I've been confronted too many times to count. My job is to take photos of educational events, of schools and of students etc. Some concerned citizen thinks I have no rights to do what I do so often ... If I only had a dime each time. I could take the easy way out and show my badge but I don't like to do that. To me it is not the point that I have a right and one phone call can clear it up, to me it is a matter of militancy (perhaps) and advocacy because I know that EVERY photographer has the right to photographs public property (which is ultimately what a school is) and I don't want them to say "oh ... I see ... you are sanctioned" I want to drive the point home, however uncomfortable, that photography is LEGAL and every photographer has a right. We as photographers do have more rights under the law than is being sanctioned.
When I get a cop walking up to me (happens once a month on average) with their chest puffed out thinking I'm going to be on the deffensive, I (perhaps sad to say) get somewhat defient. I challenge them to tell me, why they are bothering me. I guess I act arrogant but quiet. Mostly the police are really nice and just checking to see what is going on, which does bother me a bit because I think photographers have been given an odd bad rap, but it they insist on acting like they have the power to tell me to get lost and to cese to take pictures I ask them to call in to their supervisor to find which law I'm braking. I have done this several times and it is interesting to me that they never have and they change their tone.
I want to stress that I only take offence once in a while when I get the feeling that the police officer, security guard or citizen has an attitude bespeaking of santimoniousness and assume that bullying me will work.
Last year I took a vacation to Savanah. I was taking a photograph of a hotel with interesting architecture. A guard came up and tell me to stop. I asked why. He said ... not allowed. I told him that I was on a public sidewalk. He told me the hotel own the sidewalk. I was casual and smiling at this point. He left. A few minutes later his senior came along with a different attitude. He actually screamed from about forty feet away. "We've told you that you need to stop!". And I mean screamed at the top of his lungs. My two kids freaked at bit. At this point he is marching towards me in a very aggressive way so I just stood there and let him walk up to me. He came to within inches of my face and spent about three seconds glaring at me from about one two feet away from my face. So I closed the gap a bit with my face as I starred back. After a second or two of that he jumped back, actually jumped back and blurted out "Don't get so close" He took two steps back and got on his radio. I didn't hear the whole thing but I caught "male, 6 foot two ... threatening". I got mad only at this point (and this is with my two young daughters in tow) and got back in his face and said quietly but as menicingly as I could muster " I want you to call the police. I wan't you to get them down here. Now".
He changed his tone completely and said, defensively now, we are just suposed to check out suspicious activity. A few more exchanges and he actually told me at the end "well I can see you are just taking pictures (duh!) and that it is fine.
Was I wrong to get so confrontational?
The whole scene was repeated in a different form about forty minutes later at a landmark. This time the guard came out and told me no pictures. I tried to be as friendly as possible and told him basically that I know my rights standing on this sidewalk, that I know he has to do his job, but that I'm not leaving nor stopping.
Later when there was a cruiser at an intersection I walked up to the officers inside and told them an abreviated version and asked them if there was some law here that I don't know about. They said ... no ... just go on and do what you want.
But I suspect that if I tried that same act of defiance with a police officer rather than a rent a cop, that I'd be in jail, black eye and all, and the headlines would read " dumb photographer jailed while resisting arrest" I suspect that it is possible that I would be facing charges such as battery or who knows what. Those charges would be put in because no cop can justify doing something not in line with the law.
Am I going overboard?
I thought I was just a guy taking vacation snaps.
But this is not about photography to me. I grew up and escaped a Communist system and love the freedom of countries that say they believe in it as a way of life. To me it is about not letting that drift away, under any excuse - even though I know it is probably just better to give up what I'm doing and find another hoby. I have a badge for work that stops all conversations and gets me an uncomfortable apology. But that is not the point ... is it?
