Papers, bitte

[msmemory_archive]

Eish. They've started checking IDs on the Green Line. Apparently, if you are innocent, you are not supposed to mind.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely with the "be very polite but fail to find my ID" crowd opinion. Until they get really likely to cart me away.

Time to send more money to the ACLU.

[jducoeur]

I think I fall into a slightly different camp: "very polite but refuse to find my ID". It's a courage-of-convictions thing -- I'm not going to play dumb and pretend that I'm having trouble, but I also think it's better not to get in the officer's face about it.

The appropriate action seems to be a calm but firm statement of, "I'm sorry, officer, but I consider these random checks an unconstitutional civil rights violation. I'm a US citizen and a resident of this area, but you are going to have to arrest me to prove that. I don't want to make your life difficult, but *someone* has to make a stand about civil liberties -- it's not something that can just be shrugged off."

In reality, I suspect whether I do this or not will be situational; it's not a statement to make unless I *am* prepared to be arrested over it, so whether I do so would depend on the timing. It's possible that simply being inconveniently dilatory would be the best reaction if I'm not prepared for that. But if it's a quiet day, this seems like the right way to treat the matter...