Mercurial

Welcome to the USSA! Videotaping is considered terrorism! Get your Charlotte Skyline tapes here!
Kamran Shaikh, illegally in the country after being denied asylum, goes around making videos and is promptly nabbed as a terrorist. One whole month passes and suddenly we hear about it, of course, in the middle of a Bush dip in popularity.

Various things here are troubling:

• This guy was imprisoned for a month, and in none of the press releases do they mention his attorney. Most likely, he doesn't have one.


• Police officer that made the arrest, obviously focusing on the dark appearance of the guy, and let's not talk about racial profiling in Charlotte NC.


• Suspicious behavior! He is undocumented, obviously he is wary of the police!


• What the fucking hell is suspicious about videotaping PUBLIC landmarks? Bank of America building is part of the skyline! It is public! It is there to be admired, photographed and yes, videotaped!


• Arabic commentary - and he ought to be talking what, English, for his family?


• He has other videos, taken over the years. Ah, that means that he likes tall buildings. Big deal. So, should we all that had videos and photos of the twin towers return these as well? He kept those videos - further confirming that that, indeed, is his passion.

The Legal Handbook for Photographers states that

Alas, if you are poor, undocumented and of certain nationality, basically you are fucked, because no matter what rights might there be for citizens, these do not apply at all for dark poor foreigners with denied asylum applications. Hell, he could have been a citizen and it wouldn't have mattered.

This used to be a nice, free, expressive country. As of lately it has turned into a gulag, a fearful and repressed jail full of snitches and bullies.