Kiss my Patriot Acts!

Come December 31, 2005 sixteen provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire. Among them are:

Sec. 217: Allows the government to eavesdrop on electronic communications if ONE party agrees, without judicial oversight.

Sec. 220: Allows nationwide search warrants for electronic communications.

Sec. 225: Provides immunity from lawsuits for people cooperating in an intelligence wiretap.

Sec. 215: Allows a special judge to issue an order for "any tangible thing" that is sought in connection to a foreign intelligence investigation.

Just to name a few.

Believe it or not I have read most of the Patriot Act, for reasons I will disclose shortly. And I am here to tell you my countrymen, women, and children; this document has more holes in it than an octopus’s bowling ball. It is the most vague piece of writing since “Waiting for Godot.” Forty-five days after September 11th the U.S Government with this piece of legislature, under the cover of darkness declared marshal law. I mentioned earlier that I had read most of the Patriot Act. A lot of you right now are probably thinking to yourselves, “Why?” Because someone close to me was thrown into jail for forgetting to clean out his backpack.

It was a little over a year ago when one night, while the BF and I were watching TV, when his cell phone rang. I was his mother sounding a little more frantic than usual. It seemed that his younger brother, who was flying home from college in Florida (a Christian college mind you) was arrested at the Atlanta airport. The reason being, an attempted act of terrorism.

You see, the BF’s brother (we’ll call him A.J.) had decided to go camping with a friend from college (once again a CHRISTIAN college) before flying home to upstate New York. When the camping trip had ended, A.J. gathered up the rest of his things from his friend’s house and went off to the airport. A.J. forgot he had left his penknife from camping in his backpack, which would be his carry-on onto the plane.

When they got to the airport A.J. checked in his bags and proceeded to his gate with the backpack. Once he reached the gate a security guard was there to search passenger’s bags. Now remember, A.J. still doesn’t remember he left his 3-inch penknife in the side pocket of his carry-on. A. J. walks up to the guard when it was his turn and handed him the bag. He noticed sitting on the floor next to the guard was a small bucket full of knifes, nail files, mirrors and other objects that could be used as weapons. Just then the guard reaches into the side pocket of the backpack and pulls out A.J.’s knife.

The guard turned very serious and asked A.J. if the knife belonged to him. “Yes” he said. After seeing the bucket he didn’t think twice about the knife. A.J. figured he would chuck the little penknife in the bucket and send young college student on his way north. But that wasn’t the case.

The guard called his supervisor over to the baggage search area and whispered something in his ear. They both looked at A. J. sternly. The supervisor leaned in began giving the third degree (loudly) right there in the middle of the airport. After about 10 minutes of being interrogated, the two guards dragged A.J. away to a back room in the airport. There they began yelling even more and banging their fists on the table in front of A.J. “DID YOU THINK YOU COULD GET AWAY WITH THIS, BOY!?”, the guards shouted over and over. At this point, he wasn’t sure what was going on or what was going to happen to him. But there was one thing for sure A.J. was scared.

After what seemed like an eternity in that room the two guards grabbed A. J. and took him off to a waiting police car in front of the airport. A.J. eyes began to well up with tears. Of all the things to happen, he didn’t expect this. The guards shoved him into the back of the police car and slammed the door. A.J. was being taken to jail for a penknife that he forgot about in his backpack. Once at the Atlanta jailhouse, A.J. was searched, fingerprinted, and told strip down in front of a group of strangers to put on an orange prison jumpsuits.

With his one phone call he called his mother. He was in tears explaining what happened. His mother in turn called the BF to tell him what happened, that’s when he told me. Immediately, I called a friend of mine who worked for the federal government and explained the situation. They took down A.J. information and said they would check back with me if there was anything they could do. But they said with the Patriot Act in place, the police in Atlanta were within their rights to do what they did. It seemed under the Patriot Act A.J. fit the lose description of a terrorist male, early twenties, and a religious affiliation. Apparently, a twenty-year-old boy who is an honor student at southern Christian college is a red flag in the “War on Terror.” A.J. ended up spending the night in the general population of the Atlanta correctional system until his mother could bail him out the next day.

A.J. was released to the custody of his mother but was ordered to appear in court in 2 months. Eventually the charges were dropped and A.J. was cleared. But he’ll never forget that time in Atlanta. A time when the government that he trusted, didn’t trust him and a law that was supposed to protect him didn’t.

Welcome to George W. Bush’s America, A.J.