OK man I tried being empathetic with you so you could see I wasn't attacking what you said, but that pretty much ends with you calling me out and describing what I said as ridiculous.Where was the outrage when Sergio and a group of local spotters got a much worse encounter at EWR and even had their CF cards confiscated? If I remember correctly I advised filing a complaint against the officer which was rebuffed by Phil if I am not mistaken. If you are going to come on with this macho bravado threatening action then do it. If not, spare us. If you want to go down that road be prepared for pushback. Big time.
The ball's in their court as far as I'm concerned, all they have to do is play that hand with me and what you read will happen. Your taunts sure as hell won't get me to do it. And it's not like this is new. I dealt with the PA about this before '9/11' was a buzzword, and they were treating spotters like sh*t back then too. Only reason I haven't raised hell yet is because I haven't had to- unlike you I know how to talk to people without being insulting, so all of my encounters with authorities have been smoother than a baby's ass. Once someone pulls a power play for no reason, it all changes and you'll get to read all about it. I agree that this situation was an anomaly and that people don't need to be going off every time the cops roll up. But it's a mistake to think we just need to 'make and keep contacts', if that were something that worked then it would have worked by now. Somebody here by now would have said "You know what, I know a guy, let me talk to him about this and see what we can do..." Phil has made a lot of effort to bridge this gap and as he says it hasn't really materialized in something that could benefit us.
You think that complaining about your rights being trampled on and demanding some sort of accountability for that behavior should be avoided because it risks a prime spotting location? WTF? I'll say it again: the parking garages were never 'ours' to do what we wished with. They are airport property and if you're asked to leave you do so with no bs.
I don't have to 'spare' anybody jack. If you don't like hearing an opinion different than yours that's fine by me, but not everyone wants to live their lives like you do, keeping your head in the sand while your rights slowly disappear. This is only a free country because of the rivers of blood that have been spilled to make it that way. That won't be for nothing. I'll be damned if I'm just going to roll over and allow myself to be treated like a terrorist when I'm trying to live my life. I don't get what's so hard to understand about it. You can feel free to establish your contacts and see how that works. This has nothing to do with 'macho bravado'; bravado is putting your life on the line to protect the US, its citizens, and their rights. All I'm talking about is enjoying the rights granted to me as a US citizen. I'm not brave, I'm just not stupid and I don't suffer fools easily.
As far as Sergio's situation was concerned, I'm sorry if I didn't formally say it before, but here goes: "The police do not have the right to take your memory card if you have not committed a crime, and they were clearly abusive towards this group of spotters, and a complaint should be filed". There, does that make you happy?
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