'No one is safe': Ex-North Carolina police chief rips customs agents for detaining him because of...

[DonViejo]

Source: RawStory



‘No one is safe’: Ex-North Carolina police chief rips customs agents for detaining him because of his name

TOM BOGGIONI
19 MAR 2017 AT 11:54 ET

A retired police chief from Greenville, North Carolina harshly criticized immigration officials who pulled him out of line, stripped him of his possessions and detained him due to his name.

Writing on Facebook on Saturday, retired cop Hassan Aden said he was returning from Paris where he helped his mother celebrate her 80th birthday when he was singled out and pulled from line by a customs official at John F. Kennedy International Airport who asked, “Are you traveling alone? Let’s take a walk.”

“I was taken to a back office which looked to be a re-purposed storage facility with three desks and signs stating, ‘Remain seated at all times’ and ‘Use of telephones strictly prohibited’—my first sign that this was not a voluntary situation and, in fact, a detention,” Aden wrote. ” By this point I had informed CBP Officer Chow, the one that initially detained me, that I was a retired police chief and a career police officer AND a US citizen—he stated that he had no control over the circumstance and that it didn’t matter what my occupation was.”

According to Aden after handing his passport over he was told that someone was using his name and that he had had to be cleared “so that I could gain passage into the United States… my own country!!!”

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/no-one-is-safe-ex-north-carolina-police-chief-rips-customs-agents-for-detaining-him-because-of-his-name/

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[pangaia]

2. Have you ever met a US customs "AAAAGENT" who wasn't an arrogant,

self-righteous, rude POS? Me neither.

[still_one]

5. I get the impression this wasn't a custom agent but trump's gestapo, er, I mean ICE personal that

were doing this

Also, it sounds like they have no objective standard or criteria for interrogating someone, and that sounds that it would have Constitutional issues to me regarding search and seizure and probable cause

I hope the ACLU is on top of this

[pangaia]

7. yeah, but still..

[still_one]

8. sure. It looks like you are correct also, it is a customs agent.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028815272

[Hortensis]

20. If the reason given is legitimate, isn't that a legitimate

reason to check him out further? Lots of people get held until it can be determined that they are who they say and not someone with the same name. Nobody likes this-- including obviously Chief Chou, an ass from what I read who apparently can dish out standard procedural treatment but not take it--but the fact that we haven't had a 9/11 for awhile shouldn't fool us into believing terrorists aren't interested any more.

[Igel]

21. Yes, but outrage!

If the reason given was correct, then the ex-cop's first reaction should have been, "Somebody's using my name?"

If he was impersonating somebody, I doubt customs would say, "Ah, he's been accused. He must obligatorily confess at this time, or we know since nobody ever lies he is who he says he is."

Problem is that if this has been SOP, then it's not the trumpster who's the bad guy. There are those who would prefer the way it was in 2002. My wife and I traveled, and she was pulled out of line consistently. Native speaker of SW American English, light brown hair, blue eyes. /sarcasm Apparently we had a huge raft of terrorist threats with 30-something married blue-eyed women back then. Who knew? /sarcasm off

Personally, I guess it came as a huge shock that the latest attack in Paris wasn't carried out by a Welsh Swedenborgian or a Catalan Seventh-Day Adventist. As it is, Ziyed Ben Belgacem was termed by the press I heard as a "Frenchman," playing off the fact that "Frenchman" usually denotes ethnicity and not just citizenship. We seem to be assuming that if it's not part of a bureaucratic definition, it has no validity unless it gets us or the person being labeled something of worth. Ziyed, no so much a French name.

[Hortensis]

25. Yes, and his second reaction, "Well, at least I have

my Kindle with me." As a police chief, he must have had people waiting for hours routinely, both in custody and their friends and family out of custody.

[burrowowl]

29. US Customs

have always been the rudest and prickiest I have ever encountered internationally.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. I have encountered a few who are quite pleasant

and a lot who aren't outwardly belligerent but just kind of dumb.

[pangaia]

9. I guess having no skills, sitting in a glassed in booth for hours on end

can make one rather... negative... plus, knowing you can do whatever the fuck you want to anybody can give one visions of "splendor, magnificence, impressiveness, glory, resplendence, majesty, greatness....."

How often do these shits not even look at you when calling you up, or dismissing you... they just slop( and I mean SLOP) your passport down, sometimes just a jerk of the head to get rid of you....


"next......"

yes, I have come across a couple of human beings here and there, but it ain't often...
Even just coming back from Canada has gotten worse by a magnitude I could not imagine last year...

[GeoWilliam750]

23. Actually

The majority whom I have encountered have been courteous and professional.

[heaven05]

3. SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hitler redux-2.0 Well the more high profile people getting caught up in prezident bannons racist net, the better it will be. This one is pissed.

[Stuart G]

11. Yes, he is pissed....and this has some publicity...and this will get more..

and yes....this is an outstanding example of Hitler..."show me your papers"...and

this story is...extremely important in my opinion

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. You do know we are all required to have specific Gov't issue ID...right?

When they first rolled this out, it was only the passport you needed to have to fly.
but it had to be the new one, that costs a chunk of money to get, and which apparently needs renewal every so often ( I don't know the time frame) and that renewal costs money.
Then they wheeled out the choices of "gov't Approved" id, with computerized biometric info.
And warned, several years ago, that all states had to provide it, or else you could not fly, or enter Gov't buildings.

Right now, I know Washington state does not yet have it.

Here in Ala. the driver's licenses are now in compliance plus you have to have your birth certificate info if you not a citizen.

If you are white, and a citizen, you can cross the borders into Canada and Mexico with one of 3 special passes, all of which are of course, expensive, and all which basically ask for family history details and birth certificate.

all of the "approved" IDs have computerized chips with your information, and you have to get new ones for any address changes.

[pangaia]

18. He was returning from France.

He had a us passport. That is all he needed .

[Igel]

22. Yes. But did you read the rationale for detaining him.

Somebody else, report was, was using his name.

Now, if this is the case then you may just need your passport, but a cursory examination might also let the fake Mr. Aden in. Then there'd be hell to pay for not properly checking. "Look, you thought there were two Adens, one a terrorist and the other a citizen. You just assumed that the one in front of you with what appeared to be a valid passport and who said he was the real Aden had to be telling the truth because he said so? What, you were afraid that the real one would be upset and offended because you took the time to follow protocol and worry about the safety of citizens? Just how shallow and concerned about public safety do you think the average American is?"

Did anybody check out the excuse given? Or do we just assume that anybody offended must be intentionally wronged?

[Squinch]

26. That sounds like a bullshit excust to me. They can say that about anyone they want.

You can't really check it out. It lets them demand "papers" whenever they want.

I get that if it is true it's very sticky, but I've actually heard it used before when friends were detained.

[Hekate]

4. KnR

[PatSeg]

10. More and more stories like this

are coming out every day. There already is some sort of travel ban and apparently no one is immune.

[IronLionZion]

12. Hassan Aden doesn't sound like a white...er..."American"

it is absolutely disgusting that Trump's Gestapo is increasingly pretending that Americans are white and brown people are foreign enemies.

They'll come for white liberals sooner than people think. Think of how many hippies you know with creative foreign sounding names.

[SCVDem]

14. Like Moon Unit and Dweezel?

Sometimes a name is just a name.

[IronLionZion]

24. Sometimes it's white privilege

If you're brown, a name is suspicious. An Islamic sounding name will get you detained for sure.

But if you're brown Christian like me, several members of my family have been detained for having Biblical names that don't match our brown faces and must be fake.

I know a lot of white hippies with names like Indira, Bhakti, Shakti, Saraswati, but the Sufi ones have Middle-Eastern sounding names and they will eventually come after those people.

White liberals will get it eventually. Some may try to blend in with the Trumpers for self-defense just like the good Germans back in the day they will think they are safe. But they will find what white liberals have posted online and in social media. The internet never forgets. If one has ever been a liberal, white privilege won't save you.

[littlemissmartypants]

13. Thanks for this report from

A brave North Carolinian, DonViejo. He continues to serve by exposing the malfeasance of our current federal government, as it morphs the thug mafia we all have suspected it is becoming. More proof, we are stronger together.

♡lmsp

[Xipe Totec]

15. Sind wir schon da?

Are we there yet?

?zoom=2&resize=600%2C250

[atreides1]

16. John Kelly

Now has his Gestapo, and like Himmler, he'll follow Herr Drumpf...until it gets too hot, and will betray Don the Groper, in much the same way that Heinrich betrayed Adolf!!!

[irisblue]

19. Heavy.com also has a nice article on him.

Looks like some more training for that custom agent will be happening soon.

[Dustlawyer]

27. Another addition to the "No Fly List"!!!!

I have been on it since at least 12/2001 and cannot get off of it. It gives them automatic probable cause even though there has been no due process to prove my name deserves to be on the list. Before too much longer all names will be on the list.

When it first happened I had guns pulled on me, now they do not bat an eye because so many people are on it.

[DownriverDem]

28. Perhaps that is what it's going to take

Folks who would appear to be trump supporters getting caught up in his disgusting orders.