I'm a photographer, not a terrorist

[Allen in Montreal]

Allen it was obviously too little too late, I think once more (like previous protests by NUJ) the idea is to show the difference between a terrorist and a photographer.

Ash, at least you guys stood up and made some noise. Bravo.
Here, we just apologize for being alive while we get kicked in!

I get so upset as it is a daily issue for me, in the streets with my gear (2 canon digi, not LF), the harassment, the comments, the stares, the paparazzi cat calls, the way cops give you a double take as if you are a petty thief as you stand waiting to cross the street at a light and they drive by slowly looking you up and down.

It made the national news here, this is from CBC radio.


http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/asithapp...0216-aih-2.wmv

[EdWorkman]

*About New York: No Photo Ban in Subways, Yet an Arrest.
>
> *By JIM DWYER, NY Times, February 17, 2009
>
>
> In the map of New York’s most forsaken places, it would be hard to
> top the Freeman Street stop on the No. 2 line in the Bronx, late on a
> February afternoon. Around 4:30 last Thursday, Robert Taylor stood
> on the station’s elevated platform, taking a picture of a train.
>
> “A few buildings in place,” he noted. “Nice little cloud cover
> overhead. I usually use them as wallpaper on my computer.”
>
> Finished with his camera, Mr. Taylor, 30, was about to board the
> train when a police officer called to him. He stepped back from the
> train.
>
> “The cop wanted my ID, and I showed it to him,” Mr. Taylor said. “He
> told me I couldn’t take the pictures. I told him that’s not true,
> that the rules permitted it. He said I was wrong. I said, ‘I’m
> willing to bet your paycheck.’ ”
>
> Mr. Taylor was right. The officer was enforcing a nonexistent rule.
> And if recent experience is any guide, one paycheck won’t come close
> to covering what a wrongful arrest in this kind of case could cost
> the taxpayers.
>
> Twice in the last five years, the Metropolitan Transportation
> Authority proposed a ban on photography in the subways as an
> antiterrorism measure. And in 2007, the city proposed severe
> restrictions on filming in the city streets, but retreated when
> visual artists and activists gathered 26,000 signatures on petitions
> of opposition within a few weeks.
>
> Both times that the transportation authority tried to ban
> photography, it, too, dropped the idea because of opposition. Even
> so, people taking pictures in the subways are regularly stopped by
> the police and asked to let the officers see their images or to
> delete them.
>
> “They don’t have to do that, and it’s completely unlawful to ask them
> to delete them,” said Chris Dunn, a lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties
> Union. “But it comes with the explicit or implicit threat
> of arrest. It’s a constant problem.”
>
> Mr. Taylor — a college student and an employee of a transportation agency
> that he did not want to identify — said he had been stopped before when taking
> pictures, but without problems.
>
> Not this time.
>
> “I said, ‘According to the rules of conduct, we are allowed to take
> pictures,’ ” Mr. Taylor said. “I showed him the rules — they’re bookmarked
> on my BlackBerry.”
>
> Rule 1050.9 (c) of the state code says, “Photography, filming or
> video recording in any facility or conveyance is permitted except
> that ancillary equipment such as lights, reflectors or tripods may
> not be used.”
>
> Then a police sergeant arrived.
>
> “He tells me that their rules and the transit rules are different,”
> Mr. Taylor said. “I tell him, ‘If you feel I’m wrong, give me a
> summons and I’ll see everyone in court.’ The sergeant told them to
> arrest me.”
>
> In handcuffs, Mr. Taylor was delivered to the Transit District 12
> police station, and a warrant check was run. “They were citing 9/11,”
> said Mr. Taylor, whose encounter was described on a blog by the
> photographer Carlos Miller. “Of course, 9/11 is serious. I said:
> ‘Let’s be real. We’re in the Bronx on the 2 train. Let’s be for real
> here. Come on.’ ”
>
> Before he was uncuffed, he got a batch of summonses.
>
> The first was for “taking photos from the s/b plat of incoming
> outgoing trains without authority to do so,” abbreviating “southbound
> platform.” It cited Rule 1050.9 (c).
>
> The second was for disorderly conduct, which consisted of addressing
> the officers in an “unreasonable voice.”
>
> And the third was for “impeding traffic” — on a platform that is
> about 10,000 square feet. “I don’t know if you can impede traffic
> with 15 people per hour coming on the station,” Mr. Taylor said.
>
> LAST year, the city settled a lawsuit with a medical student who was using
> his vacation to photograph every subway stop. He got through
> five before an officer handcuffed him and detained him for about 20
> minutes. With legal fees, the cost to the city was $31,501 — more
> than $1,500 a minute.
>
> In the case of Mr. Taylor, the “officers misinterpreted the rules concerning
> photography,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s
> chief spokesman. “The Transit Adjudication Board is being notified
> that summons was issued in error, resulting in its dismissal.”
>
> However, the police will press on with charges of impeding traffic
> and unreasonable noise, Mr. Browne said.
>
> For his part, Mr. Taylor said he was late meeting his girlfriend: “It
> wasn’t a pleasant sight. I said, ‘I’ll make it up to you.’ What else
> could I say?”
>
> Thanks to the police, they might end up with more than a nice dinner
> or two — at taxpayer expense.



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/ny...=subway&st=cse

[colker]

Thank God we don't have these laws here in Brazil.......

What everybody seems to forget is that with all the security measures they took in London they could not prevent the bombings.
What will hapen now is that it is no longer allowed to take pic's with a Hassy or RB, and that the REAL terrorist will take the pic's they need with a compact or cellphone.

In the early 80's I went to Eastern Germany many times with a Linhoff Master: nice, big and the security forces could see what I photographed, never had any problems.
I did not dare to take a Minox with me: the larger the better.

The UK, the US and many more states in the "free" West will become worse than Eastern Germany with these laws: bye bye "freedom" ..........

Peter, Goiânia, Brazil

Yeah... but then we have no LAW in Brasil. It's a little too corrupt.
btw... during the dictatorship era (20 yrs?) we could not take pics in so many places. Plus you would be arrested w/ no explanation.
So it's not exactly a freedom haven.

[wentbackward]

Unfortunately you'd have to subscribe to read the story but the gist is that the photographer had some type of permission to cover a highly sensitive political story, yet still turned away.

http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP...s=China&s=News

As a threat to a nation does mean any threat to it's leadership. Does this mean that democracy is terrorism and voting for the opposition to the current party in POWER is perhaps an act of this terror?

[Allen in Montreal]

And this ad will do lots to help the situation!

The local cops have started to subpoena all the media's digifiles and tape after big murder's riots etc, turning the media into police informers by force, so then the crowds turn on the media and smash our cameras....and smash us!

Paranoia is running high. Rights grabs via society's fear of everything is blank cheque these days.
This is going to spin out of control and get worse, guaranteed!

[Ash]

That ad has been around for more than a year (maybe two?) it caused a protest or two already

[Allen in Montreal]

That ad has been around for more than a year (maybe two?) it caused a protest or two already

Sorry Ash, just making the rounds on this side of the pond now

Do the cops there get court orders to take your film/files after riots etc as they do here?

[Ash]

I'm not the best person to ask, I'm not hugely into PJ as I should be. As far as I'm aware the pigs have no rights to even touch the camera (tamper with evidence).

[Pete Watkins]

Come on Ash, don't wind the buggers up by calling them Pigs. You're degrading yourself. If you want to wind the plastic plod (CSO's) up get a bleedin' great LF camera out on a tripod and get a mate (preferably one who hasn't got an excess of tatoos or body piercings or even a silly haircut) to video/film the incident from a distance. Using a large format camera in a public place could always be described as "performance art". The Houses of Parliment from the South Bank sounds good to me. I've been made redundant to-day (it's not a supprise or a problem, I ain't going for the sympanthy vote) but my son lives "down the Smoke" so I might be down there somtime soon. I've got the 11x14 if you can raise a video team I'll bring the camera. If we all get nicked I could always sue ya :-)
Pete