Our boys in green got suspicious and pulled the guy over and detained him for twenty minutes. Despite their rigorous law enforcement training, they missed the "Postal Service" T-shirt he was wearing, the fact that the bags bore the legend "US MAIL," oh yeah, and the "US MAIL RURAL LETTER CARRIER" sign on the side of the truck.
That's right, they pulled over the mailman.
Rick Encinas is a rural letter carrier. He is under contract with the Postal Service to deliver mail, so he does drive an "unmarked" vehicle, but they are usually easy to spot with the large sign on the side.
Encinas, like any rural letter carrier, drives the same route almost every day. You'd think that a decent law enforcement officer would learn the routines and comings and goings in the area he is responsible for, wouldn't you? Especially since rural letter carriers become somewhat important figures in the communities they serve.
The Border Patrol is claiming that Encinas was beligerent, a claim disputed by witnesses. They also said something to him that I find chilling:
We have every right to detain you as long as we want because we work for the U.S. government, too.An agent once told something similar to my brother when he had the temerity to be driving on the Tohono O'Odham Nation, which is where he was working at the time. Of course, he is a long haired freak, so I understand.
Whenever I hear about incidents like this, I always have to wonder if the incident would have occurred had the person involved been Anglo. Maybe they would have pulled him over anyway. I was pulled over once outside of Bisbee; despite my ancestry, I look Anglo. But, what are the chances that an Anglo that gets pulled over would be asked to prove citizenship?
This is one of the reasons why I have such a problem with things like the new rules about identification at polling places or proof of citizenship to get other sorts of government services. Will an Anglo, immigrant or no, be given the scrutiny given to a native born Hispanic? Why should someone be made to have to prove themselves American because they have brown eyes and are a bit darker?
(NB- A version of this also appears on my blog, Rum, Romanism and Rebellion.)