On Eastbound Interstate 8 one night, I encountered an all too familiar sight.
A random checkpoint like you'd expect to see in the USSR or Nazi Germany.
Why do I have to stop and show my papers?
Hey, are we still in the USA?
I haven't crossed any borders today.
In fact, isn't Mexico 50 miles away?
We have to search you for our dog has said,
Ruff, ruff, he has drugs or a body that's dead.
I'd like to know what that means if I may.
But the dog was quickly ushered away.
And if we're still living in a free nation,
where's your warrant upon oath or affirmation?
Aren't these the rights for which our forefathers died?
Why not let them search you if you've nothing to hide?
This isn't liberty. The way you behaved
would make the founding fathers roll over in their grave.
Don't you love America? What makes you so bold?
To trample the Constitution you're sworn to uphold.
Have Jefferson and Adams been forever replaced
by Janet Napolitano's ugly face?
Has Homeland Security reached new heights?
That it supersedes the Bill of Rights?
That I'm an Americanist plain to see.
You've already run my plates and know I live in Tempe.
I'm an American citizen on my way home from work.
If I won't consent to searches, does that make me a jerk?
I'm not required by law to open this door.
I'm protected by Amendments 5 and 4.
My pleas were met with a laugh and a jeer.
Don't you get it? Your rights don't matter here.
We'll search without a warrant, and if you won't say yes,
then we'll just call the DPS.
So the DPS arrives on the scene
in order to assist the federal goons in green.
Officer, I'm innocent. What have I done?
If I've broken a law, then please name one.
Be reasonable, Officer. Will it really hurt
to bring the dog back out and see if it will alert?
Do you protect the citizens of Arizona anymore?
Or have you simply become the federal government's whore?
But the Border Patrol knew the truth, you see.
They knew that dog wouldn't alert to me.
I'll place you under arrest if you won't bow
for failure to obey me right now.
I told you before, I'm an officer of the law.
When I say jump, you say how high.
In fact, by now you've sealed your fate.
I'll tase you for 20 seconds straight.
Unfortunately, I was fooled by Agent Diaz's lies.
There's gonna be glass, so cover your eyes.
He really just wanted me not to see,
the ambush to my left being laid for me.
Officer Mitchell broke the passenger window with a smile,
then decided he might as well tase me for a while.
The Border Patrol's five swings of the baton,
and now my driver's side window was gone.
And as the electricity continually flowed,
my driver's side window began to explode.
And because he felt I had given him sass,
Agent Spudamore shoved my face in the broken glass.
My head was pressed into the glass on the door,
blood gushed out of every pore.
50,000 volts flowed through my chest,
a regular police brutality fest.
Next I was rolled to the ground into my dread,
a Border Patrol agent stepped on my head.
I remembered a quote from a book I had read,
1984, and here's what it said.
If you want to know the future of the human race,
just picture a boot stamping upon a human face.
They finally searched my car, and what did they find?
No drugs, no bodies, and nothing of the kind.
Then they let you go, I assume.
No, my next stop was the emergency room.
So after all the stitches were added to my head,
and the nurses had cleaned up all the places I'd bled,
I was taken to the station at the DPS,
then from there to the jail where I was told to undress.
They had underwear in two sizes, extra large and small,
so I took extra large and made my single phone call.
I was put into the cell where the lights are on 24-7,
and lay down to sleep with my stitches 11.
And so we reached the end of my tale,
me sleeping soundly in the county jail.
What was my crime? What had I done?
I stood up for my rights as an American.
.