BTW, Border Patrol's 2004 Accidents Made Disaster Top 10

By the way, those 2004 accidents in upstate New York occurred months apart, demonstrating Border Patrol inattention to their cause: allegedly, faulty signage. And the toll of dead and injured? Four killed and more than 60 injured. The accidents made the Adirondack Almanack's list of the ten worst disasters in the region's centuries-long history, and are described, among other places, in this NTSB report (note: opens to pdf file).

They're Back, and Twice as Bad

If you drove south on I-91 past White River Junction, Vermont last week, you noticed that the Border Patrol was operating its pointless checkpoint again. I was especially impressed on Friday afternoon, when the BP saw fit to stop the rush-hour traffic until it was backed up perilously close to the blind turn leading from the I-89 interchange. Trucks and cars coming around that corner at speed had to slow down very quickly to avoid striking the vehicles last in line.
Imagine how dangerous this will be during the holiday shopping season, with snow and ice on the road! The newspapers and the BP don't remind us about the crashes and the multi-fatality accident caused by the Border Patrol checkpoint on I-87 in 2004, a checkpoint declared unsafe by the National Transportation Safety Board. Will we start paying attention to the obvious hazard on I-91 only after someone gets hurt there?
Maybe not. The first accident may instead occur on I-89, where the Border Patrol was also operating last week, at a new "temporary" checkpoint near Exit 18 in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
If you know that stretch of road, it's easy to see how little the BP cares for safety in its quest to legitimize its money-wasting mission 100 miles from the border. Approaching Exit 18, the interstate snakes through a series of long, wide turns obscuring sight of what's coming ahead. That's not a problem when what's up ahead is just the exit. But drivers aren't expecting a traffic line-up to extend back toward the curve. This is an accident waiting to happen.
Of course, as even this complacent Times-Argus story makes clear, all any terrorist or serious people-smuggler has to do is get off ahead of these ludicrous make-work projects masquerading as public safety measures. That's why all these checkpoints have ever done is catch a few aliens overstaying their visas, bust a few pot-smokers--- and needlessly harass hundreds of not-white-enough citizens. Oh yeah, and they've advertised and extended the climate of irrational fear that helps support our unwinnable wars in the Middle East.
I wonder whether the Border Patrol now intends to build a permanent checkpoint in New Hampshire to match the one they're still hoping to build in Vermont? They haven't announced such a plan, but then, when have they ever willingly informed the public about their ambitions and operations in our area, including their documented patrols of area shopping mall parking lots, trolling for people who look "foreign"?
It's bad enough that the checkpoints are discriminatory, fear-mongering, wasteful pork-barrel projects. Now they're doubling the chance of creating a terrible highway accident. Isn't it time we shut this checkpoint boondoggle down--- before the Border Patrol get some poor commuter or shopper killed?

ACLU: Time to Put a Stop to Racial Profiling

The American Civil Liberties Union's ever-fascinating blog, "Blog of Rights," just put up this post about the prevalence of racial profiling in the USA. The post notes that recent victims of racial profiling at US airports and on US highways include Bollywood megastar Shahrukh Khan, a man with a fan base of 3.5 billion people, who was detained for no better reason than his Muslim name just after finishing filming My Name is Khan, a movie about post-9/11 discrimination against Muslims.
"What a strange coincidence," Blog of Rights observes. The ACLU's online voice then goes on to remind us "that the indignity suffered by Khan is emblematic of a larger problem of racial profiling in the United States. Indian and other South Asian travelers (be they Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Christian) have been subjected to similar forms of profiling and scrutiny including former Indian president Abdul Kalam and Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen."
The post also cites several substantiating reports and studies, including an ACLU/Rights Working Group collaboration that, according to a CNN op-ed, finds "the practice of racial profiling by members of law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels remains a widespread and pervasive problem, affecting the lives of millions of people in African-American, Asian, Latino, South Asian, Arab and Muslim communities. The report also illustrated that victims continue to be racially or ethnically profiled while they work, drive, shop, pray, travel and stand on the street."
And as we know, it has happened right here, and may happen again if we don't shut the I-91 checkpoint down for good.

It Ain't Over Until It's Over

I know, I know, there's a new president, and the Border Patrol checkpoint in White River Junction isn't in use very often, and surely the darned thing's just going to go away... Right?
Well, so far the answer seems to be: Wrong.
The new president seems awful busy. And his Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, doesn't seem interested in even answering Senator Leahy's questions about the checkpoint, let alone shutting it down.
As for the Border Patrol, the August 22, 2009 Valley News reports that the BP is still shopping for a permanent site for the interrogation facility they'd like to build. (Yeah, I know interrogation facility" isn't a polite way to refer to the place they take you for questioning after they pull you over for looking non-white or having an excessively "Islamic" or Hispanic last name. But that's what it is.) Of course, according to the News, the BP is having some trouble distinguishing Northbound from Southbound I-91, but they're still trying...
And it's still true that no one can explain why that HUGE sewer line was extended a mile-and-a-half south down Route 5 from the new Aquatic Center. Just for the little Rest Stop on I-91 South? Hardly...
Like the misguided war in Afghanistan, which some of us hoped the new president would disentangle us from, the Border Patrol's push for internal checkpoints in the USA ain't over until it's over, folks.
It won't be over until we make it stop, by letting our representatives on every level -- local, state and fed -- as well as the president and Secretary Napolitano know it HAS to stop.

Info Session / Rally Dec. 6,in South Royalton!

PLEASE join us at an information session / rally to stop the checkpoint on Thursday, December 6 at 7:30 p.m. in South Royalton. We'll be meeting in Vermont Law School's Debevoise Hall, Room 102. (Enter through Oak's Hall, the big new one with the large parking lot; your first right after the bridge. Find directions to the campus here.)
IWe have a great new strategy for shutting this boondoggle down before any more federal money is wasted, any more of our neighbors are harassed, or any more civil rights surrendered for no good reason. (Are there any good reasons?) Please come and help us start toward a victory against bad policy, bad politics and bad public safety.
See you there!

They're Ba--aack!

The Border Patrol checkpoint at the Hartford, Vt., rest stop is in operation again. (See previous posts for background.) As the Valley News story makes clear, the arguments for it are as cogent as ever: "“Anybody's that got a problem with it is probably hiding something," says one American who has apparently never heard of civil liberties. Since Newt Gingrich has a problem with the checkpoint, I guess the Border Patrol better pull him over next time he's up here campaigning.
But then, Newt's white, and so highly unlikely to be stopped at what locals call "The Whiteness Checkpoint." And busting white folks would clash with the checkpoint's real mission.
It must have one, but the mission's clearly not antiterrorism, since it hasn't caught anyone remotely related to terror. And how could it, when, as Newt pointed out to a Valley News reporter, Al-Qaeda is likely to notice that you can just get off one exit ahead and drive around? And the mission can't be busting illegal immigrants, 'cause the meager haul just isn't worth the man-hours and money.
The real mission seems to be politics. The checkpoint first started up in time to remind drivers to be afraid and vote GOP for the 2004 election. When that campaign was over, the manpower for this allegedly vital and permanent post was rushed down to the Southwest to help the administration pacify disaffected "vigilante" voters. They've stopped back up now and then, but it sure is interesting that they're back just in time for the 2008 primary. How long will they be staying?
As of now, plans for a permanent checkpoint building (see previous posts) are on hold , as what was once forced on us as "essential" has been tacitly admitted to be unneeded. But political winds could change, and the $11 million boondoggle could be erected, especially if misguided Hartford selectmen get their way.
It's time to organize protests and shut this political puppet show down.

They're Still Trying...

This is a letter to the editor of the Valley News, the West Lebanon, N.H.-based daily serving the region around the I-91 checkpoint. It's a response to an article that appeared in the Feb. 19, 2007 News about the current hold on construction of the permanent checkpoint installation, the Border Patrol's continued intention to build it, and the Hartford, Vt., selectboard's active solicitation of the project. If you'd like to tell the editor what you think of the checkpoint, write to forum@vnews.com, and keep it under 350 words.

To the Editor,
Here’s hoping the Border Patrol checkpoint proposed for I-91's Hartford rest area is only delayed (“Hartford Border Station on Hold,” Feb. 19) a short while— before being permanently rejected as useless, wasteful and a threat to freedom.
It’s hard to believe that this obvious failure still has some support. Even Newt Gingrich thinks it’s a profoundly stupid idea, impotent against terrorism and powerless to check illegal immigration. It was aggressively in action only during the run-up to the 2004 election, and its allegedly urgent anti-terror mission was abandoned as soon as another political fire (the Southwest’s vigilante outbreak) needed stomping out.
Like the hundreds of millions of “Homeland Security” dollars being lavished on grants to boondock towns — while major ports can’t scan even a tiny fraction of incoming containers — the I-91 checkpoint isn’t about keeping America safe. It’s about advertising the phony “war on terror,” and spreading pork where it might do the administration some political good.
Of course, this administration is no longer up for re-election. That’s why this ill-conceived project is no longer a priority. But barrels have a tendency to keep rolling. The Department of Homeland Security still has to justify its incompetent existence. The Hartford Selectboard is willing to ignore the checkpoint’s racial profiling in hope of a very few jobs. The project may sneak forward, if voters — and the media — aren’t vigilant.
The Valley News could help by telling the whole story, every time. Quote Gingrich, whose damning opinion first appeared in the News. Calculate the checkpoint’s meager haul of “illegals” versus its cost. Note the delays it causes, and the fatalities at the I-87 checkpoint.
The Valley News shouldn’t relegate informed dissent and documented problems to vague summations following paragraphs of disinformation. Why quote the Border Patrol spokesman – “Our number one objective is to apprehend terrorists” – without pointing out that the checkpoint has yet to apprehend anyone remotely connected to terrorism?
Most important, don’t fail to quote the News’ own reporting on harassment. When the checkpoint is open, black, Hispanic and Oriental residents try to travel some other way. They’ve learned better than to count on fairness and restraint from an installation with no legitimate mission.
I would like to challenge the Valley News to serve us with diligent investigation. Reporters will learn that, even while the checkpoints have been inactive, legal residents have been picked up by skeleton-crew Border Patrol agents trawling towns in Vermont and New Hampshire. Through protests and stopthecheckpoint.com, I’ve learned of more than one case in which legal, non-English-speaking immigrants were scooped up and taken to the checkpoint’s trailers, where they were unable to explain themselves, and where worried families only found them after receiving “hints” from local police.
Random detentions, internal checkpoints, the perpetuation of needless fear: This is the kind of America the I-91 installation would train us to accept, in the name of illusory safety.
Let’s shut this pernicious boondoggle down.
William Craig