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I was sent this link today from NPR's website...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4705698
Go there and lisent to it. I think it will piss you off!

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

heres a link to an abreviated version of the legal rights of the photographer, by author Bert Krages. Its pretty helpful.

Thanks for posting this Jonathan. I usually catch Morning Edition but somehow managed to miss this story.

I suppose anger was felt on my part, but also a fair amount of sadness and confusion. It's disturbing to think where peoples fear and paranoia will lead our society.

A couple years ago I was photographing a series of concrete barriers outside a new federal courthouse. They just had an interesting design element, for me anyway. A Police Officer pulled up, just on a routine patrol, and took notice of what I was doing. Now I happen to be a Firefighter/EMT in this town/county and I was wearing an old uniform t-shirt, in part because about 80% of my t-shirts are of the Fire/EMS variety (I'm too cheap to buy regular clothes when these work just fine), and also because I thought of just such an incident, knowing that I was going out to photograph a security barrier at a new federal courthouse. I didn't know this particular officer but I looked right at him, gave him a nod of the head and he waved back and went on. I'm pretty sure if not for the t-shirt things may have become more complicated.

By the way, I'm not saying for anyone to go out and get some phoney t-shirts made, I'm just relating an experience for members to consider.

YES. SOCIETY IS GETTING PARANOID-YESTERDAY, JUNE 16, I WAS PHOTOGRAPHING THE HUMBLE REMAINS OF AN OLD HOUSE THAT BELONGED TO (A NOW DECEASED)VERY GOOD FRIEND OF MINE. ACTUALLY PART OF THE HOUSE WAS ALREADY DEMOLISHED..I AM WELL KNOWN IN MY COMMUNITY-BUT SOMEONE SAW ME AND CALLED LAW. FEAR, FEAR , FEAR-THERE ARE MANY WHOM WANT TO BAN EVERYTHING EXCEPT SEX. (ALL IN THE NAME OF PROTECTION FROM TERRORISM.

not so much pisses me off, more I wonder what is the solution

would you rather the 'authorities' took no interest in what's happening on the street?

surely if you have nothing to hide you can exert your rights

in my country the concern, for me and other photographers I know personally, is the constant fear by an ignorant public that any photographer is a paedophile after little children

In America, our citizens have this idea that we can get back to the days of September 10, when we had our eyes closed to terrorism, then we woke up to September 11. The blame does not lie "society becoming more and more paranoid.." the blame lies on Osama Bin Laden and his band of scum. We here in America lived our lives day to day with out a concern of tomorrow, we had it in our minds that terrorism could never happen in America. I live in a very small suburban community in Ohio, between Akron and Canton. In June of 2001, a middle eastern man, who spoke very bad English walked into the Stark County Public Library and requested any books or drawings on Canton's new Water storage facility, particularly any drawings of where the water led out to the city. The librarian gave him what he wanted. End of June all of Canton's water system had been tainted and Canton city residents were placed on a boil notification, they had to boil their water before cooking or drinking it. No one connected it. Fast forward to 9-11, the FBI and the government tells everyone to notify authorities of anything they would consider strange. The librarian recognized a photo that was in the paper on 9-12, she contacted the FBI, the man she recognized as being the man that came into the library to get that information was one of the men on the plane that hit the first tower. After tracing their travels they found that they had been in Canton Ohio on September 10. Little dinky podunk Canton Ohio had the terrorists that struck the Towers. For me, I don't consider it an inconvenience or even paranoia to give the police the information they want if I'm stopped while photographing a building or downtown or anywhere else. Had the librarian notified someone about the man looking for water supply information, who knows what could have been avoided, the water supply probably wouldn't have been tainted, since it was in June, 3 months prior to 9-11, perhaps 9-11 could have been avoided, its speculation at best, but I don't think it's a problem or paranoia, but it's pure ignorance to ignore it and think that it's just going to go away. If a police officer asks what your doing, be polite, explain you are a photographer, show him id and 99.9% of the time he will say have a good day sir/ma'am and walk away from you, it has happened every time to me since 9-11. It took a total of about 3 minutes each time and the officer was quite polite. It's just something that we have to live with and except as status quo and personally, I wouldn't want it any other way. It's always better to error on the side of caution.

The story and the whole idea of having to show your 'Papers' for using a camera Sucks.
Several months ago the Supreme Court decided that
if asked, you had to tell a law enforcement officer your name. Thats it. The case came about thanks to a man in the western part of the USA.
Basicly he refused to give his name to the Police
and was arrested. He had enough money to do the appeals and made it to the court. They ruled against him but stated that all that is required is your name.
The Police and rent a cops know this but try to abuse thier position and get as much info as possible.
As for myself, if asked for my Papers on public
property, I'll just give them my name and thats all. Your rights as an American can't be abused unless you let them.

This is really a sad example of exactly the kind of paranoia that actually hampers true security. Herd-like mentality, fostered by decades of ignorant bliss made possible by the exploitation of the rest of the world.
Thanks for the link to the pdf card!

Thank you for this link. Very interesting listening. I'll pass it to other photo communities.

Nigel W.	Urs R.	Jan S.	Roberto A.	Art M.	Helen H.	Robert G.	charlie f. k.

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