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January 24, 2014

Op-Ed: ICE Detains Man Wearing Google Glass in Movie Theater

LOS ANGELES—For those worried about overreach by the NSA in its vast data collection enterprise, some concern should also be set aside for actual physical overreach by agents of the United States government. The Fourth Amendment, which ostensibly protects American citizens from unreasonable search and seizure by the government, is being slowly unraveled by agents at every level of authority who not only conduct unreasonable searches (and seizures) with impunity, but lie while doing so and in the aftermath of often illegal actions, in order to excuse their violations of one of our most fragile protections. For some, the lie is almost worse than the intrusions, because a government that will lie about what it has done will surely lie about what it intends to do, and when a government lies to its own citizens about the boundaries of its authority, it's a good guess those boundaries are being willfully violated. The ramifications are potentially dire. When a democracy loses the trust of its citizens because of its lies, the very democracy is weakened. Naturally, the threat of terrorism is routinely used to explain and justify federal law enforcement overreach especially, but what happens when the government, in collusion with business, lies not in the service of protecting lives, but in the service of protecting stuff? A recent case in Ohio raised that troubling question after a man watching a movie while wearing a pair of Google Glass was pulled from the theater by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security, who wrongly thought he was recording the movie illegally. ICE is tasked with combatting digital piracy, to be sure, but the ham-handed tactics used here suggests an agency of bumbling Keystone Kops rather than dexterous digital sleuths. The story, which was originally published as an non-journalistic account Monday by the moviegoer on the-gadgeteer.com, was subsequently reported on and confirmed by the Columbus Dispatch, which obtained a statement from ICE confirming the incident. Unfortunately, however, the statement issued by ICE public affairs officer Khaalid Walls also contained two characterizations of the incident that conflict directly with the moviegoer's account.   Specifically, Walls characterized the detainment of the moviegoer as "brief" and "voluntary." According to the man's account, it was neither. The first-person account of the moviegoer, who has asked all media to refrain from using his name, can be read here. It was published two days before the Dispatch posted its own story, available here. Neither account, nor the statement by Walls, dispute the fact that the incident occurred, or that the moviegoer was asked to leave the showing of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit at the AMC Theater at Easton Town Center by the ICE agents, who had been called to the theater by a representative of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), who were at the location and noticed the man enter the theater wearing the Glass, which he had had outfitted with prescription lenses. Rather than confront him, the MPAA rep "asked Homeland Security to investigate whether the man was illegally recording the film," according to an AMC spokesperson. The Dispatch further reported, "The MPAA representative told the Hilliard man that the Easton theater has had problems with movie piracy, and the association expected that Shadow Recruit might be a likely target." However, the paper also noted, "An MPAA spokesman said in an email that the association has seen no proof that Glass is a significant threat that could result in content theft." That of course raises the question of why Homeland Security would be called in lieu of a quick query by employees of the theater or the MPAA rep—or how about a sign outside the theaters prohibiting the wearing of Google Glass?—and also why, assuming the firsthand account is accurate, 5-10 cops had been gathered outside the theater in addition to the two ICE agents. Were they expecting a violent reaction from the Glass wearer? Are Apple consumers being profiled now? Whatever the perceived threat posed by this moviegoer, however, in the end it is the discrepancy between the interrogation accounts that may be the most lingering problem associated with this incident. According to the moviegoer, "Considering it was 11:27pm when this happened, and the movie started at 7.45, I guess 3 and a half hours of my time" was taken up by the agents before he was allowed to go free. ICE in its statement did not indicate how long the moviegoer was detained, preferring to simply describe him as being "...briefly interviewed..." The moviegoer also stated that after he was removed from the theater, "What followed was over an hour of the 'feds' telling me I am not under arrest, and that this is a 'voluntary interview,' but if I choose not to cooperate bad things may happen to me (is it legal for authorities to threaten people like that?)." Walls states in the ICE statement that the man "voluntarily answered questions," but fails to mention the threats that the man said accompanied his "voluntary" interview. The statement Walls sent to the Dispatch, was, in full, "On Jan. 18, special agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and local authorities briefly interviewed a man suspected of using an electronic recording device to record a film at an AMC theater in Columbus. The man, who voluntarily answered questions, confirmed to authorities that the suspected recording device was also a pair of prescription eye glasses in which the recording function had been inactive. No further action was taken." In the end, all it took was a few minutes for the agents to learn that nothing had been recorded during the hour before which the moviegoer had been ordered out of the theater. In his account, the moviegoer says he inquired at that time why they had waited so long to simply check the recording. "I asked why didn’t they just take those five minutes at the beginning of the interrogation and they just left the room," he wrote. "A guy who claimed his name is Bob Hope (he gave me his business card) came in the room, and said he was with the Movie Association and they have problems with piracy at that specific theater and that specific movie. He gave me two free movie passes 'so I can see the movie again.' I asked if they thought my Google Glass was such a big piracy machine, why didn’t they ask me not to wear them in the theater? I would have probably sat five or six rows closer to the screen (as I didn’t have any other pair of prescription glasses with me) and none of this would have happened. All he said was AMC called him, and he called the FBI and 'here are two more passes for my troubles.' I would have been fine with 'I’m sorry this happened, please accept our apologies.' Four free passes just infuriated me." Whitewashing incidents and lying about what happened is a hallmark not just of totalitarian regimes, but of all countries' histories. Anyone who has ever been subjected to something like this knows how intimidating the experience can be. Yes, no one was tortured or detained for days, but this incident occurred not to protect lives but to protect the unlikely pirating of a movie by a Glass wearer (imagine holding your head perfectly still for two hours!), making the apparent lying by ICE officials about the incident all the more ridiculous. The overreach is exacerbated by the fact that the whole thing could have been easily avoided; instead, AMC, MPAA, the feds and local cops all decided to skip past the easy way and go directly to the hard way. Nice going, guys.

 
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