There won’t be any random ID checks, and the AP story ran a correction saying that, and printing the correct quote from Howard Simon.

Here’s our statement.

ACLU Statement on Miami Shield Program

There is some confusion over the specifics of the “Miami Shield” Program. Reports differ as to whether the plan involves large squads of officers stopping everyone at a locale and then demanding people to produce identification. Although the Miami Police Department has claimed that “Miami Shield” will respect people’s right, much of its constitutionality will depend on how the program is implemented.

If police officers plan on stopping people and demanding identification without any reason to believe that there is criminal activity, that is unconstitutional.

When law enforcement stops people based on individualized suspicion of wrongdoing, that is always both more effective and consistent with constitutional principles.
Other post 9-11 law enforcement tactics such as randomly searching subway users in New York City or conducting mass pat-down searches of everyone entering the Raymond James Football Stadium in Tampa violate constitutional principles and are a waste of law enforcement resources.

The revised AP story is pasted below.

Miami Police Take New Tack Against Terror
MIAMI, Nov. 29, 2005
________________________________________
(AP) Police are planning “in-your-face” shows of force in public places, saying the random, high-profile security operations will keep terrorists guessing about where officers might be next.

As an example, uniformed and plainclothes officers might surround a bank building unannounced, contact the manager about ways to be vigilant against terrorists and hand out leaflets in three languages to customers and people passing by, said police spokesman Angel Calzadilla. He said there would be no random checks of identification.

“People are definitely going to notice it,” Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said Monday. “We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don’t want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears.”

Howard Simon, executive director of ACLU of Florida, said the Miami initiative appears aimed at ensuring that people’s rights are not violated.

“What we’re dealing with is officers on street patrol (making informed decisions on which individuals to stop), which is more effective and more consistent with the Constitution,” Simon said. “We’ll have to see how it is implemented.” One example of a legitimate stop might be an officer questioning a person entering a crowd while wearing a heavy coat on a summer day.

The operations will keep terrorists off guard, Fernandez said. He said al-Qaida and other terrorist groups plot attacks by putting places under surveillance and watching for flaws and patterns in security.

Police Chief John Timoney said there was no specific, credible threat of an imminent terror attack in Miami. But he said the city has repeatedly been mentioned in intelligence reports as a potential target.

Timoney said 14 of the 19 hijackers who took part in the Sept. 11 attacks lived in South Florida at various times and that other alleged terror cells have operated in the area.

Under the program, both uniformed and plainclothes police will ride buses and trains, while others will conduct longer-term surveillance operations.

Mary Ann Viverette, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said the Miami program is similar to those used for years during the holiday season to deter criminals at busy places such as shopping malls.

“We want people to feel they can go about their normal course of business, but we want them to be aware,” said Viverette, the police chief in Gaithersburg, Md.

At Monday’s Heat game against the New York Knicks, season ticket holder Tony Gonzalez, 34, said he wasn’t worried about any potential violation of civil liberties.

“When you enter an arena or stadium at full capacity you just don’t know who is going through the turnstiles,” said Gonzalez, an attorney. “Everything that helps our security, I’m for it.”

Why? It’s simple. If you’ve watched the progress of the ACLU, it’s obvious that their suppression of religion and intolerance of free speech on matters of morality matches the intent and function of Stalinist and Maoist communist regimes.

If you’ve ever spent time in a communist country, you may have experienced police activity identical to the planned actions of the Miami police department.

These new practices fall directly in line with the goals and planning of the ACLU – establishing the foundations of communism in America.

Those of us on the right side of the political aisle can easily be distracted from the fact that the Communist state is not only religious intolerant, but highly security conscience as well. When the two merge in this country, we can easily miss the warning signs because the media gives the impression that these are partisan issues, when reality is that they will function as a unit to provide the same system faced by residents in communist countries. Americans who’ve never lived or spent time behind the Iron Curtain will not realize this until the system is in place and it’s too late to stop it.

Going skating in Hell, now

Let’s not forget about the ACLU chapter that was shut down for supporting the Minutemen.