Posted on 05/17/2009 10:27:44 AM PDT by Stoat
Golf balls are bombarding the Port of Everett and anti-terrorism cameras are being trained on a residential neighborhood to hunt down the source.
Port officials believe someone on Rucker Hill is whacking golf balls down the hill onto port property, endangering dozens of workers and millions of dollars worth of equipment and cargo.
"We're trying to use any means possible to stop it, aside from posting somebody in the field of fire all day and night," said Ed Madura, a port security official.
The port says the flying golf balls constitute a threat to personal safety. Pointing video surveillance cameras toward the likely source is an appropriate use of the equipment, port officials say.
In the eyes of at least one resident in the Rucker Hill neighborhood southwest of downtown, swiveling the cameras from the fence line to the neighborhood is an invasion of privacy.
"Hitting golf balls is a problem, but if they turn their cameras up on the neighborhood and spy on us, that's a bigger problem," said David Mascarenas, a neighborhood watchdog who has for years fought the port to improve the community's access to public land.
(edit)
There have long been tensions between the neighborhood and the port over noise from container ships that are sometimes unloaded in the middle of the night, glare from floodlights and exhaust from idling vessels.
"There's a lot of people out on Rucker Hill that want the longshoremen more or less shut down," Ritchie said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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One of the things that the article fails to highlight is the fact that now that the AP and Fox News have made the re-tasking of the DHS cameras worldwide news, the Port of Everett is less closely guarded than before, and the Port is now perhaps more vulnerable to criminal and perhaps terrorist infiltration and actions.
ping
They’ll get my golf club when they pry it from my cold dead hands.........
30 day waiting period for golf clubs and micro stamping golf balls....sheesh....
ROTFLMAO
They live above a major seaport, and they expect peace and quiet? Are these the people that object to military cargoes moving through Everett?
The residents probably do not even realize that the port is likely the reason for their prosperity.
Interesting point, and they have advertized to those who could put such a distraction to use a cheap and efficient way to make just that happen.
Surveillance society ping!
Hmmmm...I thought that we were promised that DHS surveillance cameras would only be used for anti-terrorist missions, and NOT local law criminal and civil enforcement. Slippery slope acceleration!
As we have seen on so many occasions on commercial aircraft and elsewhere, terrorists just love to do 'dry runs' in order to test security in a variety of venues. It seems that some angry Rucker Hill residents have saved the terrorists considerable time and trouble and have informed the world of how easily the Port of Everett security can be distracted.
Engineers at Pratt & Whitney in West Palm Beach have a lot of free time on their hands.
Took the potato launcher and made it better.
Used a golf ball. Many millions of dollars have been spent to find golf ball flying through the air.
Used appropriate size galvanized steel and a reducer plate and used Oxy/acetelyne as the accelerant and put the golf ball through a steel reinforced concrete wall from a mile away.
Good fun.
The media have helped, too.
I have to wonder, too, what came first, the port or the neighborhood?
“We’re trying to use any means possible to stop it, aside from posting somebody in the field of fire all day and night,”
“field of fire”? Reclassifying golf balls as “assault weapons”?
Good intentions can have bad results; expect more in the future, especially when 'empathy' seems to be the new qualification for our highest court.
the ability to rig up things like that might really come in handy some day.
Indeed. I have no doubt that Abdul, Achmed and Muhammed are squatting in their cave right now, researching the Port of Everett over the internet and thanking the AP and Fox News for the great information.
I have to wonder, too, what came first, the port or the neighborhood?
I believe that this same area has been in use as a seaport since the Age of Sail, because it's an ideal location for oceangoing commerce. It's well-protected from major storms coming in off the Pacific through the Straits of Juan de Fuca by Whidbey Island. Being right at the end of the Straits it provides more convenient access for ships than Seattle, which is father south.
If you actually had seen me golf....you would know that a golf club is truly a deadly weapon when in my hands.....
The safest place to stand is right next to the tee......
Cool stuff
Got a source/fotos. etc?
Sounds like my kind of tech....
this sounds like something students from my alma mater would have done...
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