[I posted this up recently at Effin' Unsound]
I'm not sure how any introduction could possibly do this post justice. Ms. Tracy, take it away:
This morning, as a first arrival, I was advocating for a youth at the King County Juvenile Court. As we sat in the lobby which seats approximately 150 people, my vigilant American eagle eyes spotted a Middle Eastern man casually dressed with the Shari’ah regulation beard and mustache walking into the waiting lobby.
Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot know for sure that the events being described in this post actually happened or not, but what I do know is that if they did --- holy shit.
He took a seat up against a wall on the far side of the room where he had a full view of the whole room.
Guilty!
This large room is cut up into two sections with an information booth dividing the two areas. You do have to go through security in order to get into this waiting area. King County is proud about your security, so proud they post a sign on the door stating that King County is working hard to make you FEEL safe! Maybe it should say, "Working hard to keep you safe" not make you FEEL safe.
I agree, because when certain people are terrified of other people, making them FEEL safe is fucking impossible.
This man sat at his seat casing out the large room.
He was trying to figure out if his case would be handled early enough to get back to the office.
He stood up and walked over to the other side of the room. He was just about standing right in front of me, of all people.
Weird, you'd think he'd be better at visually knowing which ones of us are bigots.
I noticed that he was holding his cell phone opened in his hand, which actually was the reason he got my attention.
That is the strangest thing I've ever heard of a person doing.
I believe in profiling, so when a Middle Eastern man walks into a crowded room with an open cell phone, I watch very carefully.
Profiles in believing.
Anyway, he looks up and his eyes start targeting each person on my side of the room as if he was doing a mental head count of the bodies in my section.
He was certain there was no way he'd be finished in time.
I was quite alarmed by that, and then, he started text messaging, and then, he looked up, and then, it appeared he was mentally counting heads again.
This man must be locked up.
He turned around and walked out of the lobby. I followed him. I opened my cell phone to take a picture of him which is when he turned around and looked at me and saw that I had my cell opened.
Awkward.
That’s when he had asked the guard if he could talk on his cell phone, but the guard told him to take it outside.
What was the guard thinking not arresting the guy? C'mon, a Middle Eastern guy using his cell phone in a courtroom?
Thankfully, Ms. Tracy was still on the job.
So he went outside, took a seat on the bench, and starting chattering on his cell. I was watching him and the guard was watching me watching him, and saw I had my cell opened. The guard was not too happy with me because I had my cell opened.
I think the guard had a slightly different reason for not being happy with her.
I walked over to the guard and said, "I just want you to know, that Middle Eastern man was just doing a head count of the people in this room, and then he text messaged something into his cell."
What's amazing is that this isn't in like Yakima, or Aberdeen, or Wenatchee. This is in fucking downtown Seattle.
The guard gave the "I don’t give a rip" shoulder shrug and proverbial eye roll!
C'mon, Barney Fife, get off your butt and start profiling!
I went back into the waiting area, shaken, and in walked a King County Sheriff. I decided to try one more time to be a good American Citizen concerned about domestic terrorism, and I approached the deputy.
Maybe this one won't notice that she's full-on bonkers.
I walked up to him and said, "Sir, I just want you to know that a Middle Eastern man was just in here doing a head count and texting information into his cell."
Too late.
He immediately asked me his description which I promptly described, and told him where to find him.
He turned to the first cop and said, "See, son, that's how you get the crazy people to leave you alone."
He turned on his buffed black shoes and walked out side to have a look see. Wow! He cared.
What a champ.
He actually took me serious.
He took you for something.
This cop is a true American Defender. I salute ALL cops who act on people’s concerns about potential terrorist acts.
Hey, if she's paying their salaries, I guess she has some say in how that money is wasted.
I didn’t see that cop or that Middle Eastern man again. I walked around and looked for them too.
They're both in on it!
This lobby section of the King County Juvenile Court is where parents and their kids are awaiting to see a judge. Why was that man there? He had no family there and he stayed about 10 minutes all together.
I'm going to present a possible scenario here that may seem outlandish or unrealistic. I realize how obvious it is that Ms. Tracy has managed to stumble upon the man planning the next major terrorist attack, but I'm going to play Devil's Advocate for a second and see what sticks.
The guy was trying to find his son.
After I came into the room I started looking at the structural layout of the room and noticed where certain pillars were located which this man just happened to be standing near.
ALL of them were holding up the roof!
I don’t know if he took pictures of the support beams.
There was a brief moment while she sneezed that she wasn't staring at him.
This building is 4 stories high with jail cells below.
Really, what's a more symbolic terrorist target than a jail?
If something evil were to happen more than 1000 people would be killed or harmed.
That's true of nearly every building downtown every day.
The King County Juvenile Court does not afford the same protection as the King County Courthouse or the federal building or the Federal Reserve Bank Building!
There's no way a Middle Eastern man is using a cell phone in any of those buildings.
The irony is that pretend fiat money has more protection than real At Risk Youth do!
I think the irony here is that she thinks that's the irony here.
This is called a soft target because it is an unarmored or undefended nonmilitary target.
Finding targets like these in the downtown of a major city is exceedingly rare.
Did I see a potential terrorist surveillance go down today? I think I did, and I am going to act like I did regardless if it really did happen or not.
Paranoia - the poor man's Prozac.
If I had chosen to go into denial and talk myself out of what I saw and something were to happen I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
It was kind of like that time she had a one-night stand with some guy named Tim in Wichita on April 18, 1995. He was driving a U-Haul truck of fertilizer to deliver to some guy in Oklahoma City. She would've regretted forever not letting him oversleep after she noticed his alarm didn't go off. He might've missed that delivery.
If this was only a random Middle Eastern man who decided to walk into the juvenile courthouse with no family and count people like sheep and leave after 10 minutes, then my observation and reporting of him would not violate his snivel rights!
Impeccable logic.
No harm done, regardless of what CAIR might have to say.
That's ok. I'm pretty sure CAIR would be speechless.
I am an American and we are at war! I am a Civil Defense Soldier and it is my duty to be vigilant and observe my surroundings and report ANY suspicious activity!
Does the Civil Defense Soldier corps do drug tests? Maybe they should.
The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance, a paraphrase of a statement made by John Philpot Curran, Lord Mayor of Dublin: "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance." Speech before the Privy Council, 10 July 1790; in The Speeches of the Right Honorable John Philpot Curran, ed. Thomas Davis (1847), pp. 94-95.
It was after one too many Irish car bombs.
We are at war and we need to put aside our fear of hurting someone’s feelings and instead be concerned only with doing what is Right.
In this instance, "Right" would have been not to assume that a man using a cell phone in a public building is proof that he's a terrorist, you fucking nitwit.