Am I the only one who's pretty convinced by that story that they were not FBI? It seemed like the fellow who went through this has his doubts as well.
I feel doubly bad for him, that's a horrible experience and also that he was so intimidated that he just sat through all that, didn't get any badge numbers or names or even what organization these people were with, "would have been fine with “I’m sorry this happened, please accept our apologies”" and closing it with: "Again, I wish they would have listened when I told them how to verify I did nothing illegal, or at least apologize afterwards, but hey… this is the free country everybody praises. Somewhere else might be even worse."
Everyone isn't going to be one of those "know and exercise your rights" people in the face of authority, but the opposite is very depressing.
They certainly weren't, there is no way you can call and have a federal agent show up to a movie theatre in the space of a couple of minutes.
They are almost certainly former federal or other agents who now work for private security firms that contract to AMC / MPAA.
It wouldn't take much detective work to figure out which firm it is and who the people are.
It sounds like they broke the 'impersonating a federal officer' law, but a lot of private detectives do that in the USA and nobody ever does anything about it.
>can call and have a federal agent show up to a movie theatre in the space of a couple of minutes
He says it was about an hour into the movie. Given the cozy relationship the MPAA has with the government, is it really that far fetched? If they really thought he was part of the scene? Not saying you're wrong, but is it that simple?
Probably something like "Not yet, we're trying to keep this easy. You really don't want to spend the night in jail, have to post bail tomorrow and ruin your plans. But hey, that's an option if that's what you want."
He makes that clear when he quotes 'federal service'. So, someone is masquerading around as FBI, using local police to harass innocent movie goers at the behest of AMC.
"So let me get this straight. You are impersonating federal officers and also holding me here against my will. I want a lawyer--and you might consider getting one, too."
In the story, the author said that they identified themselves as being with the "federal service." Unless the author forgot to mention it, it would seem as though they never explicitly identified themselves as FBI at any point. In a situation like that, it's almost trivial to influence a subject's perception of what they're dealing with between the badges (whatever they were) and their demeanor. The subject expects you to be FBI agents based on the information available, and thus, you are FBI agents. At least to them.
If that's the case, then they were most likely trying to avoid falling afoul of 18 U.S. CODE § 912, but I don't think that'd work out to well for them in any case. In United States v. Lepowitch, the Court held that it only requires "that the defendants have, by artifice and deceit, sought to cause the deceived person to follow some course he would not have pursued but for the deceitful conduct."
> It helps if you dress like a detective, too. Detectives dress kind of square. People think this guy is a cop. They're going to think you're packing something. They don't fuck with you so much.
I feel doubly bad for him, that's a horrible experience and also that he was so intimidated that he just sat through all that, didn't get any badge numbers or names or even what organization these people were with, "would have been fine with “I’m sorry this happened, please accept our apologies”" and closing it with: "Again, I wish they would have listened when I told them how to verify I did nothing illegal, or at least apologize afterwards, but hey… this is the free country everybody praises. Somewhere else might be even worse."
Everyone isn't going to be one of those "know and exercise your rights" people in the face of authority, but the opposite is very depressing.