G8eorgia on my mind

An ill-timed trip

Published on June 7, 2004 By pseudosoldier In Current Events

SGT Monobrow, one of the Brits (who shall be referred to with their Arabic names, in this case, Nora) and I headed on out this past weekend, blissfully unaware of the specifics of a top news story. We were headed... for Savannah.
I lost count of how many times we were asked, "So, are you here for G8?" the past two weekends. Only once did it make sense in context; a waitress asked, "Are you here for G8, or in spite of it?" There is a bit of ill feelings from locals over the whole thing, as it seems to have dampened tourism in a normally busy time period for such activity.

[It appears that Yahoo changes the links in its slideshows *constantly*. As such, none of these links go to where I wanted them. I may try and find other pictures for this, or might just take this as a blog-life-lesson, and not trust Yahoo to not screw me over any more.]

Not to as great an extent in Savannah, Link but closer in to the summit site, at St. Simon and Sea Islands, many businesses were closed down.

The club scene seemed to be mildly impacted as well.

I'll tell you, seeing scenes of armed (with nightsticks) soldiers wandering the streets of an American city singly, in pairs, or in (what the Army refers to technically as) "gagglefucks" was fairly disturbing. The only first-hand sight I had seen that came close was seeing a military truck with armed troops aimlessly driving in the streets of Mexico.

The governor had to declare a state of emergency in six counties to get these guys out of bed: Link And then he had them drive around in convoys, in school busses, and wander the streets brandishing batons. Whee.

An FPSers dream?:
Link
I didn't get to see this sort of nifty get-up, although there were some that approached it in true SWAT-like style down in St. Simon.

Note to us if/when we do this: a single NCO standing on a corner, loosely holding his baton in both hands, neither smiling nor scowling == professional. This, =/=: Link The group I'm thinking of was worse than this, as they had their batons in one-hand, two-hands, slung over a shoulder, what-have-you, looking more likely to cause trouble than to quell it.

Other aspects of security were tight. Lots of modular construction going on.
See, Greywar, those fences are much more effective this way than when they're leaned up against an existing wall: Link Link They used these not only to erect a fence entirely around Sea Island, restricting access to members of the G8 summit and residents, but these grates made nifty fences/gates elsewhere as well.

And the police were out in force, as well. From local sheriffs, to SWAT studs, to police "imported" from as far up as Atlanta, there they were, almost as bad as the soldiers. (The three cops leaning up against their cop car on a corner in Savannah looked a bit off.)
Always alert, Georgia's finest: Link And the cop's not bad, either. At least he was honest about it, as I saw another *sneaking* looks when he thought no one was paying attention.

I can't really blame any of the security personnel for their actions. I did not see anything that was "right out," nothing that was openly improper. I'm sure their mission statement was a bit vague, and the most likely stance is they were there more as deterrent than anything else. I didn't see any police or soldiers making inappropriate comments or gestures, or actively inciting any incidents. Thank ghod.

And, finally, on a side note. Glad he's (somewhat) included, anyway: Link Taking the Arab voice "to the streets"... er. Of Upper Class Georgia, I guess.

Other than that, the beach was nice but windy. The water was much warmer than I would have thought, but I've only been in the Atlantic further up North. Nora thought the water was strange, but she surfs off the English coast. A good weekend, but I seemed to hemmorhage money for a bit on Saturday... but not too bad for a TDY. Pictures, as should be apparent, from Yahoo, and some info taken from this past weekend's USA Today. Everything else is my personal opinion on what I saw (apologies for no first hand pictures).

Comments

6969jimbo6969

on Jun 07, 2004

Informative post, objective in an openly subjective sort of way. Thanks for taking a look. You've got a dandy "Random Thriller" premise at your fingertips, starting with this text. Keep us posted, even those of us here in Georgia sometimes needing an outside view, just to make sure we're not seeing things, if you know what I mean.

greywar

on Jun 08, 2004

Innefective fencing is the *hallmark* of homeland security.

greywar

on Jun 09, 2004

Yeah the pics were already hosed when I looked at them.

pseudosoldier

on Jun 09, 2004

It's really too bad, as I think I had picked out some good ones... maybe I go back and comment in the blog, then. *sigh* And here I was, trying to innovate...

greywar

on Jun 10, 2004

It was still pretty good.

greywar

on Jun 10, 2004

actually having the pics change like gives it a very surreal quality as your mind tries to force the images to fit the prose. Sort of a Zen koan blog entry.

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