An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
FORE!
Port Officials Use DHS Anti-Terror Cameras to Stop Golf Ball Bombardment
Golf balls are bombarding the Port of Everett and anti-terrorism cameras are being trained on a residential neighborhood to hunt down the source.
Port officials believe someone on Rucker Hill is whacking golf balls down the hill onto port property, endangering dozens of workers and millions of dollars worth of equipment and cargo.
Ok, this is probably not a good idea. Putting folks in danger isn’t exactly very bright.
“We’re trying to use any means possible to stop it, aside from posting somebody in the field of fire all day and night,” said Ed Madura, a port security official.
The port says the flying golf balls constitute a threat to personal safety. Pointing video surveillance cameras toward the likely source is an appropriate use of the equipment, port officials say.
In the eyes of at least one resident in the Rucker Hill neighborhood southwest of downtown, swiveling the cameras from the fence line to the neighborhood is an invasion of privacy.
Now, if they are turning the cameras on a private residence, I have issues. If they are watching the port, this is probably a good idea, considering the crap going on.
“Hitting golf balls is a problem, but if they turn their cameras up on the neighborhood and spy on us, that’s a bigger problem,” said David Mascarenas, a neighborhood watchdog who has for years fought the port to improve the community’s access to public land.
The cameras were paid for, along with fencing and other security equipment, with $2.3 million in grants from the Department of Homeland Security following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Now, I know that we need security on our ports, but why aren’t they spending money on our borders? I’d say odds are, there is a LOT more to worry about coming across the border, especially the SOUTHERN one, than there is in the ports right now. Actually, BOTH are extremely important, but I’d like to see the invasion stopped.
Before the attacks, the Everett port had open terminals and only minimal security. People who live in the surrounding neighborhoods often would walk down and drop crab pots off piers that are now blocked by tall cyclone fences topped with razor wire.
Let me get this straight…..all this security, paid for by the taxpayers, is preventing those same taxpayers from making use of their own waters? Oh wait a minute….I forgot….we don’t have any right to the water anymore, and if Feingold gets his way, we won’t have any right to the puddles in our own front yards from a rain storm. Hmmm….
“It’s been going on for a while, but it’s been getting a lot worse the last couple of days,” port spokeswoman Lisa Lefeber said.
I guess the folks are getting more pissed off, OR….someone is a really crappy golfer and is trying to improve their swing by aiming at the cameras?
