Obama in Wilmington, DE
 

My aunt and uncle live on the 9th floor of The Residences at Rodney Square in Wilmington, DE.






Their apartment overlooks Rodney Square where Senator Obama spoke on Sunday, February 3rd.




Senator Obama in Rodney Square, talking about change on YouTube.


My aunt (my mom's younger sister) is an Obama supporter. My uncle is a Ron Paul supporter. Much to my aunt's embarrassment, my uncle has prominently displayed Ron Paul signs in the windows of their apartment. Of course, he didn't have much interest on Sunday in watching as 20,000 gathered in the square to hear Senator Obama, but my aunt had a great view with her binoculars. As she was checking things out, she noticed other spectators in the building across from her. Then she noticed that someone was looking at her through his binoculars in the other building. They regarded each other, and my aunt smiled and waved.

About 5-10 minutes later there was a knock at the apartment door. The manager of the building was there, along with an assortment of Bluetooth wearing Secret Service types. The manager was apologizing excessively for the intrusion, but the agents were none too worried about disturbing anyone. They said they needed to come in. They didn't ask. My aunt welcomed them and watched as they searched the apartment for firearms that my aunt might use to take out Barack with her mad sharpshooting skillz.

My aunt is semi-jokingly so pissed at my uncle.

Is this how you earn a spot on the No Fly List?

Great story! That'll be talked about for a looong time.

Wow! What a story! Thanks for sharing it!
Great building, too!

Hah. I wonder how many apartments they searched, sign or not.

That's a great story!

Wow!

Is it a great story? If it had been Bush speaking with an Obama or Clinton sign in the window we'd all be talking about what a obvious sign this is of our nation's descent in Orwellian jackbooted thuggery.

And we'd be right. This was thuggery and it isn't amusing (to me), it is scary.

I agree with Alex...This story sucks. The ACLU and I would be stirring some serious sh*t if they tried this on me.

Okay, I'm glad I'm not the only one who had the reaction. Does the phrase "search warrant" mean ANYTHING anymore these days?

Well there's your problem. "That someone" called in a tip. Once a private citizen phones in a tip about a possible sniper what would you have the Secret Service do? They have to check it out and the "tip" gives them probable cause to enter the apartment.

You might want to look into the possibility of a civil suit for "that someone" making a false report, supena the 911 tapes, etc... But I don't think you can blame "the man" for this one.


Also I don't see any evidence from your story that the Ron Paul signs played any role in this, other than perhaps pissing off "That Someone" so much that they called in a false report.

Except that the "someone" likely wasn't Joe Citizen, if you get my meaning.



And if he was simply a gawker with binoculars who called in to report seeing a gawker with binoculars, well i don't think i need the ACLU's help to deal with that type of assholery.

The way I read it, Deebs specifically says it's other spectators not spooks.

I didn't read the "great" story to mean "wow, how cool, their place was searched."

For some reason the "someone" to me was already secret service scouting out the place, not a neighbor calling in a tip. Though I wonder if they weren't scouting out all the apartments that could be in the line of fire. Don't they generally make sure that the surrounding areas are safe?

If it truly was someone calling in a tip, and the SS (pun intended) barging in to search the place.. that's horrifying.

In my experience, these things are well thought out and secured, but not without their moments of drama. I've known people who were bird-watching on the hills just to the west of LAX who have been tackled by Secret Service while Clinton was arriving (which was a frequent occurrence) because of their binoculars.

I agree with BTD that this is a good story, not because it was a good event, but because it will last throughout the years.

We had a scheduled meeting here at our offices a few years ago with a person who had a secret service detail. They sent agents to our office a week or so before to scope out the location. They were also out in the surrounding area looking as well. They were looking for things like vantage points.

The meeting ended up being at another location, which had also been searched and "cleared".