I happened to be walking by Long Wharf yesterday when I looked out at the harbor and saw this huge ship heading toward the Tobin. LNG tanker! They're kind of amazing to see, so I started walking at a good pace down Long Wharf. It was moving faster than I was, so about two-thirds of the way down, I stopped and took a couple of photos. Then I got closer to the plaza at the end of the wharf and took a couple more, including this one.

See the police car? When I got to the waterfront, I'd just raised the camera to my face when the cop told me no pictures. He was nice about it, said something about orders from above, told me this wasn't even one of the big tankers, but, no, I didn't press the point, which is probably why I'm typing this at home, rather than from a bench at Boston Municipal Court (about a minute later, he told somebody else to put their camera down).

Yet, obviously, I was able to get pictures without being stopped, just a bit further up the wharf. As could have anybody else in the throngs of tourists enjoying a nice day on the water, some no doubt with way better zoom lenses on their cameras. Meanwhile, on the other side at the end of Long Wharf was a couple closely examining a map on their smartphone. Or were they secretly taking photos? No, probably she really was a local and he really was a visitor and they were just figuring out where to go next.

Obviously, security for giant containers of flammable gas is a good thing, and maybe it does make sense to station officers at every vantage point along the harbor. But is it just security theater when any yutz can just stand a few yards back and do whatever it was they were going to do at the water's edge?