force or other & that they had drug-sniffing dogs under the bus, & that they were going to be going through the bags that people had w/ them. The people in the aisles, 1 right in front of me, the other at the very back of the bus, others up front, started talking to people, asking them where they were headed & whether they were carrying any drugs or weapons & could they go through their bags.

I freaked. (This is why my account of what he said is kinda spotty: I was too busy panicking to listen real closely.) He did _not_ say up front that we could deny them access to our bags, of this I am sure. He did say that any one who wanted to could leave the bus. (IE, I think, 'relinquish your posessions'...) I couldn't think of a suave way to get in my bag & ditch stuff, & I got irrational real fast. I distinctly remember thinking 'I bet my face is red & if I tell them they can't go through my bag, they'll _know_...' So instead of rolling the dice & seeing what would happen if I stood on my constitutional rights, what did I do?.

I let them go through my bag.

This was a drug test, & I failed it.

Now, I got lucky: the guy spent a lot of time going through my clothes, & he didn't even open the part of the bag that had what I didn't need him to find. (I had told him that part contained 'toiletries'.) As he went through my stuff, I took the time to think 'If he asks me where I've been, I'll tell him the city, which he'll know from my ticket, but I sure haven't been staying w/ anybody...wish I could blank my hard drive real quick-like...' After my bags had been gone through, I heard one of them tell somebody 'You can say no when I ask you if I can go through your bag...'.

So anyway, this is a cautionary tale. Even somebody as well-educated in rights & as generally uncooperative as me can cave in totally when confronted by a surprise situation in an enclosed environment. It's good, in a way, that this happened, b/c I am now committed on a bone-deep level that nobody goes through my shit again ever, but I sure would feel better about it if I'd passed the test.

---

Erowid Note:

Unfortunately state and federal narcotics officers have been engaging in 'random bus sweeps' for some time now. Of course there is no question that what is 'really happening' socially is that the poor and lower classes are being harassed at astronomically higher rates than the rich and this is just one piece of that.

In a major decision in this area, FLORIDA v. BOSTICK (000 U.S. 89-1717) : June 20, 1991 (6-3), the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Bus Sweeps of this kind were unconstitutional because they trapped innocent travellers in extremely hostile search situations and even reasonable, law abiding citizens would be unable to say No because of the level of coersion.

The Supreme Court of the US overturned this ruling and said that pervasive and random bus sweeps, using armed officers, interviewing AND searching people on the bus, and asking them in forceful language to comply were _Totally OK_ and that any 'reasonable person' would certainly know they had a right to refuse to cooperate.

Bus Sweeps are legal and constitutional in the U.S. under the Rehnquist / Scalia fascist Court. (not to sound too bitter ;) They should be required to identify themselves as officers of the state in some way, but they don't need to show a badge.

Exp Year: 1999	ExpID: 2245
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jun 29, 2000	Views: 19,362
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Police / Customs (60) : General (1), Large Group (10+) (19)