All the land a prison

This wasn't supposed to happen here

[Reprinted from Issues & Views August 20, 2001]

Can U.S. freedoms survive the War on Drugs? Is the attempt to rid the land of its last ounce of heroin and cocaine, through draconian legislation and increasingly punitive law enforcement, worth making Americans feel that their entire country has turned into a giant prison?

Here was Kathryn Kaniff, returning to Chicago after a trip to the island of Jamaica. On her arrival at O'Hare International Airport she was taken aside and her body was frisked by Customs agents. Since this initial search rendered nothing akin to hidden drugs, the officials decided to do a more thorough search, and had two female agents strip and examine Kaniff.

Their persistence was due to the fact that their drug-sniffing dogs had behaved kind of funny over Kaniff's luggage. She tried to explain about the pungently spiced Jamaican fish dish she was carrying back from the island. When she produced this item, not only did that fail to satisfy these diligent officials, they had her removed to a nearby hospital, so her body could be X-rayed and she could be more thoroughly searched internally.

At the end of this four-hour ordeal, the agents conceded that they could find nothing. By the way, while one set of agents were busily inspecting all of Kaniff's bodily orifices, another bunch were busy at a computer, where they learned that she had paid for her round-trip ticket in cash, this act now being a sin which can lead to questions about the origins of the cash bearer's money.

Sniffing dogs, strip searches, X-rays, and suspicion for using cash. How much longer will Americans endure being treated as guilty felons as they struggle, not always successfully, to prove their innocence?

Needless to say, in the case of Kathryn Kaniff, a lawsuit has already been filed in her behalf.

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