What a day we had yesterday here in the Big Easy. We started out early to get some flicks and talk with some folks down in the hardest hit areas of New Orleans as the conference had numerous events we wanted to check out throughout the midmorning and afternoon.
We jumped into the rental car and took off towards the canal so we could "tour" the Lower 9th Ward and St Bernard Parish but before we even made it out of the French Quarter, we had our first run-in with New Orleans' finest. It was actually more like New Orleans' slobbiest, as the "officer" had what appeared to be egg, cheese and bread crumbs stuck to his face and beard stubble and a large and unsightly orange stain on the front of his uniform.
It seems he took great umbrage that we made a turn into a McDonald's parking lot by driving approximately 20 feet down a one way street to the entry point. We were sitting in the drive through lane when he came up alongside us, clearly enraged, and began shouting that if he saw me "recklessly driving" again he would "haul my ass to jail." I sat there stunned for a moment, then realized that this poor cop probably had to deal with enough lunacy in the past year or two to last him a lifetime, so rather than escalate an already bad situation by informing him that I hadn't had a ticket in 20 years, was a certified defensive driver with the National Highway Safety Administration and was not driving recklessly at all but extremely carefully, since the planners of the driveways had strangely placed the entrance to the store 20 feet from the intersection instead of on the side street, I erred on the side of caution and simply agreed with him.
Invigorated with our first taste of "interpersonal
communication" with a genuine "local," we proceeded on down Rampart St towards the Lower 9th. We shot a number of pics, but there's really not much to tell. We've all seen the pictures and video, we've all heard the stories, we've all watched in horror at the incompetent and at times inane efforts of our government to cover up their utter ineptness in addressing the situation here, so taking a few pics just doesn't begin to cover the immensity and scope of just what did occur here. Frankly, the destruction and abandoned homes all began to blur together and started looking remarkably similar to one another; so much so that it seemed pointless to continue taking pictures.
That all changed when we came across a rather large FEMA trailer park situated across the street from a stinking monstrosity of an oil refinery.
I got out of the car and began filming the trailer park by walking down a public street that ran between two lots of trailers (I'll get it uploaded to YouTube next week some time) and as I turned around to walk back, I noticed the refinery.
I then began filming the distance to the refinery, narrating the issue of the placement of the poor and the lower classes in the "least desirable real estate" locations. We drove up the road a little further and I stopped, took a couple of pictures of the Sheriff department's amphibious vehicles, then turned the camera across the street and snapped another two or three pics of the refinery's mass of pipes and oily discharge on the ground.
Apparently this is where we made our mistake.
We drove up the street, discovered it was a road to a ferry terminus and turned around. We didn't get more than a few yards when we were flagged down by a man in a nondescript white pickup truck, who proceeded to radio someone else that was apparently interested in what we were photographing. We of course cooperated fully and were sent down the road another 500-1000 feet where men who very closely resembled the kinds of guys you often see when images of mercenary forces are described waited for us.
The federal agent was as nice as he could be but informed us that taking pictures of the refinery was a big no no, what with the post 911 environment and all. Didn't matter if you were driving past it on a public roadway and the entire structure was plainly visible from said public roadway. Apparently, after 911, the taking of pictures of a federal piece of property was made verboten......errrr, forbidden.
"Wow" said we, "we had no idea that our Constitution and Bill of Rights had been so gutted and trampled upon, fine sir. Please allow us to delete these two or three pictures while in your
presence so that we may avoid a trip to Guantanamo, oh great and all powerful Gestap.....errr federal officer."
We deleted said pics in front of the refinery goon squad, then proceeded on our now very uneasy way.
The rest of the excursion was for all intents and purposes uneventful. Disillusioned and clearly fearful of further "police/authority contact," we decided to return the car and stay in the French Quarter, where all we would have to deal with was the occasional
vampire hunter - Renee and his trusty dog Sarah - and some simple theft problems that could probably be avoided with a little common sense - and a better locking system....
communication" with a genuine "local," we proceeded on down Rampart St towards the Lower 9th. We shot a number of pics, but there's really not much to tell. We've all seen the pictures and video, we've all heard the stories, we've all watched in horror at the incompetent and at times inane efforts of our government to cover up their utter ineptness in addressing the situation here, so taking a few pics just doesn't begin to cover the immensity and scope of just what did occur here. Frankly, the destruction and abandoned homes all began to blur together and started looking remarkably similar to one another; so much so that it seemed pointless to continue taking pictures.
That all changed when we came across a rather large FEMA trailer park situated across the street from a stinking monstrosity of an oil refinery.
I got out of the car and began filming the trailer park by walking down a public street that ran between two lots of trailers (I'll get it uploaded to YouTube next week some time) and as I turned around to walk back, I noticed the refinery.
I then began filming the distance to the refinery, narrating the issue of the placement of the poor and the lower classes in the "least desirable real estate" locations. We drove up the road a little further and I stopped, took a couple of pictures of the Sheriff department's amphibious vehicles, then turned the camera across the street and snapped another two or three pics of the refinery's mass of pipes and oily discharge on the ground.
Apparently this is where we made our mistake.
We drove up the street, discovered it was a road to a ferry terminus and turned around. We didn't get more than a few yards when we were flagged down by a man in a nondescript white pickup truck, who proceeded to radio someone else that was apparently interested in what we were photographing. We of course cooperated fully and were sent down the road another 500-1000 feet where men who very closely resembled the kinds of guys you often see when images of mercenary forces are described waited for us.
The federal agent was as nice as he could be but informed us that taking pictures of the refinery was a big no no, what with the post 911 environment and all. Didn't matter if you were driving past it on a public roadway and the entire structure was plainly visible from said public roadway. Apparently, after 911, the taking of pictures of a federal piece of property was made verboten......errrr, forbidden.
"Wow" said we, "we had no idea that our Constitution and Bill of Rights had been so gutted and trampled upon, fine sir. Please allow us to delete these two or three pictures while in your
presence so that we may avoid a trip to Guantanamo, oh great and all powerful Gestap.....errr federal officer."
We deleted said pics in front of the refinery goon squad, then proceeded on our now very uneasy way.
The rest of the excursion was for all intents and purposes uneventful. Disillusioned and clearly fearful of further "police/authority contact," we decided to return the car and stay in the French Quarter, where all we would have to deal with was the occasional 
vampire hunter - Renee and his trusty dog Sarah - and some simple theft problems that could probably be avoided with a little common sense - and a better locking system....
