If you're documented and don't have any warrants, the time to think about whether and how you'd refuse to comply with such requests is now.
Even asking questions about whether you're required to comply will slow the process down and make others aware of their rights.
NYPD checkpoints appear at subway entrances occasionally, with cops searching bags. They're probably unconstitutional, but "voluntary," so unchallenged.
Cops can stop you going in the subway if you refuse, but most stations have multiple entrances, so evading is easy. It's compliance theater.
Anyway, I researched all this when I saw the tables the first time, and now every time I see one I think what I'd do/say if stopped, just to reinforce it.
Last time they stopped me, I hadn't seen their table, so my response was instinctive: I just said "no thanks," and turned around. They didn't resist.
I immediately wished I'd been more theatrical, more visible, to let other folks know they can refuse, but at least I know now that my "no" is locked in.
What's safe for me—a tall, graying, white, male, non-disabled college teacher—may not be safe for you. So be careful. (But you know that already.)
What's important is to think about the similar situations you're likely to encounter, and strategize about your response in advance, before it happens.
What are your legal rights? What's (probably) safe to say and do? What will slow them down? What will be visible? What will make a good story?
And crucially: What are you comfortable with? You, personally. Because if we plan to do something we'll actually do, we'll do it. And next time we'll do more.
The roundups are getting worse. The checkpoints are getting worse. The harassment is getting worse. The things we were worried would happen are happening.
My good friend @KTKeith passes this along: A roundup of your rights and obligations at various kinds of checkpoints. Take a gander. flexyourrights.org/faqs/my-rights…
To my mind, the Fourth Amendment is one of the best and most beautiful passages in the constitution: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."
If we don't have the freedom to tell the cops to stay out of our pockets, our homes, our documents, our stuff, we are not free.
(We are not free. Some us are far less free than others. We're all getting less free. But we're not entirely unfree yet. We are still, some of us, free.)
The folks who wrote the Bill of Rights understood the humiliation of being rousted by a cop because he can, what it does to your soul and your nerves.
Most of us, in our daily lives, would get along fine without the First Amendment. The government doesn't actually care much about what we say. But the Fourth Amendment is a different story.
Resistance isn't just marches, and it isn't just slogans, and it isn't just organizing. It's how we live our lives every single day. Where you can, when you can, how you can: Resist.
Oh, and since we started with an ID check in the border zone, let's end there, too. Here's the @ACLU: aclu.org/other/constitu…
And here's a story of a woman who refused to answer the Border Patrol's questions—and got away with it. sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigrati…
And for those of us who like to read Supreme Court decisions, here's US v Martinez-Fuerte, from 1976. supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/…
As I tell my students when we talk about the Bill of Rights, knowing your rights won't always protect you. Asserting your rights certainly won't. But know them anyway. And where you can, assert them too.
Here's the @ACLU again, via @cbcon2. Know your rights. Resist where you can. Lemon out. aclu.org/know-your-righ…
One last link, from @StephenFrug. I'm not telling you to do this. I'm not even saying I'd have the guts to do this. But I definitely feel stronger just watching it.
