Land of the Free? Home of the Brave?

Here is a sad tale of how Homeland "Security" in the US is acting way beyond reasonable and turning the tables on the population it is supposed to "protect". Supposedly government agents are servants of the people, but these quasi-military buffoons didn't get that memo. Here is a sad tale of a Father's Day outing gone horribly awry thanks to "Homeland Security".

I've cut out the key bit where the father relates his bit. This is from the Dallas Observer. The key fact is that the father had permission to take the pictures! The problem was that it wasn't clear what the restriction of "stay off the tarmac" meant. I've bolded the part that I think is most relevant:

I got an early Father's Day surprise from Homeland Security. It seems the public is not allowed on the tarmac. I thought the tarmac was the cement runway, but it's actually a hundred yards or so on each side.

Waiting for the plane to take off, I was surprised by the Addison police. An officer unholstered his gun, then handcuffed and held me until Homeland Security cleared my name.

I was not arrested, but according to Officer Pierce, I did break federal law and a report would be sent to Homeland Security. I will be hearing from them. I apologized to every one involved. The pilot told me the airport was shut down for a short while.

But according to one of the crew, they had ID'd me as one of theirs, and the tower knew and tried to call it off. But once the wheels were set in motion, it could not be stopped. The pilots were pretty much cool and laughed at me and were even willing to escort me to take more shots. One old-timer gruffed under his breath, "It's the U.S.A., not U.S.S.R. -- I didn't fight to protect this shit." One even offered me his seat on a ride.

However, the officer had asked me to leave, so I did. The police were professional, and I consider myself lucky.

Go read the whole article.

My concerns:

• Why would this guy consider himself "lucky" that police made his life miserable for doing something for which he had permission to do? How backwards is that?


• If there was a serious security concern isn't it incumbent upon the authorities to make clear what areas are "secure" and what areas a "public"?


• Why have Americans, who live to talk about their "love of liberty", so ignomiously given up any claim to dignity and freedom to some goons from Homeland Security?


• Why did Homeland "Security" turn an innocent father-and-son outing into a "lockdown" and hold up flights even after the guy was identified and staff at the airport vouched for him?


• Just what is being "protected"? To me this stinks of bureaucratic idiocy. The 9/11 scare has turned Americans from freedom-loving into fodder for a fascist takeover.

I thought these stories were indicative of the manipulative fear-mongering of the Bush admininstration, but we are now well into the Obama administration and the "security" buffoons are still unleashed and doing "security theatre" everywhere. Sad.

Here is yet another example of "security theatre" as practiced in the US. This is from Aviation Week:

Verified Identity Pass’s Clear registered traveler lanes, located at 20 airports, are shutting down at 11:00 p.m. Pacific time tonight.

...

The pilot program was rolled out with great fanfare July 18, 2005, in Orlando. Travelers initially paid $99 a year for a card that was supposed to target those who posed a minimum security risk, and give them a special line that would process them through airport security more quickly.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was slow to release the program from the pilot phase, finally giving the green light to roll out the program in January 2007. The program hit a snag after TSA halted the use of GE SRT kiosks designed to serve as a shoe scanner and explosives detection system, blunting one of the program’s key benefits – allowing passengers to keep on shoes and jackets, and keep laptop computers in their bags.

Any serious security organization would have thought out its strategy and not jerked a company like Clear around and forced them into bankruptcy. The US approach to "security" is ad hoc and mostly PR. It isn't serious. OK, some stuff deep in the bowels of the black budgets of the CIA and FBI might be serious, but given that those two organizations were completely incompetent in collaborating in 2001 despite a PDB -- Presidential Daily Briefing -- entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US" that made it very clear something big and bad was about to happen.