Albany Airport Search Policy

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 27 Oct 2001 12:00:00 GMT

For a laugh, you can read today's edition in redneck dialect. [brianf]

CLEAR Net News - Green Party duped in hoax e-mail - The greens have been fooled into believing the dihydrogen monoxide hoax. Hehe. For more on this threat to the environment, visit dhmo.org. If you haven't heard about this before, it might help you to know that dihydrogen monoxide is H²O, otherwise known as water. [fredrik]

I wrote the following email to the information address at the Albany International Airport:

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:44:13 -0400
To: info@albanyairport.com
From: "Bill St. Clair" <bill@billstclair.com>
Subject: Car searches at the Albany airport?
Cc: bill@billstclair.com

Hello,

I work in the Albany area and often pick up and drop off people at the airport. I am concerned that I may no longer be able to safely do this because of changes in security practices. I am not worried about terrorists. Being hassled by authorities enforcing misguided security policies is my worry. Hence this message.

I recently read an internet article (http://www.wkrn.com/Global/story.asp?S=518428&nav=1ugB5Isg) saying that cars at the Nashville airport are now subject to search. Has such a search policy been implemented at the Albany airport? If not, do you plan to implement such a policy in the near future? If so, when?

If you have implemented or are planning to implement a car search policy, please answer the following questions:

What is the search perimeter? Within some distance from the terminal? All parking spaces? All airport property?

Which items that many people normally carry in their cars will be considered contraband and result in arrest and/or confiscation? Please distinguish if some items in a class are forbidden but others are not. The following list contains possibilities that came to mind, but if you already have a list of verboten items, just send that along.
Explosives? e.g. dynamite, gunpowder

Firearms? e.g. rifles, pistols, shotguns.

Ammunition?

Knives? E.g. pen-knives, folding knives, fixed-blade knives, multi-purpose tools

Other potential self-defense items? e.g. baseball bats, batons

Tools? e.g. screwdrivers, hammers, drills.
What is your policy for dealing with people who refuse to allow their cars to be searched?

Do you plan to make information about car searches available on your web page? If so, when? If not, why not?

What is the legal authority for these searches? Give specific reference to U.S. and/or state code. If you can't answer this question right away, please send the answer to the other questions first, then follow up with this one later on.

-Bill St. Clair
bill@billstclair.com

I received the following response:

From: Doug Myers <DMYERS@albanyairport.com>
To: "'bill@billstclair.com'" <bill@billstclair.com>
Subject:
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 17:06:10 -0400

Dear Mr. St. Clair

Thank you for your interest in security at the Albany International Airport.

I am pleased to inform you that Albany International is operating at the security level consistent with the latest FAA requirements.

I'm sure you understand that to reveal security measures which we have been asked to undertake could compromise our security efforts.

Sincerely,

Doug Myers
Director, Public Affairs
Albany County Airport Authority
518 242-2222

Obviously, I don't at all understand why he refuses to tell me if his goons will attempt to search my car, and which inanimate objects are not allowed on airport property. I haven't decided where to go next. Probably I'll write another email on Monday, call them if that doesn't work, resort to a snail mail letter if that doesn't work, then write to the newspapers, etc. I'll probably also try parking in the lot with my car carefully swept of potential contraband, and see if someone asks to search it. Last time I did this, on the day they posted the soldiers at the airport, nobody asked to search anything.

DrugSense Weekly - DEA Raids L.A. Cannabis Cooperative - The drug nazis did it again.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 26. On the very afternoon that Congress was approving new restrictions on civil liberties for the federal government, scores of DEA agents descended on the LA Cannabis Resource Center, seizing all of the center's computers, files, bank account, plants, and medicine. The DEA cited the recent Supreme Court decision as justification for their action. No charges have been filed.

The raid effectively shut down the largest, best organized and most respected cannabis center in Southern California. West Hollywood city officials, who have strongly supported the club, are calling a press conference to protest the action at City Hall on Santa Monica Blvd at 2 PM.:

The following account came from Dana Beal's email newsletter:

FLASH: SCOT IMLER'S WEST HOLLYWOOD CLUB RAIDED BY FEDS; NO ARRESTS; CANNABIS, COMPUTERS, PATIENT RECORDS CONFISCATED...

The West Hollywood Cannabis Buyers' Club, whose founder Scott Imler courted controversy by zealously cooperating with state and federal authorities (going to far as to testify--because he felt they were playing too fast and loose-- against Todd McCormick and Peter MacWilliams in their federal case).

Imler's club was legendary for its stringent entry requirements. Staffers bragged that they'd flagged every narc who'd ever come in posing as a patient-- something none of the 6 clubs who recently lost before the Supreme Court could say, since each and every one of them slipped and made a sale.

The fruits of cooperation with the authorities and assiduous self-policing apparently ran out yesterday at 4 pm California time, when 30 DEA agents descended on the W. Hollywood site, a former factory purchased in 1998 for the club by the city government. They spent 8 hours hauling away cannabis from basement grow areas, scouring the premises for patients records, computers, and anything else they could use to prove conspiracy to enable patients to possess cannabis in violation of U.S. law.

As the evening progressed, the City Council, which was in session, adjourned and joined the Mayor and hundreds of protestors on the street in front of the club. The DEA did not relinquish the building until midnight.

Justice Dept. spokespeople released a letter from Congressman Bob Barr in which he cited the recent Supreme Court decision upholding Congressional power to prohibit medical use of marijuana, and demanding that something be done about the West Hollywood club. But Dana Rohrbacher, a conservative Republican Congressman from California who voted for 215 in 1996, issued an irate statement objecting to this federal trampling upon the rights of the voters of his state.

No one was arrested. Staff members immediately re-occupied the building and at mid-day were holding a press conference. Longtime activist Gilbert Baker, reached by phone, exulted: "Bob Barr went to far. They shouldn't have messed with Hollywood."

Drug Policy Central - DEA Declares War on Medical Marijuana, Wipes Out LA Cannabis Center - Another account.

The Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center Crisis Page contains two images, the sign from the first of which I have reproduced below.

LOS ANGELES CANNABIS RESOURCE CENTER
D.E.A.th

DRCNet - Netherlands May Add Medical Marijuana to National Health Plan - way ahead of the rest of the world in drug policy, the Dutch will vote within the next few months on a proposal to add cannabis to their official pharmocopeia. I wouldn't want to live there, however. Talk about your socialist governments...

DRCNet - Walters Drug Czar Nomination Under Contention in Senate - apparently, John Waters nomination for drug czar will not just be rubber stamped by the senate. Good.

Jeremy Sapienza at anti-state.com - Emails from a fedgov drone - Mr. Sapienza shares an email conversation he had with one Corey Davis, who identifies himself as an "American and Federal Officer". [anti-state]

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair