Is it paranoia or a cause for alarm (read below)

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16 Aug 2011, 6:09 pm

I recently man on a train ride home that looked incredibly suspicious. It wasnt in the way he was dressed ...It was his physical body language.

I'll try and explain... This man was of Arabic origin .This is not a problem at all , however I saw glimpse of what seemed to be a womans passport...He had it open and seemed to be writing details from the passport. The most suspicious thing was that he had a recording device and was whispering into it...When he saw me coming past him and glancing his way ,he immediately shut the passport closed (Arabic language,blue passport).

It comes across as suspicious to me that a man would do all this. One fear I had was that he was a sex trafficker ( Many traffickers are known to steal passports from their victims) ...Needless to say I didnt act on it and left the train.

Am I being overly paranoid if I feel I should have done something...There are 100,000-600,000 women and children trafficked each year .I dont want to turn a blind eye to it.

P.S I only stated the mans arabic identity just as a minor detail. I have no quarrel with any culture as long as that culture respects me and my rights.

simon_says
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16 Aug 2011, 6:20 pm

You should have hit him with a shovel.

Sweetleaf
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16 Aug 2011, 6:25 pm

Well I am not sure how sensative you are to peoples vibes but usually if I get a bad feeling I get the hell away from the area or person causing it. Sometimes in my case it is just paranoia....like a couple weeks ago I had a bit of a PTSD related flashback/panic attack so as soon as class was over I walked very quickly to the bus stop......of course if something had happened they would have sent an email to my college email account and they did not so that was a situation of paranoia.

But usually I go with the philosophy that it is better safe than sorry, then again sometimes I wish to stay around to see what action takes place. Also though if I was looking at something on the lightrail trains in my city and someone walked by I would probably hide it as well considering I hate people looking over my shoulder...even if it is not their intention I get paranoid about it.

Vexcalibur
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16 Aug 2011, 10:21 pm

Full paranoia. The recording device was an ipod. The suspicious physical behavior was his race.

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John_Browning
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16 Aug 2011, 11:31 pm

CuriousNotion wrote:

I would have said ignore it except for the 3rd party passport being involved. That's suspicious and he could also be making notes about the trip. Talk to the train station's security about it sometime very soon. Just tell them you didn't come right away because you debated if it was warranted and you didn't want to seem racist. It's not practical for them to single out everyone that looks middle eastern or everyone that has a middle eastern name. They will keep a closer watch for anything odd, and DHS will take your tip about a middle eastern individual seriously as long as there is something out of the ordinary about them and what they are doing.

Remember, Mohamed Atta was allowed to board American Airlines flight 11 despite an airport clerk's better judgment because by his own admission he thought it was racist to suspect Atta was a terrorist and he shouldn't be thinking like that!

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Cornflake
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17 Aug 2011, 6:36 am

CuriousNotion wrote:

Am I being overly paranoid

Yes.

John_Browning wrote:

I would have said ignore it except for the 3rd party passport being involved. That's suspicious

It might have been his wife's or daughter's passport, assuming it was some other woman's passport - and assuming he wasn't employed by an embassy or whatever and was simply catching up with work while travelling. Oh, and about a million other innocent activities.

Quote:

he could also be making notes about the trip.

Taking the totally arbitrary decision that this was, in fact, what he was doing - last time I checked it was perfectly legal.

Quote:

Remember, Mohamed Atta was allowed to board American Airlines flight 11

Yeah, and Timothy McVeigh was awarded a Bronze Star for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service etc.

The ones I'm really suspicious of are those who are just walking along a street, looking directly ahead.
You never know what they're really thinking about - it could be bombs, bestiality - or anything!
Won't someone please think of the children!?

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CuriousNotion
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17 Aug 2011, 8:44 am

Vexcalibur wrote:

Full paranoia. The recording device was an ipod. The suspicious physical behavior was his race.

Well your wrong for the last 2 counts. The recording device was probably much a portable tape recorder and definitely not an Ipod, and suspicions of his physical behaviour was not his race at all (well done for misinterpereting that!) , If you had any man whispering into a recorder , with a womans passport and writing details that would strike suspicion in me.

Quote:

It might have been his wife's or daughter's passport, assuming it was some other woman's passport - and assuming he wasn't employed by an embassy or whatever and was simply catching up with work while travelling. Oh, and about a million other innocent activities. .

Possibly, but he seemed very secretive and it just seemed rather strange. But you know I hope the case is he was doing a million innocent activities that would make me feel at ease

Quote:

The ones I'm really suspicious of are those who are just walking along a street, looking directly ahead.
You never know what they're really thinking about - it could be bombs, bestiality - or anything!
Won't someone please think of the children!?.

looking directly ahead? Was that a joke? because generally ther supposed to be funny!

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17 Aug 2011, 10:20 am

CuriousNotion wrote:

Cornflake wrote:

The ones I'm really suspicious of are those who are just walking along a street, looking directly ahead.
You never know what they're really thinking about - it could be bombs, bestiality - or anything!
Won't someone please think of the children!?

looking directly ahead? Was that a joke? because generally ther supposed to be funny!

It was sarcasm. Evidently it fell flat. Oh well.
I was making a comment on how any activity could be viewed as suspicious, given the right (or rather, wrong) frame of mind of the viewer.

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CuriousNotion
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17 Aug 2011, 11:49 am

Cornflake wrote:

CuriousNotion wrote:

Cornflake wrote:

looking directly ahead? Was that a joke? because generally ther supposed to be funny!

It was sarcasm. Evidently it fell flat. Oh well.
I was making a comment on how any activity could be viewed as suspicious, given the right (or rather, wrong) frame of mind of the viewer.

Sarcasm , joke whatever ! And I'd rather be suspicious or at least question certain things rather than be oblvious to them. I rarely find anything suspicious but that was suspicious to me!

Blueladymare
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23 Aug 2011, 11:21 pm

Woah! Woah! Okay clam down!

I would probaly if I saw somethign like this agian, go to the security.

Second, It may be nothing but itsbest to play it safe.

Third, he could of been white or black, it doesnt matter! Strange behavoir goes with any race.

visagrunt
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24 Aug 2011, 11:31 am

He appeared to be in possession of another person's passport. That, to my mind, raises reasonable grounds for a police officer to inquire into whether that is, in fact, the case, and whether he has permission to possess it.

This has nothing to do with race, language or ethnicity. Merely the fact of possession.

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