I don’t usually write these spotter blotters, but yesterday while spotting at Costco we had a police encounter that was very interesting.. I will not mention any names but I was spotting for a few hours along with a few other guys. Around 5:30 two Nassau County Police show up and start with usual “what are you doing?” “ You should not be taking pictures of planes at this time”. They go on to take are Id’s and check us out. Before I continue let me just say that there where many different ethnic groups represented out on Sunday Afternoon. After about 5 minutes one of the officers calls out my name and I walk on over. He begins by asking if I had ever been checked out before. I say of course and then he asked if I know the guys that I am spotting with. If I had ever met them before. He says something like can you trust these guys, are you sure you know who you are out here with and so on. I go on to tell him that we know each other from Online websites and that I had meet some of these guys in person before. Then he gives me “Do you know what is going on in Iran?” “You just don’t care what’s going on”. After a few more minutes of this I tried to explain what we were doing there gave him a nycaviation post card which he kept by the way and then he told me to wait by my car. After lets say another 10-15 minutes they return our ID’s but with a whole new attitude. Ready for this “Sorry to Inconvenience you and have a good afternoon”. I know everything turned out ok but the whole incident just didn’t sit right with me. Racial Profiling at it worst.
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