After Detainment, Pomona Senior Files Federal Suit

News

By

Published over 2 years ago

Nicholas George PO ’10 filed a lawsuit against the federal government Wednesday, contesting his detention by law enforcement officials at the Philadelphia International Airport this past summer.His crime? Carrying Arabic flashcards and a book on politics in his carry-on baggage.George’s lawsuit alleges that government officials named in the suit participated in an unconstitutional search and seizure, excessive use of force, and unconstitutional infringement of the Freedom of Speech.The incident drew national media attention when it took place on August 29, 2009.George, 22, was scheduled to fly back to California via Phoenix on Southwest Airlines from his Philadelphia-area home. He carried the flashcards and “Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions,” a 2004 book by former Reagan Administration official Clyde Prestowitz that critiques some aspects of U.S. foreign policy.George said he was pulled aside by officials from the Transportation Security Administration, who interrogated him for approximately 45 minutes, asking him questions like, “What is your view on the 9/11 attacks? Who committed 9/11? What language does Osama bin Laden speak?” and finally, “Do you see why these cards are suspicious?” before handing him off to Philadelphia police, who handcuffed him and left him in a jail cell at the airport for two hours.A spokeswoman for TSA said Wednesday that the agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, does not comment on pending lawsuits. Officials from the Philadelphia Police Department and the city’s division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which are also named in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment in the midst of severe winter weather.George said a police duty sergeant checked on him and asked if he had any medical conditions—like diabetes or heart disease—that might affect him while he was being detained.George then asked, “Hey, what’s going on here?”“I don’t know,” said the policeman, according to George. “What did you do?”George knew then that it was a bad situation. “It’s a problem when the police don’t know why they’re holding you,” he said.George said his handcuffs were removed and he was interviewed by FBI agents, who asked him about his interest in Arabic, about Islam, communism, and taking physics classes at a liberal arts college. George is a double major in Physics and Middle Eastern studies who has traveled to Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Malaysia.“Do you understand why you’re being held?” one of the agents asked, according to George.“Honestly, not really,” George replied.“Then you’re a f—king idiot,” said the agent.Once the agents decided George was not a threat, he was released. He was held for a total of more than five hours, according to the timeline laid out in his lawsuit.Initially, George let the incident pass. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), however, became interested in the situation after reading a Dave Davies op-ed article in the Philadelphia Daily News, entitled “Student Air Passenger Handcuffed to Echoes of 9/11 Fears, ” on Sept. 11.The ACLU got in touch with George and are now representing him in his suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.“Honestly, before then, I’m like many Americans and I just assumed the TSA is allowed to do whatever they want,” said George. “The ACLU reminded me that the Constitution still stands at the airport.”George said he tried to cooperate with TSA, police, and FBI. “I can say with a clear conscience that I never raised my voice, I never talked back, I answered all their questions fully and honestly,” he said. “My mindset during the initial questioning was, ‘any second now they’re going to realize this is silly and just waive me on.’”While sitting in his holding cell, George said that he could hear the agents discussing the flashcards they confiscated from him.“They were sitting there describing the flashcards to their superiors. ‘Well, it’s a small piece of paper with Arabic writing on one side and an English word on the other,’” George said. “I was thinking, ‘Does no one out there see that I’m a student who’s learning Arabic—does no one out there see how stupid this is?’”George was disappointed that “at a time when the military, State Department, Foreign Service, and all of these government agencies are all desperately short of Arabic speakers,” he was treated like a criminal for trying to learn the language.Looking at the suit now, “The point is to make it very clear that there are rules, that you have to follow the rules, and that when you don’t follow the rules there are repercussions,” said George. “The point is to make it clear the TSA cannot do whatever they want.” The case “is just a reminder that civil liberties aren’t something you can take for granted,” said George. “I’ve heard a thousand stories since this happened of ‘yeah man, TSA did this to me, did that to me.’ You can’t just say that’s a mild inconvenience,” he said. “It’s what it means to be American to stand up for your liberties.”

Comments

Please keep our Community Guidelines in mind when commenting. Thanks for joining the discussion!

blog comments powered by Disqus

Most popular