An amateur photographer is hassled (treated like a terrorist) because he wants to take some nice pictures of a major tourist attraction:

"Why are you taking pictures of the White House?"    
Saturday, November 11 2006 @ 01:37 AM EST
Contributed by: shawn
 
NOTE: This article was originally linked to from reddit where it reached the top spot and stayed for an hour or two before I deleted it. This site normally only gets a hundred or two hits a day. In an hour this morning, it got about 5000. I removed the link on reddit because I didn't want to get shut off for exceeding my bandwidth quota for the month. But I'd like to thank everyone for their interest and comments... Thanks!

Tonight, I decided to head downtown to take some pictures of DC. I didn't go downtown until about 11:30pm so as to avoid most of the tourists. Since I had already taken pictures of the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial, I decided to focus on the White House and Washington Monument tonight.

As I was walking down Pennsylvania Ave in front of the White House taking pictures, I noticed that a couple Secret Service cars slowly passed by me approximately four times. I knew what was coming.

Finally, one of the cars stopped and a woman in uniform got out. She asked me what I was up to. I explained that I simply was taking pictures. Here is a rough transcript of the ensuing conversation:

"May I ask why you're taking pictures?"

I resisted the urge to blurt out that it's the fucking the White House, only one of the most photographed buildings in the country... Instead, I said something to the effect of:

"Umm... I'm just an amateur photographer and felt like taking some pictures."

"What are the pictures for?"

Again, I resisted being a wise ass because, in her defense, she was actually being very nice. So I said:

"Nothing in particular. I'm just taking pictures. I can give you the website address where they will be tomorrow if you like."

She smiled warmly and asked if she could see my ID. I gave it to her. At this point, two other cars pulled over to see what was going on. She took my ID back to the car and, apparently, copied down some of the information, then handed it to another officer who was now with her. He walked over to me and said:

"Can I have your Social Security number?"

I am absolutely livid at this point but I hide it... So I responded: "I'd rather not. May I ask why?"

"So I can call it in and check" ... or something like that.

I gave in... and I'm still kicking myself for it.

So, he called it in and walked away momentarily. In the meantime, the woman was being especially nice saying something to the effect of:

"I'm sorry for holding you up and I appreciate your patience. You know, nowadays you can never be too sure."

I smiled but not as much as I did when this whole thing started... I guess part of me wanted to express my anger at being accosted for taking pictures of a tourist attraction.

A few minutes later, after the gentleman relayed my Social Security Number over the airwaves on a radio to someone, he gave me back my ID and thanked me, apparently now convinced that I was not Osama bin Laden.

A few minutes later after I felt that I was free to continue taking pictures, another Secret Service officer approached me and asked that I take down my tripod. I chatted with him briefly about possibly getting a permit to take pictures with a tripod (which is apparently possible) and I left.

What... the... hell... is... going... on?

Where is the real security benefit here? I'm sure Osama bin Laden is sitting in his cave somewhere saying:
"If only we could get pictures of the White House my master plan to defeat the infidels would be complete. And I don't mean just any photos... I mean nice photos... with a tripod and aperture and shutter speed set just right. Then the streets would run red with infidel blood."

What a crock of shit.

Freedom is on the march...