Scissors get girl in legal trouble

Philadelphia Inquirer 12/11/2004 Scissors get girl in legal trouble: "The 10-year-old was handcuffed and taken to a police station after scissors were found in her book bag."

This is not OK. Not even a little bit OK. This is what a police state looks like. It is imposed by incremental steps like this. You are brought to believe that certain things must be done to ensure our safety or our children's safety and so rules or laws are put in place and the discretion of the individuals on the scene to react to the unique situation and the unique individual is removed in the name of 'fairness' or 'procedure' and you end up with small children, handcuffed in the back seat of police cars for the 'crime' of having implements for school projects in their possession.

This reminds me of an article I encountered several months ago, which I cannot relocate, the story of a woman treated in just this manner at an airport when a bookmark--a short leather strap with lead weights on its ends--was found in her purse. You can imagine how I indentified with that woman! I may never fly again. And not because I am afraid of terrorists but because I am afraid of being arrested for possesion of something I could have no prior knowledge of it's 'illicit' nature. I would also fear being forced to disgard such items or forfeit my ticket. I tend to be attatched to the items in my purse. Or they wouldn't be there in the first place.

My point is that if these kinds of scenarios do not boil your blood, then America could already be lost. Because that must mean this is already the new normal in America. And that is not just sad. It is terrifying. And no amount of military superiority, no amount of megatonnage of bombs, no amount of 'free' elections imposed at gunpoint on the other side of the globe, is going to alleviate that terror for me.