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Careful: The FB-eye may be watching
(Marc Schultz, Creative Loafing, July 17, 2003)
Reading the wrong thing in public can get you in trouble . . . Two FBI agents. They say you're not in trouble, they just want to talk. . . . You Marc Schultz?" asks the tall one. He shows me his badge, introduces himself as Special Agent Clay Trippi. After assuring me that I'm not in trouble, he asks if there is someplace we can sit down and talk. . . . "Were you at the Caribou Coffee on Powers Ferry?" . . . Then they ask if I carried anything into the shop -- and we're back to me. . . . My mind races. I think: a bomb? A knife? A balloon filled with narcotics? But no. I don't own any of those things. "Sunglasses," I say. "Maybe my cell phone?" . . . Not the right answer. I'm nervous now, wondering how I must look: average, mid-20s, unassuming retail employee. What could I have possibly been carrying? . . . Trippi's partner speaks up: "Any reading material? Papers?" . . . Then it occurs to me: I was reading. It was an article my dad had printed off the Web. I remember carrying it into Caribou with me, reading it in line, and then while stirring cream into my coffee. I remember bringing it with me to the store, finishing it before we opened. I can't remember what the article was about, but I'm sure it was some kind of left-wing editorial, the kind that never fails to incite me to anger and despair over the state of the country. . . . I tell them all this, but they want specifics: the title of the article, the author, some kind of synopsis, but I can't help them -- I read so much of this stuff. . . . To tell the truth, I'm kind of anxious to hear back from the FBI, if only for the chance to ask why anyone would find media criticism suspicious, or if maybe the sight of a dark, bearded man reading in public is itself enough to strike fear in the heart of a patriotic citizen. . . . "In this post-911 era, it is the absolute responsibility of the FBI to follow through on any tips of potential terrorist activity," Paris says. "Are people going to take exception and be inconvenienced by this at times? Oh, yeah. ... A certain amount of convenience is going to be offset by an increase in security." [Comment: If you haven't reread Nineteen Eighty Four recently, this would be a good time to do so. This news story is indistinguishable from the story about Big Brother's Thought Police.]

For a copy of the column that got Schultz in hot water, go to Weapons Of Mass Stupidity ... but be careful, Bush's Thought Police may be watching.

posted by LoZo 11:55 AM