I have been asked by Phil to post my encounter with SCPD on the afternoon of 4/14. I was shooting in the Washington Mutual Bank parking lot from approx 4pm to 5:30pm or so when a cruiser pulled up. I am going to post my original thread from airliners.net. It is pretty much self-explanatory. There may be a little confusion as to the sentence about my car being searched. SCPD never entered my car. I meant that they got back in one of their cruisers after one of them inspected my car from the outside. One of the things that you really have to pay notice to is how these police behaved. Not very professional at all. I loved the threats at the end of my tint. A typical Gestapo tactic. I should have told her to write me the ticket but I didn't stoop to her level.
Here it is.
Yet again!
I got off early today and noticed the sky was absolutely beautiful and clear and decided to head to ISP for a quick spotting session. I decided on the Washington Mutual Bank parking lot on the corner of Lakeland and Vet's Highway. Got there about 3:30 and spent two hours spotting and getting pics. Then not surprisingly a SCPD cruiser comes right up to me. A male and female Officer come up to me and start giving me the ol' "After 9/11 what you are doing is illegal" Where I reply that they are mistaken. She gets real mad and they start right in with the Gestapo tactics. Who are you, why do you do this blah blah blah! I then decide it's time to drop my cousins name who is a Captain with the SCPD. The male Officer who was obviously the senior training Officer tells me he knows him and all of a sudden their tones change. The girl is still pissed that I called her bull**** and asks for my ID. I give it to her and then I start talking to the other Officer again who turns out to be a pilot with 60 hours on fixed wing he also says he has heard of this site. Then another cruiser pulls up with another guy who has a really bad attitude and asks me for all this info including my SS#, which I tell him he is not getting. He looks at me but I stand my ground and tell him I don't give that out because their is no need to since I am not a criminal and what I am doing is not illegal, he backs down and then goes over to my car which he inspects and then gets in the car with the girl who is doing God knows what. I then get asked for my occupation and work address and #, which I give. Then the cool guy says I am right that what I am doing is not illegal but that the TSA "Frowns upon such things" Well hell a lot of people "Frown upon" a lot of things. Doesn't make them wrong or illegal. Then he gets in the car and the girl comes out and gives me my ID and asks me why my car doesn't have a front license plate. I make up this story that a car nosed into a parking spot and broke the bracket and I am waiting for the part from the dealer. She buys it and then tells me the other Officer noticed my tint is too dark (Like I care) More Gestapo tactics. (Threats) Since the sun was getting low and I had snapped about 125 pics and saw a good amount of planes for a last minute spotting trip I decided not to press the issue and got in my car and left.
I just hope my fellow spotters and photographers continue to stand up to this. I am getting tired of this treatment but I love to take pictures and I love planes so I am not going to stop going there or any other airport.
Keep up the fight!
If you would like to view the whole thread here is the link.
http://www.airliners.net/discussions/av ... in/176333/
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