On second thought, maybe harassment is too strong a word. I was accosted and chided perhaps. But completely without provocation this morning on my way to work. Let me preface the rest of this by saying that I am a freelance photographer and I go everywhere with my camera slung arcoss my body or with the strap wrapped around my wrist, index finger on the shutter release.
There I was in a half asleep daze at 34th St subway station here in Philly. I was just standing there staring off into the nothingness that is 34th St station when a SEPTA cop [transit cop] walks up to me and says something. I was half asleep, so I didn’t hear him so I turned to face him and said “What?” [paraphrased] He repeated, “You know you’re not allowed to take pictures down here” while pointing to my camera hung across my body. I woke up pretty quickly after he said that.
I said back that I wasn’t taking photos and that I wasn’t aware that there were any rules against taking photos down there. He replied that “Techinically, SEPTA is private property and that you need to contact the press/public relations department to get a permit to be able to shoot” to which I replied that I had read otherwise and that such a regulation has never been shown to me in print. His radio was squaking away and he repeated something and then walked away. Technically, the land is owned by the City of Philadelphia and leased to SEPTA, a public agency.
To the best of my knowledge, there are NO regulations as to whether or not one is allowed to take photos on the transit system, bus communter train, or subway. I know that in NYC, the city tried to get underground photography banned, but it never got that far after some incredible public outcry, but it seems as if the NYC Transit cops have been instructed to enforce the non-law. People have been taking photos on trains for decades. It’s part of the essence of street photography.
And we all know that this stupid “rule” is to “stop terrorism” – yeah, that fucking works. Riiiiight. Are people not allowed to take photos of the White House? How about the area which is now referred to Ground Zero, ever seen a photo of that place? And what about the Liberty Bell? The Washington Monument? Those are all likely terrorist targets right? Or so we’re lead to believe by Big Brother. The only place where I have seen posted signs are the NJ/NY tunnels and bridges. Good thing there aren’t plenty of freely available photos and films of those places anyway.
What a fucking crock of fucking bull fucking shit. Fuck off transit cops. The 1/100 of a percent of people you “catch” taking photos of the dirty, dingy, disgusting subway system is doing a bang up job in keeping our streets safe. And other transit cops have seen me taking photos and they have never had a problem with it. This guy made a judgement call on someone who wasn’t breaking the “rule” [which, as far as I know, is non-existant] he was trying to enforce.
I’m not blaming the transit cop for doing what he’s been told to do, hey anyone can be a terrorist, right? But jeez. I don’t see cops handing out tickets to every single person s/he sees jaywalking [unless you happen to be in Tempe, AZ where they do ticket every jaywalker they see].
And finally, I wasn’t taking photos when the transit cop approached me. I was standing there, half asleep, staring off into the tunnel. He presumed I was taking photos through my mind’s eye I guess; as an artists should be doing I presume. But I wasn’t. By that logic, he should’ve been going up to every single person down there who could have been taking photos with their mind’s eye. Maybe they have a photographic memory? Encylopedia Brown sure did. A human eye sees better than a camera lens in most cases [certainly better than the lens I have on my D70 today] and can pull more detail than your average digital camera’s sensor can take in. There may have been eight megapixel point and shoots with twelve time optical zoom cameras tucked in people’s pockets. It seems that over 75% of cellphones come with cameras these days, those dirty digitally connected terrorists should all be numbered, no?
If he didn’t start walking away, maybe I would’ve kept going back and forth with this guy. Demanded that he show me some kind of proof that taking photos is not allowed, especially if I was simply standing there not doing anything. It’s not like this is something obviously illegal like killing someone, everyone knows that’s wrong and illegal. Everytime I hear about people getting accosted about taking photos underground, it never involves any kind of proof, just a Big Brotherish mannerism that it’s wrong for one BULLSHIT reason or another.
And while I’m at it, Fuck Bush. Fuck Cheney. Fuck Rumsfeld. Fuck Rice. Fuck Wolfowitz. Fuck Powell. Blah, blah, blah. Stupid bullshit.
Anyone out there have their own runins with cops in regards to “illegal” photography or videography? Domestic and/or abroad? Have you seen people around you get harassed for such things?
well put. Very well put.
“What a fucking crock of fucking bull fucking shit.”
Esepcially when more important incidents like this, described at RittenHouse Review happen with frightening regularity.
but hey you had a camera, so your obviously up to no good. </snark>
i guess with the camera i might as well have been wearing a C-4 vest
By that logic, he should’ve been going up to every single person down there who could have been taking photos with their mind’s eye.
By that logic, he should have arrested everyone down there for pissing on the tracks!
As far as harassed photographers, there was a case down here where some individuals of Middle Eastern extraction were arrested by the FBI after taking photos of Norris dam (the first TVA dam) at 1 AM (it’s brightly lit at night), for using false ID to get driver’s licenses. Full story here.
thanks for the link…
they are Middle Eastern and terrorists have been known to use such documents [fake passports] to support various criminal activities
read: every Middle Eastern person with a fake passport is a likely terrorist. not even possible, they way they’re talking, they imply likely.
I was hoping to give you the story from the local paper (Knoxville News-Sentinel) but after the first little bit it’s $2.95 per story. The two stories of interest are here if someone wants to spend $6.00.
Here’s one that was all over our news a couple of years ago.
The thought occurs to me that there are enough photos in Google Photo searches that anyone up to no good would be stupid to go out in public and take their own photos when that part has already been done. Better send the FBI over to Google Photo to do a security sweep for high-risk images.
Are we seeing the real reason there are so few images recorded from a dark age?
thanks for the link.
shutter speeds and subjects?! sounds like bomb making procedures to me.
and some added info to my diary, i’m korean and the cop was a black male. in the part of the station i was standing, gazing off to nowhere, there was a middle aged black male sitting down, a 20 something white male and some more people standing around the staircase from where i was standing.
run with the railfan crowd (one of our early dates was chasing freight trains at 7am on a Saturday — loooong story there). Some of our contingent travel quite far for unique rail footage — three of the guys went to China to shoot steam train operations a few months before it was discontinued. One friend in particular (spouse’s best friend; they were best man at each other’s weddings) has been all over the world…and has found that harassment of photographers is pretty much limited to the US. He’s had a few questions asked in other countries, but when he explains he’s a railfan, and produces his business card (he’s also a transit consultant), they mostly leave him alone.
I’ve just started getting into transit photography myself (first ever video of South Bay light rail can be seen here), and haven’t run into too many problems yet. I did a few still shots in the LA subways last summer and seemed to get away with it; BART may be a different story. Could be you ran into a guy who just wanted to brag to his buddies about thwarting a vicious terror suspect. š
There was also a piece in Salon about a pilot who’s also an airplane/airport fan who got harassed taking pictures at an airport — when I get into San Diego I’ll try and dig out the link (blogging from San Jose Airport right now — not exactly the most comfortable spot in the universe).
Something just occured to me — weren’t the British police looking for people who took photos with their cell phones after the 7/7 bombings? Seems to be a fine line…
railfans, eh? sounds like a cool bunch.
maybe Bob Brady put him up to it?
now that would make for a larger and more crazy story wouldn’t it
you need a pair of aviators that allow you to see behind you.
That way you can track the goonsquads š
Maybe the word got out that I was destroying the Democratic party and the cop thought I was actually surveying things to start destroying.
maybe these aviators will do the trick
If Septa is “private property” and this asshole is really a cop, seems to me he’s breaking the law enforcing rules of a private enterprise. He’s there for “public safety”. If he’s a rentacop, screw ‘im. Just another idiot looking to be a big shot “fighting terrorism” by bullying everybody in sight, faking authority he doesn’t have.
This shit is about what one should expect in a nation filled with mewling cowards willing to accept anything as long as Daddy makes them “safe again”. I really try to continue seeing this country as something worth keeping, but it gets harder by the day.
That must be one OLD cop. SEPTA bought the subways as part of its purchase of the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) in 1968! (And some of us are old enough to remember it, LOL!)
Customs Inspectors are especially nasty. I’ve had to remove lenses from cameras, open all the lens cases, answer all kinds of stupid questions, and had them demand I open the camera back with exposed film in it…which I refused.
When I was traveling out of country a lot, I resorted to carrying all of my film in large baggies…one for exposed, one unexposed…going so far as removing all unexposed film cassettes from their packaging. This enabled me to avoid having the film sent through multiple x-ray scans, which will cloud it and damage the image.
The worst experience I had with “security” was in Germany in 80-81…a long story with a, fortunately, happy ending…AKA not ending up in an E. German jail.
Peace
I know a photog based in NYC who has had both ends of the spectrum while carrying around his gear. From the extensive go through all the lenses, bodies, cases… to a single glance in his bag prompting a single question “Are you a photographer?” and he replied “yes” and was waved through. Go figure.
Should have said U S customs…never had a problem anywhere else…yeah, go figure.
Peace
Maybe he’s actually a liberal and thought that you were from the NSA. Or not. š
Pretty stupid Albert since these days anyone with a cell phone could be taking a picture.
They gonna ban cell phones on the subway?
cell phones, cameras, writing implements, paper – all can record things. and bags, purses can carry said things. clothing conceals things like bombs strapped to your body, ban that too. and once you’re standing there naked, haul them to jail for indecent exposure!
Exactly — where do you stop?
somewhere before the body cavity search š
Here in Philly, the authorities have already confronted this issue. Lawyers are allowed to bring cell phones into the various Court houses (honestly. it makes justice more efficient, really ;-). But photography is barred in Family Court and in Juvenile matters, so no one is allowed to bring camera phones into that particular courthouse. They check all cell phones at the secure entrance and hold them if they are camera phones, (I’m so glad I was too cheap to get the cell phone with a camera.)
Anyway, I find it fascinating that when we’re protecting the privacy of juvenile delinquents we can come up with an inexpensive common sense solution, but when we’re protecting ourselves from terrorists we can only some up with solutions that cost a fortune and don’t work.
IIRC- there is a bar on unpermitted commercial photography of certain City Property, nothing to do with terrorism- the City just wants to make sure it gets it’s cut. I’d say it is likely that the SEPTA officer who gave you grief thought you looked like a professional photographer waiting for some models to show up, not a terrorist, and that is what motivated him to speak to you.
Given the very un-Philly-Cop way he refrained from escalating the confrontation when you questioned his authority, I’d say you ran into a liberal, by the book cop who was looking out for the public purse rather that fingering you as a terror suspect. Once he figured out you weren’t there to do a new Benneton Ad, he left you alone.
You are still right about the ludicrous “security” measures that have provided cover for the disappearance of the Homeland security budget into the pockets of the GOP crime syndicate.