LoL, good tip for any shooting I'm doing with the City I live in (my rep is growing in that realm here).

thx for the tip.

Dave

You might not be in the Texas City database (they are a bit paranoid there since that fertilizer ship blew) but by combining "hnolenad sceriyuy" with a major corp like "Snoy" and reference to the "Fdes" means the email scanners have got you and you are in the dB now.

Certain words have been scrambled to protect the innocent.

Some people are trully paranoid no-life assholes (talking about the vigilanti guy who reported u).

Off a bumper sticker:

George Bush is listening: use big words...

Welcome to the New Amerika.

LOL.... You're probably on the "no fly" list now too.

Sounds kind of funny, but it's really not....... Good luck getting off these lists once you're on them. There are honest citizens mistakenly put on these lists that have gone as far as court to try and force the Gov to remove them.

although it does seem a bit big-brotherish, I'd much rather live with the extra vigilance, than a suitcase nu.ke going off in our backyard from some crazy fanatical guy... in this time and age, unfortunately, paranoia is probably a good thing, more vigilance..

but personally I am seriously considering moving away from the usa because of a threat of attacks from overseas... or at least not living near any major cities for the foreseeable future... like some author said, it's not a question of if, but when..

from under the desk with a tinfoil cap on, lol,

ken

Good thing you did not mention the time of day you were taping in your post,
because that could really get you in trouble.

Just don't watch "24."

And where would you move?
Europe is a bigger mess than the U.S. IMHO.

A British friend of mine here in L.A. was quaking under a desk for years after 9/11, talking about moving back to London. I pointed out why I thought the risks were much worse in London than in Los Angeles, and somehow convinced her to stay (more out of inertia I suspect). Then the London bombings happened.

I am thinking in terms of high value targets. DC is #1 as the political symbol. New York is #3.

And sorry, there is no #2.

Places like LA and SF? Hardly too exciting.

And if they wipe out LA, no more Mickey Mouse, and then Ahmadinejad gets pissed off because he loves Mickey (really), and whoever does that will be in big trouble.

Saved by a mouse.

And Ken wouldn't want to move down here, forget being blown up, we've got snake, spiders, sharks, crocs, lightning. irate husbands, wives, ex wives and plain nutters with guns. And that's before you consider car wrecks and train wrecks. See much safer staying in the USA where all you've got to worry about are A_Q.

"And where would you move?
Europe is a bigger mess than the U.S. IMHO."


We have our exciting moments, but overall it's not that bad in Canada............YET

Ah. Fear. It's working, Mr. President!

We've had two terrorist attacks (by non-Americans) in this country in the last 24 years. Actually, only two ever at all, unless you count Pancho Villa. And those two were the same unfortunate target. (I don't count Pearl Harbor as a terrorist attack but rather an act of war. Argue if you will.)

I'd say we're as safe as most modern countries.

If it were me, I'd call the local chapter of the ACLU.

I had no idea a place like Texas City could be so dangerous!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City,_Texas

Politics aside, it's a bummer for you. The people in law enforcement who deal with this seem to have tunnel vision. Much like a bartender might think the world is made up of drunks, these guys are likely to see the world as being made up of bad guys like you and your wife.

Maybe you should get together with your local law enforcement to produce some sort of training for the media on how not to get shot by armed government employees.

Rob Mack

I'm gonna pack up and move to the west coast of Mexico. Cheap living, cold cerveza, great food, the beach, wonderful weather. All I need is a broadband connection and I'm set.

EDIT:
I wouldn't worry too much about lists. Back in '82 when I was a young whippersnapper sales rep for HP I befriended an older man named Morgan Hetrick out at Mojave Airport north of LA. He wanted a computer system to run his machine tool company, and I spent many lunches encouraging him to get our latest whizzy minicomputer. Nice guy, kind of a grandfatherly type. We flew in his Mooney 231 a couple of times.

One month later the TV news is buzzing about John DeLorean (the car guy) getting busted for trying to move drugs. There on the screen is DeLorean being led off in handcuffs along with the drug guy; hmmm, it looks just like--Morgan Hetrick. It was.

So I'm probably on some lists and surveillance tapes somewhere.

We've had two terrorist attacks (by non-Americans) in this country in the last 24 years. Actually, only two ever at all, unless you count Pancho Villa. And those two were the same unfortunate target. (I don't count Pearl Harbor as a terrorist attack but rather an act of war. Argue if you will.)

nearly everything is considered a "terrorist attack" now a days. A kid made a copy of his school in the game "Counter Strike" & was accused of being a terrorist (he was exonerated by police but the school still accused him of terrorizing the school). Someone talked about blowing up Hillary Clinton & was arrested as being a terrorist.

Terrorist = Communist between WW2 & 90's. Nobody will go "postal" anymore, they'll all be terrorists.

I've been thinking about driving by the local nuke dump & filming (it's actually a really cool place to look at). Then when questioned, ask "Did I do anything illegal?" The answer is, of course, no (all areas in public can be recorded/photographed in the US. If it's a secret area, it's not in public view!)

I had no idea a place like Texas City could be so dangerous!

Rob,

The TC Disaster is our "claim to infamy". Someone had 16mm footage of one of the biggest explosions and it made national news, documentaries, etc. I think it's considered the largest industrial disaster in US history or something like that. We live pretty far away from the plants, and in the 2005 BP explosion our house shook.

(Before anyone asks the question, why live in a town that explodes?, I grew up here and we moved back to help care for my aging parents. Then you buy a house, get into a good group of friends, and you get settled in. Plus, by the looks of this footage, it really is great place to Live, Work, and Play! ha ha)

The cop and agent were very forthcoming and almost apologetic about the whole thing. He allowed that a lot of their calls are made by "$5 an hour guys with a badge" and that he/they have to determine what is and isn't a threat. But, because it was called in, regardless, they have to follow the current procedures and so...we're "on the list".

Just after I got my V1u in December, I went down to a large, public plaza in downtown Albuquerque to shoot some HD "stock footage." I had been there no more than five minutes when I was approached by several police officers who wanted to know what I was doing. I said I was shooting some footage of the plaza just to have "on file." They said that because there were several city government building near the plaza and due to "homeland security" concerns, photos and videos were not permitted on the plaza without a permit. Of course, I thought this was total nonsense as I was in a public plaza, but they had guns (and an attitude.) They separated me from my camera and then asked me to give them the tape in my camcorder. I pointed out that there were several families down there with camcorders and they weren't hassling them. After reviewing what I had shot up until that point, they finally agreed to let me keep my tape, but they hovered around as I packed up my tripod and then escorted me back to my car. (Where they took information from my driver license and noted the license plate number on my car.)

I'm all for a reasonable amount of security based on common sense, but this whole episode was nuts.

Canada and Japan (and maybe back to Hawaii) are on the list of probably somewhat safe decent places to live... Australia too, though it's hard to move there from what I understand...

Major US cities, particularly NY, are off the list of places I'd live nowadays. Managing risk is important.

Ken

Some A$$ Hole put a rock through the back window of my wife's car
yesterday and we couldn't get the Madison police to come out
....guess I should have shot video of it.

Terry

::::Some A$$ Hole put a rock through the back window of my wife's car
yesterday and we couldn't get the Madison police to come out
....guess I should have shot video of it.::::

Tell the cops you suspect it was a terrorist act.

VOILA! Instant cops.

I'd like to think i can go shoot video of whatever i want,, but sometimes there are reasons why some badge may not want you to.
dont know what you were shooting in Texas city,, but if it was oil storage,, refinery stuff , I can see why they were concerned.