By Samuel Warde
EDITOR’S
NOTE: Charlestown Police have also posted a link
on the CPD Facebook page
to an article on how to behave if you are stopped by police. – WC
There’s really no debate over the fact that a safe and secure
roadway and borders are vital to the protection of everyone. Sobriety and
immigration checkpoints are thought my many to be crucial and necessary to the
ongoing security and peace of mind every American enjoys.
However, as police checkpoints and immigration checkpoints creep
ever deeper into our cities and closer to our homes, it’s vitally important
that every American learns how to survive a police checkpoint in your
neighborhood with your rights still intact. Being American means having the
right and the freedom to travel through this great land without being impeded
or questioned.
Truth be told, what you’re about to read isn’t compiled by a
civil rights expert or a constitutional lawyer, it comes from watching over 30
hours of video tape made by citizens who have successfully made it through a
checkpoint without incident, and without relinquishing their rights to privacy
and travelling freely. If you choose to apply what you read here, you do so
knowing that this is only advice … but some of the best advice you’re going to
get on the topic.
Let’s roll.
When you’re addressing an officer or an agent at a checkpoint
it’s important you remember to liberally apply your pleases and thank-yous,
because not only will it keep tempers down in what could become a tense moment,
but you shut numerous doors that officer or agent might try to use against your
for being “combative” or displaying “suspicious behavior.” You know how you
react when someone is rude to you, so always keep that in the front of your
mind.
Don’t Roll Your Window Down More Than You Have To
Any time you are stopped at a checkpoint, the officer or the
agent standing next to your car is already thinking 10 steps ahead of you, and
one of the best and most efficient ways to level that playing field is your
window. As long as your window is open enough to allow for clear communication
with the officer or agent you need not open it any further. This maintains your
personal space, while also halting the law enforcement professional on the
other side of the glass from being able to claim they saw, smelled or heard
“suspicious activity” in your car. Remember, they need to be able to supply the
best testimony they can if they end up in court, and your window being mostly
closed stops them from making numerous claims.
Establish Immediately If You Are Being Detained
You quickly need to establish that you understand your rights,
and the best way to do that is to ask if you are being detained, and for what
reason. This question immediately places the officer or agent at a disadvantage
because to legally detain anyone or place them under arrest there has to be
probable cause or you have to have been witnessed breaking a law. There is no
crime in asking if you are being detained or are under arrest, and if the
officer or agent cannot answer that question for you, simply ask to be on your
way.
Decline Secondary Screening
Once you have declined to answer the officer’s or agent’s simple
questions you will almost undoubtedly be asked to pull into what is called
“secondary screening”. Don’t go. Secondary screening is where you go from being
a citizen standing up for your rights, to a suspected criminal who could be
subjected to drug dog searches or have your entire car gone over and through
with a fine tooth comb. Your best bet at this point is to simply say “No thank
you, I would rather just be on my way.” There is already traffic building up
behind you and the agent or officer already knows that the situation is quickly
going nowhere, the last thing you want to do if you can avoid it, is to be led
into secondary screening.
Keep Your Camera Rolling
One of the best tools in making sure that your rights as an
American citizen are respected and recognized is to start your camera rolling
before you get to the agent or officer at the checkpoint. More often than not,
when law enforcement officials realize that you are recording your interaction
with them, it can have a powerful effect on their willingness to keep you from
freely moving about your business. Make sure to ask for their name, their
position, their badge number, or anything else that will identify them later
on. Most officers or agents would rather let you keep your civil and
constitutional rights intact, than end up on a YouTube video that could go
viral at any given moment.
Never Forget That The Officer Or Agent You Are Speaking
To Is Also A Citizen
Everyone knows what it’s like to have a job that requires you to
do things that you really don’t want to do. The officer or agent that you’re
speaking to at a checkpoint has chosen to be there to protect their country,
but unfortunately for them, that also includes taking orders from superiors and
being placed at checkpoints they may not want to be at.
They’re Americans, just like you, and that’s something that you
cannot lose sight of when you’re standing up for your rights. If minds are
going to be changed, and laws are going to be applied fairly and
constitutionally, it’s going to take more people coming together to ask for
that change. The law enforcement officer that you demand your rights from
today, may just be the next concerned citizen to stand up and join the chorus
tomorrow.