VLVL2 birds & 1984

[pynchonoid]

[...] On the heels of the almanac uproar comes the
binoculars uproar, as reported by a friend in Buffalo,
New York:

"... Yesterday we went for a walk through the new park
they're working on near the Peace Bridge. It was warm
and foggy……. As we're driving in we notice that there
are several border patrol cars parked near the
entrance, but we think nothing of it ... We walked for
a few hours. On the 11 o'clock news we hear that down
by the Peace Bridge a few guys were detained under
suspicion of possible terrorist acts--they'd been
carrying an almanac and binoculars. It turned out that
they were bird watchers..."

Benign birdwatchers beset by border patrol? I checked
with another Buffalo friend.

“Yes,” he reports, “it happened on Bird Island, out in
the river ...They were out there with binoculars and
maybe cameras. And suddenly there appeared a bunch of
cops, one of whom reportedly had a drawn gun.....”

Although the stories differ it happened at the Peace
Bridge or on the island, it was cops or the border
patrol, it was an almanac or Peterson's Guide. “I have
no doubt that the core story is true....This is a
major border crossing, the Yellow alert was up which
meant all the cops were pissing in their pants, and
everybody around here knows there's a lot of scrutiny
at this border..."

Buffalo's Channel Two TV suggested that in future bird
watchers should ask authorities for advance clearance.
A final comment from Buffalo: “The real story is that
America is now a bunch of paranoids, scared of
everything and everybody." He's right. If we’re
expecting bird watchers to register with the police or
the border patrol, it's bad. [...]

...continues:
Egrets of Mass Destruction?
The Birdwatcher Menace
By SUSAN DAVIS

<http://counterpunch.org/davis01242004.html>

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