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I used to be one of those naive people who believed that legislation like the Patriot Act was acceptable because [say it with me] if you haven't done anything wrong or you don't have anything to hide, you have nothing to worry about. You know, because the U.S. government would never do anything sneaky, underhanded, or knowingly supress the civil rights of it's law-abiding citizens.

And then I came to my senses.

Many people who support the Patriot Act defend it by saying that, even if someone is wrongly accused, the truth will come out in court. Well, if the accused person can get to court, that is. But even if they do, that's no guarantee. We have many judges on the bench who are too stupid to differentiate between a terrorist and someone with brown skin.

"Anissa Khoder told The Journal News that when her name was called, the judge asked if she was a terrorist. She said she was offended but kept that to herself.

She claimed that after giving the judge her explanation for why the tickets should be dismissed, "He said something like, 'You have money to support the terrorists, but you don't want to pay the ticket.' I could not believe I was hearing that."

Posted by Nicole at May 22, 2003 12:29 PM | TrackBack