Do you have things in your house that could get you arrested? Not talking about drugs.

9/11 brought fear to this country and gave birth to the Patriot Act.  White powder in a letter causes people to freak.  Have you ever wondered if you have things around your house that could get you arrested?  

I never thought about it, until I read an article in Arab News yesterday.  My oldest son was a science geek.  He loved all things science.  Between the things my sister the science teacher gave him and presents he got for birthdays, he had quite a collection of stuff to do his science projects.  It's still all in his closet for the day when I can give it to his son.  

My husband has all kinds of chemicals in his shop and my youngest son has a 55 gallon container of grape scented racing fuel (Don't ask).  With all the other chemical additives my son has for mixing paint when he paints his race car and the stuff he has to clean out his spray guns HAZMAT would probably put us off limits.

Go below and see why I ask about things around your house....

The War on Terror and Mistaken Identities
William Fisher, Arab News

The story starts out about the two 16 year old Muslim girls that were arrested and I'll skip that part.  The next one is even more heart breaking.

A year ago next month, Hope Kurtz died of a heart attack in Buffalo, New York. Her husband, Steve, an art professor at the University of Buffalo, called 911. Police and emergency medical services responded.

What the police saw when they got to the Kurtz home, aside from Mrs. Kurtz's body and a distraught husband, were vials, bacterial cultures, and an assortment of laboratory equipment, including a mobile DNA extracting machine used for testing food products for genetic contamination. Kurtz explained to the police that these were some of the materials for an art exhibit he and his wife had been preparing on genetic modification. The Kurtzes were founders of a group called "The Critical Art Ensemble", a collective of "tactical media" protest and performance artists.

The police didn't buy his story. They called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). A HAZMAT team carried out testing. Erie County health officials declared the Kurtz home a potential health risk and sealed it for two days while a state lab examined the bacterial cultures found inside.

Cops, FBI and HAZMAT would have had a hard time confiscating my spouses body.  I would have probably gone out in a body bag.  I can't believe what they charged this guy with.

They confiscated Mrs. Kurtz's body, and Prof. Kurtz's computer, notebooks, and art supplies. They cordoned off part of the street, quarantined the Kurtz home, and took Prof. Kurtz to a hotel, where the FBI questioned him for two days.

Officials eventually made it known that there was no danger to public health, and Kurtz was allowed to move back to his home.

But federal authorities obviously thought something in the Kurtz home was illegal, because prosecutors subsequently convened a grand jury, with Kurtz as its target. But instead of bioterrorism, he was indicted for mail and wire fraud, charges normally used against those defrauding others of money or property, as in telemarketing schemes.

The University head of the Dept of Genetics gets hauled in by the cops too.  I wonder if DHS has started checking out all university Science Depts now.

Also indicted was Robert Ferrell, head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health, who allegedly helped Kurtz obtain $256 worth of bacteria for one of Kurtz's art projects.

This week in Buffalo, New York, a judge heard motions to dismiss the federal criminal case against Kurtz, whose attorney argued that a dangerous precedent would be set by "exalting" into a federal criminal case of wire and mail fraud what is customarily a minor, civil contract issue -- the purchase of the bacterium Serratia marcescens by scientist Ferrell for use in Kurtz's artwork.

Kurtz's lawyer further argued that the FBI intentionally misled a judge into issuing the original search warrant.

The judge was told of Kurtz's possession of a photograph of an exploded car with Arabic writing beside it, but not of the photograph's context: An invitation to a museum art show. The original warrant called for the seizure of anything with Arabic writing.

Even if the judge grants the dismissal motion, Kurtz's lawyer says it is certain that the prosecution will appeal the decision.

Arab News site with all of the story.

I looked up a second source for the story.  I'd never heard of the Critical Art Ensemble, but it seems they do like making a political statement.

Kurtz, a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, makes art which addresses the politics of biotechnology. "Free Range Grains," CAE's latest project, included a mobile DNA extraction laboratory for testing food products for possible transgenic contamination. It was this equipment which triggered the Kafkaesque chain of events.

FBI field and laboratory tests have shown that Kurtz's equipment was not used for any illegal purpose. In fact, it is not even possible to use this equipment for the production or weaponization of dangerous germs. Furthermore, any person in the US may legally obtain and possess such equipment.

Source for above block and bottom block.

I know some of you will read this and say, better to be safe than sorry.  But this guy had just found his wife dead.  The cops could have checked out his story before hauling off his wifes body, for God's sake.

When I cook, I tend to wind up with flour on the drain board, the floor and on me.  If I were to have a heart attack and call 911, would the EMT's call out HAZMAT before they came into the house because of white powder on the floor?  I have to wonder.

This story happened a year ago and I never heard about it on the news or even read about in any papers.  No trial date has been set, and the FBI continues to talk to everyone this man knows.

This last block just about sums up my feelings in the case.  We have become a country where we are guilty until proven innocent, not innocent until proven guilty.

Brian Foley, a law professor who teaches criminal procedure at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Florida, told IPS, "The Kurtz case violates at least the spirit of our constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Police are not supposed to be able to come into our homes and rummage around. Once they realized it wasn't, any rummaging into Kurtz's life should have stopped. To pull out charges of mail and wire fraud is overreaching to say the least."

Emphasis throughout is mine.