For any of you who might have thought that the US population today is any different from the German population of the early 40s: Here we have citizens turning in a fellow citizen to the feebs much as germans would turn in jew the the gestapo. HE WAS TAKING PICTURES!!!
I agree with you. Unfortunately many on this site and elsewhere would be screaming to the treetops and beyond if this refinery was the target of an terrorist attack and the failure to interview this gentleman would have stopped it from occurring.
It’s a Catch-22 world we live in today.
yet you can go to google earth and get an aerial view of all the refinery’s in Houston.
There is a price to pay for freedom. I argued something like this with some moronic woman on this site several months ago regarding gun control and people. The argument went something like this
Me: You can't prevent basic freedoms from being exercised because you think someone MIGHT abuse them.
Her: You must have spent time in a mental institution because you don't want background checks before gun purchases.
Me: A right that requires government permission to exercise is NOT a right. It's simply a privilege granted by the government that can be taken away at any time. Go hide under your bed and have a good cry.
The discussion really didn't ever get anywhere. The same with taking pictures. There really isn't any statistically valid evidence that people who take picture are terrorists, or we'd all be terrorists. Sending the federal SS after some guy who was taking pictures is very disturbing to me.
The photographer's anwer should have been: am I being charged with a crime? If yes, then I want a lawyer, and if no I don't have to talk to you.
Every person in the USA should watch the excellent Don't talk to cops once a year.
Mostly of our own making.
Foreign-born muslims found here illegally should be deported within 24 hours. Note I did not say "internment camps," torture or Gitmo.
Unless, of course, it's a second or third violation of our immigration and public security laws. Then nothing is too "unreasonable" or severe.
Koranimals who have already done harm to American property or citizens --- swift prosecution, trial and excution.
Formerly, there was no debate about how to treat foreign soldiers infiltrating as civilians. Those have always been treated as spies. The penalty for military spies has always been, universally, death.
There is a profound difference between knowing history and understanding it. The documented development of Nazi Germany clearly shows a totally internal domestic system of control against its own people. They didn't have thousands of foreign soldiers disguised as civilians wandering among them.
The same is true of Japanese in Hawaii.
Since Kodak is no longer with us, it is impossible to tell how many trillions of photos are taken in the United States annually.
Strangely, you made me stop and think. Have I ever even thought about dropping a dime on a picture taker because he looked middle eastern? No. I am certain of that. Would I under suspicious circumstances? Sure. But as a lifelong amateur photographer wandering among crowds in many countries of the western world, I would hope I would never allow paranoia to kick in, certainly not in my own country.
Would I ever drop a dime on a neighbor? No. Even if he was an Eastern European and rabid as Osama, I would give him the benefit of the doubt, unless he gave me reason to think otherwise, by word or deed. I can only thing of one such example, from decades ago. Long before the current waves of koranimal mayhem and murder.
Behavior by the government, indiscriminately, is a whole other subject altogether.
It is not an "either / or" issue. This particular incident aside, a WHOLE LOT of what is being done is not to the benefit of security. It's a combination of gross incompetence as well as a deliberate effort to intimidate the American citizenry.
I often wonder if any improvement in our "security" isn't simply an incidental byproduct of this intimidation of the US populace.