During a recent visit (Tuesday July 26th, 2011) to the Comanche Nation water park in Lawton Oklahoma with a fellow friend, we experienced a side of Oklahoma that honestly shocked me to the core and gave light to a society that I would feel out of all societies in our country would be against discrimination and intimidation. Before I get into the real details of this experience let me allow to first admit that both I and my friend are gay males. We did not come into the park advertising our sexually, just like any other heterosexual couples/group of friends naturally do not.
As we entered the gate to the water park the employee at the ticket booth was very short and rude with us when it came to purchasing our tickets and handed us our tickets and receipts crumbled up together along with our change. At the ticket booth there were no distinct rules or regulations regarding cameras. However, if they were there it was not obvious and there was no policy for sure regarding smart phones and mobile devices.
Following the purchase of our tickets we went through the main gate where two young female employees tasked with taking our tickets were preoccupied on their iPhone's and were very short (a recurring attitude problem with all the employees we encountered) with us when we tried to get addition information as to where the lockers and inner tube rentals were, seeing how it was my first time to this water park.
Next stop was to the locker rental place, where shockingly the two employees were preoccupied texting and using applications on their smart phones, and only stopped momentarily to allow us to purchase a locker. Once again, there were no signs stating that smart phones were not allowed within the facility. If in fact there were, then every employee up to this point would be in direct violation of this policy.
After securing two inner tubes my friend and I found a location away from the crowded areas and set up our lawn chairs, and towels to being what we intended to be an uneventful yet enjoyable time at a water park. Before beginning to experience the water park I took out my water proof camera and began taking pictures of the fun experiences I was encountering with my friend. I took pictures of myself and friend along with video of us enjoying ourselves along the lazy river, waiting in line for rides as well as going down the many slides. Not once did I feel like I was taking photos that would be deemed sensitive/classified material, let alone pictures of children in any un ethical way. After all this is a family water park not Fort Knox. As I walked around the water park with my waterproof camera I continued to notice several (over 20) employees along with hundreds of guests with smart phones, iPhone's, and cameras taking pictures of their families, friends, etc. I even saw several employees taking pictures of other people. I would have never thought there would be an issue with any of these occurrences until what happened/followed next.
As we sat on our lawn chairs talking about all the fun we just had, four very large men walked up to us and surrounded us. It would be one thing if they walked up to us with smiling faces and non-defensive mannerisms; however this was not this case. It was like management decided to send the four largest men, with crossed arms, stoic faces to intimidate not address a simple issue. The largest one came right next to my lawn chair and proceeded to tell me that cameras were not allowed at the water park and that he would need to confiscate my camera or I would have to delete all my photos in front of them. Both my friend and myself were extremely intimidated and scared so I immediately deleted the photos. Afterwards we were not thanked and they walked away, keeping a sure and steady eye on us as we continued to get up and leave the water park. There was no way we would ever stay or support such a small minded institution. If there had been an issue about the content of the photos on my camera they could have easily asked to view the photos to see that there were no photos that could be possibly deemed inappropriate or damaging to anyone, let alone could cause any legal or ethical problems for the tribe or any other concerned partied not brought to light by the four "thugs" that were sent to intimidate us.
Now we must address the issue of cameras and smart phones. I am utterly shocked that in this age of smart phones and mobile devices (roughly 7 billion in the world) a company as lucrative and dependent on mobile devices (The Comanche Nation) from cameras in their casinos to all the phones and smart devices that link all their families together failed to realize the larger problem of not banning all smart phones and devices at the water park, seeing how photos can be instantly uploaded to social sites as well as sites that would present ethical problems. If their policy is to not allow any cameras at their water park, there should be a serious i read more