Checkpoint Contest- Olympic Peninsula

Congrats Garret Seim! Winner of The Checkpoint Contest

Contest specifics:

Checkpoint Content Contest – Win HD Videocamera!

My entry:

Washington’s Olympic Peninsula-

State and local law enforcement agencies do not conduct suspicionless checkpoints in Washington State. Check your state here:

Sobriety Checkpoint Laws

Washington became a medical marijuana state in 1998.

View medical marijuana states here:

18 Legal Medical Marijuana States and DC

In 2008, the US Border Patrol came to Jefferson County, WA and set up suspicionless checkpoints and bus boardings- away from border crossings and ports of entry.

Local people didn’t want the checkpoints & they were shut down.

Border Patrol checks buses every day; will it resume highway checkpoints?

At a checkpoint- the US Border Patrol stopped a legal medical marijuana user with a legal amount of medical marijuana. He was a passenger in a car:

Small-scale pot busts snared in Border Patrol stops

Lois Danks founded Stop the Checkpoints and organized local protests.

US Border Patrol states the case:

“Federal law allows the border patrol to conduct the checkpoints and stop and talk with any motorist and passenger of any vehicle, said Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Joseph Giuliano.”

“No cause is needed to converse with anyone in the car,” Giuliano said. “Zero, zilch.”

A month later:

We are told the #1 US Border Patrol objective is to stop terrorists.

The US Border Patrol explains this objective at a local public forum- this YouTube video covers Border Patrol objectives at 3:50

At that same forum a lady asked:

“What is the penalty for not identifying oneself to federal agents at an internal, suspicionless checkpoint?”

US Border Patrol said they would call in the Sheriff when a person refused to identify themselves.

Sheriff says they will not respond to a non-emergency situation involving a person peaceably refusing to interact with federal agents.

Question about providing ID is at 0:35

Checkpoints ended here in 2008- possibly due to well-informed citizens and local protests. Looks like they weren’t vital to national security after all.

War on Terror- credibility squandered:

Charges Dropped Against Pot Patient in Possession at Checkpoint

Is there any other location in the US- where the Border Patrol has staged checkpoints- then later abandoned the idea?

Domestic ferry runs at Anacortes, WA. is one other example:

Ferry security checks roil islanders

“A ferry from Friday Harbor on San Juan Island to Anacortes, a town on the coast, follows a domestic route — it never leaves U.S. waters. Yet, when it arrives in Anacortes, there’s a chance that passengers will be greeted by the Border Patrol.”

More here

2009-

Jefferson County Sheriff refuses federal grant money:

Border Patrol criticism emerges: Sheriff Brasfield declines BP funding

Federal marijuana cases to be referred to state & local authorities (01:16)