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

[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...