11-Year-Old Boy Questioned By Police Over 'Anti-American' Statements

[theearthisround]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64726-2004Dec14?language=printer

When the two plainclothes Loudoun County sheriff's investigators showed up on her Leesburg doorstep, Pamela Albaugh got nervous. But when they told her why they were there, she got angry: A complaint had been filed alleging that her 11-year old son had made "anti-American and violent" statements in school.

"It was intimidating," she said. "I told them it's like a George Orwell novel, that it felt like they were the thought police. If someone would have asked me five years ago if this was something my government would do, I would have said never."

[PartyPooper]

1. This reminds me of "I Led 3 Lives" about commies in the 50's.

Folks, they're after us!

:scared:

[autorank]

2. This is rediculous of course. The Littleton CO police wouldn't

investigate their Columbine killers one year prior to the killing even though they had been tipped to the pair's neo Nazi web page advocating all sorts of violence. Here a kid pops off and he gets a visit by the police. This should have been handled at the school leve. The Principal gets a big fat F on this one.

[GainesT1958]

3. Ahh, but in Dub and Ashcroft's " 'Merka"...

That kid of hers could grow up to be a real live terra-ist!:eyes:

B-)

[ccarter84]

4. thats crazy ... but we knew this day was coming...sadly

[rockedthevoteinMA]

5. The Orwell reference says it best...

They asked how she felt about 9/11 and the military. They asked whether she knows any foreigners who have trouble with American policy. They mentioned a German friend who had been staying with the family and asked whether the friend sympathized with the Taliban. They also inquired whether she might be teaching her children "anti-American values," she said.

Since when is it the governments responsibility to keep track of what values parents teach their children?

Oh wait I forgot who was in charge...

[Kali]

6. 3 hours interrogating the parents?

I would have been under even more surveilance, because I would have said "NUNYA, get off my property now!"

They need to contact the ACLU.

[MidwestTransplant]

7. "You got to watch what you say"

Ari Fleisher

[Sandpiper]

8. Here's what Ms. Albaugh should have said to the police

Do you have a warrant?

Is my son being charged with a crime?

No? Well, would you kindly get the hell off my property.

[renaissanceguy]

35. Yeah but under the PATRIOT Act

they don't need a warrant.

Scary, huh?


------------------------
Buy liberal, anti-Bush, and outspoken political merchandise at www.cafepress.com/liberalissues

[Judi Lynn]

9. This is horrid. What the hell has happened in just four years here?

Can you IMAGINE this happening during Clinton's Presidency? God, that time seems 20 years ago. We have been through so much since the unspeakable 2000 "election." From the article:

His parents said the boy's words were those of a confused adolescent, whose views of the world are still being formed. They believe that authorities were called partly because he has a foreign-sounding name and accented English from years of living abroad. The family lived in India, Europe and Israel before moving to the United States in 2000. The couple have four children, with both U.S. and Israeli citizenship, enrolled in Loudoun schools.

Albaugh said that Yishai is not violent and that the school could have used the classroom incident as a "teachable moment," helping him learn to say what he was feeling in a less offensive manner.

Instead, Yishai said he has learned that it is not worth challenging authority. "At the end of the day, you lose," he said, adding: "All of these freedoms and things they're supposed to uphold, they bash them."
(snip)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Georgetown law professor David Cole said Yishai's statement in class is protected by the Constitution.

"There's no indication from the student making an anti-American statement that violence to the school would follow," he said. "The FBI and government officials should be investigating real terrorists, not children who criticize the United States."
(snip)

[melnjones]

10. holy hell

1) Who the hell gets to define what "American" and "anti-American" values are?!?!?
2) Granted, I don't know if there are extenuating circumstances, but all those questions asked to the parents could have and should have been asked by a school social worker...oh wait, we don't HAVE those in most schools. Not a priority. Yet another reason our schools are going to hell in a hand basket.
3) This kind of crap just scares the hell out of me.

[Sandpiper]

12. It's more than just that

We're talking First Amendment issues here.

Regardless of whose definition of "anti-American" we're using, making such statements is NOT illegal or criminal.

[melnjones]

15. I know,

but i'm a social worker working in a school:-) Just a little personal vent about school systems and their lack of appreciation for my profession. Honestly, even without a social worker a principal could have done the same thing (although a social worker is trained to handle it more sensitively).

on edit: A child making violent and threatening statements of any kind can NOT be ignored, and going to the parents and doing some questioning IS the right thing to do. My issue is that they mis-diagnosed the problem completely and then gave it to the wrong people to deal with. Finding out some family background to help understand what is behind the child making these statements is totally appropriate, but it is for the good of THE CHILD and to help facilitate a more productive learning environment.

[Swamp Rat]

11. The Earth is flat

[vpigrad]

13. Nothing good ever comes from talking to...

a member of the blue class!

Sorry, I'm just bitter today after a friend got hit by a cop after getting stopped for doing 47 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. Of course, the "moran" cops here still stop people from doing 16 MPH in the 15.5 MPH zone downtown. Yes, some idiot created a speed limit here that ends in a half, and the blue thugs stop people for going 0.5 MPH over the limit.

[genieroze]

14. AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:mad::puke::argh::grr::mad::puke::argh::grr::mad::puke::argh::grr::mad::puke::argh::grr:
:mad::puke::argh::grr::mad::puke::argh::grr::mad::puke::argh::grr::mad::puke::argh::grr:

[yorkiemommie1]

16. remember that scene in F 9/11 where those peace group

members were harassed for some remark made in public? I don't recall the exact circumstances, I'm sure someone here remembers, but it was over some insignificant little remark.

as in this instance, as in the closing of the art exhibit in NY, the vice grips are tightening. even my principal was telling me that his son, being 20, does not realize that you have to 'be cautious in what you say'. All his kid is saying is that he won't fight in any war.

even my own family is getting caught up in this: i have a 'signature' line on my outgoing mail and my brother questioned me about all 'those political comments'. i told him that i was exercising my rights under the first amendment as long as they lasted. my husband blames me for 'brainwashing' our daughter who is in her late 20s and has a mind of her own. they HATE our having our own opinions!

it's the mccarthy era all over again. how soon before they start blacklisting? oh, wait. they already have.

we have our own reign of terror right here.

[tibbir]

17. Be afraid.....be very afraid.

[Dr Fate]

18. WHAT a child interested in CIVICS???? How un-American.

Hopefully he will go back to playing video games 7 pulling pig-tails like a good, all American kid.

[Elidor]

19. "Step outta line, the men come and take you away…"

[Erika]

20. Thomas Jefferson is turning is his grave

Bush is returning us to the same economic/religious persecution status that made us flee Europe.

[PDX Bara]

21. King George the Weed

This country was born because of brave persons not wanting to bend over for that King George. History does indeed repeat itself as we suffer as much or more under an extremely malignant King George the weed (shrub is actually too nice a word). My first name is "Rose" and people have called me "Rose Bush" in jest. Them's fightin' words these days, folks and those who call me that get told so in no uncertain terms.

[leftofthedial]

22. it's not "her government" anymore

The ruling junta and their goons will do whatever tey damn well please. We're just serfs.

[struggle4progress]

23. kick for fascists on the move

:kick:

[Massachusetts]

24. Be careful what you wish for!

"They that give up liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin

Gestapo tactics 101 continues.

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[superconnected]

25. bingo! there's enough of them that think like that, and crooked voting

that they very well WILL start doing this crap. If they have their way - and they are close, we cold all be locked up for being on this site. Those loons would enforce it. I've got one here at work with me. He tells me all the time that it's going to come a time when liberals and democrats have to be lined up and shot one by one. He means it!

[MGKrebs]

26. Israeli with a moving company??

Where's my tin foil hat! Wasn't there a story some time ago about Israeli spies posing as movers?

"Albaugh, a U.S. citizen, and her husband, an Israeli citizen who manages a Leesburg moving company..."

"Asido said the pair then spent another hour talking to him, mostly about his life in Israel and his more than four years in an elite combat unit there."

[THUNDER HANDS]

28. i'm glad i wasn't the only person who picked up on that

i noticed that too and went 'wait a minute...'

seems awfully :tinfoilhat: to me. Where is Leesburg, again?

[Goathead]

30. I caught that too

:tinfoilhat:
Dominick Suter, owner of the company Urban Moving Systems, flees the country to Israel. The FBI later tells ABC News that “Urban Moving may have been providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation.” Suter has been tied to the five Israeli agents caught filming the WTC attack. The FBI had questioned him around September 12, removing boxes of documents and a dozen computer hard drives. But when they returned a few days later, Suter is gone.
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&theme=israel

[MGKrebs]

27. Dang. Somebody should investigate this guy...

2 posted on 12/16/2004 10:58:31 AM PST by KitJ
< Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies >
To: neverdem

"Posting signs designating an area as "gun free"

This will assure criminals that no lawful CCW carrier will be armed, although I've heard, without naming names, that some lawful CCW carriers ignore those signs as well, on the theory that they (the good guys) would rather face the consequences of violating the gun law that to have to stand by helplessly and watch children being murdered. Go figure.

And this one:

9 posted on 12/16/2004 11:36:34 AM PST by GovernmentShrinker
< Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies >
To: neverdem
Question: It's time to ask how many more people must needlessly die before gun control activists and legislators realize that disarming law-abiding citizens leaves them easy prey to criminals.

Answer: All of them.

[donheld]

29. When will they arrive at my/your door step

This has to make you wonder.

[Pepperbelly]

31. She shouldda told them to f*ck themselves and get off my f*cking lawn.

Only sane response.

[BUSHOUT]

34. My thought exactly. They would have been out of the house fast after

the first terrorist-type inquiry.

I wonder why they cooperated. Maybe to shine a light on the crazy?
If they had told them off we would never have known the type of questions they were planning on asking.

Maybe they're reading a list of questions put together by John Ashcroft!

[sphincter]

32. OK, let me see if I have understood this right.....

It is OK for someone to say:

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity"

..in a public column because it doesn't state any "anti-American" values?

And, I found a new signature to use...

"At the end of the day, you lose, All of these freedoms and things they're supposed to uphold, they bash them."

[BUSHOUT]

33. My God. America has lost it's way. This kid didn't even make a threat...

His parents are right, it was a "teachable moment" that was lost.

Of course, if they utilized it as a teachable moment then the wingnut teacher would have had to listen to the wisdom of children and that would have made his/her head explode.
Rightwingers seldom listen to what children think, they tell them what to think.