-1 for the captions and the ridiculous Ayn Rand / Ron Paul quoting website that he links to. +4 because he's right.

They detained his ass good and proper this time, he didn't even have to ask more than once.

Guy was being a dick.

BUT

Was he or was he not free to go? Was he detained? If he was, according to the law they had to arrest him. They didn't have anything to arrest him FOR, but they will pretend as far as you let them.

It's the perpetual erosion of our rights that scares me. The poor dumb shit at the checkpoint was just trying to do his job, but the government that continually redraws the lines under pretenses of preserving your liberties, while ignoring legal precedent and the letter of the law, has to be held to some standard, sometime, somewhere.

Hooray for the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and threat levels and pointless wars.

This guy is as much of a hero as the people that protest Coca-Cola by stopping truck drivers.

I dont understand why you all call him a dick.

these checkpoints are bullshit and make us just 1 step closer to being a police state. Call me paranoid or a liberal douche if you want, but as far as Im concerned no one has the right to randomly ask you questions like this.

I think Ben Franklin would agree with me.

The price of freedom is eternal pedantry.

Eventually they'll just post his license plate at the checkpoint and either wave him through without stopping, or detain him on suspicion of smuggling and rip apart his car looking for drugs and Mexicans.

Somehow I imagine he'd be more pissed off by the former: what would he have to complain about then?

Doesn't seem like a real effective checkpoint. What do the border patrol thugs expect to hear - "No, my good man, I am indeed and indisputedly in your country illegally. I hoped to create a terrorist sleeper cell by driving through Arizona in the middle of the day, but your vigilance has thwarted my plans. Bravo, sir. You may have saved thousands of your countrymen this day."

I don't think Sparky there has actually read United States v. Martinez-Fuerte. A checkpoint stop is a seizure of a person under the forth amendment, but it's a reasonable seizure and does not require suspicion that illegal activity is occurring. That case pretty much says that everything they're doing in this video is constitutional and is fourth amendment reasonable, with the possible exception that the checkpoint is forty miles from the boarder.

Secondly, incorrectly arguing the intricacies of constitutional law and highly technical legal definitions with people who are not lawyers makes you a huge faggot, particularly when you are wrong. If you have a problem with policy implementation you take it into court with lawyers, judges, and other people who studied the fine art of lawyering. That's where the bigboys play. That's where violations of civil rights are redressed.

Although, I'm actually rather surprised he's able to faggot his way through a checkpoint. That seems like something that would get you actually detained instead of imaginary detained.

I love the moment when Agent Villa appears.

I'm a fan.
Nothing like someone challenging the assumptions of security theater.

Thank god Rosa Parks didn't live in the internet age.

The cops are supposed to work for us and we shouldn't be afraid of them. I GUESS some guy going around hassling cops is fairly admirable.

Right, so his point is that checkpoints are a form of oppression and an erosion of constitutional rights.

Uh, ok. Wouldn't a petition or something be more practical?

If all US citizens were aware of their rights and laws, the US wouldn't be a laughing stock of all Europe. From our point of view people in the US are just letting the government dictate what they can and can't do, and everybody is submitting to it because they're afraid of terrorists, high gas prices etc.

If everyone would defend their rights, opressing people might become impractical for the people behind it.

But who'd bother, right? It's easier to sit on the couch watching US TV, drink Coke and eat foods loaded with fat and sugar.

I like the fact that Our Protagonist and Agent Villa seem to know each other already. He saunters up and is all mentally "aw, christ, not THIS GUY again..."

Also: This is chump change shit here. You want to see some legitimately fucked up abuses of power, google Kathryn Johnston, who used to live on Neal Street in Atlanta. An 88 year old woman shot to death by three cops on a "drug raid" that was based on lies.

Three stars because while I appreciate someone pointing out the ridiculous arbitrariness of the thing, I can't fucking stand the Michael Moore school of social protest (i.e., shove a camera in some minimum wage worker's face and treat them like they're personally responsible for whatever's got you pissed off - what's he gonna do, throw his hands up and go "OH MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT I DIDN'T NEED THIS JOB ANYWAY! YOU'RE ALL FREE TO GO AND THE COMMUNITY CENTER IS SAVED!"?).

I love this guy.

Dude's a kook and an ass, but he's right and I'd buy him beer.

He makes their jobs more interesting.

the 9+ minutes was worth the "rocks off or somethin" comment.

To all those who say this guy was being a dick:
The American Rebels were being dicks when they threw tea into the harbor. Ghandi was being a dick when he marched on the British salt depots. Martin Luther King was being a dick when he organized marches and protests. Susan B Anthony was being a dick when she petitioned and protested in favor of womens' suffrage.

You don't and can't effect change in a corrupt government without bringing attention to your cause. And you can't bring attention to your cause without being a goddamn dick.

This video was made for everyone who never outgrew their "SMASH THE STATE" high school phase.

Needs a "libertarian" tag.

You guys have checkpoints?
That is insane.
Does this mean the terrorists have won?

Seriously though.
WTF?

1) They don't seem to have a clue about what to do when someone does what the driver did. Didn't they think this law through -- wait, the "you were always free to go, but it's a felony not to stop" -part answers that.

2) Isn't it a bit too convenient to put "a regular guy who's just doing his job" on a checkpoint? As if there's nobody to take responsibility or even interpret the law that puts these checkpoints on the roads. "It'll be easier on both of us if you just wave your rights" isn't exactly the brightest policy.

3) Isn't it at least good behaviour, not to mention required for an officer to introduce himself when stopping someone?

There are some messed up laws in my country, too. It seems most of the people just don't care or don't know enough to be interested, which in turn makes it practically impossible to reverse idiotic laws.

As I said before: Idiocracy, here we come. It's still good to know there are some people pointing out the idiotism in the system.

5 stars for Villa's slick attempt to get the driver to admit he was a citizen by saying how proud he was to be a citizen himself.

There's been one of these on I-25 just North of Las Cruces, NM for at least 15 years, probably much longer. I am glad that I never got stuck behind some dickhole doing this bullshit.

5 stars for the ridiculous "camera shutter" effect.

I love it when they ask for a badge number in these videos, as if there's a serious concern random weirdos are recreationally posing as DHS agents so they can inspect your trunk for purely sexual reasons.