Your
Papers, Please
22 March 2010By Jacob G. Hornberger
A few days ago, Pete Eyre (who serves as outreach
consultant to FFF) had an encounter with two police
officers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which Pete
videotaped while openly carrying a weapon, which is
legal under New Mexico law.
After some conversation, the two officers asked Pete
to produce identification. Pete asked the cops if he
was required by law to produce an ID, and they
responded that he was. Pete pointed out that the
officers were wrong because he wasn’t violating any
law and, therefore, was not required to produce any
identification.
The officers then suggested that Pete must have
something to hide. Pete responded that he simply
valued his privacy.
Pete steadfastly refused to provide his ID to the
officers and, after some conversation with them,
departed from the scene without producing his ID and
without the cops doing anything to him.
Several years ago, I was traveling in Cuba. Like other
communist countries, people in Cuba are required to
carry “their papers” with them.
Over the years, most Americans have heard that term,
especially in the movies — “Your papers, please.” But
how many people have ever given much thought to what
the term means? “Your papers” simply means “your ID.”
During my trip to Cuba, I took a cab from Havana to
another town about 6 hours away. When I arrived, I
paid the cab driver and he returned to Havana. It was
about sundown. There were no hotels in town but people
were renting rooms in their houses to tourists.
The problem was that no one would rent to me. Why?
Because I had forgotten my papers — my passport — back
in Havana. Under Cuban law, the people renting the
rooms were prohibited from renting to anyone who
couldn’t produce his papers.
I finally paid a bribe to an old woman to permit me to
illegally stay in her home. I signed the registry that
Cuban law required her to keep, but I could see that
she was clearly scared to let me stay there. She said
to me, “You will never make it back to Havana. There
are checkpoints on the roads and they are stopping
everyone. They will arrest you and jail you somewhere
along the way.”
The prospect of spending the night or several nights
in a Cuban jail was not very attractive to me. The
matter was especially tense because during my visit,
Cuba was prosecuting a terrorist with CIA ties who had
bombed some Cuban hotels, killing at least one person.
(The trial was being shown on national television,
parts of which I watched in public venues. Ironically,
it was remarkably similar in appearance and process to
the U.S. military tribunals at Guantanamo.)
When I was ready to return to Havana, I decided I’d be
better off taking a flight back rather than a cab,
despite the fact that the airline was government owned
and operated. When I approached the ticket agent, I
smiled, spoke English instead of Spanish, and said
that I was visiting from the United States. The agent
said, “Oh, Cuba’s baseball team is playing in your
country.” I responded, “I know. I’m cheering for your
team!”
He laughed, gave me my plane ticket, and didn’t ask to
see my papers. I made it back to Havana.
What those two New Mexico cops fail to realize is that
by asking innocent people for their IDs, they are
conducting themselves like the police in communist
countries. American police officers need to be taught
that in America, cops are not supposed to ask innocent
people for their papers. Hopefully, there are two cops
in New Mexico who have now learned a valuable lesson
in freedom and privacy.
Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The
Future of Freedom Foundation.
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