Is Homeland Security Violating Civil Rights?

[Gene Scarborough]

[Haruo]

Sorry, Gene, I forget to answer your question. Of course "we" are. Of course, I don't dare get too specific for fear we might arrest me.

[Haruo]

I was almost run over by a Homeland Security cop a few weeks ago, for no apparent reason. I had the feeling he was just venting.

[Gene Scarborough]

Typically, I think of the problem more in places like NYC with it's Middle Eastern residents. There are many in Atlanta and even some in Rocky Mount.

I know I was arrested while chasing Hurricane Katrina in Mobile. A customer owed me money. There is a statute on the Alabama laws books making such a class 3 felony, but I had the out-of-state driver's liscense. My cell phone was confiscated. My money was taken and they would not let me post bail when money was in my billfold for such. My wife thought I was dead for a week. My civil rights were badly violated, but the FBI nor the local paper showed any interest in my story of abuse at the hands of law enforcement.

I was in jail with any number of men who had more integrity than those wearing the uniform. Until you feel the sting of law gone brutal, you assume we live in a land of freedom. "Come to Mobile on vacation / leave on probation"--how I wish I had known it before going there!

[Matto]

[Gene Scarborough]

What was most interesting to me about Mobile was that large churches of all denominations exist there. They are so large and well-attended that off duty cops direct traffic.

The dichotomy of the racial issues and one-sided enforcement of law is glaring. Their Sheriff, at the time, had a food budget for jails and whatever he did not spend, he kept. What they served was of less quality than what my grandaddy used to slop his hogs; freezer burned outdated hot dogs, for example. It was another insult to the people housed in their jail. On top of that the incarcerated people worked to do maintenance on landscape areas of the city for free. They same money on their slave labor that way. Their city jail was overcrowded and infested with lice and vermin to the point I was asked to disinfect every hairy part of my body when I was transferred to the County facility.

I was told that many regular citizens end up in jail. If 2 businessmen get into some dispute, one or the other ends up in jail! In other words, their jails are a way of forcing someone to give up his argument and possibly get screwed in some deal.

I have lived in NC,SC, and GA. Never have I seen such abuse of the law in my part of the south. I am told it only gets worse as you move toward Texas along the Gulf Coast. The Gulf pirates used to settle there when they tired of the ships. They definitely brought their scull duggery with them!

Another man I met upon my return told me whenever his company had work there, they retained a local lawyer before going. Is this the future for America with Homeland Security abuses?