By Elmer WhittakerA while back I had to go to Las Vegas in order to get copies of papers from the Clark County Family and Juvenile Court.
When entering the courthouse, I naturally had to go through
a security checkpoint where I, as usual, emptied my pockets, and in this case,
I had to take my belt off too, before stepping through the scanner.
Unfortunately, I was caught still wearing my shoes. This was a security breach
and had marshals materialize right in front of me out of thin air.
I was a little startled when I had to take my shoes off for
the first time in my life to finally pass the security checkpoint without
getting detained or arrested. The security checkpoint, however, did not yet
have any naked body scanners installed, and nobody seemed to have any
intentions of groping me.
This in fact was a very traumatic experience for me. I felt
pretty violated after I passed the security scanner and stood there with my
pants starting to slide down, my socks hanging off my feet and both hands full
holding my belongings and my shoes.
I slowly started walking toward a corner to get dressed and
get out of the way of the other people passing through the procedures
undisturbed like it never has been any different.
Ever since the terrorist attacks at the Olympics in Munich
in 1972 (of which I don't really think that the Israeli or German governments
were in any way involved), I have passed through many such security checks but
never had to take my shoes off.
I guess the "Shoebomber" has changed the security
measures in airports around the country and the world, but I simply cannot
remember how many family and juvenile courthouses have ever been blown up with
explosives hidden in shoes, in the past 10 years or even 25 or 50 years. In fact,
I cannot even remember one.
After conducting the business I had to conduct in which I
used one of my credit cards to pay, it struck me as a bit funny that nobody
even bothered to check my ID to compare it with the credit card. Who actually
are they trying to convince us that they are protecting with their security
measures?
As this whole incident continued to fester inside of me, I
really thought this would be a perfect opportunity to put it on youtube. So I
decided to take a little video with my cell phone of this whole security
insanity on my way out.
Luckily for the free people of the United States, I was
caught by the marshals when I filmed the charade. I already had planned to ask
them if they knew the statistics for bombings of family and juvenile
courthouses in the U.S.
Fortunately, I was able to ask that question while I was
detained for "filming in a courtroom" and threatened with arrest and
being put on a terrorist watch list. The marshals, however, went even further
and forced me to delete the video on my phone and then grabbed the phone to
make sure I had deleted everything.
Amidst all the signs of prohibited items and actions in this
public building, there was no sign prohibiting filming. I was informed that
filming was not allowed and that it is not a public building but a government
building.
In spite of me refusing to give them my Social Security
number or answering their question about me having ever been arrested in this
country, the marshals said they would be nice enough not to arrest me and let
me go my way, while carefully checking out the information on my Arizona
driver's license.
After being detained for approximately 30 minutes, I was
allowed to leave, but not without a marshal following me out to my car to write
down my license plate number. At which time I had the opportunity of pointing
out my "Don't Tread On Me" sticker, which probably confirmed to them
me being a "domestic terrorist."
All the way I was thinking to myself that they didn't arrest
me because they wanted to be nice; it was because I hadn't done a damn thing
illegal, while they trampled and violated my constitutional rights.
Now I know it is getting close to the day when they come for
us!
