The Tribune

It is a fact of life that putting a uniform on an ordinary man can change him instantly. The heavyset class creep can be transformed into the big-chested bully. A stout woman can become HyperHolly on authority steroids. Not only does a uniform imbue a sense of power for the individual wearing it, it induces greater likelihood of obedience from those who interact with the uniform.

Research beginning with Milgram’s Yale experiments in the early 1960s and continuing with variations over 11 years have consistently demonstrated that we see the individual in a uniform, whether grey lab coat or police blues, as a figure of authority and we are more likely to respect and obey that uniform, even increasing the likelihood of our willingness to inflict pain on another individual if ordered. The research of a uniform on human behaviour is robust and clear. Uniforms change people, pump the wearer with confidence and we suggest that confidence, in some cases, can lead to arrogance.

Those who interact with a frustrated police officer may see his or her reaction to slowness to producing a driver’s licence, for instance, as frightening, even abusive. We want to point out another type of abuse and from what we hear, this is an abuse of power that takes place on a daily basis at LPIA.

It is the treatment of non-Americans, and in particular, Bahamians, at the hands of America Homeland Security in the pre-clearance section of the nation’s busiest airport.

There was great hoopla surrounding the introduction of self-serve kiosks in the Immigration Hall. People who checked in for a flight to the US could walk up to a kiosk, scan their passport - with visa if necessary - pose with a straight face for the attached camera and the machine would spew out a receipt. With that receipt in hand, the individual would then proceed to the line on the far right of the hall, go to the quick clear line, clear and head into the next hall before going upstairs to the appropriate departure gate.

The advanced technology was a great relief for NAD officials and personnel who were dealing with a daily three-to-four hour midday overload when the US pre-clearance halls were struggling with lines that often wrapped around three times with hundreds waiting to clear and not infrequently missing flights. Travellers were warned to arrive at the airport three hours in advance, which was fine for surviving long lines, but hardly a popular solution especially for Americans who are accustomed to one-hour advance arrivals in even that country’s busiest airports.

The kiosks proved efficient for returning Americans but had the opposite impact on Bahamians and others who could not use them for one reason or another.

In theory, Bahamians with visas should be able to clear through the kiosk method but because the ink of a stamp from a previous re-entry can smear essential information, it is not uncommon for Bahamians to be redirected from kiosk to the line on the near left that goes nowhere fast. While those on the far right zip by and those on the extreme left, including flight crew, handicapped and VIPs, are whisked through, the individuals stuck in the mid-left line go nowhere.

We have had reports of the line reaching up to three dozen passengers waiting to be instructed to a waiting booth where a man or woman in uniform can question their legitimacy while on both sides of them passenger after passenger goes through. And who is in the line for leftovers with the foul treatment? Mostly Bahamians either travellling on a police certificate as recommended by the American Embassy which often sends out notices that it is not necessary to have a visa, a police certificate will do, or those whose passports have been ‘tainted’ by the ink of an official stamp smearing the letters and numbers along the bottom of the page that has to be read electronically. According to the security at the entrance to that hall, the individual who directs passengers to the kiosk or another line, the mid-left lane is treated that way all the time and there is nothing that he or she can do about it. If they report a complaint, it gets even worse and the individuals in line are punished further for being non-American.

In two recent cases that have been reported to this newspaper, waiting individuals who dared to raise their hands after 20 minutes to half an hour and ask if they were forgotten were not only left standing longer but after finally being directed to a station were “randomly selected” to be hauled off for an “agricultural survey,” where they were led to an interrogation room where they waited even longer for their name to be called to take the survey and be checked for mites, ticks and lice.

One of those persons told us he had never thought about carrying so much as apple-flavoured breath mints in his luggage or pocket so why would he have been “randomly selected” to be subjected to an agricultural survey. He knew why, he said, because he dared to raise his hand and ask if the line he was in could be called.

It doesn’t pay to speak up when speaking to a uniform in pre-clearance, even when speaking up politely. We wish the new American Embassy Charge d’Affaires Stephanie Bowers good luck. We have met her and she seems pleasant enough and interested in her new post. But we strongly suggest that she let the uniforms know they are guests in this country and should treat their hosts with respect and if she cannot do it, The Bahamas will need to apply greater pressure for an ambassador who is not afraid to get the unruly, impolite officers who are supposed to defend America’s borders in line, not treat those who are entering legally and with good intentions as if they were unbathed scum.

Uniforms do not the man make, character is what lies beneath.