memphis said:
let's also mention that walking around with the little pamphlet that floats around to inform rent a cops and such of "your rights as a photographer" --- most of the time, this will only agitate and carrying a camera gives you no special rights...
Well, as I am sure you can expect, I have to take issue with your statements.
It is true that one's attitude can have a great deal to do with the outcome of any dealings one might have with authority figures. People who have asserted their authority, real or imagined, do not often like to back down and admit they were wrong or that they did not have the power they believed they did. Rubbing their noses in it often has a detrimental effect, especially in the immediate term. Long term, generally your actual legal rights will prevail, I believe.
But no one wants to be arrested and be a test case everytime one's 'rights' get trampled upon by an overzealous private security guard or uninformed police officer.
So I agree that waving a photographer's equivalent of a 'Bust Card' around in a cop's face is generally not that smart.
However, knowing one's rights is very smart. Being informed about the law is an obligation of every citizen. And failure to resist, even by demurral, an obviously-illegal attempt to thwart a photographer's rights, in my opinion, simply encourages more of the same.
True that a photographer has no special rights. Just the rights every citizen has.
I personally feel that failure to defend one's rights - again, the rights of every citizen, not special rights due photographers, is to encourage future encroachment. It is a tacit admission that yes, the security guard or police officer has the right to tell me to delete my photographs, or turn over my camera, or subject my photographs to his or her approval. I am required to do no such thing - and I won't.
Unlike many, I am OK with being arrested if it comes to that. The last photographer I know of who was arrested by a police officer for taking photographs of a scene he was forbidden to photograph got a written apology and an $8,000 cash settlement, plus his legal expenses covered. Sure, arrest me - I can use the cash.
Kind of like when Jackson made the statement regarding indian relocation: He made his decision, now let him enforce it...
I can not force a police officer to obey the law - and if he chooses to confiscate my camera or arrest me, so be it. But I do not have to comply with his demands to delete my photographs or stop photographing if it is otherwise legal for me to do so, and I won't. If he arrests me, then my case is made. It won't be a case of he-said, she-said. It will be a matter of police record, and will look great for me in court.
there's always a pragmatic side to your supposed rights. Carrying a camera does not make you special.
My rights are not supposed. They either are or they are not. Rights that are not exercised are often trampled upon. People begin to believe that they really don't have the right to do this or do that, just because no one stands up for those rights anymore.
Most people have jobs and families and they just want to take their photos and go home - and if someone tells them to delete their photos they will - if they tell them to leave they will - and I understand that. I'm not most people. If it costs me, then so mote it be.
EDIT:
This young lady was present at a street exhibition known as a "Zombie Walk" where I was taking photos. She was in public, as was I. She told me that I needed a model release to take her photo. I don't. There was a police officer not ten feet away. He took no action. People have funny ideas about their right to privacy when they are in public.
