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p>I have a big deadline right now, but I feel compelled to respond to this bulletin from the Chicago Police that asks people to “immediately report any or all … suspect activity” including note taking, camera usage, video usage and map usage. [via BoingBoing, link to flyer image].
Before 9/11 I would have said that this sort of thing makes me want to explode, but I’ve expurgated such language in the same way that I no longer say hello to friends named Jack at the airport. I’ll simply say that the bulletin makes me sad and upset. You know exactly whose photo taking will be reported as suspicious and whose wont; Chicago has the third largest South Asian American population in the country, there are plenty of browns to drop a dime about.
I’ve been on the receiving end of this myself. Once I took a pad and pen to the courtyard behind my office to try to figure out how to craft a memo for work and was interrupted by the police who said that there had been a report of “suspicious activity” namely somebody “suspicious” “taking notes”.
I showed them my note pad and explained my behavior (which wasn’t unusual for that area at all), but that wasn’t enough for them. They wanted my ID and then they followed me back to my office so that they could verify that I actually did “belong” there. All for sitting around on a nice spring day and writing on a pad. And this was in a liberal town where they actually decided to follow procedures rather than detain first and ask questions later.
While I was able to get the whole thing straightened out, this sort of policy is deeply flawed for a variety of reasons:
- The list of suspicious activities is so broad that basically you get calls about “suspicious people”, i.e. brown folk. This means that the cops waste a lot of time with false alarms which crowds out their ability to do things that actually make us safer from terrorism, like investigate. Conservatives understand opportunity costs w.r.t. economics but seem to forget it when it comes to security, which baffles me.
- Cops are less able to actually investigate terrorism because they have alienated the very people who might help them get important leads. After my experience I think twice before reporting even a stray bag somewhere, can you imagine how hesitant an immigrant Muslim might be to go to the police if they heard something suspicious?
- Not only do cops do less productive anti-terrorism work, they also do less policing overall. The last figures I saw showed the FBI reduced the number of important crime prosecutions (drugs, organized crime, etc) by 30% in the aftermath of 9/11! There were 17,448 deaths due to drunk driving in 2001 — think about how many lives might have been saved if more resources had been spent on road safety. That’s almost a 9/11 death toll every two months.
- Innocent people get arrested and swallowed up. Purna Raj Bajracharya was a tourist from Nepal who took a video of a street that had a building with an FBI office in it. He was arrested and vanished entirely, his case was wiped from the public record. He got out only because the same FBI agent who arrested him got concerned and even that FBI agent couldn’t get the system to release Bajracharya, he had to go to the Legal Aid Society.
Security theater makes white people feel safer, but it is deeply pernicious and makes us all less safe. Every security expert I’ve spoken to has strongly criticized these sorts of policies (and I’ve been friends with some fairly high ranking security folk), but the politics of security seems to over ride all other considerations.
Vote for Ron Paul and help end this madness.
Whenever I hear the name Ron Paul I just think of this guy.
Aw, thank you. I’ve been around SM for a while, but I’m (very) slowly making my way out of my shell. 🙂
Tee hee 😀
Aquafina says:
Anna says:
Anna’s actually nice about banning. I’m straight up thug. I’m banning you for no other reason than that you prefer Aquafina to Evian. Plus promoting bottled water is bad for the environment and against the views of Sepia Mutiny. So long jackass.
i’ve always thought something is seriously amiss in chicago ever since i met several chicago cops in a vail bar a few years ago. they were on a skiing holiday and pretty lubed up alcohol wise….lubed enough to have discussions with us about how they really felt about african americans and “the crimes they commit” (their words). of course i’m pretty naive so i was fairly shocked at their clear lack of objectivity and racial tolerance.
suffice to say it was a disturbing conversation that haunts me to this day (one of the guys was bragging about his newborn and sharing her photo from his wallet). i had visions of him abusing his power against some defenseless minority soul and equally worse, passing his hate to his next generation (that cute newborn…poor thing). i’ve read several articles in national papers since then about chicago police corruption cases….and now this.
“Anna’s actually nice about banning. I’m straight up thug. I’m banning you for no other reason than that you prefer Aquafina to Evian. Plus promoting bottled water is bad for the environment and against the views of Sepia Mutiny. So long jackass.” Nice, but Evian is bottled, too, though Aquafina is really nothing more than glorified tap water.
You still have white privilege. So you’ll probably be OK.
So I guess people should govern based on victimhood? Granted, I can understand that those families may want more security. But I personally do not. We should not be a nation of cowards. Even if a 9/11 took place once every year(and we know it doesnt), the chances of you being affected by it are less than the fallout of traffic accidents in the US.
A lot of those airport security measures are stupid. They are simply not worth the inconvenience for your regular traveler. Maybe the person who travels once a year doesn’t mind. BUt for people who travel once a week, or even once a month, it is ridiculous. The whole liquids carry on restriction is a total joke. Hijacking a plane really comes down to one objective in the post 9-11 days – taking control of the plane. If it was just about threatening passenger lives, terrorists could just as easily cause as much damage in a train or a crowded bus. Sealing the cockpit door will put an end to any such hopes. Use that money wasted on extra security in improving our intelligence sector. Or invest in the policing of a few downtrodden communities. More lives could be saved that way.
And here is another factor for less hijackings in the future. I think passengers are more willing to fight back as they are more aware of the futility of negotiating with suicidal loons.
I am not afraid of terrorists. Are you? Quality of life is important to me. And that does not have room for being governed by fear.
I can’t wait for Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo to be released– but this is NOT FUNNY.
What I don’t understand is how much of this vigilance or paranoia, or whatever you want to call it, is spent or heightened or whatever, in locations where lightning most likely won’t strike twice. This is the true punishment inflicted by the war-ravaged and be-bombed on distant shores upon everyone here, but especially on brownz who make their home here.
HMF – as a frequent token white guy…I’ve noticed recently that I’ve been getting more dirty looks from the other white folk. I try to not let it bother me, though it gets under my skin. And I do wonder if it’s just perception that’s changed, and the dirty looks have always been there. But I have a plan than bringing along your very own TWG: better to just play up the model minority card and wear white lab coats all the time. That shit makes everyone invisible. Alright, settle down, I keed.
It’s actually much worse when I go to lunch with my buddy Chip, who’s a white Sikh. We get dirty looks from everyone, and I mean all color and creed.
I’m not sure where you live in France, but I don’t think you should generalize the whole country on your experience. My experience in Paris is quite different. There are so many immigrants here, that no one really stares at anyone else for looking different. The number 4 metro line is more diverse than the number 7 train in New York that John Rocker famously dislikes. Often, people assume my wife (also Indian) and I are French. I only get complimented on my French when people find out I am a US citizen.
The dealings with the Prefecture/Police are experienced by all foreigners, including those from the US, Australia, etc., regardless of race. It is more an issue with French bureaucracy than with racism. Sure, the facilities at Prefectures in more immigrant heavy neighborhoods are not as good, but this has much to do with the socioeconomic reasons.
There is racism in France, and the US is more friendly to foreigners for many reasons, but I think you’re version of the discrepancy is not accurate. While it may apply to your experience, I don’t think you can generalize the whole country. Also, while Paris is different than the rest of the country (not unlike London or New York), it is still part of the country. It would be the equivalent as saying the US is hostile to foreigners/brown people because of the bulletin the Chicago Police have posted.
Better to be safe than sorry. It’s easy to criticize the police, but I don’t think any of you cowards would want another 9/11. It’s a post- 9/11 world; get used to it.
Except the kind of profiling Ennis described does NOT actually make us safer. So even if you care nothing for the feelings or humanity of the people being harassed, you should be pissed off that the harassment isn’t even achieving what it’s intended to achieve.
Get a white friend? Also, don’t fly with a crazy woman [CAUTION: Language NSFW].
= DHS color-coded terror alert version 2.0. Now with instruction manual! Batteries not included. Must be able to distinguish between activity and suspect activity. Not recommended for children under 75.
hey aquafina — can you please comment on goras, western imperialism, and how those ugly little brown people should feel “privileged” that goras ruled them for hundreds of years? I mean…the british did build railroads in india…
There’s an exchange between Matt Damon’s character and Joe Pesci’s character in The Good Shepherd that goes like this:
Any questions?
turbanhead, Thats the dialogue from “The Good Sheperd” that instantly hit me and I have always remembered it since I watched the movie a while back. It sums up a lot in one sentence. Its a great line.
Definitely DO NOT fly with someone like this guy. But as the saying goes “You buys your ticket and you takes your chances” when it comes to air travel these days.
That would have definitely freaked me out. It looks like at least the other passengers were trying to keep him calm, but it almost seems like he was provoked. Maybe that’s just my brown sensitivity revealing itself.
Also, am I the only brown that totally dislikes the term ‘gora’? It just seems to me that the word is never used in a positive light, and furthers an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality. I’m all for people that use something that is commonly used as a slur to apply to themselves for whatever reason. That’s their choice.
But someone using a slur against me and calling it ‘mild’ doesn’t help to soften the blow. There are no degrees of hatred are there? Verbal and physical abuse are the same to me. Perhaps the law would disagree with me there, but if something is commonly known as a slur/offensive, it pays to be sensitive to others. I know in this day and age there’s a lot of getting carried away with PC bullshit, but when you hurt someone else’s feelings you don’t soon forget it. Let’s just try to use a little more discretion, lest we become this.
Although this story is already on the newstab, but I’m going to excerpt it here because it is somewhat relevant. And perfectly awful.
Although he was never accused of committing a crime, Narinder Singh spent years locked up in an immigration detention cell, courtesy of the federal government. He was beaten by a fellow inmate, spent time in the hole, and lived in a pod with 40 other men, deprived of sunlight, his own reading material, or much more than an hour of recreation time a day. Serving no sentence, Singh never knew when or if he would get out …
In the spring of 2002, in the fervid months after the 9/11 attacks, Singh flew to India, where his mother had just died. When he returned, an immigration official at JFK suspected that his marriage was a sham to gain permanent-resident status, and he began proceedings to deport Singh. Because Singh had been questioned in an airport—technically crossing a border—immigration law allowed for Singh to be detained indefinitely as his case made its way through the system. As immigration officials lost his paperwork for months, or sent his case to other jurisdictions, Singh was transferred from one facility to the next, waiting for what was always supposed to be a few more months until everything would work out. Without having committed a single crime, Singh ultimately spent five and a half years in what amounts to federal prison—one of the longest detention spells in recent history.
Wow!
Wow, that was one hell of a meltdown. Found this article on him, but there doesn’t seem to be much information about why exactly he was screaming.
Of course, Hannity & Colmes had this to contribute on the incident:
Yes, what magnanimity from Fox News! ‘Tis indeed the season for generosity and forgiveness.
i read some of the comments posted with the video. bad idea. makes you think that the world is full of nazis…or worse (though obviously a lot of self-selected kkk types are particularly prone to commenting in forums such as those).
I agree with aquafina on just one point about how 1st gen browns can go back and make their homelands better. Most of the 1st gen Indians in US got highly subsidised college education in India but work in US and pay taxes to uncle sam and get the nerve to comment on websites about problems in India and how they can be fixed, as if India is some kind of lodge and they are filling up a feedback card after ther stay in India. I guess emigration is a good way to weed out these ingrates, if India can get these people to pay back their education costs, it would not be such a total waste of tax payers money. I feel these 1st gens will be first to catch a boat out if, say, US is attacked in a war or if US economy deteriorates rapidly.
Many of these 1st gen people advocated India as a development hub when senior management at MNCs was looking at Ireland and other Western countries. Do you have any idea how tough a sell that was back then ? The people who write stupid NRI bashing articles in Outlook are cut from the cloth as the people who advocated socialism, stifled job growth and sent my parents’ generation packing. I suppose they could have stayed and “gave back” to India like so many of those corrupt IAS officers do every day.
He may not be a genius but he was keeping with the law. If you break a law expect to get punished. The laws also do not say anything about the site of the military installation. Technically even Google Earth is in violation of the same set of laws.
You don’t get it. You chose to describe the incident as “brown on brown paranoia”. In your case the individuals exhibited as much paranoia as a policeman detaining someone scaling the walls of a house. There is a violation of the law in either case.
The officer on duty probably noticed that you were inebriated and probably the sort to start a grand discussion on democracy with the resulting circus that is the Indian media and chose to let you get on with it. That does not change the fact that you were wrong to do what you did.
Why 8 years? So you could get a green card, cover all your bases? Just wondering.
Moderation pleeeeeeeeez.
Slaves never had it so good!
Arre, please to not be feeding trollz pleeeeeeeez.
what if… you were a minority in the sense of gender, race, color, religion, age, sexuality… would you still be as secure. i am not a fan of the US economic disparity or of the consumerism, but your gloat is misplaced. if people here are critical of the US here it is because they expect better for themselves, for their country, and will fight for what’s right – as opposed to sitting comfortably in a personal cocoon and count the rupiah. And here’s the deal – all that money counts for snot if you dont have the level of security that a stable society can provide. if it works for you – good for you – but it’s a shallow perspective.
As a counterpoint, Chicago is home to This American Life. Someone earlier mentioned Jose Padilla, This Life did a story on him in Jan. ’03.
Talking of This amreekan Life, do check out the episode they did on the John Pickle case. The one where he brought 52 workers from India at work in a steel factory here. Minimal commentary from Ira makes it one of the better episodes.
Um… just so we all know, this is the nice guy that he was before he was “reduced to a complete mental shambles and a wreck of a person after subhuman treatment during years of detention without charging”
Ah! India bashing. That perennial hobby. I don’t suppose you could actually make a positive point about your society without having to point at India, try and make a ridiculously convoluted comparison and thank God for how you are safely out of that hell hole?
funny!
He was responding to America-bashing, from a troll. Your point is not well-taken. You’re imagining hostility which isn’t there.
You are right. This kind of juvenile behavior is completely deserving of being locked up in a brig, have the key thrown away, locked in a cell for 23 hours a day with sensory deprivation and other inhumane treatment, and holding him guilty of crimes equivalent to high treason without any due process. Who doesn’t want a little Stalin in our lives?
There is an insinuation there of the perceived inferiority of civil society and authority in India. So I do think there is hostility there.
I was pointing out that the appropriate response to America-bashing is not India-bashing. How is that wrong?
All emphasis in quoted post is mine.
It’s not wrong at all, but that’s not what your comment read like, to me. Thanks for clarifying.
To call murdering somebody with a kick to the head “juvenile behavior” is rather hypocritical while criticizing the horrible effects of torture and waterboarding, wouldn’t you say ? A whole thread is devoted to Huckabee’s loser son lynching a dog. Then that should also get excused as “juvenile behavior” too, shouldn’t it ? The irony here is that if this guy Padilla had been out on the streets he’d probably have been killed by a rival gang member years ago. But now he’s a poster boy to some people.
@aquafina, Maybe the comment should read as : The USA belongs to the Native Americans who lived peacefully on this land without bothering anyone. All you goras (first,….,seventh) are just visitors who came in here, liked it,decided to stay and
genocidedcolonized the earlier inhabitants, instead of working hard to better your European (in the 18th and 19th century) third world hellholes. Dont worry, you might just hear comments like these from the Hispanic majority in 2040.You are so right again! The state has the exact moral responsibility as the lowest of its citizens. Padilla’s crimes (who cares what they are, really?) make him completely deserving of anything the “justice system” (I use the term very loosely in this case) chooses to throw at him. In fact, why don’t we put criminals to some use to better the fate of humanity? Better to be an involuntary cripple or even die in the service of Mother America than lead a life in a society where there is an expectation of justice.
I wonder why all these hypocritical people who just hate the rule of law don’t protest when members of the Italian mafia, or MS-13 are arrested with adequate evidence of conspiracy, murder etc. and administered proportionate punishment?
I was using the term “juvenile” in the legal sense.
I might be splitting hairs here, but I feel that condemning Huckabee’s son’s treatment is a tad different than the state incarcerating random citizens for many years on unsubstantiated charges. Personally, I found Huckabee senior’s misuse of his official authority probably the most disturbing aspect of the story relevant to American politics today. I don’t remember people advocating that David Huckabee’s genitals be administered a healthy dose of electric shock just in case he decides to transfer his predilection to inflict violence on helpless creatures to innocent humans.
Rahul, I’m glad you’re back 🙂
Ok, it seems Padilla has struck some kind of chord in you. There are better people who are worth devoting legal resources to help acquit. Padilla is not worth the wasted resources. Yes on paper it seems like it would be a good idea, but the man is not worthy of help. Legal triage if you want to call it that, save those actually worth saving. He isn’t a Colonel Dreyfus, but people want to make him one. Rodney King comes to mind.
Oops.. accidentally promoted Captain Dreyfus to Colonel.
“In fact, why don’t we put criminals to some use to better the fate of humanity?”
Rahul- I find it ironic that you are defending the government’s unethical treatment of jose padilla but seem quite ok with a possibly even more disturbing racial crime by the US government – the Tuskegee experiment.
Cuz, you are sexy when you’re righteous, Rahul-ah! Vikram, now easy honey don’t make me open this!
Either your irony meter is broken and you cannot detect Rahul’s irony/sarcasm, or your statement is in fact not a rhetorical use of irony, but merely a factual one, that is, you have merely stated that you have detected irony in Rahul’s statement and I have mistaken this factual statement for ironic commentary, in which case your sense of humor is much more meta than mine. Much too meta for a Friday night. So meta in fact that Alanis Morisette’s head just exploded.
i do want you to see my perspective to understand my irritation with the troll. a little before that post appeared, i had received an email from my mp tellign me about the action she took in the parliament because i had expressed concern about a (non-desi) immigrant’s experience here (in canada). we’ll be meeting for coffee some time when she is back from ottawa. this is my sense of a stable society.
i am not a rich businessman or a maverick journalist with a bully pulpit. yet i have the power to affect governance because i feel passionately about some issues and can influence action at the right political level. this is what matters to me. to live in a plce where someone else will look out for my interests as much as i look out for others. this is what is a stable society to me. the US is going through a major upheaval and why not. she has seen the single worst act of militant aggression on its soil since Pearl Harbor. The push and pull you see is she trying to regain her balance with people representing opposing points of view on how we can protect its borders. no one has a handle on right versus wrong but we have to each participate in the debate with our core values as guide. this is how we realize a stable society. the act of participation and the act of being recognized as a participant.
hence this whole thread is critical and why i was irritated that some guy popped in saying that things are bad from browns, so it’s best to go to india and lord it out.
I think your first mention of irony would have made her head explode in and of itself 🙂