OK, maybe I'm just paranoid because of the tasing stories and firemen trained to spy, but

this really bugs me.

I live in a high-rise apartment building. The first floor has a security guard station, and they have cameras planted all over the public areas in the building that they can view on monitors at their station. There are laundry facilities in the basement. I'm using them tonight.

Oftentimes when I do, I sit down and read while waiting for my laundry to be done. There's usually only one chair in the room and it's not that great, and the room has a cold tile floor, so I've developed a habit of sitting on the carpeted floor outside the laundry room in the hallway to read while I wait.

Tonight, one of the security guys comes down while I am sitting in the hall reading. "What are you doing down here, ma'am?"

"Waiting for my laundry."

"Don't you know you're not supposed to sit in the hall? Aren't there any chairs in there?" He looks and sees the lone chair. "You have to sit in there."

I know they have cameras in the laundry room. "What, I have to be on camera?"

"You can't sit in the hallway, just like you can't sit in the halls in the rest of the building."

"No one ever told me that. I've done it a lot. No one ever told me I couldn't before." (I've lived here for years. This is the first time anyone's said anything.)

"Well, you can't."

"Fine, then," I say, "I guess I'll just go back up to my apartment, then."

So I did. At least then I knew I didn't have to feel selfconscious about them "watching" me. There are no cameras in here...I think.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy they have so many cameras, it makes me feel more secure that they will notice if a stranger is lurking around or if a resident is up to no good. But when it's a resident and they make a rule that you have to sit in the laundry room when doing laundry, and cannot sit OUTSIDE the room...that is, you can't without being suspected of being there for some reason other than laundry...that's too much for me. I mean, could they not see I was just reading?

He walked into the laundry room when I left, talking to the others at the main desk on his walkie-talkie about the situation and what he had said to me. I figure he was going in to confirm that there was actually laundry in some machines to cover my "story." I just hope he didn't stop the cycle and rifle through the clothes to make sure it looked as if they were women's clothes. You know...panties, bras. After all, he had to make sure they were mine, right? And that they looked as if they would fit me? :sarcasm:

Oh. Do you think it would be too much to ask to ask them to add some more damn chairs to the laundry room?

He checked your fucking laundry!? Because you might have been "lying?"

Give this tinhorn wanna-be camp guards an inch, and everything latent and dark in their personalities will take over... Back them down, and let them know what they did to you wasn't acceptable....

(Uh, can you tell I feel strongly about this? ;-)

to make sure someone was doing some laundry there that could've passed as mine? Probably.

Had he seen no machines going, he would've had cause to believe I was lying, right?

I don't know. Maybe he was just concerned about my safety as a woman alone. But I felt as if I were being treated like the criminal. It wasn't even a patronizing (but at least concerned) "Ma'am, we'd rather you didn't sit there because it could be unsafe for you to be down here in a place where we can't see you just in case someone tries to hurt you. Especially late at night." No, it was "You can't sit there. You have to sit in the laundry room."

exactly what book you are reading. That information will go into your very fat DHS file.

had been going through apartments when the fire alarms went off. (Hoping the alarms have stop going off constantly.)
I think I would be reading my lease to see where exactly it says you are not allowed to sit in hallways. If you don't find it there then I would be doing some complaining to the management. I would also explain why I sit in the hall and ask if they couldn't supply more than one chair and some comfortable ones at that.

but it's gotten better lately. After last night, though, I did start to wonder what the firemen were spending their time doing every time they come over here.

Then I decided they've got their hands full locking up our elevators so we can't get back to our apartments for hours. They don't really have time to go through our stuff and inspect what we're reading.

...your next words should have been, "Who's your supervisor, and how do you spell your last name?"

Since an authoritarian (aka: pig) loves the chain of command the threat of taking his unreasonable behavior up with his boss tends to make him back off.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm happy they have so many cameras, it makes me feel more secure that they will notice if a stranger is lurking around or if a resident is up to no good."

"But when it's a resident and they make a rule that you have to sit in the laundry room when doing laundry, and cannot sit OUTSIDE the room...that is, you can't without being suspected of being there for some reason other than laundry...that's too much for me. I mean, could they not see I was just reading?"

Well, if it's good in respect to residents being up to no good, it has to be good in respect to residents being made sure they're not being up to no good. You don't have the cameras there so that people can build some sort of relationship on a foundation of trust. You have them there so that you're an object that is secure. To be watched over at a distance. To have the area surrounding you watched at a distance. You are not physically part of the building, so you have the potential to be up to no good, and that's why the cameras are there. To make sure residents or strangers are not lurking and/or up to no good. There is a price to pay for the cameras.