To bring you up to date Roger.
We're not going to do any pledging, but we will be bound by the rules of the association if we wish to join.
We've dropped the "patriot" tag.
We would like to bring it to the attention of the general public and the forces of order that we are doing no harm by pursuing our hobby.
Dear Richard,
I fully take all your points - you had yourself eloquently made the point about 'patriotism' - but I'm not sure what the 'rules' would or could be, which is where patriotism raises its head again.
Essentially, all we want to do is to keep the rights we already have; we are, therefore, inherently agaist the abuse of power.
As one of the principal attraction of power to some people seems to be the right to abuse it, we are therefore automatically seen by such people as 'against' them -- not as being 'for' the law and international declarations as they stand, which all right-thinking and well-informed people will want to keep.
In other words, we are looking at rapidly diminishing returns. Les us say that 90% of all police are reasonable, and indeed, on our side and that 9% will see reason with a polite reminder of our rights. The remaining 1% are unlikely to be persuadable by such an association, or by the production of a card or pamphlet.
I have been challenged in a number of countries, most recently in Romania and the UK, but in every case, the police have been civil. This was even the case on the most recent occasion, at Clacton:
Policewoman: "Excuse me, we have had a complaint from MacDonald's that you may have been taking pictures."
After asking her to repeat this, as I could not believe what I was hearing, I said (with a smile):
"Tough. This is a public place and they have no right to stop me. I have no wish to be rude to you, but it is none of their business."
Policewoman: "I fully understand that, sir, but perhaps I could ask, out of personal curiosity, why you are taking pictures."
Me: "Certainly, officer. I have some new lenses to try." (It was the Summarits)
Policewoman: "Thank you."
I then went and photographed McDo, very pointedly; I had not previously taken a single picture of their miserable emporium, in which (after all) I had no interest until that point.
No further questions or complaints from anyone.
Cheers,
Roger