The Secret Service and me

| September 4, 2011

I’ve been debating whether or not I wanted to tell this story because i didn’t want to seem to be an asshole with a problem towards authority figures, but I guess it needs to be told. i was at the President’s address to the American Legion Convention last Tuesday. When the national Commander began his introduction of the President, Mr. Wolf grabbed his camera and went to the front of the convention hall to take pictures. I knew two of us going to the front would probably put security on edge, so I stood up and walked six feet in front of our “bloggers’ row” table where I could get better shots with my telephoto lens.

I stood there for a minute or two snapping pictures of the prez from about twenty meters away when this Secret Service agent walked up to me and said “I can’t let you rush the stage”. I looked at him and saw his little Secret Service lapel pin and replied, “OK, I won’t”. He responded forcibly “Sir! I can’t let you rush the stage!” I replied that I wasn’t, I was standing fifty feet from the stage. he again said “Sir! I can’t let you rush the stage!”

All the while he was talking to me, other people were rushing the stage a foot or so behind him. I said “I don’t understand what you’re saying, but obviously, you want me to do something different than what I’m doing right now, so please tell me what you want me to do”. He said “Sir! I can’t let you rush the stage!”

It started sounding like South Park’s Uncle Jimbo saying “They’re coming right at us” right before he shoots animals, so I started paying more attention to his gun hand and I asked him his name. He toldme that I couldn’t stand six feet closer to the president than “blogger’s row” because I wasn’t “credentialed media” and that he stopped because he didn’t know who i was – hinting that now he knew who I am. Then I made my way back to my seat through the crowd that was rushing the stage.

The Secret Service agent came over to the blogger table and told me “You can take pictures”, I said “Excuse me?” and he repeated the statement. I replied “I know that, that’s why I couldn’t understand why you were being such a dick.”

He stood there looking at me for a minute turning redder while I kept my eyes on his gun hand. Then he lectured me on being “unprofessional”, but I wasn’t really listening, I was more interested in what his gun hand was doing and trying to type my post and listen to the president.

So that’s the whole story. If you think I was giving a LEO a hard time because I’m the dick, well, fine. I was doing my best to hold my temper because nothing makes me madder than security people who think that the most important part of their job is harassing innocent citizens to make it appear as if they’re doing their job.

If I had been rushing the stage, I would have understood his concern completely, but that wasn’t the case. If he had been telling me not to rush the stage, I would have understood that as well. But he was talking to someone in his earpiece making it appear as if I was trying to rush the stage despite his warning…and that was the last thing on my mind – that’s why I bought a telephoto lens on Monday to avoid the Secret Service.

Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have called him a dick, but it was the mildest term that was passing through my near-empty head at the time.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

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daendda

Don’t apologize for calling someone in this administration a dick.

ROS

Yeah, you probably shouldn’t have been a dick and called him a dick. 😀

That said, if you were 6′ in front of the row and he said he couldn’t let you closer than 6′ in front of the row, what was the problem?

Parachute Cutie

Ok, I “get it” that he didn’t know who you were (his loss, of course). But if you were STANDING (and not actively approaching) that far from the stage then he was A DICK!

DaveA

Jonn,

I agree with #1 daendda, never apologize for calling anyone that is a dick if in fact they are one. From the way it appears to me you were very professional and do not need to apologize for anything. I like the way you had your priorities straight, watching his gun hand.

The question is what you would have done had he pulled it. I know what I would have done, but…. that’s for another time. Good job, your postings from the convention were great.

Old Trooper

I think he knew you were at the HHC the Saturday before, so he might have been inclined to think you were a “security risk”. 🙂 It’s not like you brought Wilson with you or anything.

PintoNag

I think you have to have a clinical diagnosis of paranoia to work for the Secret Service.

I’ve been around the Secret Service twice when they were in their “official capacity.” I avoid them like the plague now. I’ve seen badgers that had more amenable dispositions.

Nev

There’s a reason they are known as the American SS.

Much like most modern “law enforcement” they are bullies with firearms and either do not know or do not care to know the law. Welcome to the future.

play nice

So what make and model handgun does the SS carry?

Arrow

#8 I will have to disagree completely with your comments. Perhaps it’s because my respect for the job they have to do rates right up there with the respect I have for our military and the job they have to do that generally goes unrecognized (until they need help) by an ungrateful citizenry. Those that serve in our military and in our law enforcement community and our first responders (I think most would agree) are a cut above the rest in their dedication to the principles our country was founded upon. It is more than unfortunate the individuals or units within the afore mentioned communities that screw up (ie The Guerena Killing)get all the attention.

DaveO

For someone paid to eat a bullet, being called a dick should be nothing. Did you get his name? Have you reported the behaviour to his superiors?

I know the SS works for Geithner and Treasury, but there may be someone with a working understanding of the job.

More to the point: consistent warnings against you rushing the stage hints at a setup to take down a blogger for the sake of intimidation. 2 Cool points!

NotSoOldMarine

re #11

The Secret Service moved to DHS after the Big Shuffle.

NotSoOldMarine

Sounds like he missed his communications PowerPoint. To be fair though constantly working crowds day after day after day in a high security environment with an ultra paranoid atmosphere can make you into a repetitive, uncaring dick hole. People stop being people and just become an irritant to your primary’s safety bubble. I’d imagine they’re also trained to disengage from conversation as swiftly as possible.

Toothless Dawg

If he quacks like a dick and walks like a dick, the dick is most likely a dick!!!

Go and sin no more, my son!!!

james

Don’t forget it was the DHS head who said that the lone wolfs and Timothy Mcveighs were the real danger. So there they were in the midst of trained killers! Oh I would have loved to have heard the pre-convention briefing by the White House person with this guys’ boss.

UpNorth

James, yeah, and I’d also like to see any memos this guy’s boss got from Janet Nappy. Seeing’s how vets are only one or two steps from joining a terrorist organization, or going off on their own.

Frankly Opinionated

JONN:
Perhaps he was envious of the You Tube coverage afforded the DC Park cop who body pressed Adam Kokesh. And you didn’t oblige him by making the same passes/moves at him.

PintoNag

And here’s a thought for ya: If Jonn HAD actually “rushed the stage,” I wonder how many Secret Service agents it would have taken to stop him?

I’m sure the same thought occurred to them. That could be why Agent Dick was in such a tither! 🙂

Old Trooper

Jonn in #6: Oh yeah, I forgot, I’m so cornfused! I don’t know; if TSO is throwing the clays, they aren’t safe, either. As for SS Johnny……..if he only knew how quick you could feign one direction and bolt to the other side, he would have brought more back up, especially with you sportin’ that telephoto lens on your camera 🙂

John11b

Well, it sounds like the guy was being a bit of a dick but in fairness he probobly deals with a lot dicks on a day to day basis and if i understood the article correctly it sounds like he attempted to make amends by coming to your table and saying you could take pictures–perhaps his way of saying he was wrong without actually admitting it. Way to be the bigger man by not posting his name and photo on here like so many other internet bloggers would do.

I am a law enforcement officer and it seems like almost every day someone demands my name and badge number because I didn’t smile wide enough when doing the officer friendly routine. Citizens complaints are a pain in the ass but fortunatly I audio record every encounter I have and it has saved my ass countless times. I am not a bully with a badge and niether are the majority of the people I work with. Most of my close work friends are combat vets and we have the utmost respect for individual liberties and individual rights. That being said, we have a job to do and usually when you end up having to talk to a cop its not going to be a happy moment for you and tempers will flair. I cut breaks whenever I can but with todays sue happy self righteous society I make a rule to never apologise to people–not because I don’t make mistakes but because if I do I will for sure be hearing about years later when I am being sued by the individual who now has my statement that I was wrong.

Like I said, this guy was probobly a dick, they come in every profession but as a whole, Law Enforment is not the enemy. Judging every cop by certain incidents (as horrible as they may be) would be like me judging all veterans based on Dan Choi’s actions or Nidal Hasan.

John D

Yeah- you shouldn’t a called him a “dick”- the ss doesn’t have dectectives….

UpNorth

Jonn, the Secret Service carries the Sig P229 in .357 or the FN 5.7×28.
John11B, nice reply, saved me from replying to nev, for one thing. Especially good point in the last paragraph.

PintoNag

Yes, John11B’s comments were excellent; however, this is OUR Jonn that got mistreated…at an American Legion conference!

THAT is totally unacceptable.

OldSoldier54

“…nothing makes me madder than security people who think that the most important part of their job is harassing innocent citizens to make it appear as if they’re doing their job. ”

I sum it up with the phrase,”Abuse of Authority.” NOTHING trips my trigger faster than some bozo in a position of authority with a Divine Right to Rule mentality.

Screw that dingle-berry.

DaveO

#21 John11B,

You’re fortunate that you record your interactions with citizens. Many folks have been harassed, jailed, and tried for recording their interaction with police, despire the courts saying such recordings are legal and constitutional.

Arrow

#12 John? This is Arrow @ #10 After reading your post @ #12 referring to my post @ #10 in reply to Nev @ # 8 I laughed out loud feeling like we were doing the Three Stooges Routine “Who’s On First?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M

Just to put the record straight. I started a reply to you after I replied to #8 but I got tired and had to go take a nap. 🙂 Part of that reply was to say I don’t think you are a dick for asking a reasonable question. I felt that the man was probably trying to apologize to you when he came back to the table but also felt your question to him was fair.

Ok, now I’m tired again and have to take another nap.

Peace out

Arrow

@ #27 strike Three Stooges enter Abbott and Costello

NHSparky

Jonn, yeah, calling someone a dick when they ARE being a dick isn’t always called for, but Jesus, you’d think these guys would have a bit of gray matter being used between their ears.

2-17AirCav

I distinctly recall in certain of my training (in the days before cell-phone cameras and, for that matter, cell phones)that in order to kick someone’s butt, we were advised to yell repeatedly, “Stop resisting arrest!”– even though there was no resistance. That way, in court, others could testify that they heard the stop resisting instruction and, voila!, the false conclusion is reached that the guy whose butt was kicked had in fact been resisting.

“Sir! I can’t let you rush the stage!” sounds like a version of that old tactic.

UpNorth

AirCav, it did, indeed, sound like the dick in question was doing just as you, and DaveO described it.
Like Sparky said, there oughta be something between the ears to intercept and process what they hear, and countermand the desire to be a dick.

Bubblehead Ray

A Rose by any other name….

Laughing Wolf

#30,AirCav, that was my first thought too given some training in my past. It really sounded like he was either doing that, or realized he was out of bounds, and froze in a loop. Either way, when he went off on Jonn about professionalism he was way outside official SS SOP on how they are supposed to handle things.

The dick in question is either in way over his head, or needs a nice long vacation to get it together. Either way, he was a dick and doesn’t need to be in that job, IMO.

NHSparky

The dick in question is either in way over his head, or needs a nice long vacation to get it together. Either way, he was a dick and doesn’t need to be in that job, IMO.

You talking about the SS guy or Obama, Wolf? If you’re speaking of the latter, I’d say he’s had enough vacations, don’t you?

USMC Steve

Obama should stay on vacation. He can do less damage that way. Otherwise he will be out campaigning. That motherfucker hasn’t done the presidential thing since he got elected.

Laughing Wolf

NH Sparky: The SS member. Though, the in over his head part and the doesn’t need to be in that job fits both.