Cliff,
AOPA legal department is meeting with the Customs and Border Patrol tomorrow here in Washington on a number of pre-agreed agenda items. At the request of the Lancair Owners and Builders Organization (LOBO), they’ve added this to the agenda, and promised feedback. We’re watching, and have offered to participate in this exchange as appropriate.
I’ll post to you here as we have information, but this needs to be a country-wide and carefully considered response by GA pilots to protect/restore our rights. It’s always a balance between citizen rights and citizen protection; some are arguing that their “protection responsibility” over-writes some current rights. It’s our job to help manage this balance through pro-active participation. LOBO intends to do this. I had a friend in politics here tell me the other night when discussing how we should proceed, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the plate.” Seems to be appropriate to this case…
Bob
Cliff Scheel wrote:
I think some are missing the main point here. If it is reasonably believed that someone is deliberately falsifying records to initiate searches, then they should be gone after by AOPA legal or some other entity. Filing a false police report is still a crime the last time I looked, and if someone is intentionally targeting GA just for the fun of it, they should be prosecuted. I hope someone has contacted AOPA legal on this matter rather than just complaining about it.