redfishingboat

I took this photo when I was “photowalking” with a friend of mine in industrial Carson, CA on May 3, 2009 — a godforsaken area of large refineries, processing plants, huge piles of fluorescent yellow goop, in other words a goldmine for people who like to photograph the gritter side of our declining civilization. I parked, and rode in her car. As we lingered around one refinery, one of a bunch of places we stopped that day, I noticed the signs saying it was illegal to loiter. And, I noticed the signs declaring that the place caused cancer. and that it drained to the ocean. I thought it was a nice, sarcastic example of bald corporate bureaucratic evil.

Now, over three months later, on a sunny Summer morning with birds chirping in the air, my friend was just visited by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force — “our nation’s front line on terrorism” — because security reported suspicious characters loitering around the nations crucial oil supply, and they got her license plate on camera. Chilling! Funny, I don’t see any warning signs in that menu above saying anything about being taped by “teh guv’ment”. Luckily — really luckily — my friend was super cool, calm, and she reports that the FBI agent was polite and just doing his job.

Here’s a snip of her account:

Taking fotos nears petrol plants gets you put on surveillance cameras and they
tracked me down by my license plate. Luckily he was a fellow photographer and it was all cleared up and my file will be closed.

Oh how we suffer for our craft.

I’m not one to cry OMGZORS BLACK HELICOPTERS!!!11!, like some people, but it’s just another example of a broken system. It’s broken because she got “visited” even though they know she’s no threat. If we had been up to anything nefarious, waiting for over three months to check it out would seem pretty silly, wouldn’t it

This is how we battle terrorism? This is how crucial manpower is allocated? This is the “front line” as the FBI describes it? I find it hard to see how this has anything at all to do with protecting America. I also don’t think it’s an organized attempt to harass or surveil citizens. It’s all just nonsense. It’s a system with so many heads that it can’t possibly function sanely. It’s the result of directives from administrators living in vacuums in a reaction to problems they don’t understand and can’t control. And, no matter who you voted for President, it’s just going to keep getting worse. A nation uneducated is a nation that does silly things no matter what charismatic politician smiles at you.

I wish I could be more constructive in response to this, but I don’t know what to do or how to react. I should just buy a t-shirt with a catchy slogan and show it off at Starbucks.

We’re losing the war on ignorance, and I don’t know how to stop it.

And now after the jump, press ‘play’ on a song from The Chameleons and enjoy more photos from that area.

Photos from WatermelonSugar:

And here are a few more from me: