“YOU GOT A PROBLEM, RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY” SANG THE MUSIC MAN.

“YOU GOT A PROBLEM, RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY” SANG THE MUSIC MAN.
Has an Iron Curtain Descended on the Cincinnati IRS Office?
[MUST READ 2 COMMENTS FOLLOWING NEW ITEM]

ABC News visited the IRS Determinations office in Cincinnati, OH, the office that determines eligibility for 501(c)(3) and (4) groups. It has become a security state.
On Thursday morning, after news that Miller was sacked, two ABC News journalists walked into the Peck Federal Building in Cincinnati looking for answers. The newsmen were screened at the door by security. They emptied their pockets as instructed, removed their belts, then went through the metal detectors.We wanted to ask who about made the decisions in the unit and when the profiling started. And whether those decision makers been identified yet.
But the answers – like the people involved – remained elusive.
As we traveled the public hallways of the building – watched over by security cameras – an armed uniformed police officer with the Federal Protective Service followed us. We were looking for a particular office—of someone who would not want to be seen talking to reporters–but chose to bypass it because of our official babysitter.
Asked why we were being escorted in a public building, the officer identified himself as Insp. Mike Finkelstein and said he was only trying to make sure that the newsmen were not a “nuisance.” He brushed aside further questions. The cop said a supervisor would call to explain.

One of the reporters wanted to know if the act of following the journalists was an effort intended to scare off any federal employee who might have considered speaking to the press. That’s sure what it looked like; and, even if that wasn’t the goal, it was the effect.

The supervisor never called to explain. After repeated calls to Washington to obtain an explanation, the Department of Homeland Security eventually called back to tell the ABC reporters that the security guard following them around was proper.

So, the reporters’ calls of inquiry about a Department of the Treasury office were eventually referred over to the Department of Homeland Security. For what?

Is this America anymore, or have we truly been fundamentally transformed into something else?

h/t Dan Riehl

COMMENTS:

Kirk Parker
Sadly unenterprising of the ABC reporters. Here's how to escape your "minder":
1. Go up to every person you meet.
2. Say, "Hi, I'm from ABC news. If you have anything of interest you'd like to tell me, privately, here's my card."
3. Hand them your card.
So now Mr. Minder has no idea who, if any, of the recipients might actually call one of the ABC folks, and if they *did* try to confiscate the business cards wouldn't *that* make for a wonderful story in and of itself?

elkhoong
Let's be clear to use the correct terms for the transformed America: minders, not babysitters; Schutzstaffel, not Homeland Security; apparatchiks, not officers or supervisors.