Encroaching Fascism
60
Minding our own business, not someone else's
I received a text message on my phone on Saturday morning, while I was driving into town, and I pulled off the main street, then pulled over so I could read it and respond. It was from my brother, and there were several questions to answer, so I settled in for some serious texting, oblivious to my surroundings, deep in thought.
I had automatically pulled into a parking area edging the street behind the library of the university where I used to work; it was quiet here (the library doesn't open on Saturdays due to lack of funding) and I didn't need to worry about being in anyone's way.
I had forgotten that fifty-year-old women are naturally suspicious-looking and ominous creatures.
I was disturbed by someone tapping on the car window beside me. It was a young man in a black polo shirt, with one of those radio-thingies clipped on and a coiled cord to an earpiece. I scanned his shirt again automatically, as the maintenance crew of the university wear polo shirts with their names embroidered on. This young man had no such label.
He asked (quite peremptorily) if he could help me.
"No, thanks," I replied as cheerfully as I could muster, and started to wind the window back up. That did not sit well with him, and he asked who I was.
Now, technically I was on university property, the strip of parking being off the road, not on the curb, but as I glanced up from my phone to ask who he was instead of answering his question, I happened to notice that there are no identifying signs on that side of the building, and no signs saying that parking is restricted.
When he said he was security I hesitated, since I am familiar with the security officers on the other campus of the university (much larger and outside of town), as they wear uniforms. I am particularly familiar with this fact, as I was escorted away from a public meeting by one of them, after I heckled the speaker (not done in America, apparently). This young man did not look like security.
"You could be anybody," I said, not helping his mood.
I had forgotten that I had taken down the parking sticker faculty are issued, one day when I was feeling disgusted at my former employers (I retired at Christmas), so I said I was faculty. He asked for my faculty ID. I had never bothered to get one of the updated ID's, and I wouldn't have been carrying it with me even if I had.
He asked my name. Now, I don't know what rights and responsibilities folk have when they pull off the main street to send their brother a text message. It occurred to me, though, that if I had been a tourist (this is a small, quiet tourist destination) and had been driving around the streets behind me, looking at the lovely antebellum homes and the wonderful live oaks that populate the area, I could have easily pulled off the street here and not known there was a university building beside me.
Who are you?
I mention this because the national security of our universities is threatened by international terrorism. Well, I suppose it must be, otherwise there would not be so much fuss about someone sitting in her car sending her brother a text message, now would there? I could have been texting vital details to an accomplice, such as "Maroon door at 1 o'clock."
Of course, it doesn't help that I look Iraqi. Well, I'm Irish actually, but I can see the similarity. I asked to see his ID, too. But he didn't have it on him. While I was digging out my driver's license and grumbling that I had been here since 1993 and I had never seen him before, and that of course he had a very important job defending a small (nay, rural) university from little old ladies, he told me to watch my mouth.
There are some approaches to any situation that just push my buttons. That's one of them. Watch my mouth? Why?
I realized that he had his phone out. Calling for back up? He spoke into the receiver, getting my name wrong in the process, and then shut his phone again, and turned to walk away. Apparently there was nothing else he could do, since I was who I said I was, and I was still on the faculty list he must have been checking with his interlocutor.
At least he didn't have a taser
We live in an America where police officers can taser a mother for driving five miles over the speed limit (while I was looking for the footage on YouTube, I discovered many more such incidents -- an elderly man being tasered for retrieving his license too slowly, an elderly woman tasered for almost twenty seconds). Using authoritarian approaches in this manner does not promulgate respect for the authority in question.
It is rooted most recently in the Patriot Act of 2001, and it fosters simplistic thinking at best ("yer either for us, or yer unpatriotic") but edges us closer to fascist tendencies that should not be encouraged. Here's another way that my encounter with the young man could have played:
"Hi there; lovely morning, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is. This time of year is my favorite."
"Ma'am, you may not realize this, since there aren't any signs on this particular street, but this is actually university property."
"Yeah, I know: I used to work here."
"Retired, eh? Lucky! Do you miss teaching?"
"Yep, but I'm enjoying retirement."
"Have a nice day, ma'am."
"You too."
But that's silly. Why would he even approach my car in the first place, unless he just felt like a friendly chat? Or thought I might be having car trouble?
You are absolutely right. This is one of the ways some say the terrorists have already brought us down. The have scared us into giving up our freedom. We need to face the fear without hiding behind a police state.
teresa, that's a great Hub. I've had several similar experiences over the years. The latest was when a local policeman told me me to stop taking pictures of a serious car accident three blocks from corner from my home. I was standing with a group of ten or twelve people across a side street from the accident about 100 feet from the scene where a car driven by an elderly lady and a passenger had wrapped itself around a tree. I was not interfering in any way with the police, fire department or EMS vehicles. I explained to the cop that I am a pro-am photographer who publishes a fair number of pictures and I asked him why he wanted me to stop taking pictures. He replied, "Because I said so." To which I replied, "That's not good enough. Tell me what law I'm violating, and arrest me if I'm violating anything. You can put the cuffs on me right now." And I held out both hands. The cop walked away in disgust. A couple of minutes later he came back and yelled "Get out of here." I walked a few steps away and returned to finish taking the pictures.
Police work attracts a certain number of not very bright bullies with small egos who can't stand to have anyone disagree with them. That's apparently, in part what happened in the Henry Gates incident recently in Cambridge.
Now there's a man with an open mind, I felt the breeze from here. I don't like the direction we are headed. But the fault lies within our selves, I think. And we need to make reparations of such foolishness. Common sense has flown the coop of Congress it seems.
I just looked...you DO look Iraqui...that has to be it!
It is a pity that is for sure. When will this foolishness end??? Great Hub my dear ...:O) Hugs
Good God, it amazes me that quiet xxx has stooped so low as to harass former employees who park to text. It doesn't surprise me though because they did have a bomb threat this last week. So you are probably not the only Israeli looking person that they will pester now. My god couldn't they recognize an Irish accent? Lol
I recently moved to Hotlanta and I can not immagine what it would be like to be harassed by these guys at all these universities up here.
Your hub was humerous, but I know going through it was a hassle. I love your style and honesty, T. I will keep reading everything you type out on the page. Take care! And wear your "Kiss me I'm Irish" t-shirt the next time you park on university property!
Yeah, this is an exaggeration from that so-called security guard! He could've been nicer and less suspecious!
This is only a small taste of where we're headed, Theresa. How much longer until there's illegal search and seizure and interrogation? Reading this sent a chill down my spine. Thank you very much for sharing this.
Thanks for all your comments. It must have something to do, also, with how security officers are trained, or with how police officers are trained?
I know there was internment without trial in Northern Ireland in the Seventies, but that was a very different situation. At the time I was a teenager and thought it was the right thing to do. Now I'm not so sure, although I'm open to all ideas; I do know that there must have been some innocent folk wrongly interned. Does the arrest of one terrorist balance or justify the internment of an innocent person? I really don't know. But I don't think so.
If someone approached me and didn't have their insignia and ID ready they would be out of luck. That guy could have been any kind of crazy trying to pull something over on you.
If I don't see a badge, I'm not complying - and even if I do see a badge I might not comply, depending. I've been in similar situations to what Ralph described above. Just because a cop tells you to do something doesn't mean he has the authority to do so.
You made a good point. Always well-written and worth reading. I do like your style. This taser business is getting out of hand. I saw a video on You Tube where the cop tasered a baby by accident instead of the mother who was giving him grief. That shocked me out of my shoes! What're we DOING?
Teresa, when the right wing starts screaming about freedom and Obama's threats of communist or fascist take over, I think of this stuff - the Patriot Act, created under a right wing administration, gives law enforcement pretty much carte blanche to cart us away at any time, and I have also seen some frightening clips on youtube of cops being brutal for absolutely no reason and harassing law abiding citizens. How do the tea baggers who consider themselves freedom fighters reconcile the fact their leaders support policies that give police rights to arrest any one they want without cause?
I really appreciate all these great comments. Thanks, guys, for coming by and taking the time to write.
This is the inevitable result of our current trajectory,most still refuse to admit it and you are not one of the ignorant.I can appreciate paragliders and others efforts to initiate a bloodless revolution but there will be blood.
BY THERESA HOWARD
USA TODAY
NEW YORK — As the real world grows more tolerant of differences, the virtual world grows with hatred.
Complaints against groups on social networking sites that call for threats, violence and hatred toward people who are Jewish, black, gay or have disabilities are on the rise even as Americans celebrate the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the country rallies around its first black president, and gay marriage is legalized in some states.
An application on Facebook asks people to answer a quiz so they can see what "famous retard" they are most like. A Maryland police officer hosts a site with more than 100,000 members that tells people to "Stop breaking the law, retard." In July, a YouTube video hosted by "ExecutetheGays1" provided graphic suggestions about how to kill homosexuals. The site was taken down after five days.
The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors hate speech on the Web, says complaints are up this year more than 200% through July, to 1,512 complaints."This whole era of cyberhate is one of the biggest challenges we face," says Deborah Lauter, civil rights director of the league. "We've gotten to a place where we made it unacceptable for haters to hate in the public space." So they turn to the Web, where they can be anonymous.
An offensive word all over the web
Hannah Jacobs, 53, a New York mother of two, didn't know there was so much hatred on the Web about children with disabilities until a recent dinner, when a man sitting next to her used the word "retard."
"I felt like I was kicked in the stomach," says Jacobs, a former vice president for Christie's auction house. She quit her job 10 years ago when she and her husband confirmed that their daughter, Molly, 12, was cognitively impaired. "I went home and Googled the word."
She found hundreds of user groups with the word in it, especially on Facebook. So she started her own group challenging Facebook to "stop mocking people with disabilities." It now has 28,000 members.
Jacobs spends about 20 hours a week combing the Web for such sites. When she finds them, she tries to contact the organizers to ask them to take the site down or change the name. Her group members write letters to government officials and to media companies that operate the sites.
"It takes a lot of work," Jacobs says. "The goal is that once these groups are reported that Facebook take them down. I try to make the world a better place for Molly."
But making the virtual world better is a challenge. Facebook takes a long time to respond, and hundreds of groups with the word "retard" remain, she says.
But is it 'hate speech'?
Facebook sees it differently. Spokesman Simon Axter says complaints about nudity, pornography and harassing personal messages are responded to in 24 hours, but other sites require more scrutiny, and use of the word "retard" isn't considered hate speech. "Our team has had a lot of discussion about ... what is hate speech and where Facebook should be drawing the line," he says. "The mere use of the word 'retard' is not a violation of terms of use."
And it's not a violation for YouTube or Google. But YouTube has created an online safety center in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League; it explains the effect of hate speech and lets people flag offending sites and videos.
"We don't permit hate speech," says Scott Rubin, head of global communications and public affairs for Google and YouTube. "What we mean by hate speech is that it attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status and sexual orientation or gender identity."
Though sites may include offensive words, content is considered hate speech only if comments or videos target a person simply because of his or her membership in a certain group. "There are 20 hours of video uploaded to our site every minute. We don't prescreen," Rubin says. "Instead, we count on our community to know the guidelines and to flag videos that they believe violate guidelines."
In the end, positive speech is the best way to drown out hate speech, says free-speech expert Adam Thierer.
"When advocacy groups work together and use the new technology at their disposal, they have a way of signaling out bad speech and bad ideas," says Thierer, a senior fellow with the Progress and Freedom Foundation. "The Internet is a cultural bazaar. It's the place to find the best and worst of all human elements on display."
Contact MARK W. SMITH: msmith@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @markdubya or follow a feed of blog updates at @browserblog.
Wow, Ralph -- great story, thanks for posting it.
the young man simply overdid the whole thing..
Wonderful Hub, Teresa. This kind of incident is really scary - we have seen, and still do actually, similar situations in South Africa, though I must say it is better now.
In the apartheid days the police did practically anything they wanted to and the excuse was always that the person was endangering state security. Because of the security laws, which were much like the US's iniquitous Patriot Act (what an incongruous name?!) the mere mention of state security was enough to get a person locked away, without recourse to legal help or advice, without recourse to the courts, for a period of up to 180 days, which could be renewed at the discretion of a policeman!
My ex-wife, on a university field trip with two or three colleagues, was held at the roadside for hours at gunpoint while the police tried to get instructions from a superior (this was before mobile phones) on what to do with these dangerous academics! They were eventually taken to a police station and interrogated for a few more hours before being allowed to go on their way. This during "peace" time!
And you do look so dangerous too. You know, you academics stir people up and ask dangerous questions. So sitting on the side of the road texting your brother might just be a clever ruse to hide your real intent of blowing up the university, don't you think?
Ralph's post is also scary, isn't it?
Love and peace
Tony
It could have played the way you suggested, if only young officers weren't so hung up on their .... attibutions :-)
Seriously though, it's scary and looks like something out of "1984" altogether. Tough to think it's real life and not science fiction.
Loved it as usual Teresa--and, yes, you are completely right about fascism and the insidious way it seems to be seeping back into our daily lives.
Hi Teresa, what a rude and arrogant young man! When we were kids, we were taught to be respectful towards others. It doesn't seem to be the case so much these days, more's the pity.
I can't believe that he would not show you ID. I don't think I would show my ID to anybody who could not prove who they were - he could have been some crook ready to rob you or anything. The story is frightening! But you tell it with your unique brand of wit. Glad you weren't tazered.
There have always been and always will be rude, arrogant, power hungry individuals who get off on their perceived power over others. I do not see this as an extension of the Patriot Act. I see this as proof that human nature has not changed and there are as many egocentric individuals at the bottom of the food chain as there are at the top. Great hub!
Great Hub, and a little scary. There are rouges in every institution, the police often throw their weight around in the name of protection.
The title of this hub says it all,here's a video that goes with this hub like Merlot and Rosemary Pork Roast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxoTItUgpKw
Except this revelation may cause a little agida,pass the tums please.
Oh good grief -- I tried watching the whole thing, but had to quit after only two and a half minutes, as my blood pressure was spiking. . .
Mr. G. 2 years ago
Liked your hub; literate as always.