Wednesday, 02 June 2004 | Terrorism, you know

"Takin' pictures of the bridge?" She said it with a hint of disdain in her voice, as if I should know better.

"I'm taking pictures of graffiti," I answered. The graffiti just happened to be on the side of the [Williamsburg] bridge.

She made me show her my ID. I silently debated whether to admit to having it on me—I was just walking around my neighborhood, after all, and carrying my ID isn't required for that, at least not yet. I handed it to her, figuring it would make our interaction easier.

She let down her guard a little, offering the excuse, "Terrorism, you know."

Her partner was in the driver's seat and was on the opposite side of the car from me. His blue uniform fit snugly, and his belly came close to kissing the steering wheel. He wasn't quite as laid back as his partner, or perhaps he was just really bored.

Once he saw my ID, he had something to latch on to. "This is not a valid ID. This is not a New York ID." He repeated himself again and again, saying it a new way each time. He quizzed me on where I lived, how long I'd lived there, and so on. He threatened to "take me in to the station" so that they could figure out who I was, since my ID was so obviously not valid.

I had to bend down to see his face, since he never got out of the car. She stared up at me with large, round eyes, and he squinted at my ID as if it were written in another language. "Okay, so I'll get a New York ID," I said flatly. "I didn't know." I assumed that would wrap up the conversation. What more was there to say?

More about my invalid ID, apparently.

"You're supposed to get a New York ID after six months of livin' here. You in school? You work, right? Well you have to have a New York ID then. Because you live here. You need a valid ID." He recycled his complaints once again, I said "okay I'll get a New York ID" a whole lot, and he finally let me go.

I'm still not sure whether I'm supposed to look over my shoulder the next time I take a photo of the bridge. Photos may soon be banned in subways, but can landmark photography be prevented as well? Will tourists be limited to buying postcards of the Statue of Liberty? I assume that if someone with sinister intentions really wanted a photo badly enough, s/he could take one on the sly (or, presumably, just pick up a postcard of the landmark as well).

In other bizarre neighborhood news, twenty minutes prior to my conversation with the police, a 12-year-old rode past me on his dirt bike said to me, "Nice ass." I turned to look at him, confused, because he's, like, TWELVE, and he looked right at my face and said it again, just in case I didn't hear him the first time. Although I may look young for my age, I certainly don't look twelve, or even twenty. What was I supposed to say? Or, perhaps a more interesting question: what did he expect me to do?