Holding Border Patrol Accountable: Terry Bressi on Recording his 300+ Checkpoint Interactions

back up right now we did not awesome your eyes util II back it up I'm Tracy Oppenheimer freezin TV and today we're talking with teri brassy in Tucson Arizona he's a staff engineer at the University of Arizona's lunar and planetary lab teri thanks for having us thank you for having me one of your sites that you visit is the Kitt Peak Observatory and along the route to getting to the observatory there is an in-country immigration checkpoint and you've been stopped numerous times over the years first can you talk about what an in-country immigration checkpoint is the Customs and Border Protection is allowed to set up permanent immigration checkpoints within a reasonable distance of the border and a reasonable distance of the border has been defined within 100 air miles of the actual border as long as they're set up along Nexus points for bordick traffic they have permanent stations that sort of thing what the US Supreme Court has never ruled on is whether or not a internal checkpoint that set up away from a nexus point such as along a secondary road that maybe parallels the actual border but where most of the traffic is domestic in nature whether or not those types of checkpoints are considered lawful and that's a type of checkpoint that I go through describe your experience start at the beginning when you first got stopped my first experience at any sort of checkpoint whatsoever was allegedly a sobriety checkpoint and even though they were claiming that it was only a sobriety checkpoint that I was being stopped at it was very clear almost from the moment I arrived at the checkpoint that they were doing a far more expansive operation when you see a large complement of federal agents at a local sobriety checkpoint you know that there's something strange going on there so when I came up to be processed there I asked a stopping officer I said well what type of checkpoint is this and he said well it's a sobriety checkpoint I said well if that's if it really if it's a sobriety checkpoint then why is there a u.s. customs agent and Border Patrol agents operating with you on the front line and he didn't like my my question very much things quickly went downhill and I found myself being dragged out of my vehicle and handcuffed off to the side of the road for asking some questions and basically asserting my rights while I was there I had a detective at that checkpoint tell me that they could tell that I hadn't been drinking because I was talking very coherently but I was also talking about US Supreme Court cases in regards to you know what the proper scope of these checkpoints is supposed to be but he said because this area is known for smuggling both humans and drugs that everyone was being compelled to identify themselves before they were being allowed to pass through so it was very clear they were operating outside of the reasonable boundaries of a sobriety checkpoint so they charged me with two criminal misdemeanors during that encounter for what for disobeying the orders of a law enforcement officer directing traffic and for refusing to provide identification after this incident I put a camera on your car you're trying to hold these officers more accountable in the future how did that play out I decided I would never put myself in that situation again and knowing that this area was an area where I was more likely to run across more checkpoints over the years I decided to start carrying video cameras and audio recording devices wouldn't they and to this day I record every time I have an encounter with enforcement agents along that route i videotape that encounter for the purposes of immigration I need to ask you one punch you can ask me whatever you want am I being detained I had agents you know basically telling me that it was illegal to to videotape them that they that I didn't have their permission to tape them and that sort of thing and it took you know repetitive action and whatnot to make it clear to them that I didn't need their I didn't need their permission or their consent to video record them while they were seizing me in a lane of traffic along a public highway so could you estimate how many times you've been pulled over I estimate that I've been through the checkpoint roughly 300 to 350 times since January 2008 when I first started videotaping my encounters at the Border Patrol checkpoint back in January 2008 within a couple of months the Border Patrol Union not the actual Border Patrol but the Border Patrol Union attempted to get me fired here at the University by writing letters of complaint to the University President and also wrote to the Arizona State Legislature now and also wrote to various local law enforcement agencies claiming that I was violating law by posting video and pictures of Border Patrol agents online they're claiming that there is an Arizona state law that makes it a crime to post personally identifiable information about a law enforcement officer a federal agent who's standing in the middle of a public highway wearing a public uniform collecting a public paycheck while seizing the public absent reasonable suspicion has no expectation of privacy and this is one thing that I really like to remind folks of that the government thinks that we don't have any right to privacy whatsoever but that's a double-edged sword so once they start claiming that once you're in public you have no right to privacy that also goes for the agents that we pay with our tax dollars in a big part it's the Department of Homeland Security and they're saying I mean their purpose is to protect us from external threats and improve our security and and why do you think this is crossing the line well first I think is a fault that that's a false premise that a lot of people operate under that this is for the security of the nation it really isn't the numbers the raw numbers coming out of the government itself shows that this is not increasing our security in fact it's making us less secure it's just feeding a empire-building its feeding its feeding agency budgets and and job security for various law enforcement agencies other than these checkpoints being a nuisance why do you think they inhibit your personal freedom after young children and I don't want them growing up in a country where they can be just arbitrarily seized by some random government agent and presumed to be guilty of something and then be forced to you know just prove their innocence on demand that's not what this country is about it's not what it was founded on and it shouldn't be tolerated by free people and this is that's exactly what the whole purpose of a checkpoint is it presumes your guilt and it means that you prove your innocence thank you so much for your time Terry that was very very informative Friesen TV I'm Tracie Oppenheimer

Channel: ReasonTV

Views: 1,053,318

Keywords: border patrol, checkpoint, immigration, constitutional rights, reasontv, tracy oppenheimer, interior checkpoints, arizona

Id: UfemjqXbJsA

Length: 6min 51sec (411 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 18 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/KevinStoley]

Top DHS Checkpoint Refusals

[u/BonoboUK]

You know the worst part of it all?

This guy has done it perfectly. He's stayed calm throughout, documented and publicised everything.

And he is going to lose. He is still going to be harassed the whole time he lives in that area (probably moreso than ever) and those harassing him will be well within their rights to say "Just doing ma job brah"

[u/hatescheese]

His closing statement is spot on.

[u/tekmonster99]

This guy has been through a lot of trouble to make a very valid point. What he is doing is very American and very patriotic.

[u/lordcarnivore]

We have to get past this "You're acting like a dick if you try to exercise your rights" mindset.

The constitution applies ALL of the time. It doesn't matter what tone of voice you're using, what the color of your skin is, or what idiotic ideas LEOs have about respect and privacy, you need to own and express your rights. Use them or lose them.

[u/Smarvin]

Latino, Male from Arizona here!
This doesn't just happen in the outskirts of the city here. I have been stopped multiple times on my way home in order to take these "sobriety tests".
There are two huge reasons as to why this is happening. One is Senate Bill 1070. Although most of the provisions haven't actually been enacted, some of the police force demand evidence of citizenship anyway. SB 1070, in its original form, allowed for questioning of anyone who was suspicious (read: Brown). The culture in Arizona, politically, has been very anti-immigration and anti-hispanic.

The second reason is because of our political leaders. Two of the biggest villains are Governer Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. These two have been using their political leverage in order to try and oppress certain people.

In certain jails all over Maricopa Country, Sheriff Joe makes people eat only bread and water because they are "unpatriotic". There has been a gross violation of rights done to people, not just Latinos.

I don't care if this gets burried deep in the comments of Reddit, as long as one person sees it and cares, that's enough for me. In order to start change, you have to try and inform people. I hope at least one of you learned something about the racism and violation of rights that is currently going on in Arizona.

[u/HotGuyBabe]

"Thank you for having us" "Thank you for having...me"

[u/RommelMcD]

This man should carry a bible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhmBtPegx5Y

[u/dirtymoney]

We REALLY DO need a completely independent agency that has some serious teeth whose job it is to basically test the police if they are doing their jobs properly or not. And to lay down some serious punishment on those who fail.