-Caveat Lector-
The second bonehead award goes to the U.S. Customs. Last year alone 2,797
international airline passengers were ordered to strip off their clothes at
gunpoint at airports, intimately groped and had body cavities searched, all
in the name of the drug war. Some were forced to take laxatives in the
hopes of finding swallowed drugs. Some were held for a couple of days.
Even though officials had no evidence that these people were carrying
drugs.
I hope this deeply bothers you as it does me. I don't think many Americans
believe this is an appropriate way to handle the drug problem. I bet you
don't believe this is true. But I have the sources right here...
>From the Washington Sun-Sentinel
(http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/daily/detail/0%2C1136%2C13500000000085390%
2C00.html):
Buritica, a Colombian-born U.S. citizen, said she was searched and forced
to
take laxatives by agents who suspected her of carrying drugs when she
arrived at San Francisco International Airport in 1994 on a flight from
Hong
Kong.
Denson said she was about seven months pregnant when she arrived at the
Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 1997 on a flight from Jamaica
to Florida. She said Customs agents took her to a hospital, forced her to
take a laxative, and shackled her to a bed for two days so they could
monitor her bowel movements. Eight days later, she said, her son was born
prematurely. No drugs were found on either woman.
>From CNN News
(http://www-cgi.cnn.com/CNN/bureaus/chicago/stories/9806/stripsearch/index.h
tm):
Jacqueline Jones can't forget the fear and humiliation. She had just
arrived
at Chicago's O'Hare airport from Berlin last September when customs
officials pulled her aside. They checked her bags and then ordered a strip
search.
''They take me over to one of these little rooms that looks like one of
these South American torture chambers. I was so afraid I did not know what
they were going to do. So I go there and I'm standing against the wall. All
of a sudden I've got my legs spread and the women searches me. She goes --
this is full body type search -- breast all the way down -- including
putting her hand between my legs." Customs officials found nothing.
Gwendolyn Richards was returning to Chicago O'Hare from Jamaica when
customs
officials took her to a hospital in handcuffs. "They felt like I had
something. They wanted to make sure I had it, or didn't have it, or
whatever. I was on the table with my legs in stirrups and the doctor
checked
me out. She basically told me I was clean."
How do the Customs officials feel about this? Custom official Irene Prince
says ''We have the legal right to do what we do. It has been tested in the
courts. We do live in a less than perfect world. The good guys sometimes
get
caught up with the bad guys.'' OK Irene Prince, you are the one making the
world less than perfect!
Feel free to send this to others if you want to urge people to write
protests to their representatives and senators.
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