Re: If you fought to defend your country...

[Eric Murray <ericm@lne.com>]

attila writes:
> On Sat, 29 Nov 1997, Tim May wrote:
> > 
> > I was stopped by the storm troopers on the Stanford University campus for
> > this reason--"you fit the profile"--and asked to let them inspect my
> > briefcase and jacket pockets. I stood my ground and said "No."

[..] 

> > Of course, Stanford being private property, they escorted me off the campus.

[..]

> > (However, it was Stanford Sheriffs, representing the (alleged) city of
> > Stanford, CA, who did the stop-and-escort-off routine, so one wonders about
> > the lines being blurred between private and governmental functions.)
> > 
>     Stanford was in Palo Alto the last time I looked... is the "City of
>     Stanford" a new chartered entity inside Palo Alto? to permit "real"
>     law enforcement, not just hired guns?

Stanford used to be a real town.  Palo Alto annexed a number of
surrounding smaller towns in the 50s.  The town of Mayfield is one; it
consisted of the area just south and east of Stanford, where California
street is now.

Of course if you follow private property rights to their full extent,
its within Stanford's rights to escort Tim off the premises for whatever
reason they want, including simply not liking the way he looks ("fitting
the profile").  However Stanford isn't a purely private institution since
they take government money for research contracts and the like.


>     maybe Chelsea has them all nervous. 

Sure.  And having something bad happen to her while at Stanford will
get the university pilloried in the press; while harassing a few
people who "fit the profile" will probably get them kudos or at
the worst some rants in non-mainstream press.  It's not the fault of
Stanford's rulers-- they're just responding to what we as a soceity
tell them that we want: safety over freedom.



-- 
Eric Murray  Chief Security Scientist  N*Able Technologies  www.nabletech.com
(email:  ericm  at  lne.com   or   nabletech.com)          PGP keyid:E03F65E5