Last week, border patrol agents in North County, New York made headlines after a disturbing video surfaced of officers slamming a female resident to the ground and tasing her when she questioned their right to search her vehicle without probable cause. She had been detained pending a K9 unit arriving at the scene to search her vehicle because she “looked nervous.”
The 21-year-old woman is a criminal justice major who just graduated last week, and her video has caused massive debate among members of the community.
Some residents are fine with the checkpoints, arguing that “if you have nothing to hide” you should not worry about your 4th Amendment rights being trampled, while many are angrily demanding change.
“If you have nothing to hide, why be a jerk? Just cooperate,” one local resident, William C. Hill, told the Watertown Daily Times.
One man, William R. Wagstaff Jr, went as far as filing a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security over his experiences with the checkpoints — and even received an apology letter.
“This woman had every right to refuse to open her trunk,” Wagstaff told the local paper. “I have refused several times to let them search me and put their K-9 in my vehicle.”
Another, however, stated that it is not wrong if innocent people are hurt by the border patrol agents as long as they are doing their job.
“Federal law enforcement has a job to do and sometimes even following procedures, sometimes innocent people do get injured. But there are procedures and things of that nature to fix those kinds of things,” Tim Drew said. “I mean it’s regrettable, but when you enforce procedures in light of the recent security situations, innocent people do sometimes get hurt and it’s unfortunate, but I don’t find it to be wrong.”
