Long Beach Police Chief says cops can detain photographers

[Roger Hicks]

Wake up folks, this is not 1776, it is 2011, 10 years after the first major terrorist attack on U.S. soil, use common sense...

Shouldn't that be "Go back to sleep, folks"?

I don't think I'm all that short on common sense, and I'd worry more about being killed in a car accident (as over 40,000 people are, every year, in the USA). 'Security' is a balancing act: total subservience to the security apparatus of the state is incompatible with anything resembling a free society.

Cheers,

R.

 

[JohnTF]

Does that mean if you are shooting film the officer will accompany you to your favorite photo store and he/she, or the city will pay for the processing and wait around for an hour so he/she can make an aesthetic judgement on your work? If not, then all you should have to do is reassure the officer that your photographs actually do have aesthetic merit.

Hand them a roll of Kodachrome? ;-)

 

[JohnTF]

Shouldn't that be "Go back to sleep, folks"?

I don't think I'm all that short on common sense, and I'd worry more about being killed in a car accident (as over 40,000 people are, every year, in the USA). 'Security' is a balancing act: total subservience to the security apparatus of the state is incompatible with anything resembling a free society.

Cheers,

R.

Having driven in France, and even walked across the streets, you are definitely more likely to get it that way, however, I did see someone planting a wrapped 6x8" box under a statue outside of Notre Dame in Paris, got someone to check, (learning the French word for Bomb was Bomb), and as we approached they removed it -- making a hasty retreat.

She was also wearing a long winter coat, in about 85 degree weather in July, and there were six Cardinals at a service at the time. No police outside, I had to get the souvenir selling lady inside to come out.

There was a threat made that afternoon at Printemps, and you do recall all those trash bins on the Metro that were sealed?

Europe has dealt with this much longer than we have, this was 25 years ago.

Sometimes I think things are attempted regarding the US just to get an over reaction? Now I am older and have a knee concern, I really resent having to remove my shoes-- they pulled them off once when I had my leg in a brace, and as they could not check the leg in the brace, they checked the other one. Someone else had to put my shoe back on as my leg was not bending-- most countries have concluded the shoe thing is a total waste of time.


We try to worry about everything, it is what we do, still I do not walk under ladders.

Regards, John

 

[JohnTF]

No, I don't think so. You are not obliged to tell them anything. Sample civil reply:

Policewoman: "Excuse me, sir, we've had a complaint from McDonalds [waves towards burger joint] that you way have been taking pictures."

Me, smiling: "Tough. That's no concern of theirs."

Policewoman: "Quite so, sir. But would you mind telling me why you were taking pictures, as a personal favour?"
But MCDO?

Cheers,

R.

I think the key here is that they did not demand, but politely asked. I remarked a few years ago that on the ferry in Seattle, while waiting for the boat, they have a large overhead screen showing a guy with a hoodie and an SLR crouching and shooting photos -- asking if you see such behavior to report it to the police-- so the average person is "following orders?"

J

 

[Olsen]

CIA, FBI, DHC and local police swarming around looking for suspicious photographers. This sounds like the Soviet Union to me. Take your freedom and dignity back again, Americans!

 

[Red Robin]

Wonder if that "Chief" is related to that NYC knucklehead that shot the pepper spray on the girls (And other Officers) on Wall Street recently? I especially liked the internal affairs comment, "We'll look into it but all those photographs don't show the whole picture". I say, "but they each do say a thousand words". Move along, nothing to see here, move along. .. ...

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dave I agree that a healthy level of mistrust and scrutiny of our policy makers, law enforcement and other public servants is ok, but when ever a topic like this arises, I don't see much insight going on, just a lot of knee jerk rhetoric that does not exactly set the stage for a solution for either side.

I have to work in and around these people, some are truly nice, well meaning and use humility and common sense in performing their daily tasks. And some, well, they are jerks who we all know do not belong in a uniform.

Bottom line is that photo anarchists are not brining solutions to the table and from what I gather from the people in mid to high level government that I get to talk to, we all might suffer even more as artists and professionals as this goes on.

As what goes on? Hysteria? Caving in to Gauleiters?

Cheers,

R.

 

[crawdiddy]

So, if I'm a terrorist, it's OK for me to do photo surveillance, as long I can demonstrate esthetic value.

Sign me up for Art School!

 

[Roger Hicks]

So, if I'm a terrorist, it's OK for me to do photo surveillance, as long I can demonstrate esthetic value.

Sign me up for Art School!

Dear Dan,

Elegant!

Hey: here's a business opportunity. Teaching Sontag and Barthes in a madrassa...

Edit: Or as Frances says, running a federally-funded program for teaching cops art theory. Probably pays better, too. $4000 copies of On Photography, anyone?

Cheers,

R.

 

[crawdiddy]

Dear Dan,

Elegant!

Hey: here's a business opportunity. Teaching Sontag and Barthes in a madrassa...

Edit: Or as Frances says, running a federally-funded program for teaching cops art theory. Probably pays better, too. $4000 copies of On Photography, anyone?

Cheers,

R.

At least we'll be building a "better" class of terrorist. If I'm going to be killed by a fanatic, I'd like to think they understand the difference between art and craft.

 

[Derwent]

Here in Aus if you are asked you must supply your full name, date o birth, and residential address to a Police Officer or you commit an offense.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Here in Aus if you are asked you must supply your full name, date o birth, and residential address to a Police Officer or you commit an offense.

Which used, of course, to be the definition of a police state.

Britain has lost an alarming number of its liberties, but at least that's not one of them. The only ex officio right a policeman has, as compared with an ordinary citizen, is the right to arrest on suspicion. As a British judge one said, "This court is not obliged to accept the word of a prostitute, a pimp, or a policeman."

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

At least we'll be building a "better" class of terrorist. If I'm going to be killed by a fanatic, I'd like to think they understand the difference between art and craft.

Dear Dan,

A further suggestion from Frances: one way for the police to solve some of their funding problems is to charge for portfolio reviews.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Derwent]

We are heading in that direction....
There are a number of things that give police power to search a house without warrant if they have suspicion of certain things, and there are a few offenses that are very broadly worded and up to discretion of the officer...
It is concerning at times...