Enough beauty, now truth.
Earlier this week I read a story on Toby's Political Diary that really got to me. So much that I retold it to a couple of people. In the story, armed INS agents busted into a restaurant in New York and held all the patrons at gunpoint for hours while they checked IDs and visas. No probable cause, no warrant, no Miranda, nothing. It was pretty bad.
In the comments, reader Rip Foster asserts the account may not be true and backs up that assertion with some evidence: 1) the story described the migra as having their fingers on the triggers of their guns, but in fact they were unlikely to do so, 2) the particular restaurant is unnamed and 3) the ACLU does not have a record of the report although the incident had been reported to them.
The identity of the author, Jason Halperin, one of the detainees, was confirmed by his employer, according to another comment. In defense of the story's veracity, the description of 'fingers on triggers', repeated several times could be an emotional reaction to having guns pointed at you and the name of the restaurant is not given for reasons stated in the article.
The lack of a record at the ACLU is, however, inconsistent with the story. The facts of the story would seem to be definitely of interest to the ACLU, so this story remains unconfirmed. Decades ago, in the peak of the Cold War I was taught to "believe none of what I read, and only half of what I saw."
Part of Rip Foster's evidence is the photo of Elian Gonzales getting arrested in the closet. Foster says they didn't have their fingers on the triggers in that situation (cause they didn't really want to blow away that little kid, they just wanted to scare him real bad.)
Here is the well circulated photo, look at the trigger finger:
Then Foster presents another photo, a "closeup", just in case the above photo doesn't convince you:
Look at the background behind the hand holding the gun. See that white stuff in front of the trigger in the top picture that's missing in the bottom, and the position where line between the light and dark background intersects with the hand is different. The finger itself, is much longer in the bottom picture, and most telling, look at the line of the top edge of the finger in the bottom picture. See that discontinuity between the end of the nail and the first knuckle?
The second picture appears to have been re-staged and retouched, to change facts shown in the first photo (which looks a lot like his finger's on the trigger.) Presenting the second image as a close-up of the original photograph, and evidence that government agents don't finger their triggers is fraudulent - the picture is fake.
Back to beauty now.
Looking unsuccessfully for the Elian Gonzales images in context, I found an outrageous political comic with superheros. What kind of wine is Nick Fury drinking anyway?
