Tom H. C. Anderson - Next Gen Market Research

(Note: This post is not about marketing research and may contain’Illegal’ pictures.)

One winter when I was younger, before the Berlin Wall came down, my family took a trip to Germany. We drove across Check Point Charlie and crossed into East Germany. I still remember a long line of cars and the East German border guards closely inspecting our American Passports trying to figure out what “Hazel” eyes  meant on my fathers’ passport. I remember signs along the border warning that photography was illegal and that anyone passing beyond a certain point would be shot. We were told that just a couple of weeks before, someone trying to cross had recently been mowed down by machine gun fire from one of the guard towers in that area.

Speed limits were extremely low and had you not arrived in the hotel at the scheduled time, the Stasi would be making inquiries. It was not a pleasant atmosphere to say the least.

As we left East Germany, we stopped at a large restaurant for breakfast to spend whatever East German money we had left as it was illegal to bring any currency out. It was a busy and somewhat noisy cafeteria style restaurant. As we sat down to eat, the door was flung open, five East German police entered. You could have heard a pin drop. The police then shouted something in German. My mother who had learned German in school in Finland translated that someone had apparently left their lights on in the parking lot.

Fast forward to December 20th 2008, Belle Haven, Greenwich, CT. It’s 6:30 p.m. and after having attended a holiday party, my wife wants to go see the Christmas lights on the house in Belle Haven that she had read about in the Stamford Advocate/Greenwich Time Newspaper. The eccentric Christmas lights on Paul Tudor Jones II, hedge-fund billionaire’s house.

As we enter the gated community in Greenwich and drive past the guard house, we see the many police officers hired to work with the regular security guards in allowing outsiders a glimpse at the Christmas lighting. One of the police officers come to our window and ask where we are heading. “To see the lights” my wife answers. We are instructed to “Stay to the right” and wait in the line of cars.

About 20-25 minutes later, we approach the lights. We are trying to tune the radio to the special FM station which has music synchronized with the holiday lighting.

Since my wife was in the driver seat and closer, she rolled down the window to take a picture of the Christmas lights we’ve come to see.

Then we hear faint but authoritative “No Cameras, No Pictures!”. I say to my wife, I suppose somewhat loudly, “Why not?”

One of the twenty or so police officers seemed to appear out of nowhere and sticks his head through our car window, stares at my wife, then at me and says,

Police officer: “I said No Pictures”

Me: (somewhat shocked) “Why?”

Police officer: “Cause I said so!” (pauses…and still staring straight at me) “You don’t need another reason”

I was raised to believe that police officers are friendly and there to help citizens, not to be afraid of them. Still somewhat shocked, I say:

Me: “I just want to know why”

Police officer: (pausing and still staring me down, now angrily) “You don’t need to know why”

Me: (angry now) “Yes I do want to know why”

Police officer: “Because I said so…and there are No Pictures allowed in Belle Haven”

Me: “That’s ridiculous”

The officer continues to stare at me threateningly for an uncomfortably long time. His face still partly inside our car close to my wife’s.  Then finally, he walks off.

At this point, I’m obviously not in the mood to see any Christmas lights. The incident makes me think back to that winter in East Germany years ago. I also began to understand how someone might feel when unjustly profiled by police officers. Rather than simply explaining the rules, this officer had tried to bully us for no good reason.

Needless to say, we won’t be returning to see any lights in Bell Haven ever again. I had almost felt like I was about to be arrested for asking a question (of my wife no less). I almost wish I had been arrested so that my lawyer could have filed a suit against Bell Haven and the Greenwich Police.

This Christmas, I will also be thinking about one of my personal heroes whom I met a couple of years ago at an event in Stamford. Attorney Brendon Leydon, a then Stamford resident and law student,  who sued the town of Greenwich for their elitist and illegal public beach access policy. The town of Greenwich fought the case tooth and nail until it was finally won by Leydon in the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Thank You Brendon for taking the time to make this country slightly more Just. I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

-Tom