Update- another detention at State of the Union

Parent Cafe
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<p><a href=“http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-calcee03feb03,0,5005172.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla[/url]”>http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-calcee03feb03,0,5005172.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>By Buddy Nevins
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted February 3 2006 </p>

<p>Two Democratic congressmen say they will find out why an Indian-born businessman from South Florida who was invited to watch President Bush’s State of the Union speech was taken from the gallery by U.S. Capitol Police and held for an hour.</p>

<p>U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings of Miramar and Kendrick Meek of Miami met Wednesday with House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer demanding an explanation.</p>

<p>Hastings spokesman Fred Turner said Thursday that a satisfactory reason has not been given.</p>

<p>Turner said the man is convinced he was ejected because he looks Indian.</p>

<p>“He said to Congressman Hastings, `I guess this is what happens today when you’re brown and in America,'” Turner said.</p>

<p>Turner said Hastings vowed “to get to the bottom of this one way or another.”</p>

<p>Spokesmen for the congressmen described the man as an American, born in India, who has a security clearance because he runs a business with Department of Defense contracts.</p>

<p>Turner said the man was wearing a suit and tie and did not demonstrate in any way. He was not removed during the speech but was detained and questioned for about an hour afterward…"</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1156497,00.html[/url]”>http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1156497,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>"…For close to an hour the man, who was born in India but is an American citizen, was questioned by the Police, who thought he resembled someone on a Secret Service photo watch list, according to Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer. Eventually, the police realized it was a case of mistaken identity and let him go. Gainer has assured Hastings that the Capitol Police, Secret Service and FBI will investigate why the man was detained for so long, and try to “sharpen our procedures.” But the man was “very, very scared” by the incident, says Fred Turner, a spokesperson for Hastings. On Tuesday night, he told the congressman that the experience was “maybe just the price of being brown in America,” Turner says.</p>

<pre><code> “He shouldn’t have gone through the ringer as long as he did,” Gainer says. “He did get caught up in the morass of Secret Service FBI, Capitol Police. Everybody was trying to figure out whether he was a threat. And he absolutely, unequivocally clearly was not.” Gainer apologized to the man afterwards, only one of the many apologies he has had to make this week. He met with Congressman Young at least twice, as well as with Young’s wife. “There is no prohibition against simply wearing a T-shirt that states your particular cause,” Gainer stresses, taking full accountability for not providing clearer direction to his officers…"
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<p>So, any excuses for this detention…anyone?</p>

<p>OH he LOOKED like someone? Please, he was “brown” as he called himself, that was it…</p>

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<p>And, you know that because of …? Any evidence at all to back up your assertion? Why the vendetta against the Capitol police?</p>

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<p>Because the Man detained had security clearance as a defense contractor, was an American citizen and was wearing a suit and tie, did nothing during the speech, as proved by tapes and the only thing that set him apart was he looked like someone else, that is what the police have said, and the Man detained is Indian looking, and called himself “brown”, so he must looklike some other “brown person” no profiling here</p>

<p>Read the news for goodness sake</p>

<p>A man with A SECURITY CLEARANCE was detained for an hour…why…he still hasn’t gotten an answer</p>

<p>why the defense of overzealous security…</p>

<p>You have any proof this law abiding, back ground checked man shold have been surrounded by TEN police, escorted out and interregated for an hour, what he had done to warrant this detention…</p>

<p>guess its okay if law abiding citizens can just be grabbed by the police for no reason</p>

<p>he LOOKED a bit like someone on a watch list…wow, bet you do to</p>

<p>Its is amazing that you will defend anything and everything that might make our government look bad</p>

<p>and by the way, the police have admitted they were WRONG WRONG WRONG with regards to all three detentions</p>

<p>good thing the people didn’t argue against being drug off, out would come the cuffs</p>

<p>Please read and listen to the regular news,not just Fox and Limbaugh</p>

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<p>THE POOR MAN’S LIFE IS RUINED AND OURS IS SO MUCH BETTER FOR KNOWING ABOUT THIS INCIDENT :D</p>

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<p>You look like someone the police are looking for and you get questioned for an hour–yes, that’s a shocker. I’m sure it takes just seconds to verify a claim of a security clearance. The gov. is always that efficient.</p>

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<p>So, I presume that out of the hundreds of people at the talk that this was the only person with brown skin? And the police figured that they better teach him a lesson? Or is your theory that there were several people with brown skin there and the police held a lottery as to which one they were going to make an example of? Puhleeeze …</p>

<p>CGM, you make a sport of being critical. Had things worked out the opposite - that the person really was a bad guy and did something violent and had it later surfaced that the guards “thought he looked like someone on a watch list” and did nothing about it, you would be on the opposite side of this story.</p>

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<p>So, if you were surrounded by ten armed men and escorted in front of hundreds of people because you looked perhaps like someone on a watch list</p>

<p>bet all you nice folks be white</p>

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<p>“bet all you nice folks be white”</p>

<p>Wrong, again</p>

<p>Despite driving a new car and being welldressed I was stopped for speeding the other day. Now I’m sure thanks to CGM logic it was my brown skin and not the fact that I was doing 75 in a 55 that made that officer upset.</p>

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<p>“bet all you nice folks be white”</p>

<p>Trying to hit an all time low, CGM?</p>

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<p>This will turn out, and alread y has, to be an embrassment to the police</p>

<p>We shall see</p>

<p>And all time low, nope, thinking that this man wasn’t signld out because of his skin is an all time low</p>

<p>denying we have a problem in this country and only caring about yourselves and so long as it doesn’t happen to you is an all time low</p>

<p>not carrying at all about your fellow Americans and what can happen to them is an all time low</p>

<p>and forgetting the past and what we as Americans have done to each other is an all time low</p>

<p>never forget andnever assume</p>

<p>I was wrong, and I apoligize for assuming anyones race. That was wrong</p>

<p>but at least I concern myself with my fellow Americans and some people jsut keep saying, so long as its not me, and being a good person I have nothing to fear, well, good people have a lot to fear</p>

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<p>Gov’t security clearance. Defense contractor. Yeah. My H has clearance and works for a defense contractor. His badge is only good at his place of employment. He doesn’t carry it with him except to work. There are many different levels of clearance. Having clearance to do business with the military selling, say uniforms or food service items, doesn’t necessarily mean you have secret or top secret clearance to have knowledge of weapons systems or sensitive information. So, to me, having clearance in this instance would really need to be clarified. I doubt the capitol police have access to DOD clearance files anyway, no matter the level of clearance.</p>

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<p>The poor man will overcome this embarassment; maybe, he should try to keep better company: </p>

<p>“In 1989, Alcee Lamar Hastings was impeached by the United States House of Representatives for corruption and perjury, and subsequently became only the sixth Judge in U.S. history to be removed from office by the United States Senate.”</p>

<p>"Taxpayers aren’t the only ones who foot the caucus bill. The National Association of Software and Service companies (NASSCOM) and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) are funded by Indian businesses that consider spending money to woo our Congress a worthwhile business expense. These organizations sponsor lavish junkets for our politicians in Mumbai and Bangalore to influence their voting behavior. </p>

<p>As an example, in April of 2003 an entourage of Democratic caucus members were wined and dined in Mumbai. Junketeers included Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX), Chris Bell (TX), Kendrick Meek (FL), and Joseph Crowley (NY). These representatives assured Indian millionaires that they don’t have to worry about labor activists in the United States who strive to preserve a semblance of the American middle-class by saving good-paying jobs. Sheila Jackson Lee’s speech in Mumbai must have sounded like a soothing mantra to her Indian audience when she ranted against “unhealthy” legislation to protect American workers from the ravages of outsourcing. Lee sang to the choir when she told the wealthy aristocrats that it’s a “win-win situation” when U.S. jobs are sent to Mumbai.(8) Jackson reassured her cheering Mumbai audience that she will do everything possible to raise the H-1B yearly cap so that more Indians can flood our labor markets."</p>

<p>CGM, where is your “against-all-outsourcing” alert? Whoops!</p>

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<p>actually, being detained for ONLY an hour is rather surprising, IMO. The Capitol Police report to Congress, the Secret Service report to the Dept. of the Treasury, and the whatever security clearance this person possessed was housed in the Pentagon, DoD. The fact that the could clear this up within an hour when DC is under high alert (the Po-leece get rather nervous when 99% of America’s leaders – both parties – are all housed in one auditorium at the same time), demonstrates rather fast work, again, IMO.</p>