Concerned About the I-91 Checkpoint?

The Border Patrol checkpoint on I-91 in Hartford, Vermont, established in the wake of 9/11 and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, hasn't caught a single terrorist. How could it? All the bad guys have to do is get off an exit or two ahead and get back on an exit or two after, and they're on their way! The checkpoint is a strategy so clueless that even Newt Gingrich -- no softie on defence -- thinks it's useless and intrusive.
But it has "caught" a whole lot of black Americans and Asian Americans, Latin Americans and Americans who look like their ancestors might come from somewhere in the Middle East. They've been caught looking other-than-Caucasian, pulled over and questioned about their travel, their business, their citizenship, their loyalties. That's why young people in my college classes call it "The Whiteness Checkpoint."
If racial profiling doesn't make you mad, consider why it's being done: If anyone can see that the checkpoint isn't going to catch any terrorists, what's it for?
The kindest answer is that the people who thought it up are too dumb to realize it's useless. But that doesn't seem likely, does it?
The next kindest answer is that it's just a case of pork-barrel spending: The Border Patrol has a lot of new Homeland Security money to spend, and bureaucracies don't like to give money back, even if they aren't doing any good with it. That should make us mad. Our tax money should be spent on strategies that really keep us safe.
Another idea is that the checkpoint has something to do with (gasp!) politics. Some people noticed that this supposedly very important checkpoint wasn't set up right after Sept. 11, 2001: It didn't appear until we were closing in on the 2004 presidential election! Some people think it was intended to remind us to be scared, to support the "war on terror" and thus the Iraq war, to vote for the party that was making this great, busy show of cracking down on suspicious-looking foreigners and people of color.
Maybe that seems likely to you. Maybe it doesn't. But however you look at the I-91 checkpoint, it's a waste of of taxpayer's money, no help in fighting terrorism, and a daily intrusion on the rights and freedoms of all Americans--- especially the black and other ethnic minority citizens who have been needlessly, shamefully harassed .
Now the checkpoint is lying low, cutting back on its hours of operations. Could this have to do with the election results? With the negative publicity about racial profiling and uselessness? (Newt's comment in the papers had to hurt!) With the political need to respond to the "success" of anti-illegal immigration vigilantes along the Mexican border?
Who knows? But the important thing is that the checkpoint's trailers and other temporary infrastructure are still there--- AND, more importantly, the agency is still actively requesting $9 million to erect a permanent station in the area.
Maybe they're just lying low to minimize opposition until the money comes through-- and it's too late to stop them.
We can stop them. This battle -- against a ridiculously ineffectual program that routinely violates the rights of law-abiding citizens -- is one we can and should win.
StopTheCheckpoint.Com is a place to start. If you care about this issue, please visit again and learn more about it. Please sign the guestbook, leave comments to this post and/or send an e-mail stating your opinion, suggesting action, and telling us howwe can stay in touch. There's organizing to do, and basic American freedoms to defend. Let's get going.
Thanks,
Bill Craig