Saturday, May 07, 2005
Daniel Pipes praises routine traffic stops
Daniel Pipes apparently advocates routine traffic stops as a means of combating terrorism. He has compiled a list of links to reports of arrests that have come out of hometown police work, to wit:
There are, of course, countless traffic stops every day, almost none of which result in the arrest of terror suspects. Anecdotes are not evidence that routine stops are a useful means for hunting bad guys. In Pipes' defense, though, I do not know that he actually advocates more stops or random stops. He may just, in fact, be praising them.
News comes today that Sami Ibrahim Isa Abdel Hadi, 39, was stopped for tailgating on Route 46 in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Turns out, once the Bergen County police officer called in Abdel Hadi's North Carolina license plates, he learned that Abdel Hadi is illegally in the United States and is on several federal agency terror watch lists. Even more interestingly, Abdel Hadi has a valid temporary I.D. from for L & L Painting to paint the George Washington Bridge.
There are, of course, countless traffic stops every day, almost none of which result in the arrest of terror suspects. Anecdotes are not evidence that routine stops are a useful means for hunting bad guys. In Pipes' defense, though, I do not know that he actually advocates more stops or random stops. He may just, in fact, be praising them.
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