I was tipped off to this ACLU article by T-Critic, whom I have a daily subscription to and always enjoy seeing the new T-Shirt designs.

Did you know that wearing a t-shirt with Arabic writing to an airport is the equivalent of a “person wearing a t-shirt at a bank stating, ‘I am a robber’”? No? Then you clearly don’t work with the TSA, who barred Reed Jarrar over there from boarding his flight at JFK because his shirt had terrifying non-Roman characters on it.

The shirt did also have English characters under the Arabic script (it says “We will not be silent” — no, but you certainly will be delayed), but that could easily be a terrorist trick, trying to convince gullible American infidels that the shirt doesn’t actually say “If you can read this I am going to run this airplane into the Kennedy Center.”

The ACLU has taken Jarrar’s case and they encourage passengers across the nation to show up at airports in t-shirts with big cartoon bombs on them or that say “Big Johnson Says You Can Tell a Lot About a Man by the Size of His Shoe Bomb” because frankly donations have been way up over the last couple years.

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We are squarely in the center of the anniversary of one of the most un-American acts of any President and congress in recorded history - the forced internment during World War II of 120,000 people of Japanese decent - of which 62% were US citizens.

This action was so intolerable that four successive presidents later acted on it. Gerald Ford rescinded the law that enabled the travesty, Jimmy Carter convened a commission to study the effects and issue reparations, Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 into law based on the Carter commission recommendations, and George H.W. Bush signed an appropriation bill authorizing payments.

Our own government’s official apology document stated the internment was based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership”. As citizens we must remember that our own government can, and will, sometimes make horrendous decisions which violate our most basic constitutional rights. It is up to every person of conscious to understand and oppose injustice.
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In the new era of citizen reporting there are a number of new questions regarding issues such as audio and video recording interactions with police officials. Add these to the traditional questions about what is required, or not, and you’ve got one very confused public.

After all the publicity about police abuse of power I decided to try to find some reputable advice on exactly what I can and can’t do if I’m ever involved in, or feel the need to play “big brother” during, a police incident.

On a side note, I’m a well-to-do white guy that’s never been involved in any criminal activity but even I’m afraid of the police. On a few occasions I’ve encountered unprofessional, undereducated and over-ego’ed officers. Even if 90% of encounters are pleasant, 10% can really ruin your day… or worse.

Anyway, I found the following information to be informative.
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