LongIslandLawyerBlog Clicky
Another op-ed piece
Don't know what to think of this one. I came across the first link, but was trying to find actual news coverage of the case to get a different, more generic view of the case. Alas, Google disappoints. The only stories I've been able to find on it so far are concerning the city of Southhampton's default on the initial lawsuit, but nothing that highlights where the online media ran any stories on the original incident.
What's frustrating is how much of the discussion in the case centers around the woman's politics and not the actual incident itself. I even found a forum where a guy repeatedly asked people for halfway objective facts in the case and repeatedly got in reply posts that were either ragging on her love of guns and (apparently) Glen Beck, or were defending gun usage (although I couldn't find anyone who was defending Beck). ;)
Clearly, something happened. The reports I read (all opinion pieces) cover a basic chain of events, but both sides of the issue seem to feel free to fill in the blanks with either their own spin on the facts or with details that I can't verify because of the dearth of actual reporting on the topic.
Her story (as related in the first link) sounds decidedly hokey, in my opinion. It seems a bit far-fetched to think that local police officers would behave as badly as she claims, with all the name-calling, etc., in front of Sheriff officers, Homeland Security and FBI agents. Not to say it couldn't happen, but the more people from different agencies who get involved, the less likely that such outrageous behavior from the LEO's would occur.
On the other hand, it seems pretty extreme that she be arrested and detained for three days without having actually stepped foot onto airport property. Some of the claims against her seem to keep getting exaggerated: that she was illegally carrying an "arsenal" of weapons (when she wasn't even charged with any weapons charges); that she was trespassing (charged, but dismissed because she apparently didn't trespass); that she'd been warned to stay away from the airport (but no record of those warnings seems to exist); etc. It seems odd that she wasn't Mirandized (if that is, indeed, the case), and that there seems to be few details of her detainment, other than what she's saying herself.
Again, I keep coming back to the lack of coverage in the media on it. Am I just missing the original coverage because it's a couple years old? The clear lack of objective information makes this an interesting, but troubling case. I find that there's not enough info to make an objective judgement of my own.
Politically, I find the story intriguing. It flips over some of the typical political stances that people tend to take on issues.
Conservative people who want to be strong on terrorism find themselves defending a woman who was taking pictures of a local airport, with (as it turned out) a rifle and a load of cash in her car. If she'd been Middle Eastern, would they still be defending her?
Liberal people who rail against the no-rights detention of foreign nationals accused of terrorism are remarkably silent on the treatment and detention of a US citizen who was not, evidently, given the rights that the Constitution guarantees and, more importantly, that they've argued for concerning some of the detainees at places like Gitmo. They look at her political views and (evidently) decide that she's more despicable than the folks held at Gitmo. No outrage there. Again I wonder if she'd been Middle Eastern and NOT a gun or Beck supporter, if things would be different.
Overall, it's an ugly mess..a perfect failure pretty much across the board; a perfect example of how often these days we let our ideals pretty much obscure the facts.
Sorry for the lecture...I just found it interesting reading. |
