Why is this Necessary? (pics)

[RoyGBiv]

On a recent trip to DC, I toured the edifices that symbolize our system of government, that are supposed to invoke visions of freedom to all the world. I neared the grounds in front of the Capitol and was first somewhat shocked to see this:



Do Not Enter the Halls of Democracy. No People Allowed.

Okay, I thought to myself, we've just had an election. A lot of stuff might be going on in there (nothing was), and maybe the throngs of people that visit this location every day couldn't simply be allowed to walk around the halls randomly. Besides being a symbol, real work is supposed to be done in that place. That much I get. I am less understanding of the idea that The People can't even walk up the steps to commune with this supposed symbol of freedom, but I let myself rationalize just enough for it not to bother me quite so much as it might have had I taken a moment to think about it a bit more. I was on vacation, one planned to get away from some severely stressful happenings at home. I quite frankly didn't want my mind working in the ways it was wanting to work after being told, via a Sign, sign, everywhere a sign / Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind / Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign? ... I was not allowed.

I walked on a little further, took a few pictures of squirrels that have become so accustomed to humans infringing upon their territory that they almost seem to want to pose for you, and then I looked up and saw this.



That's an automatic weapon he's holding. He looked dead at me as I snapped this picture. My mind's eye could see it being quickly pointed at me, a shot taken ... dangerous man with camera on the Capitol grounds.

I was so shocked at seeing this that I failed to notice the lamp post in the way of it.

Why?

[Redstone]

1. Why? Because they can.

Redstone

[ThomCat]

3. And because they got away with it.

The people in this country let them do it. :(

[MannyGoldstein]

2. That is Fairly Fucked Up

Scary.

Are you an EE, Roy?

[RoyGBiv]

4. Quite ...

Fucked up is the only thing that describes it, but it just doesn't catch it all. Words fail me, which is why I relied on the pics mostly.

As for being an EE, since I don't know what that is, I suppose not. :-)

[MannyGoldstein]

7. EE = Electrical Engineer

RoyGBiv is used by EEs to remember the resistor color code - I suppose that it's also the colors of the rainbow (shows what a nerd i am that my first thought was the resistor color code... sorry).

[RoyGBiv]

9. Oh ... shoulda realized that

I'm asked that a lot actually, that or am I an art teacher.

It's a roundabout reference to the Rainbow Warrior, which was a Greenpeace ship sunk by the French Navy. I used that as my nick from the time I was a teenager, and it has morphed into what it is now.

[mcctatas]

5. I thought that was the peoples house...

:wtf:

[951-Riverside]

6. Why walk when you can just drive right in like a man did recently.

[MiniMe]

8. A lot of buildings in DC are limiting access through select points

And you have to pass through a metal detector and have everything else go through an x-ray machine. After that guy got into the Capitol Building a few years ago with a gun and started shooting everything up, I don't blame them for that part of it, security has to be tight in DC. However, being ready to shoot because you are taking pictures is ridiculous. That all goes back to the terra, terra, terra scares.

You are obviously a terrorist that is looking for ways to blow up the building, which is absolutely ridiculous. It is a tourist town, people take pictures of famous buildings.

[RoyGBiv]

13. I do understand security ...

I don't really have a problem with the metal detectors or being forced to allow inspection of my camera bag by a explosives sniffer every time I entered any building anywhere or things like that. I even understand not allowing unrestricted access. But this was the steps up to the Capitol, not the entrance, and really, what is that going to stop if someone determined goes after it, knowing full well it is there. And you go around to the side and can walk right up to the building itself without impediment. All it stops are tourists like myself, people wanting to take a personal journey, people wanting to tour. A guy with a gun or a bomb or whatever is not going to be stopped by a Do Not Enter sign and a fence. I very much doubt that person would even be stopped by the guy with the automatic weapon.

And the Congressional offices across the street? Nothing. No guards outside the doors at all. A few cameras, yes, but no guards.

The more I think about this the more I interpret it as a big Fuck You to the common people.

I wish now I'd had a video camera instead of just one for stills. You should have seen his head snap in my direction when I pointed the camera toward him. It was like he was wired in to my brain, knowing I was there, even though I was several yards away. I don't blame him, the individual. He's obviously very well trained at his job. The job, however, is to my mind monstrously absurd.

[MiniMe]

19. Its Terra Terra Terra

How many terra scares have we had where people (mostly middle eastern people) were taking pictures of a bridge or a building and Homeland Insecurity plastered it all over the front pages claiming that they were scouting out the building to plan a terrorist attack? I'm not saying its right or necessary, it is the culture of fear that the BFEE has created that has caused it.

[Chipper Chat]

10. We live in a POLICE STATE.

Thank you George Bush

[Generic Brad]

11. We woke up in the old Soviet Union

The America I was born in is gone. Perestroika anyone?

[uppityperson]

12. Flew through Charles de Gaulle recently.

Noticed security, gendarmes, and the military guys in camo walking around with uzis. All public waste baskets in the city are metal rod holders with clear plastic bags. Why? Too many times of people blowing up waste basket bombs and trying crap in public places. How about going through security at art museums?

I have no idea what the Do Not Enter sign was about, but many places in the wider world have people with guns patrolling them, esp tourist and High gvt places.

[southerncrone]

14. This is what fear brings

Our government is so despicable that it lives in fear. Fear of the people who pay for it and OWN IT!
The neocons who run things presently are a bunch of sissy pants, fraidy cat pansies who have done so many atrocious things that they live in fear of retaliation from their fellow man. This bunch is so paranoid that they are psychotic! They are not leaders they are traitors! Otherwise, they would not feel the need to portray such a defensive stance. :hide:

[RoyGBiv]

15. The only thing that soothes me ...

Is that governments *should* be scared of their people, and apparently ours is.

A belated welcome to DU, btw. :hi:

[valerief]

16. If we don't have this, the Commies will get us. No, wait, that's pre

9-11 talk. I mean, the Terrrrrrrrrsts will get us.

[RoyGBiv]

17. Commies ...

I liked it better when the Commies where the current bugbear. Sure, I lived in fear of being roasted alive, but then again, not so much. It was a threat that seeped into my mind on a daily basis, but at least I didn't feel threatened by my own country.

[valerief]

18. Yeah, that was the difference. The commies were the bogeymen

that the US invented (aside from the real Communists), but we didn't fear Uncle Sam. Now Uncle Sam is methed-up, child-molesting terrorist.