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http://www.longbeachcomber.com/story.aspx?artID=1899
(Total Kafka. You ukelele wielding, croc-wearing enemy-belligerent, take that!:rolleyes
Music is one of the great ways of remembering key events. The ukulele may conjure up images of Tiny Tim warbling “Tip Toe Through the Tulips,” but to East Long Beach resident Jaimz Woolvett, the uke likely promotes images of handcuffs, a jail cell and aggressive Homeland Security officers.
Woolvett, 43, a character actor who has appeared in about 50 films including “The Unforgiven” with Clint Eastwood was at the Carnival Cruise Lines terminal by the Queen Mary at about 10 a.m. on March 14, waiting for his parents to arrive from a cruise and was whiling away his time plunking his ukulele and singing some ditties.
“I was playing the uke for about 45 minutes.” A woman who was apparently a Carnival Cruise greeter “was standing a few feet away by the elevators by the parking structure, where there was some natural reverb going on. She was kind of smiling, nodding her head. Someone with a walkie-talkie stopped by to check if I was asking for money, which I wasn’t.”
“Then a man in a Port Authority jacket came up and asked what I was doing. ‘What are you doing here?’
“I said, ‘hold on a second, what does this have to do why I’m here. I’m here to pick up my parents.’
“He said, ‘you’ve got to move on. You’ve got to stop playing music. If you don’t, I’ll call authorities and have you arrested.’ I did what he told me to do.
“I do admit this gentlemen’s demeanor and aggression put me on the defensive. When I came back, he was gone. I started strumming again, that’s when armed Customs and Homeland Security guys in jackets and vests came up. They just walked up and asked me, ‘what are you doing?’”
“’I’m playing the ukulele.’ Who are they? Am I under arrest?
One snatched the ukulele away from me. I asked why he did that.”
“He said, ‘you can use that as a weapon. Step over here’.”
“I asked, ‘why do I step over here?’ I walked over around the corner from the elevator and out of public view. They closed in. ‘Put your hands on your head.’ They brought them down, two grabbed my hands and handcuffed me.”
“‘Am I under arrest?’
“‘What’s your name?’
“‘If you take off the cuffs, I’ll tell you my name.’
“‘The cuffs are for your own protection,’ one of them said. They marched me into the dome, threw me into a cell. They have three cells, one for men, one for women and one for juveniles. I was the only one in a cell.
“When they took off the cuffs, I said, ‘I can tell you who I am.’ They weren’t interested. They put me in a cell, searched me and said, ‘give us your shoes.’
“Why do you need my shoes?’
“‘It’s for your safety.’ They took my crocs and I sat in the cell for hour or an hour and a half. They asked me where the car is parked and ‘is everything in the van yours, nothing else?’ We can fingerprint you.’
“‘Do what you gotta do.’
“The taller guy with bald head, leading the three younger men asked me the names of my parents. I told him I think I might not recall my parents name. Since my parents might be looking for me, I asked him to tell them where I was.
“’I don’t think I can recall that information,’ said the taller guy with bald head, leading the three younger men.
“They didn’t print me. They ran the plates on the van. No warrants, no arrests, no record. I guess my mom and dad came out, saw the cops crawling through my van. They asked my father if he’s related to me. ‘Does he have psychotic episodes?’ ‘Is he on medication?’ They ran some file. They knew something.” At about 2 p.m., “the bald headed leader opened the door and said, ‘Jaimz Woolvett, you could have made this a lot easier on yourself.’”
“I said, ‘you got called down because someone was playing the ukulele.’ I told him, ‘later, I want you to contemplate this.’
“He just looked and said, ‘we have our job to do.’
“When I talked to the greeter, she said they told her I had fought them. How could I? I have fake joints,” a reference to four replacement joints because of a rare bone disease.
Asked to comment on this incident, Joyce Oliva of Carnival Cruise Lines in Miami stated, “It seems that this situation was handled by the Customs and Border Protection, so we are not at liberty to comment on a situation we did not handle.” A local contact number for that agency’s press officer Michael Fleming did not accept incoming calls.
“My mom was shaken, really upset,” said Woolvet. “It all reminds me of a quote from author Gunter Grass. ‘The job of a citizen is to keep their mouth open.’”
(Total Kafka. You ukelele wielding, croc-wearing enemy-belligerent, take that!:rolleyes
Music is one of the great ways of remembering key events. The ukulele may conjure up images of Tiny Tim warbling “Tip Toe Through the Tulips,” but to East Long Beach resident Jaimz Woolvett, the uke likely promotes images of handcuffs, a jail cell and aggressive Homeland Security officers.
Woolvett, 43, a character actor who has appeared in about 50 films including “The Unforgiven” with Clint Eastwood was at the Carnival Cruise Lines terminal by the Queen Mary at about 10 a.m. on March 14, waiting for his parents to arrive from a cruise and was whiling away his time plunking his ukulele and singing some ditties.
“I was playing the uke for about 45 minutes.” A woman who was apparently a Carnival Cruise greeter “was standing a few feet away by the elevators by the parking structure, where there was some natural reverb going on. She was kind of smiling, nodding her head. Someone with a walkie-talkie stopped by to check if I was asking for money, which I wasn’t.”
“Then a man in a Port Authority jacket came up and asked what I was doing. ‘What are you doing here?’
“I said, ‘hold on a second, what does this have to do why I’m here. I’m here to pick up my parents.’
“He said, ‘you’ve got to move on. You’ve got to stop playing music. If you don’t, I’ll call authorities and have you arrested.’ I did what he told me to do.
“I do admit this gentlemen’s demeanor and aggression put me on the defensive. When I came back, he was gone. I started strumming again, that’s when armed Customs and Homeland Security guys in jackets and vests came up. They just walked up and asked me, ‘what are you doing?’”
“’I’m playing the ukulele.’ Who are they? Am I under arrest?
One snatched the ukulele away from me. I asked why he did that.”
“He said, ‘you can use that as a weapon. Step over here’.”
“I asked, ‘why do I step over here?’ I walked over around the corner from the elevator and out of public view. They closed in. ‘Put your hands on your head.’ They brought them down, two grabbed my hands and handcuffed me.”
“‘Am I under arrest?’
“‘What’s your name?’
“‘If you take off the cuffs, I’ll tell you my name.’
“‘The cuffs are for your own protection,’ one of them said. They marched me into the dome, threw me into a cell. They have three cells, one for men, one for women and one for juveniles. I was the only one in a cell.
“When they took off the cuffs, I said, ‘I can tell you who I am.’ They weren’t interested. They put me in a cell, searched me and said, ‘give us your shoes.’
“Why do you need my shoes?’
“‘It’s for your safety.’ They took my crocs and I sat in the cell for hour or an hour and a half. They asked me where the car is parked and ‘is everything in the van yours, nothing else?’ We can fingerprint you.’
“‘Do what you gotta do.’
“The taller guy with bald head, leading the three younger men asked me the names of my parents. I told him I think I might not recall my parents name. Since my parents might be looking for me, I asked him to tell them where I was.
“’I don’t think I can recall that information,’ said the taller guy with bald head, leading the three younger men.
“They didn’t print me. They ran the plates on the van. No warrants, no arrests, no record. I guess my mom and dad came out, saw the cops crawling through my van. They asked my father if he’s related to me. ‘Does he have psychotic episodes?’ ‘Is he on medication?’ They ran some file. They knew something.” At about 2 p.m., “the bald headed leader opened the door and said, ‘Jaimz Woolvett, you could have made this a lot easier on yourself.’”
“I said, ‘you got called down because someone was playing the ukulele.’ I told him, ‘later, I want you to contemplate this.’
“He just looked and said, ‘we have our job to do.’
“When I talked to the greeter, she said they told her I had fought them. How could I? I have fake joints,” a reference to four replacement joints because of a rare bone disease.
Asked to comment on this incident, Joyce Oliva of Carnival Cruise Lines in Miami stated, “It seems that this situation was handled by the Customs and Border Protection, so we are not at liberty to comment on a situation we did not handle.” A local contact number for that agency’s press officer Michael Fleming did not accept incoming calls.
“My mom was shaken, really upset,” said Woolvet. “It all reminds me of a quote from author Gunter Grass. ‘The job of a citizen is to keep their mouth open.’”
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