Free David Banach!

Move over, Sacco and Vanzetti. Step aside, Scottsboro boys.

Here comes David Banach—the lastest innocent victim of George W. Bush's and John Ashcroft's Alberto Gonzales' evil cabal to trample the the world's human rights and crush Amerika's remaining civil liberties.

And, with the clockwork predictability of an ACLU lawsuit, al Qaeda's useful idiots in the blogosphere are rallying to Banach's cause.

Sunjammer writes:

The wonderful USA Patriot Act is going to send an American man to jail for up to 25 years for playing around with a laser pointer, using it to point at the stars to show his daughter the constellations and stuff, and "accidentally" shining at at an airplane. He's obviously a terrorist and a threat to National Security! Lock him up!

Torlok2002:

Sounds like a great use of the Patriot Act. Good thing we are stopping those Laser Wielding New Jersey Terrorists with it. Granted, it was really stupid of him to shine this laser on multiple aircraft on different occasions, but why is the Patriot Act being used? He is not a terrorist. Does he deserve to be punished, perhaps … but 25 years?

Grendel:

Since the FBI has never been able to use the "Patriot Act" against a  real terrorist, they figure they will go after people shining lasers at aircraft. According to a USA Today (a.k.a. McNews Lite) article, some dope in New Jersey shined a laser at an aircraft. He is being charged with interfering with a flight crew under the USA Patriot Act. That carries a 25 year prison term and a $100,000 fine. Wow. Good thing we're safe from terrorists now …. Strange....we have 400+ of them in GitMo … of course none have been charged. Typical Bush administration: f*** the right of people … let's just hold them.

Bush Scorecard:

The guy might have committed an infraction, but he is not a terrorist and he is an American citizen and should be dealt with by normal American law, not some ostensively [sic] anti-terror act. That was not supposed to be the purpose of anti-terror legislation. What are they going to take first under the guise of preventing terror, my Bible, my guns, my cardboard cutters, or my laser pointers?

TChris (at TalkLeft):

The Justice Department —noting recent but unrelated reports of lasers shining on airplanes—says it wants to "send a message." The message it is sending:  we have nothing better to do. Assuming there's evidence that Banach acted intentionally, his crime was disorderly conduct. Treating him as if he's a terrorist, when he admittedly isn't, demonstrates bad judgment in the extreme. ["Stupid Prosecution of the Week"]

Morat:

He could have stood out in the yard for a year shining it at airplanes and not hit the damn cockpit, much less interfered with the pilot.

This sort of dumbass overreaction from the Justice Department is ludicrous. Fine the guy 500 bucks and tell him to stop shining laser pointers at planes, and move on.

Well—guess what, Morat & Co—he did hit the cockpit, temporarily blinding both the pilot and co-pilot. To make matters worse, he hit the cockpit of a police helicopter with his laser beam two nights later. Then he lied to the police and the FBI, blamed the second incident on his daughter and finally (after flunking a polygraph) admitted that he'd lied under questioning.

Like most criminals—and terrorists, for that matter—David Banach isn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but imbecility isn't the same as innocence.

Let me ask our civil libertarians this: How would you feel about flying on an airplane whose pilot and co-pilot had just been blinded (or even momentarily distracted) by somebody on the ground—terrorist or not—fooling around with an industrial-strength laser? How would you feel if you were the pilot of the airplane (like the one in Salt Lake City back in September who ended up with a permanent retinal burn)? Or if you were one of the more than seven million Americans whose job directly depends on public confidence in air travel?

The Patriot Act wasn't just put in place to arrest terrorists. It was enacted by an overwhelming vote of our Congress—quite reasonably in light of 9/11—to prevent all criminal acts that threaten mass transportation systems and thus impair the functioning of civil society. (If you're inclined to doubt my word, read the relevant provisions of the Patriot Act here.)

If a plane crashes into a densely-populated area because someone shined a laser in the eyes of the crew, it doesn't much matter whether the someone who did the shining was a terrorist or not. The toll in death, destruction and loss of public confidence in airline transportation is going to be pretty much the same.

So go ahead. Free David Banach. Fine him his 500 bucks and send him packing.

And while you're at it, why don't you liberate all those poor innocents being tortured and unjustly detained at Gitmo too?

Better still, give them a nice fat check from the U. S. Treasury for the terrible injustices they've been forced to suffer.

Just don't bother calling me on your cell phone to tell me that your flight to Chicago's going down.

UPDATE: Welcome Michelle Malkin readers. I have some more recent posts about lasers here, here, here, here and here. But feel free to just look around.