As much as I could relate to the girl asserting her constitutional rights at a border checkpoint in the above video, I really hate the damn “Hot Chick” title. Her snarky behavior accentuates the fact that she’s a white woman who would never have to experience what others have to when they are asked: “Are you a U.S. citizen?” Detained? Ask former Arizona governor Raul Castro about detainment.
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2013.
Aaaaaaaaagreeeeeed.
I don’t think she was snarky at all. She knew her rights, asserted them, and was very patient with the officers who are obviously used to overstepping their authority. If anything, the officer at the end of the vid who was telling her to shut up and trying to intimidate her without first finding out the status of the situation, was the one who was worse than snarky. As for her being white and not used to being threatened with detainment, I’m not white and I’m not used to being threatened with detainment. I wouldn’t be any less unhappy with the non-answers she was being given. Just like the BP in the video, I don’t think you really have a reason to relate this to being detained for being, what? Brown? Black? Doesn’t this vid really just show how the BP relies on people not knowing their rights in order to intimidate them?
Valerie, on one hand you are right, but when you are brown it’s a different story. Plain and simple. If this girl was brown and possibly indigenous looking, I believe this video would show a girl being roughly pulled out of her car and more. This would be a different story. That’s the way the world works.
She didn’t foil anyone, but she wasted a lot of other people’s time.
Obviously “educated” and “hot” are subjective terms.
How do you know I’m not brown? In fact, my grandmother was born in Guaymas. Does that allow me to have an opinion? I am not disagreeing that the BP was acting badly. I am calling BS labeling her “snarky” because she’s white. She just knew her rights. Brown, white, green – she knew her rights and exercised them. Good for her. I’ve been treated badly by “authority” figures in the past. I wish people would quit escalating the wrong point. It dilutes the power of legitimate and appropriate actions and remarks that are called for when there is a good reason.
She did great, and she was not snarky. The officer at the end was pushy and confrontational. The fact that many people had to wait for 15 minutes behind her is not her fault – it’s the fault of the Border Patrol system.
These check points are there to provide a service to the U.S. citizens by observation and detection of any international illegal activity. They are there to protect us from all forms of illegal activity. The agents who man them have been trained to look for these activities from all people. Whites, Blacks, Browns, male, teenagers, adults and even the elderly. Criminals come in all forms. These illegal activities are also committed by U. S. citizens and not just people from other nations. Yes this young lady was asserting her rights, but she could also have been a distraction that allowed other activity to go by. Instead of wasting the time of the agents and the other people in line at the check point, she could have understood what a valuable asset this is to our protection and gone along with the officers. She did not have to allow them to search her vehicle, but she should have pulled out of the flow of traffic while she asserted her rights. I for one am grateful for these check points and the personnel who work them. These agents work all shifts, day or night, rain or shine heat or freezing cold to help provide a safer home for us all to live in.
So storage bins on the back seat is reason alone to believe that there is “illegal activity” going on? Please. If the BP agent thought there was weed in those bins they could have done a quick once-around with their dog and this video never would have seen the light of day. Instead the agent’s ego got in the way of good judgement and in the end he looks foolish.
Valarie, I never said anything about your ethnicity. I don’t have a reason too. So I label her as snarky for standing up for her rights. My old editor was snarky, too, but you know, I still liked and like him. She’s testing the system, standing up for herself – all good. But she’s doing it because she can get away with it, with attitude to boot — good for her. Other folks, not so much. That’s my point. We’ll just be, like many others, folks who have to agree to disagree — it’s America and it’s our damn right, Valarie.
Even if I had a whole law firm sitting in the back seat with the storage bins on their laps, I still would have pulled over to let people get by while I continued to refuse to be detained. But that’s me.
Yeah, but, Cordoval, it’s the agent who is in control of the situation here. If she had moved her car while the agent was speaking to her that would have been reason for detention.
I usually spend 20 seconds at that checkpoint. Last time I was there, that guy asked me if I had a license plate. Yes, that’s true.
Sometimes asserting your rights takes a lot longer than cooperating. But I’m kind of glad some people take the time. It keeps everyone honest.
I would like to see some metric by which these checkpoints can be measured. Seems to me to be a huge waste of time and money; simply posturing for the public.
It takes me about 3 seconds to get through one of these. But then I’ve never had the misfortune to be behind some rich brat who’s so full of herself that she doesn’t mind holding up others for nearly 15 minutes.
Ugh! Most annoying video I’ve seen in a long time! Just pull over to prove that you have nothing in the backseat! Why let other people suffer bc of your stubbornness towards authority!
Those checkpoints are unconstitutional to begin with, I applaud her for standing up for her rights. BP needs to restrict their activity to no more than twenty miles from the actual border and stop harassing American citizens.
As a white person who had to drive through a border patrol checkpoint every day for 15 years I can honestly say that it does get irritating playing 20 questions with BP every time you you travel north to Tucson: Where are you coming from? Who were you visiting? Do you own this car? What is your profession? What items do you have in your car? Where does your family live? where do you live? How long were you visiting for? Why did you visit? How often do you visit? Why do you have water bottles? I am frequently asked to open my trunk. I have been thrown into secondary more times than I can honestly recall and when they’ve searched my vehicle they often make a huge mess (emptying out boxes, bags, backpacks, and just leaving items strewn across the seats and the floor). On two different occasions when I have had my dog with me the K9 units have jumped on the side of my car and scratched the paint. Honestly, the saddest part of all of this is that compared to what my hispanic American friends have endured going through the checkpoint my stories seem trite and insignificant.
This was great..!!! I think every American citizen should do the same thing. We have a constitutional right to travel freely around our country. She proved her citizenship and that should have been the end of it. The border patrol was using bullying tactics to show authority that they are not legally authorized to have. Once the bullying tactics didn’t work they had to allow her to leave. I suspect that if her friend wasn’t using a video camera to record the event they would have gotten rough with her and the bullying tactics would have escalated.
Our freedoms are being taken away day by day, as I write this. I’m 88 years old and remember when we still had the freedom to travel anywhere in this country without having to be questioned as to our citizenship or any other demeaning questions. I’m in complete agreement with the young lady and had I been in line behind her would have been angry at the BP for detaining her and would probably have given them a piece of my mind when it was my turn at bat.
The US Border Patrol is a paramilitary organization that flaunts civilian law at every chance they get. I’ve watched them use the rural roads in Arizona for over 14 years as their own private drag strip and raceway. Four times I’ve been detained for over an hour for just this same exercising of my rights (I’m white, by the way)… they lie to justify their own positions (which is why I video EVERY encounter I have with this agency) They actively use bullying tactics whenever someone calls their policies in question … this attitude eventually surfaces every time with a paramilitary organization… other paramilitary organizations of note: Hitler’s SS, Mussolini’s Brown Shirts and Mao’s Red Guard… they all started as fairly benign organizations but as paranoia is enhanced by government agendas and tactics, they became the fanatical groups that killed millions of people… is this a precursor? These checkpoints are thirty to forty miles away from ANY border… welcome to the new Palestine!!!!
Check points are a huge waste of taxpayer resources; they are a witch hunt in search of a crime. Not only is there no probable cause, for the vast majority of those being stopped or detained at police checkpoints, there is not even reasonable cause for stopping citizens. So called Border Patrol officers belong on the border and not 50 or 100 miles inland. The misnamed Border Patrol bureaucracy, along with private prisons is now a principle growth industry in the land of the free. Sadly, Cochise County is an armed militarized zone in what used to be free country.
Dear Maverick Lady the so called border check points are government boondoggles that provide no reasonable service or safety for the hundreds of millions of dollars squandered in the process. All of my ire is directed towards those frightened obtuse folks, who labor under the misapprehension that more police presence insures safety. These timid morons are on track to bankrupt a once great bastion of freedom and liberty — the more police and military a nation has the less freedom its citizens will enjoy. Please, every now and then put down you Hollywood Magazine and read a history book.
When will Americans wake up and realize that this is all part of the Bush/Chaney Fatherland security fiasco. What a waste of money and violation of our rights as US citizens. Security is used to appeal to the uneducated masses just as it was in Nazi Germany and the dictatorships around the world!!!
I’ve been through these check points numerous times on my way back from Sierra Vista and have yet to encounter a problem with any Border Patrol agents. Nor do they play 20 questions…usually “Are you an American citizen” is asked. Until the border is secure, we will have these check points.
Your comment “That’s the way the world works” is disheartening for those of us who are aware that the world does not have to work that way. If more concerned citizens would take the time to demand that their rights be observed, then our country might become what we too often proclaim it to be: the land of the free and the home of the brave. Those self-absorbed citizens inconvenienced by the lady guarding her civil liberties can use the time to send off text messages to the politicos that created this government boondoggle. Oddly, those folks didn’t seem to mind the inconvenience of the unlawful stop made by the Border Patrol many miles from the Border. Frankly, I lived in Tombstone and I believe the young lady did a courageous thing, regardless of the color of her skin. I also disagree that the outcome would necessarily have been different for a dark skinned person. The Border Patrol brain trust is fully aware that they are operating on thin ice by stopping and searching citizens without any probable cause. My best regards. Judge Harold Lee
Applause. Any time someone is courageous enough to stand up for their rights in the face of tyrannical puppets, I applaud them. Video of the encounter A+ for sharing. Too bad the lemmings that were behind her didn’t know how to ask AM I FREE TO GO? AM I NEING DETAINED?