I mentioned that there was a police checkpoint with a fairly long line. They checked every car and had the motorcyclists get off their bikes to walk them in. If you weren't holding onto a bike, you had to keep your hands in the air.
I also got some videos of some people who somehow annoyed the guards. Pity the iPad camera can't zoom worth 8 bits of beans. The guards made them frog hop across the road and back again with their hands on their heads. As usual, some of the police stood around with some pretty mean guns, fingers always near the trigger.
We passed through without incident.
One guard threatened to flog a guy with a long, thick looking whip. With our windows rolled up, we couldn't tell what the provocation was, but the guard's intent was pretty clear. The fellow finally complied and frog hopped for a bit, then was allowed to return to his bike without other punishment.
I sit back wondering at the comparative situation. I've complained at the TSA checkpoints before for violating my civil rights. I think that's what it constitutes and I don't believe the US government has the authority to do what they are doing. In both cases there are guys with machine guns staring at me like I'm wearing a shirt from Target because someone else did something heinously wrong. One government lets strangers with minimal qualifications grope me, the other lets strangers with minimal qualifications force me to frog hop. Frankly, I think I'd rather frog hop. On the other hand, TSA isn't allowed to beat me without some pretty serious provocation - I have the protection of at least some law to sue the government back if things get out of hand.
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