T
TotalFusionOne
Visit your local Social Security office. No seriously, go do it. It's a hoot.
My card was shredded by my four year old right before I left Florida so I needed to get a replacement. After finding the aptly named SS Office I began the worst two hours of my recent history. Upon entering I was in a room with about 60 other people all holding numbers that they got from a computer screen on the FAR side of the room from the entrance. After making my way through the crowd, I navigated the menu and got my number: 364.
I found a good spot on the wall to lean, and heard the next number called almost immediately.
"325"
Oh boy, okay. This isn't so bad. I'll just whip out my internet abled phone and start browsing the interwebz. I was just about to when I noticed a large sign on the wall that read:
My card was shredded by my four year old right before I left Florida so I needed to get a replacement. After finding the aptly named SS Office I began the worst two hours of my recent history. Upon entering I was in a room with about 60 other people all holding numbers that they got from a computer screen on the FAR side of the room from the entrance. After making my way through the crowd, I navigated the menu and got my number: 364.
I found a good spot on the wall to lean, and heard the next number called almost immediately.
"325"
Oh boy, okay. This isn't so bad. I'll just whip out my internet abled phone and start browsing the interwebz. I was just about to when I noticed a large sign on the wall that read:
ABSOLUTELY NO CELL PHONES IN USE WHILE IN THIS GOVERNMENT BUILDING
"That's... Odd," I thought. But whatever, I can deal with long waits. Then the next number was called "H61." Wait, what? H? I don't have an H in my number... Before I could ask about it, another number was called "41?" And then it hit me: They had THREE separate number sequences running concurrently depending on what you wanted to do at the office. And, instead of doing something like colour coding or dividing digits they just ran three separate sets of numbers. Well this was going to be fun. I began to look for a place to wait out my time.
Two security guards were sitting at a desk and I edged my way over just so I could see/hear anything going on if shit went down. And then shit went down. You see, they had hand sanitizer stations set up all around the waiting room with signs saying if you had any of the following symptoms please leave immediately and use their helpful website or phone number. On the list of symptoms was "Dry cough" and, apparently, someone had to cough. And when they did one of the security guards walked over and escorted them out.
Wut.
This happened again while I was there, but the worst was yet to come. About 5 minutes after arriving someone who had not seen the cell phone sign got a call and started talking on their phone. This caused the smaller of the guards to yell "TURN OFF YOUR PHONES OR YOU WILL BE ESCORTED OUT." The woman left and that was that for about 30 minutes.
Then someone elses phone went off.
No one would cop to it. The phone got silenced and the guard yelled again. Then started walking around the room ASKING US TO PULL OUT OUR CELL PHONES TO SHOW THAT THEY WERE TURNED OFF. "What the hell?" I thought. He got mostly around the room and was all the way back to me.
"Sir, do you have a cell phone?"
"Yes, sir."
"Please show it to me, sir."
"No, sir. I don't consent to being searched. I've done nothing wrong.
I don't think the guard expected that, but I grew up in the hood. I knew my rights. I hadn't done anything wrong and, legalities of whether or not it was even right that they could compel me to not use my phone, I knew that I didn't need to show him it to prove my "Innocence."
"Sir, show me your phone now or I'm going to lead you out of here in handcuffs."
"I'm not going to show you my phone. I haven't done anything wrong"
And... That was that. He just moved on to the person next to me and asked to see their phone. And finished up the room. I really feel violated by what was happening, not to mention that so many people willfully just whipped out their cell phone because someone in a Uniform told them to. Now I've already talked about this with quite a few people and some of them say that I should have just done it because it didn't inconvenience me since I was following the rules. But I'm interested to get a few more perspectives on these events.
Two security guards were sitting at a desk and I edged my way over just so I could see/hear anything going on if shit went down. And then shit went down. You see, they had hand sanitizer stations set up all around the waiting room with signs saying if you had any of the following symptoms please leave immediately and use their helpful website or phone number. On the list of symptoms was "Dry cough" and, apparently, someone had to cough. And when they did one of the security guards walked over and escorted them out.
Wut.
This happened again while I was there, but the worst was yet to come. About 5 minutes after arriving someone who had not seen the cell phone sign got a call and started talking on their phone. This caused the smaller of the guards to yell "TURN OFF YOUR PHONES OR YOU WILL BE ESCORTED OUT." The woman left and that was that for about 30 minutes.
Then someone elses phone went off.
No one would cop to it. The phone got silenced and the guard yelled again. Then started walking around the room ASKING US TO PULL OUT OUR CELL PHONES TO SHOW THAT THEY WERE TURNED OFF. "What the hell?" I thought. He got mostly around the room and was all the way back to me.
"Sir, do you have a cell phone?"
"Yes, sir."
"Please show it to me, sir."
"No, sir. I don't consent to being searched. I've done nothing wrong.
I don't think the guard expected that, but I grew up in the hood. I knew my rights. I hadn't done anything wrong and, legalities of whether or not it was even right that they could compel me to not use my phone, I knew that I didn't need to show him it to prove my "Innocence."
"Sir, show me your phone now or I'm going to lead you out of here in handcuffs."
"I'm not going to show you my phone. I haven't done anything wrong"
And... That was that. He just moved on to the person next to me and asked to see their phone. And finished up the room. I really feel violated by what was happening, not to mention that so many people willfully just whipped out their cell phone because someone in a Uniform told them to. Now I've already talked about this with quite a few people and some of them say that I should have just done it because it didn't inconvenience me since I was following the rules. But I'm interested to get a few more perspectives on these events.
