[extropy-chat] John Perry Barlow vs The Man

[Amara Graps]

Dear Extropes

Boing-boing (http://boingboing.net) alerted me to a distressing story
posted by John Perry Barlow (co-EFF founder, Grateful Dead lyricist,
among his many talents). Barlow was arested in September 2003 at the 
San
Francisco Airport and charged with the misdemeanor possession of
controlled substances that had allegedly been discovered during a 
search
of his checked baggage. He was requested to get off the plane (which 
was
about to take off) by an attendant, who escorted him to the baggage
claim area.

Barlow says at his Blog 
(http://barlow.typepad.com/barlowfriendz/2004/12/a_taste_of_the_.html) 
:

"He led me to an office in the baggage claim area that was thicker with
cops than some banana republics. They greeted me with same distaste
they'd likely have shown an actual terrorist and treated me accordingly
for the remainder of that very long day. On the counter lay small
quantities of marijuana (for which I have a physician's 
recommendation),
mushrooms, and ketamine that had allegedly been encountered in my
suitcase. That the total volume of this prize was significantly more
compact than the amount of high explosive necessary to endanger an
aircraft, and indeed, insufficient to merit a felony charge on any
count, didn't matter to them. They clearly regarded me as a threat to
public safety. When I pointed out to the officials that they only had
authority to search for threats to the aircraft, one of them, a
bug-eyed, crew-cutted troglodyte, declared that, if I had taken any of
these substances, then I would have endangered Flight 310. That such 
an
obviously ungifted person was capable of so imaginative a conceptual
leap remains a marvel to me."

Barlow spent the day locked up in the Redwood City jail, and not being
given access to any of his documents or to a phonebook, he contacted 
one
of his daughters who contacted another EFF co-founder, John Gilmore, 
who
put up the $25,000 in cash to spring Barlow. They couldn't have chosen 
a
better person for the task, because, besides having the money, and
demonstrating a few more civil liberties principles to the jail
attendants, Gilmore has experience fighting airport security laws.
Rather than taking the path of least resistence in this case , the two
have now chosen to make a particular case out of Barlow's incident,
feeling that a law has been broken, and they would like to make this a
precendent against TSA's routinely over-broad searches of checked 
bags.
 
Those of you living in the San Francisco Bay Area, take note. Barlow
says:

"On December 15, at 2:00 pm, I will pay yet another visit to the North
San Mateo County Courthouse in South San Francisco. This time I 
expect I
will actually get a chance to plead my case. (Any interested Bay Area
BarlowFriendz are invited to attend. It should be pretty decent
theater.)"

I recommend reading Barlow's full blog on this story.

Amara

--

Amara Graps, PhD         www.amara.com
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI)
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF),
Adjunct Assistant Professor Astronomy, AUR,
Roma, ITALIA     Amara.Graps at ifsi.rm.cnr.it