Living in New York City I see signs everywhere which state “If you see something, say something”. The idea behind the campaign, is that the Police cannot be everywhere, therefore the city asks for its citizens assistance in preventing possible terrorist attacks by alerting officials when they see a suspicious package or person.

Just before Thanksgiving last year, several passengers aboard a U.S. Airways flight alerted the crew to suspicious activity, resulting in 6 men being removed from the plane. The 6 men were all Muslim, which prompted CAIR to file a lawsuit against U.S. Airways, as well as the “John Doe’s” who reported the behavior.

For those unfamiliar with this case, here it is in a nutshell. Just before Thanksgiving, 6 Muslim Imams were removed from US Airways Flight 300 from Minneapolis to Phoenix. The reason for their removal was several reports from passengers regarding suspicious behavior. The suspicious behavior included, praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted “Allah” when passengers were called for boarding; switching from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks; and asking for seat belt extenders although none of the men appeared to be overweight.

The lawsuit which was filed against the passengers who reported the suspicious behavior caused quite a stir, prompting Republicans to draft legislation which would prevent lawsuits from being filed against citizens who reported behavior. The Washington Times is reporting today Democrats want the ‘John Doe’ provision cut.

Democrats are trying to pull a provision from a homeland security bill that will protect the public from being sued for reporting suspicious behavior that may lead to a terrorist attack, according to House Republican leadership aides.

“Democrats are trying to find any technical excuse to keep immunity out of the language of the bill to protect citizens, who in good faith, report suspicious activity to police or law enforcement,” Rep. Pete King, New York Republican and ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview last night.

“This is a slap in the face of good citizens who do their patriotic duty and come forward, and it caves in to radical Islamists,” Mr. King said.

“I don’t see how you can have a homeland security bill without protecting people who come forward to report suspicious activity,” Mr. King said.

The provision in question would not prevent lawsuits against those in authority who actually took action against an individual, such as U.S. Airways in the “Flying Imam” case. What it does is prevent frivolous lawsuits against citizens who report suspicious activity to authorities so they can investigate it.

It is imperative to the National Security of the United States that citizens feel free to alert Police of suspicious activity without fear of lawsuit. If the Democrats succeed in removing this provision they will only succeed in making us more susceptible to another attack.

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CAIR, Congress, Terrorism