Miami police take new tack against terror
By Curt Anderson, Associated Press Writer | November 28, 2005
MIAMI --Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.
Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.
"This is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there," Fernandez said.
The operations will keep terrorists off guard, Fernandez said. He said al-Qaida and other terrorist groups plot attacks by putting places under surveillance and watching for flaws and patterns in security.
Police Chief John Timoney said there was no specific, credible threat of an imminent terror attack in Miami. But he said the city has repeatedly been mentioned in intelligence reports as a potential target.
Timoney also noted that 14 of the 19 hijackers who took part in the Sept. 11 attacks lived in South Florida at various times and that other alleged terror cells have operated in the area.
Both uniformed and plainclothes police will ride buses and trains, while others will conduct longer-term surveillance operations.
"People are definitely going to notice it," Fernandez said. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears."
Howard Simon, executive director of ACLU of Florida, said the Miami initiative appears aimed at ensuring that people's rights are not violated.
"What we're dealing with is officers on street patrol, which is more effective and more consistent with the Constitution," Simon said. "We'll have to see how it is implemented."
Mary Ann Viverette, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said the Miami program is similar to those used for years during the holiday season to deter criminals at busy places such as shopping malls.
"You want to make your presence known and that's a great way to do it," said Viverette, police chief in Gaithersburg, Md. "We want people to feel they can go about their normal course of business, but we want them to be aware."
Originally posted by: Dissipate
Miami police take new tack against terror
By Curt Anderson, Associated Press Writer | November 28, 2005
MIAMI --Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.
Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.
This one of the most outrageous things I have ever heard of. The police in Miami are now going around displaying 'shows of force?!' I tremble as to what may be next. This 'war on terror' has spiralled out of control.
Don't forget to put a picture of you on your forehead and ink your Social number on your arm. Enjoy your new Republican America.
Originally posted by: sarotara
Reminds me of communist Russia...
"Papers please!"
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: Dissipate
Miami police take new tack against terror
By Curt Anderson, Associated Press Writer | November 28, 2005
MIAMI --Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.
Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.
This one of the most outrageous things I have ever heard of. The police in Miami are now going around displaying 'shows of force?!' I tremble as to what may be next. This 'war on terror' has spiralled out of control.
Don't forget to put a picture of you on your forehead and ink your Social number on your arm. Enjoy your new Republican America.
Nah...they'll start implanting RFIDs and shakedown anyone who doesn't have one.
Originally posted by: Dissipate
Miami police take new tack against terror
By Curt Anderson, Associated Press Writer | November 28, 2005
MIAMI --Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.
Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.
"This is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there," Fernandez said.
The operations will keep terrorists off guard, Fernandez said. He said al-Qaida and other terrorist groups plot attacks by putting places under surveillance and watching for flaws and patterns in security.
Police Chief John Timoney said there was no specific, credible threat of an imminent terror attack in Miami. But he said the city has repeatedly been mentioned in intelligence reports as a potential target.
Timoney also noted that 14 of the 19 hijackers who took part in the Sept. 11 attacks lived in South Florida at various times and that other alleged terror cells have operated in the area.
Both uniformed and plainclothes police will ride buses and trains, while others will conduct longer-term surveillance operations.
"People are definitely going to notice it," Fernandez said. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears."
Howard Simon, executive director of ACLU of Florida, said the Miami initiative appears aimed at ensuring that people's rights are not violated.
"What we're dealing with is officers on street patrol, which is more effective and more consistent with the Constitution," Simon said. "We'll have to see how it is implemented."
Mary Ann Viverette, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said the Miami program is similar to those used for years during the holiday season to deter criminals at busy places such as shopping malls.
"You want to make your presence known and that's a great way to do it," said Viverette, police chief in Gaithersburg, Md. "We want people to feel they can go about their normal course of business, but we want them to be aware."
Text
This one of the most outrageous things I have ever heard of. The police in Miami are now going around displaying 'shows of force?!' I tremble as to what may be next. This 'war on terror' has spiralled out of control.
Originally posted by: HotChic
"For the last time, I forgot my ID, dammit!"
"That's what you've said every day you've come in here."
"So I forget a lot!"
Originally posted by: Uhtrinity
The Terrorists have won in yet another state.
Originally posted by: HotChic
"For the last time, I forgot my ID, dammit!"
"That's what you've said every day you've come in here."
"So I forget a lot!"
Federal prosecutors are reviewing whether to pursue charges against an Arvada woman who refused to show identification to federal police while riding an RTD bus through the Federal Center in Lakewood.
Deborah Davis, 50, was ticketed for two petty offenses Sept. 26 by officers who commonly board the RTD bus as it passes through the Federal Center and ask passengers for identification.
Davis said she commuted daily from her home in Arvada to her job at a small business in Lakewood, taking an RTD bus south on Kipling Street each morning from the recreation center in Wheat Ridge, where she left her car. She said the bus always passed through the Federal Center and some people got off there.
Guards at the Federal Center gate always boarded the bus and asked to see all passengers' identification, she said.
She said the guards just looked at the IDs and did not record them or compare them with any lists.
When she refused to show her ID, she said, officers with the Federal Protective Service removed her from the bus, handcuffed her, put her in the back of a patrol car and took her to a federal police station within the Federal Center, where she waited while officers conferred. She was subsequently given two tickets and released.
She said she arrived at work three hours late. She no longer has that job and did not identify her former employer.
Some supporters have called Davis "the Rosa Parks of the Patriot Act generation," a reference to the African-American woman who became a civil rights heroine after she refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, Scannell said.
Davis said she showed her ID when a Federal Center guard asked to see it for the first couple of days she rode the RTD bus through the center. But it bothered her.
"It's wrong," she said Monday. "It's not even security. It's just a lesson in compliance - the big guys pushing the little guys around."
For a few subsequent days, she told the guards she wasn't getting off in the Federal Center and didn't have an ID. They let her stay on the bus.
Finally, on a Friday, a guard told Davis she had to have an ID the next time. Davis said she spent part of the weekend studying her rights and e-mailing Scannell.
That Monday, when a guard asked if she had her ID with her, Davis just said, "Yes."
"And he said, 'May I see it?' " she recalled, "and I said no."
The guard told her she had to leave the bus, but she refused. Two officers with the Federal Protective Service were called.
"I boarded the bus and spoke with the individual, Deborah N. Davis . . . asking why she was refusing," wrote the first Federal Protective Service officer in an incident report posted on Scannell's Web site. The officer was not identified.
"She explained she did not have to give up her rights and present identification," the officer wrote. "I informed her she was entering a federal facility and that the regulations for entrance did require her to present identification, before being allowed access."
"She became argumentative and belligerent at this time," the officer wrote.
Eventually, one officer said, "Grab her," and the two officers took hold of her arms and removed her from the bus, Davis said.
Davis has four children, including a 21-year-old son serving in Iraq with the Army and a 28-year-old son who is a Navy veteran. She has five grandchildren.
Originally posted by: dahunan
This isn't illegal when you have the son of the Ex Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the white house and another son as Governor of that state where they want to do this..
Originally posted by: dahunan
Originally posted by: HotChic
"For the last time, I forgot my ID, dammit!"
"That's what you've said every day you've come in here."
"So I forget a lot!"
Are you caucasian or could you be possibly of middle eastern descent? Do you think the police would treat either of the two races differently in the situation you describe?
I thought there was some sort of law on the books about illegal search and seizure?
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: dahunan
Originally posted by: HotChic
"For the last time, I forgot my ID, dammit!"
"That's what you've said every day you've come in here."
"So I forget a lot!"
Are you caucasian or could you be possibly of middle eastern descent? Do you think the police would treat either of the two races differently in the situation you describe?
I thought there was some sort of law on the books about illegal search and seizure?
Same place where a little piece of paper called the Constitution used to be. In the trash.
Originally posted by: azazyel
In Soviet Russia, the banks cash you!
Originally posted by: dahunan
Originally posted by: HotChic
"For the last time, I forgot my ID, dammit!"
"That's what you've said every day you've come in here."
"So I forget a lot!"
Are you caucasian or could you be possibly of middle eastern descent? Do you think the police would treat either of the two races differently in the situation you describe?
I thought there was some sort of law on the books about illegal search and seizure?