Civil liberties at stake in fearful times

[Richard D]

Civil liberties at stake in fearful times
July 30, 2007

In a war of shadows and whispers, anyone can be an enemy.

Loud young men in fast cars, old ladies using walkers, nannies pushing strollers, truckers at a traffic stop and teenage girls squabbling like angry cats are all suspect.

Suspicion moves like a toxic mist through a culture on edge. A warning that Islamic terrorists are coming has sounded gongs and drums through the sleepy villages and the big cities of America.

But we don't know who to look for, or where.

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A minor but evocative case of fear's intrusion and a law's misuse is that of Annie Jones, a pseudonym applied at the family's request to conceal her identity. A 20-year-old L.A. college student who would rather smash her iPhone than harm another human being, she was arrested for making terrorist threats in a recent argument with two teenage girls. The mother of the girls called the cops, and Annie ended up in the slammer.

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-martinez30jul30,1,6282563.column?coll=la-news-columns