The Washington Post ran a chilling news story on the front page of its Metro section today -- a story I think belonged on Page 1. The audacity and intrusiveness of local Homeland Security officers takes my breath away. And it could happen anywhere in the US.
Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602066.htmlRegistration required
Last week two men with "Homeland Security" written on their baseball caps walked into a library in Bethesda, Maryland and announced to everyone who was using a computer that viewing pornography in the Internet was forbidden.
Then they challenged one person about what he was viewing on the computer he was using, and asked him to step outside, according to a witness. A librarian intervened, and the police were called, and the two men were told to leave the library.
The men were members of Montgomery County's Homeland Security Department, which has about 300 unarmed members that patrol county buildings, according to the Post. They won't say exactly how many members there are. The annual budget, including salaries, is $3.6 million.
This is our tax money being used to pay 300 guys who snoop on library patrons! This could be going to schools, all-day kindergarten, health care, road improvements. But no, our supposedly liberal Democratic county squanders the money on thugs who snoop at libraries and throw their weight around.
It developed that the Homeland Security department's members do not have the right to enforce obscenity laws in our county, and the two offenders were reassigned to other duties. (Maybe the peeking-in-your-bedroom-window squad?)
The County Executive, Bruce Romer, said the HS guys "overstepped their authority" and were reminded that the county "supports the right of patrons to view the materials of their choice." Romer also stated the HS officers will be trained "to fully understand library policy and its consistency with residents' First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution."
Okay, this happened in a very liberal, heavily Democratic, highly educated county right outside Washington DC. Hopefully they nipped this library spying business in the bud, at least in Montgomery County, Maryland.
But what about communities that aren't as liberal or educated about First Amendment rights? What about Homeland Security officers who could be allowed to run roughshod over people's rights?
I am extremely concerned and alarmed over what seems to be a patchwork system of controls over these Homeland Security "officers" across the United States.
To whom do they answer? Where does their loyalty lie? Who pays their salaries? Is it all local funding, or federal money from DHS? Why are they throwing their weight around menacing ordinary citizens for viewing racy things on the Internet? Where did they get the idea that they could even try to do so?
I think it behooves us to learn more about the operations, controls and mandates of these virtually secret law enforcement agents that are supposedly protecting us from terrorism.