In this video, Albany County Sheriff Deputy Stan Lenic stands up for the rights of activists handing out flyers instructing people about the right to opt out of the TSA full body scan at Albany International Airport.
Wow Albany Sheriff's Dept.! Way to go. I am very impressed. Who would have thought an Albany County Sheriff deputy would ever handle himself so well. No offense, but most deputies use the act first and think later method around here, and probably everywhere. Nine times out of ten this conflict would have ended with an arrest, (via a disorderly conduct, obstructing government administration, resisting arrest kind of thing). But clearly Deputy Lenic is not a coward. And he had the nuts to stand up to the incredibly intimidating Albany International Airport Authority Public Relations Officer Doug Meyers.
What really cracks me up about this video was how pissed off Doug Meyers was at Deputy Lenic for not bending over for him. I love the part where he instructs Lenic to check ID and Lenic say's no. It looks like Meyers actually winks at Lenic when he says to check ID. I bet Meyers thought this was how to get rid of the activists. If they dared to argue with the request for ID, then Lenic would have to arrest. But Lenic is not taking orders from Meyers and he knows the law pretty well. His logic is simple. They are not breaking any law and have the right to go about their business. (Sadly, I actually think Lenic got the law wrong here. In New York, the police have the right to request identification from anyone as long as there as an articulable (what?) basis to do so. I could think of all kinds of reasons that most Judges would accept as legitimate to request ID in this situation, but I'm not a prosecutor so I won't).
The extraordinary thiong about this police citizen encounter is but for Deputy Lenic's constitutional heroics, situations like this rarely work out in favor of the activist. I would really like to believe that police everywhere defend the constitution like Deputy Lenic everyday, but I doubt it. Call me cynical.
