Canadians driving in the US know traffic laws vary from state to state (same as province to province) and it is our best interests to know where it’s illegal to turn right on a red light. Canadians that drive in the US regularly know our licence plates are targeted.
Cheryl Kuehn is merely one of 2 million Canadians (2005) who go to Florida. A pittance of the 58 million tourists Florida hosts yearly. If we drive, we have to go through Georgia. (or Alabama)
Cheryl Kuehn’s story has more details than it did yesterday.
23 year old Cheryl Kuehn was heading to Daytona Florida to meet up with her in-laws. She missed a turn off on I-95 near Brunswick, Georgia. She left the interstate at about 5:20 pm. Trying to get into a restaurant parking area, she says she made a U-turn.
Georgia police arrested her.
She spent 11 hours in jail.
She was told she ran a stop sign and was doing 55 mph in a 35 mph zone. (88.5 kph in a 56 kph zone)
She was stripped, searched, fingerprinted, uniformed and held.
Her husband had her bond ($222/US) three hours after the police took her.
Kuehn was not charged with a crime. Nor was she read her rights.
Now word comes that:
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency told the Citizen yesterday that the Glynn County detention centre contacted them at 7:26 p.m. Saturday inquiring if Cheryl Kuehn was legally in the U.S. after her arrest for allegedly speeding and failing to stop at a stop sign.
9 hours after Immigration sent the requested information to Georgia she was released. Information from that immigration check took 11 minutes to reach Georgia authorities.
Kuehn had a valid passport, bond was raised within three hours of police putting her in custody, so what was the problem?
Col. Louise Newsome, jail administrator at the Glynn County Detention Center, said policy requires all non-U.S. citizens to go through the sometimes lengthy immigration process to determine if they are wanted on warrants. She said the jail adopted the policy in advance of a new Georgia state law, scheduled to come into effect in July. The controversial law, which deals with a variety of immigration issues, including social services and human trafficking, also requires legal status verification for people charged with a felony or drunk driving offence, according to a summary of the law posted on Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue’s website.
However, Mrs. Kuehn was charged with neither a felony nor drunk driving.
There was no problem.
This is how Georgia has chosen to do business.
This has gone to the Prime Minister’s Office, MP John Baird’s office, the Canadian consulate in Atlanta, Georgia department of economic development, the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia and Governor Perdue’s office.
Kuehn strikes me merely as lucky that people in her life took action quickly.
1) She and her family do not deny she may have committed a traffic violation
2) Georgia police did allow her a phone call
3) Her passengers were not arrested
4) there is no indication she was non compliant with police
5) failure to act promptly on communication between state and federal levels is a reality
6) if family had not come to her assistance and made a lot of noise she would still be sitting in a Georgia detention facility
7) He said/she said/they said is not going to change state law or procedure for this family or any foreign family
You are a tourist, you are their guest, you are a mark
The Georgia State Police have made it very clear this level of law enforcement is merely going to increase.
The Georgia State Police are also very clear that they want their money and they will detain you to get it:
But officials with the Georgia state police and Glynn County Detention Center, where Mrs. Kuehn was being held, said they were just following procedure when someone from another country is stopped for speeding or other traffic violations — no matter how minor they might seem.
That procedure, they said, includes holding Canadians, including those carrying a valid passport like Mrs. Kuehn, or other “foreign nationals,” in custody until the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency confirms they are legally allowed to be in the country.
Georgia state police senior trooper Larry Schnall said it’s “routine” for police to haul out-of-country visitors to jail for traffic violations.
He said the policy is in place to prevent tourists from other countries, and some U.S. states, from racking up speeding tickets they never intend to pay. Paying the bond up front is an assurance like the citation fine will be paid or the bond money will not be returned.
“It doesn’t matter if you are from Canada, England, Mexico. Typically, we would transfer you to the facility until you can make the appropriate paperwork,” he said.
Okay snowbirds, Georgia state officials have spoken.
We can’t say we haven’t been warned.
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“When in Rome…”
Travelling in the US used to be a pleasant experience. Since 9/11 it feels less friendly. It is as if tourists are merely tolerated.
Sadly it appears the States are becoming more and more insular (detatched, standing alone, isolated). On my last trip the only news I was able to get was CNN and Fox. It was all about them and how their borders are being threatened. No international news, nothing about the outside world.
I make that judgement based on personal experience. I am sure there are many tourists who will disagree with me. Yes one has to obey the provincial/state laws. Do we target US plates in Canada? Probably. But we don’t strip-search them, at least not yet.
It’s like the Minutemen guarding the border. I have a mental picture of the Canadians sitting in lawn chairs with our Tim Horton’s coffee watching them patrol back and forth.
This lady’s experience should serve as a warning. Stay out of the US if you don’t want to risk encounters like the one she experienced.
As far as I can tell this has remained an exclusively Canadian story, I haven’t found anything in Georgia news.
Doesn’t mean it isn’t there, but I’m not finding it.
You sound like Liberal MP and opposition critic for consular affairs, Dan McTeague. Canada can put up a travel advisory for this state.
Georgia was known for it’s speed traps in the 60’s and 70’s - they’ve just ratcheted up their laws.
Seems to me Georgia law enforcement has spoken very clearly.
Of course it’s a warning, and a good one.
This has been reported in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/04/13/0414metcanada.html.
One of Ms Kuehn’s comments made me wonder, “I’m not a terrorist. I’m a blond, petite woman from Canada…” No offense ma’am, but if you can pick out terrorists based on what they look like I am sure the Department of Homeland Security and the CSIS will offer you employment in a minute. Perhaps you could also do some work in Afghanistan and Iraq, I mean a lot of suicide bombers there could be picked out with your apparent keen ability to spot terrorists.
Terrorist recruiters probably look for people who could not be assumed to be connected with terrorism, look at the men who bombed the buses and tube in London. Not one their neighbors even had an idea that those people were in fact terrorists.
I am sorry that your time in Georgia was not what anyone should expect. I also hope that what happened doesn’t deter you from coming back down. I have been here in Georgia since August, and have found most people generally nice and interested in a Canadian in the Deep South.
Thanks Marc.
(The Atlantic Journal-Constitution requires registration)
Her reaction is what one would expect from an angry, scared 23 year old college student.
I’m not sure what she is most angry at, being locked up, or the laws that put her behind bars.
The reality is she was locked up in a detention centre for 11 hours for a traffic violation. She is a foreigner and was treated like a foreigner, I suspect she gets that now.
She was locked up because of two state laws - people from out of state tend not to pay traffic tickets and foreigners are automatically run by the feds again.
We cross the border, we play by the rules and weigh the risks.
This was agregious given Mrs. Kuehn was cleared and bond was available quickly.
Georgia is a drive through state for snowbirds, state law enforcement is clear they will get their money and how they will handle you.
When Canadian provinces decide tourists will be processed this way on a traffic violation, we’d be wise to protest loudly.
I agree her statement about not looking like a terrorist doesn’t hold weight, it’s a legitimate part of how she feels about her experience, fear and outrage won’t change law or procedure.
Please let the young lady know that many people will know about this absurd act. I am surprised that you
are not more angry which would be justified. I guess you heard about the British scholar who was bodyslamed
and handcuffed for jaywalking in Atlanta recently.
The federal immigration law SB 529 that Georgia Police cite as justification for their behavior doesn’t go into effect until July.
Makes no difference to this family and families down the road.
I doubt most people, myself included blame residents of Georgia.
Even if every citizen in the state protested this hyper enforcement, the laws and the behaviors of those enforcing those laws are not going to change.
It seems prudent tourists make smart choices and be aware of states that have decided tourists and none residents will be treated this way for U turns and jaywalking.
I had not read about the professor. Looks like the UK may have to join Canada in warning travellers.
Andrea, thank you.
I found the story (the YouTube interview with him is facinating)
He was charged with Failure to Obey a Police Officer and Physical Obstruction of Police.
Again, thank you.
According to the police report, a ‘uniformed’ Altanta Police officer is not required to show identification.
http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/metro/MetJayWalk.pdf
8 hours in detention, strip searched etc, same as Kuehn: $1,371.00/US bond, and told to plead nolo contendere.
Pathetic.
http://hnn.us/articles/33409.html#Day3
“On Thursday, just after noon, the Tufts historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto was arrested by Atlanta police as he crossed the middle of the street between the Hilton and Hyatt hotels. After being thrown on the ground and handcuffed, the former Oxford don was formally arrested, his hands cuffed behind his back.
Several policemen pressed hard on his neck and chest, leaving the mild-mannered scholar, who’s never gotten so much as a parking ticket, bruised and in pain. He was then taken to the city detention center along with other accused felons and thrown into a filthy jail cell filled with prisoners. He remained incarcerated for eight hours. Officials demanded bail of over a thousand dollars. To come up up with the money Fernandez-Armesto, the author of nineteen books, had to make an arrangement with a bail bondsman. In court even the prosecutors seemed embarrassed by the incident, which got out of hand when Fernandez-Armesto requested to see the policeman’s identification (the policeman was wearing a bomber jacket; to Fernandez-Armesto, a foreigner unfamiliar with American culture, the officer did not look like an officer).
And more here.
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/33876.html
The Atlanta police officer can say whatever he wants, the pictures speak pretty loudly.
Asking for proper identification from law enforcement is not acceptable in Atlanta then. I’d take every Altanta officer involved and send them on a six month exchange with London police.
Good on the American Historical Association for making noise.
Bene,
i’m not sure about your statement:
“She was locked up because of two state laws - people from out of state tend not to pay traffic tickets and foreigners are automatically run by the feds again.”
Neither of these things you mentioned are what you would call a law, the observation that people from out of state tend not to pay tickets, it’s a trend, not a law - and it justifies bringing you to the station to pay while waiting at the front of the police station, NOT being stripped down, having your personal possessions removed and showered down with lice remover and jailed in an actual jail cell where everyone else is there for being charged with actual, criminal (non traffic related) offenses!
For all of you on here justifying what they did as following the law, can you explain why making someone pay a fine at the police station requires the
police to jail you while they just do a quick immigration check?
Jail cells are reserved for people who commited a crime that justifies being locked up such as prositution, physical agression/fighting, robbery, abuse, drug offenses, prostitution, etc.
These things are criminal offenses. Traffic offenses without any aggravation by the committer should NEVER end someone up in jail if they are only at a police station to pay a TRAFFIC fine (no criminal offense.)
Does that not make sense? there is no ‘law’ that I know of requiring ‘traffic’ offenses (NON-criminal) to land people up in jail in ANY civilized counrty, especially when the person who broke a simple traffic law is willing and able to cooperate with police!!
How many people do you think were at the station waiting to pay traffic tickets? 1, 2? They definitely woudl have had enough room to have her just wait at the front of the police station until they cleared her and let her pay the ticket…
Correct me if i’m wrong Bene and Marc, but I think that Georgia is the only place in North America willing to take things WAY too far, and borders on violating people’s civil liberties.
Well, Georgia state officials took things even further.
Rather than acknowledge policy and systems need to be addressed, they fired a jail employee and suspended two upon reviewing the behavior toward Mrs. Kuehn and her family.
The police are not culpable.
“Sheriff Bennett said Glynn County policy is to check all foreign nationals, regardless of the offence. In his statement, the sheriff said he has no intention of changing that policy.”
http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=9528d534-7052-4108-89d5-8c96e5cdb471
Georgia state police senior trooper Larry Schnall said it’s “routine” for police to haul out-of-country visitors to jail for traffic violations.
John, your point is well taken. State law does not literally require locking up someone for a traffic violation. Nor does an immigration check require locking someone up while an 11 minute query goes through.
It is merely ‘routine’.
Of course Georgia police could have done what other jurisdictions do, allow her and her family to wait out front.
If anyone is optimistic the state will show restraint in the future, forget it.
Firing a jail employee, suspending two and calling this incident ‘officer error’ does not bode well.
Reading what Georgia Police and state officials have said, civil liberties are not their priority.
A UK history professor jaywalks (citation) gets arrested and detained 8 hours by Atlanta police because they charged him with obstruction and resisting for asking for identification.
You are a foreigner John, the state of Georgia is very clear - this behavior and treatment of others is not going to far in their interpretation. Law makers and enforcers do not care about your civil liberties.