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RANT - Photographer / terrorist stereotype still prevails

Started 2 years ago by Kevin
Latest reply from alki_2008

Kevin
Member Profile

It has been almost a decade since 9/11 and yet the "photographer / terrorist" stereotype continues to prevail - even right here in not quite West Seattle. If you are seen with a camera, you must be a criminal or terrorist. Latest example follows:
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Saturday afternoon (3/27) around 4:30 PM, White Center Now team member Ricardo Guarnero and I decided to explore the public stairs that lead from Airport Way South up onto the Columbian Way overpass that crosses I-5 at the east end of the West Seattle Bridge. There are more stairs at the east end which takes pedestrians under the northbound Columbian Way exit from I-5 and connect with the sidewalk that continues up Columbian Way. Total time spent on the overpass was around 30 minutes.
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As we were finishing up and ready to descend the stairs on the west side back down to Airport Way, a Seattle Police Department cruiser pulls up with it's lights flashing, blocking a lane of traffic while the officer gets out and tries to keep a straight face as he tells up that we have created quite a "commotion." Evidently, Seattle PD had received one or more calls that there were photographers on the pedestrian overpass. The officer was trying hard not to laugh when he asked us "what were we doing" and said that he was dispatched to "investigate" because of the calls to 911.
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While I have NO complaint with Seattle PD stopping to ask us what we were doing, I do think that society in general is way too concerned that anyone with a camera is a possible terrorist. The homeless man with a big plastic trash bag over his shoulder who crossed the bridge shortly before we did certainly did not cause multiple calls to 911. Nor did the woman who carried her bicycle up the stairs and across the bridge. No, it was because people were seen with cameras in public.
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Ironic that we can carry a gun in a public place including a public park, but don't dare be seen in public with a camera.
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Ricardo, myself, and even the police officer that responded were all three laughing! As the officer stated just before he left, "we are still living in a post 9/11 era." A sad comment on society when we realize that the Al-Qaeda is still succeeding in one of their goals to keep us in a constant state of paranoia.
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This same reaction to paranoia begins to "condition" us that public photography is a bad thing, the idea that perhaps laws should be passed to ban certain types of photography. Sound absurd? Just do a little internet research on photography in the United Kingdom. They have already passed laws.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/01/23/photography.protest/index.html
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The other sad part is the total waste of 911 resources. One would think that two grown men taking pictures in broad daylight on a public sidewalk would not warrant a police response. One would also think that 911 operators would be trained to screen out such calls.
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Posted 2 years ago #
Ken
Member Profile

I am guessing that at least one of you was not lily white?

Wingnuts need their fear to keep from thinking.

Posted 2 years ago #
Smitty
Member Profile

I too think we should return to the pre-September-11th mentality and not call in anything even remotely suspicious. How dare people worry about public safety(unless it's health care, of course)!

Also, I am pretty sure that if someone was walking in a park (or where you were) with a gun that was not concealed, there would have been SWAT teams, not just SPD.

I for one sleep better at night knowing people are being diligent if overly careful. But I do hope your itty bitty feelings don't get hurt too bad!

I like the liberal phrase "if it saves one life (except a baby) it's worth it!".

Posted 2 years ago #
Speedy
Member Profile

I don't get it. You're ok with SPD asking your business but you're not ok with people calling SPD to report something out of the ordinary? Really? Or maybe those concerned citizens should make an effort to confront you first... you know, do the police's job for them?

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
Member Profile

Smitty...

which is more dangerous? A white man with a camera or a latino man with a camera?

hard to tell in this situation since one of them could be taken for an irish man... deadly combination ;->

hubby is frequesntly singled out for extra attention in our nation's airports because he appears irish.. isn't.. but he there you go. He is also tall so is easily noticed.

Do you really think we are any safer because we hassle latinos and irishmen? not to mention anyone who looks even remotely middle eastern?

In this case, we are only talking harassment... but racial profiling kills innocent people every day.

And doesn't leave you the tiniest bit safer....

Posted 2 years ago #
Jo
Member Profile

JoB: "...because he appears irish."
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No criticism here, I'm Just curious.
I'm not sure I know what appearing Irish is? Characteristics?

Posted 2 years ago #
austin
Member Profile

I look a bit Irish when I lose the mustache and keep the beard. Oddly enough I was in Ireland the first time I tried that. It's not that I'm Irish, I just find mustaches extremely uncomfortable.

Posted 2 years ago #
JanS
Member Profile

WTH, Smitty. We don't have enough cops to investigate every instance that some paranoid reports a person taking pictures in public. I know one of these gentlemen, and if you knew him, you would find this amusing...terrorist? Not hardly. This is a tourist town, and people walk around all over the place, parks, overpasses, bridges, waterfront, ferries, etc., ad nauseum all the time. Imagine 911 being unreachable if we all started reporting all of them.

This has nothing to do with safety of our homeland...give me a break !

And your final quote? WOW is all I can say...disgusting!

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
Member Profile

Jo..

that's the point isn't it...

in hubby's case... fair skin.. what once was red hair...

not much to go on that speaks of either citizenship or seditious proclivities...

but then.. that's what racial profiling gets you when you live in a melting pot...

the truth is that more of us don't look "right" than do...

Posted 2 years ago #
dhg
Member Profile

Smitty: I'm a liberal and yet I've never heard the phrase: "if it saves one life (except a baby) it's worth it!". Perhaps you could enlighten me. Are you getting your quotes from Fox News? I think you are. You should know by now that truth is a stranger to Fox. If you are "pro life" then you should be thrilled with the health care bill because it will open up basic care to pregnant women who might otherwise spontaneously abort due to lack of nutrition.

Posted 2 years ago #
FullTilt
Member Profile

As Will Burroughs said: "Thanks for a nation of finks."

http://boingboing.net/2005/11/24/a-thanksgiving-praye.html

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
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fulltilt
had no idea you were a burroughs fan...
and i had forgotten that poem.

thanks.. most appropriate

Posted 2 years ago #
Smitty
Member Profile

dhg - it's a phrase that liberals have used forever - well, at least as long as I can remember.

Re: Health Care, seat belts, speed limits, cell phone/driving, taxes on soda, global warming/cooling/climate change, alar in apples, you name it - it's very easy to use and tough to defend. I mean, really - do you want someone to die!? What a heartless wingnut!

I inserted the "except a baby" part because I've never heard liberals use their favorite phrase when defending the unborn.

BTW, have you ever heard anyone say "Feel my tummy, my fetus just kicked!"......?

Posted 2 years ago #
austin
Member Profile

I can't tell if you're actually so far out there you think that seat belts and speed limits are a liberal plot to infringe on your holy freedoms, or if you're just making fun of conservatives by using extremely dry humor.

Posted 2 years ago #
SarahScoot
Member Profile

Smitty, I'm not going to touch your other talking points, but I will address your last sentence about feeling a fetus kick.
No, I've never heard anyone say "my fetus just kicked," because by the time a pregnant woman is feeling kicks, the pregnancy is pretty far along: past the timeframe within which one would terminate the pregnancy under normal circumstances. It is only in very dire circumstances that an abortion is performed past the 12th week, and even the smallest kicks aren't felt until around the 16th week of pregnancy.
Given this information, one can assume that a pregnant woman who feels those kicks has made the decision to carry the pregnancy to full term, thus she has begun referring to the fetus as her baby.

Posted 2 years ago #
SarahScoot
Member Profile

Wow, Smitty's last post disappeared *fast*!
Edit: oops, my mistake!! It only disappeared to me. :-)

Posted 2 years ago #
WSB
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Sarah, nothing has been deleted by us in this thread, nor flagged, and I don't see any evidence of user deletion either, so I'm not sure what "disappeared" refers to here.

Posted 2 years ago #
SarahScoot
Member Profile

Very weird, WSB! I know there were two comments from Smitty in this post, and now I don't see either, but in the forum listing it shows 17 comments, and I enter the post to see only 15. Maybe I accidentally "ignored" Smitty? If so, is there a way to undo that selection?

Posted 2 years ago #
JanS
Member Profile

just go into your profile (click on "member"). There is a box to uncheck if you actually did put him on "ignore"

Posted 2 years ago #
JanS
Member Profile

oops...double post :)

Posted 2 years ago #
SarahScoot
Member Profile

Wow, I feel dumb; I'd somehow managed to ignore Smitty and Angelescrest. I bet many posts that seemed nonsensical before will now be a bit more coherent! ;-) Thanks, Jan!

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
Member Profile

maybe that last one was a freudian slip ;_>

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
Member Profile

Smitty...

i am so tired of being referred to as a baby killer because i am a liberal..

aside from the fact that i have personally proven i am not a baby killer and paid the price... liberals haven't earned that tag. In fact.. they support legislation regularly that would keep babies alive.

would you like me to refer to right to lifers as mother killers and baby killers and people who want children to die?

Because that is the effect of the policies that deny mothers prenatal care and produce the stats on infant mortality that barely beat third world countries.

right to lifers concern about the well being of the fetus would impress me more if they were equally concerned about those fetuses once they become babies...

if right to lifers are going try to legislate morality... they might consider their moral responsibility to those who have been born.

personal responsibility refers to your own responsibility for yourself, your family and your community..

not to the other guy's responsibility to live the way you think they should.

Posted 2 years ago #
alki_2008
Member Profile

I'm sure that if the cops didn't check out the photographers, then the person that called the police would've been on their local website saying that "I call the police and they never show up".

Are those of you that admonish people for calling the police about photographers the same people that call the police when someone drives slowly down an alley in your neighborhood? Or posts the car's license plate, so that we can all look out for the "suspicous" vehicle?

Or are you the same person that came out of their house to ask me what I was doing sitting in my car in front of their house? I had stopped on a PUBLIC street to answer a cell phone call, and I guess they thought I was casing their place or something.

It's always WRONG when someone knows the person that's being questioned, right? God forbid an innocent person has to spend 5 minutes answering questions to law enforcement. I guess the dispatcher should've used her/his ESP powers to know that there was nothing malevolent going on.

Posted 2 years ago #