Skywarn are mostly crazy ham radio operators who climb on their roofs when sane people are going down into their basements. Before modern doppler radars their sightings were the primary source for tornado warnings.
Posted on 10/08/2012 8:42:36 AM PDT by Altariel
A man who snapped photos of a brewing storm last month received a visit Friday from an FBI Agent, inquiring why he would want to take such photos.
Michael Galindo explained that he was simply volunteering for the National Weather Service.
And FBI Agent David Pileggi seemed to be satisfied with that response.
But Galindo was left wondering whether he now has a permanent FBI file.
“He told me, ‘you’re not a threat and you are doing a public service but just be careful next time,’” Galindo said in a telephone interview with Photography is Not a Crime.
The problem arose because Galindo happened to be taking photos near the Lyondell Refinery outside of Houston on September 13, even though he was never standing on the refinery’s property.
Someone from the refinery spotted him and called police, whom apparently arrived after he had left.
Police then contacted the local FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, which bills itself as “nation’s front line on terrorism.”
“I was pretty freaked out when he came but I had no idea what it was about,” said the 26-year-old man. “The worst thing I’ve done is get speeding tickets, but I haven’t gotten one in three years.
“He said I was spotted near the refinery but I couldn’t even remember doing that. I thought it had to be somebody else.
“It wasn’t until he mentioned my camera that I made the connection.”
Galindo told the agent that he volunteers for a NWS program called Skywarn that trains citizens to monitor the weather in the name of “protecting lives and property.”
He said when he pulled off to the side of the road and began taking photos of a brewing storm and potential tornados, he didn’t even notice the refinery, but made sure there weren’t any “no parking” signs around.
“I told him I had been looking for a clear line of site and I had found it,” he said.
Although Pileggi seemed a little surprised by that response, he pulled out a three-page document and began asking questions off it, inquiring whether Galindo had ever been in the military or had ever traveled overseas and about what schools he had attended in the past.
“I wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything,” Galindo said.
The 20-minute visit took place less than a week after a scathing report was released on the inefficiency and ineptitude on urban fusion centers, such as the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Homeland Security Bureau, which was monitoring my Facebook page because of my blog, as well as the Houston fusion center, which produced a video depicting photographers as terrorists.
Joint Terrorism Task Forces are a little different than fusion centers but they both operate under the Department of Homeland Security and are under the assumption photographers are terrorists.
Good to see our federal bozos are on the case...
For any of you who might have thought that the US population today is any different from the German population of the early 40s: Here we have citizens turning in a fellow citizen to the feebs much as germans would turn in jew the the gestapo. HE WAS TAKING PICTURES!!!
Ah, the KGB is alive and well. They just found a new home in the USA.
Anyone feel safer yet?
Skywarn are mostly crazy ham radio operators who climb on their roofs when sane people are going down into their basements. Before modern doppler radars their sightings were the primary source for tornado warnings.
For any of you who might have thought that the US population today is any different from the German population of the early 40s: Here we have citizens turning in a fellow citizen to the feebs much as germans would turn in jew the the gestapo. HE WAS TAKING PICTURES!!!
I agree with you. Unfortunately many on this site and elsewhere would be screaming to the treetops and beyond if this refinery was the target of an terrorist attack and the failure to interview this gentleman would have stopped it from occurring.
It’s a Catch-22 world we live in today.
Meanwhile BO is releasing confirmed enemy combatants and terrorists from jail.
For those familiar with usenet, there’s a group “alt.binaries.pictures.weather” that’s still somewhat active.
FBI, TSA, DEA, ATF, etc... = GESTAPO.
There here
I am an advanced trained weather spotter for our local Amateur Radio Skywarn program and I will share this article with others in the group.
How do you access these usnet groups?
yet you can go to google earth and get an aerial view of all the refinery’s in Houston.
I'm a photographer, As long as you are on public property and the thing or person you are photographing is visible, you can take all the photos you like. The only exception is using a long lens to invade privacy. Like seeing into someones home.
And the lesson transmitted was to submit. Comply. What would have happened has the photographer told the agent to leave and not come back without a warrant and asserted his rights not to answer questions without an attorney present?
The Weather is Copyright Gannett Corp. 2012.
All Rights Reserved. Any depiction of the storms,
winds, hail and destruction without Express Written
Consent is strictly prohibited.
Righthaven LLC reserves the right to rough-up offending photographers.
Several years ago I stopped on a snow covered bridge on Hwy 412 near Ft Supply Oklahoma to take a photo of the ice covered river.
I barely got out of my truck when a law enforcement officer pulled up and began to grill me on ...”Why have you stopped on this bridge! Didn’t you see that prison there! Move on!”
I simply said, “just as soon as I get my picture”. I then snapped a few photos of the frozen river, then got in and left.
There just to the west of the river was a new prison next to the highway, and on the hills to the north lots of wind farms.
http://www.usenetbinaries.com/groups/alt.binaries.pictures.weather/2012/08/08/h/1.html
_______________________________________
Bit long winded, but that’s the proper web address
We only tell you what you need to know.
“Comrade citizen, your behavior is potentially concerning to The State-—after all, We are the only ones authorized to take pictures of you and others at every traffic light, mall, public place and school without your permission. Your ‘freedom-loving’ behavior is suspicious, and will be noted.
All hail President Messiah, comrade!-—and we’re watching you.”
I’m glad he did not interfere when you took your pictures. Once upon a time, he would likely have had a friendly chat with you, and not confronted you.
The kids growing up today will, by and large, view this as “normal”. Most of the elementary aged kids were all either infants or born after 9/11.
They will be less likely to bat an eye at this development than you or I.
I pray we can turn the tide before it is their turn to take the helm.
If someone wanted a pix of the Lyondel Refinery, they could lift one from the PR dept’s web page.
There is a price to pay for freedom. I argued something like this with some moronic woman on this site several months ago regarding gun control and people. The argument went something like this
Me: You can't prevent basic freedoms from being exercised because you think someone MIGHT abuse them.
Her: You must have spent time in a mental institution because you don't want background checks before gun purchases.
Me: A right that requires government permission to exercise is NOT a right. It's simply a privilege granted by the government that can be taken away at any time. Go hide under your bed and have a good cry.
The discussion really didn't ever get anywhere. The same with taking pictures. There really isn't any statistically valid evidence that people who take picture are terrorists, or we'd all be terrorists. Sending the federal SS after some guy who was taking pictures is very disturbing to me.
The photographer's anwer should have been: am I being charged with a crime? If yes, then I want a lawyer, and if no I don't have to talk to you.
Every person in the USA should watch the excellent Don't talk to cops once a year.
I wonder how they found him. Someone got his license plate?
Freegards
I grew up in San Francisco and although there are quite a few RR tracks close to the bay along the eastern side of the peninsula, north of Hunter's Point,(huge Naval Shipyard) we city kids never got anywhere near that area. Usually. A couple of us decided one day to take our cameras (brownies.) and took our bikes over there to get pictures of locomotives going by. It was a different age then (for me, that was across town.) Three speed bikes.
After an hour of wandering through the RR yards, there were no fences that I can recall, and actually getting pics of a few locomotives, here comes a jeep with two armed MPs...
We must have been all of 12 at the time.
Yeah. Our Federal Bozos have been on the case a long time. I doubt, however, if we ever got a report in some file. As I recall, we had no ID of any kind in those days. They asked us a few questions, said "You aren't supposed to be here. SHOO!"
And that was the end of it.
Post 911, it's a different universe. I feel paranoid now when visiting large cities, simple taking photos of famous landmarks. Thanks to the koranimals. Every time I've taken a picture since then (never knowing what's in the background) I pause and silently curse the political decision to allow the primitive killer cult to redefine our entire lives.
You can’t look at a radar display, even the modern doppler
one and point at a spot and say “here is a tornado”. Thats
why they still need trained observers. I’ve never climbed
up on my roof, but I have drove to higher ground for a better
field of view.
Mike
N8KAH
The eyes cannot trespass.
Boyd v. United States
However it doesn’t mean you can’t be scrutinized.
But unfortunately today’s law enforcement has a sense of entitlement to go very deep into the gray areas and there is little we can do about it because of both official and unofficial blanket immunity.
I think we need law enforcement gun control.
“A man who snapped photos of a brewing storm last month received a visit Friday from an FBI Agent, inquiring why he would want to take such photos.”
Don't ever freak out. No point. It's not so much what one doesn't know that will get one in trouble and lead to a massive waste of time at incredible expense, it's what you know that isn't so.
You will not properly use profiling to talk to the individuals you should be talking to and waste our taxpayer dollars talking to those you should leave alone. The entire government has become a joke, striking out here and there against imagined enemies while the real enemies either sit down and eat meals with their intended victims or waltz around in plain sight unimpeded in their missions.
Your ISP may provide one, or you'll have to find a free or pay service.
Most of the free ones don't carry or allow binaries, or only sample binary postings, or may not allow posting.
Mostly of our own making.
Foreign-born muslims found here illegally should be deported within 24 hours. Note I did not say "internment camps," torture or Gitmo.
Unless, of course, it's a second or third violation of our immigration and public security laws. Then nothing is too "unreasonable" or severe.
Koranimals who have already done harm to American property or citizens --- swift prosecution, trial and excution.
Formerly, there was no debate about how to treat foreign soldiers infiltrating as civilians. Those have always been treated as spies. The penalty for military spies has always been, universally, death.
Ha ha ha. I get it.
My wife and I were discussing that the other day.
In a martial law type situation you would be wise to realize that a sickening number of your neighbors would turn you in to DHS in a heartbeat to get extra favors like ration coupons, etc.
They would also do it to settle petty grievances.
Yes, some of your neighbors will be your enemy when the SHTF. Guaranteed.
A whats the frequency Kennith moment.
I’d have to tell the guy, I hate to be a prick, but I’m not answering any questions.
There is a profound difference between knowing history and understanding it. The documented development of Nazi Germany clearly shows a totally internal domestic system of control against its own people. They didn't have thousands of foreign soldiers disguised as civilians wandering among them.
The same is true of Japanese in Hawaii.
Since Kodak is no longer with us, it is impossible to tell how many trillions of photos are taken in the United States annually.
Strangely, you made me stop and think. Have I ever even thought about dropping a dime on a picture taker because he looked middle eastern? No. I am certain of that. Would I under suspicious circumstances? Sure. But as a lifelong amateur photographer wandering among crowds in many countries of the western world, I would hope I would never allow paranoia to kick in, certainly not in my own country.
Would I ever drop a dime on a neighbor? No. Even if he was an Eastern European and rabid as Osama, I would give him the benefit of the doubt, unless he gave me reason to think otherwise, by word or deed. I can only thing of one such example, from decades ago. Long before the current waves of koranimal mayhem and murder.
Behavior by the government, indiscriminately, is a whole other subject altogether.
I was wonder that too. If the local cops had a plate number they could have handled this themselves.
It is not an "either / or" issue. This particular incident aside, a WHOLE LOT of what is being done is not to the benefit of security. It's a combination of gross incompetence as well as a deliberate effort to intimidate the American citizenry.
I often wonder if any improvement in our "security" isn't simply an incidental byproduct of this intimidation of the US populace.
Taking Pictures of any power lines or generators is a big No No.
I don’t think there is a law but it all gets reported to DHS.
Or just out of general malice. Think about home owners' associations and the malicious busybodies in those who go around turning others in because of flagpoles, fences, etc.
In my neighborhood there are a couple of a**hole busybodies (retired) who go walk around a couple of times every week looking for things to turn people in about. Captured one of them on my surveilance camera looking in my garage. I didn't say anything, but now I know whose lawn on which to dispose of any waste oil that I might accumulate while working on my car.
Reluctantly, I have to include this headline among the egregiously misleading and childish headlines, purposely done so by an adult child.
The first such headline that started the collection, was from a number of years ago, and it was : Woman Is Arrested and Jailed for Petting dog.
The huge blind spot in the reasoning ability of a large segment of our adult population, can only be described as mind-boggling.
Think Cindy Dheehan...
But not ICE. ICE can't find an illegal alien in a Mexican protest parade or sitting on the curb of a Home Depot.
A little daily hyperbole is relatively harmless.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.