…you use a pay phone.
An African-American, Downing came to Boston last October for — ironically — a racial profiling meeting. He arrived at 7 a.m. on the red-eye from Seattle, and went to use a pay phone. He was then approached by a police officer who demanded that Downing show his ID. When he refused, the officer ordered Downing to leave the airport. Since he had just arrived in town, Downing left the airport to catch a taxi. The officer followed him out of the airport, however, and again demanded ID. When Downing again refused, the officer said that Downing was under arrest and ordered backup. When surrounded by police officers — and now late for the meeting — Downing showed his ID and was eventually allowed to leave. His allegedly suspicious behavior? Using a pay telephone.
That’s from a
great editorial in this morning’s Globe on the MBTA’s new “papers, please” policy of capricious ID checks of its passengers. I’m familiar with this sort of thing, and under some circumstances it can be useful. When I worked the door at a bar, I sometimes checked the IDs of people who were clearly old enough, just to give me enough time to determine whether or not they were too drunk to let in. However, that was a private, alcohol-serving establishment, required by law to check IDs, while the MBTA is public transportation infrastructure, which currently has no ID requirement. (
The Hiibel case may change that.) On the whole, I fear that this will have an additional chilling effect on life in this country. So much for defending “our freedom”.