On Friday, I saw a "Homeland Security - Federal Police" van.

[Maat]

I'm 48 (just shy of a half-century), and a law school graduate ('04). I was just stunned. In my day, I've seen "U.S. Border Patrol" and "Federal Bureau of Investigation;" but the Feds were always very careful not to use the term, "Federal Police." There is was, though, plain as day: a Ford Expedition with "POLICE" on the back, "Department of Homeland Security" and "Federal Police" on the side.

Now, I've worked with police as a social worker (for years - I'm now retired), and as a paralegal/law-clerk. I've had them as friends for years; but I had this difficult-to-control urge to just give him the finger! That would have been a funny sight since I look like a little ol' lady with glasses, but he just looked like the Gestapo (things just seemed so FASCIST or TOTALITARIAN then).

My husband only wanted to know, "Was he following YOU?" No, he wasn't.

On edit:
I resisted the urge to be mean; the guy was probably just doing his job. But it is aggravating law enforcement is being so blantant about this "Big Brother is Monitoring You" thing.

[Nikki Stone1]

1. kick

:kick:

[onehandle]

2. I saw one illegally parked at a Starbucks here in Atlanta two weeks ago.

I saw another one riding around in the same area a few weeks before that.

Didn't get a look at the occupants either time.

It was unsettling. Just like Rove/Cheney/Gonzales/Bush likes it.

[Maat]

3. I agree - I found this article on the internet about a veteran being confronted by a DHS employee.

******************Quote*****************
http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A158729

Dwight Scarbrough's idea of political dissent is one that rubs some people the wrong way. He likes to blame his compulsion for peaceful troublemaking on his birthday: October 2, the same as Ghandi. However, a few of Scarbrough's techniques are all his own--especially when it comes to his truck.

For instance, when the Iraq War was looking imminent, not long after September 11, Dwight attached a garbage bag to the back of his truck bed. He splattered the bag and the truck with ketchup and added a sign reading, "This veteran knows that our children are worth more than a $6.95 body bag." When he drove down the freeway, the bag would inflate and appear occupied.

... (snip)

If you're unfamiliar with the Boise office of the Federal Department of Homeland Security, you're not alone. There's not a listing for it in the most recent federal government listings in the local phonebook. The representative from Idaho State Bureau of Homeland Security, located at the Gowen Field Air National Guard Base behind the Boise Airport, hadn't even heard there was an office when I contacted him. Neither had the receptionist at the local U.S. Marshal's office, though she was able to track down a number for the local office of the Federal Protective Service, the section of DHS in charge of protecting federally owned and leased facilities, after putting me on hold for a few minutes (It's [phone], in case you're curious. Your taxes fund it, after all.).

I was only able to confirm the location of the office after asking the security officer at the Natural Resource Complex, whose job (ostensibly, at least) it is to enforce the rules concerning pamphlets, dogs and other controlled substances on federal property. He would not comment about the incident, saying, "If this is about what I think it's about, I'm not allowed to say nothing." He referred me to "FPS, Federal Courthouse, Department of Homeland Security," to find someone who would be able to comment. When I asked who I should say referred me, he covered his nameplate with his hand.
**************Quote***************

[Maat]

4. I should add that I'm out here in SoCal - inland -in the Murrieta/Temecula Valley.

I'm about one hour north of San Diego (inland).

Where do you live?

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Do you ever see them in an unmarked large white pick-up truck

with illegally tinted windows?

Last week I was coming from the hardware store and one of the boards I had slid on the inside of the car slipped and pressed down on the window button. My automatic window opened on the passenger side and I thought it was best to make the next right-hand turn to check to see it didn't somehow unlock the door too. Well, I turned into a very small subdivision and I was about to turn around when I heard the honking of a horn. I looked in my rear-view window and there was a white pick-up truck, which had almost come to a standstill on the road I had just turned off. It must have been one or two cars behind me on the main road, and now it was bottlenecking the traffic behind it. I haven't seen it before, nor have I seen it since.

[Little Wing]

6. I saw a HS bus the other day, windows all whited out

[countingbluecars]

7. I saw one parked at my polling place

in November. My logical brain said that the driver was just voting, but it creeped me out just the same.

[Canuckistanian]

8. They're the "Federales"

They don't need no steenkin' badges.

[EFerrari]

9. Maat, what kind of vehicle was it?

So I can be sure to smile and wave.

[Maat]

13. Big white Ford Expedition!

Sorry I'm late responding!

:hi:

[EFerrari]

19. S'okay! Thank you.

:hi:

[SNAKE MAN]

10. They also have some white Crown Vics

Also they have a office just outside of town. Its on 79N up by the French Valley Airport. Plus they hang out at the Murrietta Police dept.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi SNAKE MAN!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Maat]

15. Sweet ...

couldn't be hanging around with a more like-minded bunch of guys, I guess.

Welcome to DU!

Are these guys basically 'Border Patrol,' or have they been elevated to 'Gestapo' level?

[GoneOffShore]

12. They're all over Philly -

I love the the cars with the sign of the side that says "Mint Police".

[maveric]

14. I work by the Mexican border and see them every day.

I'd feel more comfortable seeing "Border Patrol" written on them than "Homeland Security".

[Maat]

17. Me, too.

I was thinking along those lines.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Perhaps a cancer patient was smoking a joint to ease the chemo nausea.

SWAT TEAM! STAT!

[Maat]

18. If only you knew how well you ...

understand Murrieta, California society. We're in the middle of the reddest part of the blue state, with more hardright, rigid, ultra-conservative, theocratic churches per capita than anywhere else (or maybe it just seems that way to me).

Honestly, the progressives around here are too scared to put one of the typical progressive bumperstickers on our cars. You'd return to find both the car and the sticker destroyed.

We hang out with progressives from Riverside and San Diego just to get some numbers together.