watch your camera [2]: you might be a terrorist
reported in the boston globe…
Sikh student detained by Secret Service [boston globe, july 30, 2004]A Boston College student leader who wears a turban and full beard in accord with his Sikh religion says he was detained and interrogated for seven hours Saturday night by Secret Service agents for doing nothing more than taking photographs of the campus.
…
Boston College officials said they are giving [Sundeep] Sahni their full support and are attempting to arrange a meeting between the student and the Secret Service.
“We want to arrange a conversation, which we hope will result in an apology,” said Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn.
A Secret Service spokesman, however, said there will be no such meeting or apology.
“During the course of the DNC, law enforcement is in a heightened state of awareness in response to suspicious activity,” Secret Service spokesman Charles Bopp said. “He [Sahni] was interviewed, and our security concerns were addressed. The case is closed. There are no charges; there is no further investigation.”
according to his resume, he knows linux and macromedia so maybe that’s the terrorist angle.
i guess i just keep coming back to this… we’re never going to make much progress in this “war on terror” if we can’t face up to our own mistakes. what’s the downside of apologizing for ruining someone’s day? we’re supposed to be better than this.
sundeep – on behalf of the secret service, that is acting in my name as an american, i apologize.
oh, and by the way, if that’s a picture of sundeep’s turban, there is no way to fit an uzi in there.
update: also covered at brown equals terrorist.