When a police officer wants to talk to you about your blog.
A few weeks ago I got a voicemail from my wife. "Sweetie, an MTA police officer stopped by to talk to you about your blog." I was in the tunnel that runs between Grand Central Terminal and 125th St and was without a cell signal.
I took a later train than usual and my arrival time would be after seven p.m. I was in shock and surprise during the next 80 or so minutes wondering which blog was in question, when I realized which one it was. It was written in a few moments of frustration about canceled trains, delays, during the worst part of winter.
Mortified, I realized that I probably could have chosen my words more carefully. But a visit to my home from the police. No doubt they had driven up over 70 miles from New York City to want a interview. Where would it lead? Arrest? Interrogation?
I sat humbly for a long time thinking about this. My wife and I finally connected and she gave me the cell phone of the police officer, who I called.
He said that he wanted to meet face to face to discuss my blog and that his visit was only a formality. We agreed to a time about ten minutes after I arrived home from the train station.
Shortly after I arrived I let my dogs out in the back yard for some much need exercise, and a late model SUV parked at the entrance to my driveway. Two gentlemen dressed in suits walked up the drive and I met them halfway down the driveway.
The police officers identified themselves and explained the my post had surfaced and was being reviewed as a possible threat. The officer stated that I said some harsh things in my blog. I commented that I could have chosen my words more carefully.
The officer said he had read every blog post since I joined Open Salon, and had determined I was not a threat, but his boss wanted him to visit me in person. His fellow officer explained that there was no action that was going to be taken against me and that the file would be closed following this meeting.
We talked about the shock he caused to my wife, given that I could have met him in New York, and he apologized. We all shook hands and they left, leaving me profoundly mortified.
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Incredible..
rated with hugs
Now to put the shoe on the other foot, imagine if some of us had a call from Salon Media Group and they wanted to pay us a visit at home about the posts we have written about how slow the site is at certain hours of the day!
Shel -- If you can't do the time, don't write the blog.
Buffy -- I should be so lucky.
Sheba -- scary is right.
Ink -- I am not joking; I was treated respectfully and professionally.
Linda -- exactly ...I guess I can't become a Supreme court justice now.
neilpaul -- this was a weird experience.
Cops and magistrates don't protect you. FBI won't help. You get placed on probation.
You get placed on a "... Potential domestic security threat list." and phones is tapped.
FBI calls t be "briefed"...
You go to jail with no trial.
No attorney dare defend you.
You pay $250.00 for court transcripts.
The probation officer dies. I loved her.
The District Attorney drops dead. Sigh.
No one answers your letters to congress.
You tell the cops. They follow you to court.
After a while cops stop over for brewed wine.
Cops aren't all awful. They forewarn of Trouble.
So - Take a Sigmond Freud doll as your Lawyer?
I refuse to piss in jugs. Then - You chat with Judge.
How else can we peaceful citizens get to convey Ideas?
Sunny?
FBI?
Kim Doan is still getting ripped off. Bank stole her laundry,
home,
health,
washers,
dryers,
and still`
charge `
Usury!
That's Why?
So - blog @ OS.
Discuss hair dyes,
tight tutu styles,
and be honest.
No fear truth.
Drive slowly.
20- mph or`
slower and`
cop smile`
and wink`
give cop`
finger?
No way!
Behave!
Be nice!
Eh hem.
Actually I think about this every time I post to one of my Afghan Hound dog lists, or email friends who have the breed, thinking about another friend who has a friend in Afghanistan that we've probably all talked to at one time or another about the breed - I expect my email addy was flagged long ago ;).
I can only say that the poor schmuck stuck reading my emails has my sympathy :D.
Rated for the walls have ears.
HMMmmm
Thanks for letting me know.
;-)
Is this really anyone's idea of keeping us safe? How is it they catch this but every person who has actually done something has posted threats and video all over the net beforehand and that gets missed? I hope you asked him if he at least rated you.
Second, looked at your posts, could be the Nuclear plant post. Did you have clearance?
Did they tell you the nature of the threat?
Cops calling your wife and hunting you down at your house to talk to you about personal commentary made online is harassment. OE is not a troll or a creep. I can't imagine anything he posted was that inflammatory that they needed to seek him out in such a manner.
Hmmmm....I guess it's not poor servers clogging up OS...it's all the police monitoring our posts. LOL.
Lezlie
*Updated for the digital age.
Btw, who was mortified you, the police, or both?
R
That STORY is coming up soon.
Art James knows of what he speaks! Our rights and liberties are a huge lie. I'm sorry you had to get such a fright but this is the scary reality we all live in now.
I got confused by your last line: "We all shook hands and they left, leaving profoundly mortified." Should there be a "me" after the word "leaving," or are you saying that the police were the mortified ones?
bobbot -- I'm not going to discuss the merits of this. I'm just posting on my own mortification.
John -- Obviously Emily at OS doesn't perceive me as a threat.
Art -- An EP and Art James comment. I should go buy a lottery ticket.
seer -- I'm just glad there isn't an Old English Sheepdogistan. I feel ya.
Joan H-- I appreciate the fact that they looked at all my posts and were not jumping to any hasty conclusions.
Julie -- It's in the archives and Zanelle's comment describes it.
Jennifer -- I hope so too.
zachery -- assuming we use your logic, it gets EPs too.
Harry -- I'm not going there.
Joisey -- thanks for your comments
Tilapia -- I had time to recall which post they were concerned about on the train, and they confirmed it.
Scanner -- The officer was sincerely apologetic about that. I graciously accepted his apology.
Owl -- Yikes indeed.
Zanelle -- Yes, indeed. A google search of that gentleman's name reveals my post in the first ten hits. Tag carefully.
gary -- Their supervisor wanted them to meet in person, so that if something untoward happened to the subject of my post, the record would reflect that I was interviewed.
Lezlie -- I was distressed.
John -- No joke. Not kidding. I have never been more serious.
Sexual harassment can be a single occurrence, why not harassment by the authorities? This was a singular waste of manpower, if nothing else. Where the hell was their professional judgement regarding priority of need and allocation of resources??
And yes, I'm merely a nurse, but do you honestly believe the post in question required an inquiry by the authorizes? If you do, we will never agree and arguing further will do neither of us any good.
Most of us have no idea how much surveillance we're under on a daily basis. What you see in the movies barely scratches the surface.
I was going to post some explanations....but it got too long and, besides, you're better off not knowing.
BTW, this would be an excellent post for Salon. com. Suggest it to them.
Sieg Heil.
-R-
That's frightening and a disturbing waste of public money. I've written a couple of posts about local politics that have gotten comments from people involved, but at least they were favorable responses.
I bet you poured yourself a couple of stiff drinks after that encounter.
I hate that you now have a "file" - I was arrested once, on entirely false charges (suspended license, error on the part of the DMV) and HATED that my fingerprints were now on file - I was exonerated, but still, there's a record.
This is the weirdest thing I have ever read on OS, and that's saying something.
On the other hand, I remember a few years ago in Maryland the wife of then-governor Erlich publicly expressed a desire to shoot a specific individual (Brittney Spears). This was while speaking into a microphone at a conference on domestic violence (!) Somehow I doubt she got a visit from the cops. I just think the law ought to apply equally to everybdy.
Also, Most OS users would probably like to know that AT&T has a special contractor relationship with the DOJ/FBI by way of the Patriot Act and actively stores information and data (text messages) which are then relayed to the Feds for contingent interception (upon your suspicion in a criminal act, authorities can review them, but they are sealed until then).
However, they do exist in a file until that time comes...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore_(software)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_(signals_intelligence)
These are the major programs by which the POLICE and the FBI monitor blog, email and text-message traffic. A worthwhile read.
They compile files based on patterns and patterns within patterns.
An old law school professor once told me that, pursuant to ECHELON and CARNIVORE, maybe 15 percent of all Americans have an electronic dosier. This is a far higher number than the number of Americans with a paper file in the FBI. Furthermore, you can't appeal to the FBI to release your electronic dosier, under the Freedom of Information Act.
This is all classified under the USA PATRIOT ACT>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_For_Law_Enforcement_Act
This should be helpful, too. Important legal acts that govern the relationships here.
It beats being approached by...
:)
But now Che has opened up the can of worms, let me put my two cents in....
On second thought, maybe not. They are already watching you. Maybe I should keep my mouth shut.
I know what I'll do. I'll post that material on my other blog, the one under my "real" name.
Corporate America wants to silence LABOR, the LEFT and PROGRESSIVES.
The Patriot Act is really intended to be used against these groups, should protests and civil unrest happen, as a result of the GREAT RECESSION and GROWING INEQUALITY OF WEALTH
Fascism is coming to America. Slowly but surely.
We must fight it with everything we have.
It's hard to judge how frightened I should be about this and how much of a threat to my civil liberties it represents without seeing the actual post. On the surface, however, it's hard for me to imagine what you could have written that would have led to this response.
What the hell do you have to apologize for --intemperate language? Christ, if that's the measure, how come they don't throw Trump's ass in jail?
But seriously, I believe that I would refuse to talk to anyone who contacted me to discuss anything about my blog. One, I would have no idea of knowing whether or not they were impersonators, and two, if the authoritahhhs feel that any of us have broken a law, they should just fucking arrest us. Otherwise, they are just threatening/attempting to intimidate us, which violates our constitutional and human rights, which I take very seriously.
I think that if I ever were contacted, I'd force an arrest -- and then contact the ACLU about filing a lawsuit.
Anyway, you won't tell us what it is that spooked the spooks?
(Or did you say so already in this long chain of comments?...)
r
-Erica
OE, have you sent your story to Greenwald? He lives for this stuff.
This is unacceptable and a complaint could easily be reported to internal affairs. I would not stop until I got to the bottom of this mess.
They must have a lot of time on their hands, though. I guess there's not much crime in the US.
Maybe if I threaten someone I can get an Editor's Pick. ;)
if anyone wants to walk on the wild side, come take a look at my blog. Ive never got a visit-- obviously the police are too afraid to talk to me.
Unless, of course, you are in fact a talking sheepdog ;)
Seriously tho, if OS coughs over identities of 'anonymous' bloggers, then that's a scarier issue than the cops sniffing around.
The lack of an answer seems strange to me.
The lack of an answer seems strange to me.
The lack of an answer seems strange to me.
On the serious side, though--we have become an extremely paranoid nation. The cop did the right thing, he took the one post and looked at it in the context of all your posts and decided you were not the whack job his boss thought you were.
In America, we make a virtue of paranoia. I once got threatened by a pilot on a United flight with being taken off the plane by federal marshals. My complaint was that our seats were screwed up at the last minute and I said, "that pisses me off." Apparently, they heard that as "I'm blowing up this plane." I mean, that's the next step, right?
2. Why did you ever agree to be interviewed by the cop? Let them arrest you if they want to question you. And what would be the probably cause for an arrest?
an effect: do you know what your rights are
and are not? i urge people to look up the ACLU's site
http://www.reformthepatriotact.org/
and to follow bloggers like Ernesto Che Guevara
I handed him my Week-At-A-Glance calendar and after seeing my travel plans, nodded and said, “Thanks.” Then, instead of handing the book back, he pointed to the week before where I had recorded an entry to remind myself of a pending job.
He asked “Is there I phone I can use to call my office?” I lead him to a private phone.
After his call, he returned and opened the calendar again and pointed to my entry for a FORTUNE Magazine assignment. He asked me, “What does this mean?” I looked and saw my note: It said only, “Wash DC, Shoot Reagan.” I explained that it was a professional term, not an assassination memo.
He looked stricken and asked to use the phone again.
--GG