Picture this would you please? You are getting ready to take a trip so that you can tour New York City, the largest city in the United States; you are overwhelmed with excitement because this would be the first time you'll be in the city. You went to great lengths to make this trip happen. You even squirreled away every dime you had extra to put it in savings. You purchased a new camera to make certain that the photographs you were going to take would turn out. Not one of those cheap ones either, you went all out this time.
You got the one with all the fancy gadgets. The gadgets you have the slightest idea as to what most of them are for, but it makes you feel important! You have checked your luggage and removed all your toothpaste, shampoos, eye drops and mouthwash.
NOTHING was going to stop you from taking this trip! The plane tickets are paid for and waiting for you at the airport. You got your slip on shoes on so that it is easier for the Gestapo to inspect your shoes at the security checkpoint. Everything was going as planned.
You get through the airport. It was very frustrating but you set off no alarms. The three-hour flight, and the two-hour inspection by the Gestapo were finally over! You check into your hotel and leave your belongings in your room. All you need is your small handbag and your new professional camera. You are ready to hit the city!
You're walking down a busy street and you notice some security guards, or so they seem to be security guards, in front of a building. You are looking at them with curious eyes and as you look on you notice one of the guards has a submachine gun! This calls for a photograph to be taken of course, so you take out your camera and you start taking photographs of these men. As you take your photo shots you commit to memory what the uniforms look like and how many men are there. You have no idea what they are doing there but for men to be on American streets with submachine guns strike you as very odd. That is very scary too! Your Daily KOS pals are going to just LOVE this information!
You finish taking your photographs and suddenly a federal police officer or what seems to be an FBI agent approaches you.
Well, if you listened to that audio file you realize that this isn't a novel being written by me. You are not just some character playing a part here either, although one day it could be either one of us playing the part. This was a real life situation that happened to a professional photographer by the name of Randall Thompson.
Yeah maybe if we would put ourselves in these people's shoes more often maybe we'd take action against these types of things that are going on across America. Maybe we could get rid of those people who want to brand people as conspiracy theorists so quickly so that something can be done to stop the extreme policing of the states.
You can read other articles of similar interest below:
ACLU Sues
And one about New York Civil Liberty Union threatening to sue the city over photo policy
NYCLU Threatens Suit
Home of the free has become home of the policed!