On concern...

[kickaha]

So I'm sure most of you (at least on the Left Coast) have heard about the FBI asking for information concerning two men of, er, tan skin, who were 'acting suspiciously' on the WA ferries. Apparently they were seen by a number of passengers, and transit personnel 'acting strangely', on 'multiple ferries', and a ferry crewmember snapped a picture of them with his cell phone camera. (In which they look all scowly and mean - you know what, if someone was snapping pictures of me and I had suspicion it was simply because of my skin color, I'd be pissy too.)

Their list of 'suspicious behavior' included:

Taking photos of signs around the boats.
Intently studying the evacuation plan posters around the ship.
Pacing, as if they were 'measuring the floor'.

Okay, maaaaaaaaybe the preponderance of evidence is such that, in sum, their behavior was odd. But you know what? I take photos of signs when I travel. I *ALWAYS* read the damned evacuation posters. And sometimes, I pace. This just seems really fucking lame.

And speaking of lame... if the crew was 'so concerned', why didn't they just call the police to meet them at the ferry dock to detain and question the men, like they're supposed to? Seems like a failure of security there, to me.

Just sayin.

Seattle... please don't be as idiotic as Boston and New Haven... really. I'd hate to think the old home town had gotten that stupid in my absence.

Comments

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

One of the students in one of my photography classes (I was taking, not giving, the class. Just to be clear.) was working on a class assignment ("Take pictures of something that represents the area" or some such) and was harassed and run off by a policeperson because he was standing in a public location, taking pictures of the ferry as it pulled out of Bremerton and past the wooded hillside on the Port Orchard side.

The right to take pictures of public things from public places is specifically protected by law. That whole First Amendment thing, you know.

Winter or Spring quarter of '05, so it's not like it was September 12, '01.

The upshot? People need to find out what their rights are and be able to quote them chapter and verse, because the cops *don't know and don't care*.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

"Rights... rights... those are those things that get in the way, right?"

There's a nice little PDF floating around that can be handed to a police officer insisting that the Patriot Act and DHS forbid photography of public places, if I can find the stupid thing. Apparently that's the latest 'urban legend' in law enforcement.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Found it!

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Bert Krages is the author of the _Legal Handbook for Photographers_, the book I keep on my bedside table, and which I decided not to link above.

Since you mention him, though, here it is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584281944/lonelymount05-20

(M., if you notice, this is the 2nd edition (post-9/11), and I see that we're still linking to the 1st edition on the lonelymountain site; if you get a chance, could you update it, please?)

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

Done.

[dollraves.livejournal.com]

Well, the collective IQ did lower significantly when you left... :)

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

*snort*

Common sense has never been linked to IQ, unfortunately... ;)

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

You said it, I didn't...

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

My high school guidance counselor wrote, in my senior year book... "Why are you still *alive*?"

I consider myself to be a counter-example for Darwinism. :)

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

You're not a counter-example to Darwinism until you reproduce. :)

[franktheavenger.livejournal.com]

People are desperate to believe that they could actually be in some way a target of extremists, as it makes them feel more important, and it makes them feel good to 'prevent' the inevitable attack on their 'high-risk target.'

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Yeah. :/ Now, granted, Seattle's ferry system *is* a high-risk target, for crippling a major city's traffic flow.

Okay, so 520 or the I-90 bridge would *CRIPPLE* it... or Aurora... or Alaskan Way... or...

Damn, y'all are fucked.


ANYwho... if these guys were soooooo suspicious, why didn't the crew call ahead and have the police meet them at the dock? Slight breakdown in authoritahtive intelligence there? If they weren't *that* suspicious, why the public demand for information now?

It just smells wrong.

[franktheavenger.livejournal.com]

But crippling a city's traffic flow is not what terrorists want to do. They want to kill many people at once, in spectacular fashion. That's it! So they won't take out the ports, they won't fuck with a city's infrastructure unless it's in a way that also kills many people in a very visible way.

They need that validation or they won't do it.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Then there are much better targets in the area than the ferries, which would hit a few hundred at most. The largest class, the Jumbo Mark II, carries up to 202 cars, and 2500 passengers, maximum. Generally, the car total tops out long before the walk-on passengers.

I mean, yeah, it's not a tiny amount of humanity on there, but it's not like hitting Key Arena during a game, or hitting the Aurora bridge, waiting for the I-5 bridge to fill up, then taking *it* down... I bet you'd double the loss of life, and set back Seattle's ability to simply operate normally for a decade.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, those biggest boats serve Bainbridge Island, so it might be particularly tempting to be able to take out all those whiny Republicans.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

As opposed to the whiny... everyone else? :D

[ssandv.livejournal.com]

You know, *whiny*. It's code for "doesn't share my groupthink".

;-)

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Whiny everyone else! :D

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Naw, it's just that the whiny Democrats live downtown.

[night-monkey.livejournal.com]

what can brown do for you?

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Zune. Now there's a terrorist act.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

It also occurs to me that there's no need to 'measure the floor' anyway, since the car decks are helpfully already marked in 25- or 50-foot increments.