Have your rights been violated... Hmm. Rights to what? Since you were on public property and they would not let you leave and had no grounds to hold you, it sounds like you might have a civil case for being held against your will. Maybe you should talk to the local chapter of an associaion that actively stands up for individual citizen's rights , the ACLU. That is what they are there for.
Here's an article from the Washington Post in July on this very topic, headlined "Freedom of photography: Police, security often clamp down despite public right"
See, in this country, we have this thing called a constitution which is the highest law in the land. That constitution protects individual's rights and allows us to move freely throughout the land without being unjustly detained, questioned or searched when in fact no crime has been committed. It is not a crime to photograph or make videos of buildings from public locations in the US.
The Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
I don't know if you're trolling or if you're just ignorant of the law and the rights of US citizens. Either way you should educate yourself before you contribute in such an inflammatory way to a thread such as this. Your comments are not helpful.
To the OP: Yes, your rights were violated. Citizens generally cannot detain other citizens against their will, except in extreme cases where a serious crime has been committed.
I doubt the police officer had any authority to provided your information to another party. I suspect he was just trying to "keep the peace."
I have been in similar situations at least three times before, involving security guards, police and even the Department of Homeland Security. As others have suggested, we must all stand up for our rights or we will surely lose them. This is one of the few areas where I will concede, there really is a slippery slope.
Alan
k7ose wrote:
They should have put you in jail!..I would of... You do show ID when you cash a check or use a credit card... or did you make this up? where you been since 9-11?
File a complaint with the police department, they'll have a process to do so. Then if you want, complain to every member of the local administration, city council, congressional representatives, etc. But if you really want to have some fun (it may cost), get a hungry and aggressive and greedy lawyer who specializes in police misconduct. Don't let yourself got bogged down in political pissing contests, you'll end up with a lot of hand-wringers whining about Bush and get nowhere.
Washington, DC, is firmly in the hands of the Democratic Party, liberal hand-wringing and conspiracy theories only resonates with them when you want to complain about Bush, not about their little fiefdoms.
E-Vener wrote:
The excuse for the people who think liberties in the United States of America need to be curtailed arrived on a beautiful morning in early September 2001. Last week i heard Govenor Christie of New Jersey tell someone who was protesting at a Meg Whitman campaign rally to shut up and when they took over this kind of disruption won't happen.
The people who want the USA to be a tightly controlled place have been plotting it since the early 1970s when they worked for Richard Nixon. Now they are doing the massive amount of funding to influence the next election and they own and run a massive media network (Fox) to dissiminate their propaganda and disinfomation.
What makes you say that? The guy in charge of Fox news is Roger Ailes, a long time Republican apparachnik, with equally deep ties to Richanrd Nixon. Former Vice president Richard Cheney started hos political career win the Nixon White House. Same for Donald Rumsfeld, and you should read up about Dick Armey, the chairman of FreedomWorks, which his the major pipeline for finding and funding many "tea party" candidates and the orchestrator of many of the national "tea party" as well as chief disseminators of the lie that President Obama is a socialist . (Obama is no more of a Socialist than Bill Gates,Warren Buffet, or Rupert Murdoch is).
Don't take my word for this: You can look all of this up all of it is verifiable from multiple independent sources. They desire a Nixonian style Imperial Presidency , answerable to no one. GOp leaders and commentators complain about the Democrats fermenting "class warfare" while they have been waging it continually against the middle class and the poor for 40 years.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, prefaced The Gulag Archipelago? his monumental dissection of the archly conservative Soviet Police State with an Ancient Russian proverb "Remember the past and lose one eye, but forget the past and you lose both." That will be something to keep in mind in the weeks ahead as the GOP and their spokesmen and women on Fox News continue to blame all of our economic woes on President Obama being in office for less than 20 months, to make you ignore the previous 8 years of financial misrule - -policies which the GOP's "pledge to America" announced last week enshrines as their legislative blueprint.
Let me see if I got this right. Ahmadinejad can come on our soil and insult and demean Americans, but you cannot take a picture of the Verizon building. OK, I think I get it
E-Vener wrote:
The people who want the USA to be a tightly controlled place have been plotting it since the early 1970s when they worked for Richard Nixon. Now they are doing the massive amount of funding to influence the next election and they own and run a massive media network (Fox) to dissiminate their propaganda and disinfomation.
Going to have to disagree with you here, Ellis. First, Fox is just another network. All of the people on it formerly worked for ABC, NBC, whatever. There are some commentators on there who actively dislike current administration (Hannity, Beck) but there are also some on there that are fairly liberal (Greta, Geraldo.) Too many uninformed people try to make them out to be a boogyman who have never even watched. If you want propaganda, try MSNBC (Chris Matthews, anyone?) There's a reason that network has virtually zero percent of viewers. As for Nixon etc., I will remind everyone that it was Janet Napolitano, Obama's director of homeland security, who just this year advised police forces to treat photographrs as "suspicious." Last I heard, the Obama administration has refused to change this. You won't hear about this on MSNBC or NBC. Here's the link: http://nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2010/09/poster.html
More to the topic, I like to take pictures of trains. I once had a crazy guy who was a rent-a-cop wave an automatic rifle in the air and yell at me for taking photos of a UP bridge from a public road. I call the sherriff, who had a talk with him. Twice now I've simply pulled out my cell phone and called the sherriff on these people when they get obnoxious and threatening with me. I was also once in Omaha, taking photos of a slot train. I was near the Offutt AFB, and had the sunroof open on my car and was taking photos out through that. Two dark blue Suburbans suddenly pulled up and MP's with M16 rifles jumped out. The Lt. told me that someone reported there was a guy in a car pointing an anti-aircraft missile at low flying air force planes. They laughed when they saw my Nikon 500mm f4 and left.
1) Fox Brioadcasting of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is a very large entity. I referred precisely to the Fox News division which is run by Roger Ailes ( see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ailes ), and which recently made a $1,000,000.00 campaign contribution to the Republican Party.
2) "Greta" as in Greta Van Sustern, the Fox commentator who with her husband re advisors to the former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin - -who is now also a commentator for Fox News.
3) "Last I heard, the Obama administration has refused to change this. You won't hear about this on MSNBC or NBC."
I read about that first on Huffingtonpost and later at the gym on MSNBC.
4)"I will remind everyone that it was Janet Napolitano, Obama's director of homeland security, who just this year advised police forces to treat photographrs as "suspicious.""
Not true, this was a policy started shortly after September 11. Between then and November 2008 I was questioned multiple times by law enforcement ranging from the U.S. Marshall service on down to municipal police. Withe the U.S. marchall's service I chard them call their chief of operations around the Courthouses I was photographing around,. She came down and explained to the Deputies that there was no law prohibiting photographing those buildings, and gave me her card so that I could contact her directly if I was stopped again.
There was also a case where a man was arrested in New York City in 2007 (and again in 2009) for photographing a building that had an FBI office in it.
There have been and always will be cops and security guards who overstep their authority. When they do they need to be reminded that they have. But being o the other side I also see people with attitude causing problems as well. Ownership of a camera doesn't give you special rights or the license to be an a**hole.
More to the topic, I like to take pictures of trains. I once had a crazy guy who was a rent-a-cop wave an automatic rifle in the air and yell at me for taking photos of a UP bridge from a public road. I call the sherriff, who had a talk with him. Twice now I've simply pulled out my cell phone and called the sherriff on these people when they get obnoxious and threatening with me. I was also once in Omaha, taking photos of a slot train. I was near the Offutt AFB, and had the sunroof open on my car and was taking photos out through that. Two dark blue Suburbans suddenly pulled up and MP's with M16 rifles jumped out. The Lt. told me that someone reported there was a guy in a car pointing an anti-aircraft missile at low flying air force planes. They laughed when they saw my Nikon 500mm f4 and left....Show more →
heh-heh. And I bet, based on your behavior here, that you were calm and professional in all instances. People )including me) forget how their attitude can set the tone for another person's reactions.
Do you have any video footage of the exchange? I am writing a post about this on my blog where I document First Amendment violations against photographers.
I've been to Cuba and China on photo expeditions. Not once did anyone stop me from taking pictures. I even had security guards offer to take pictures for me at famous landmarks so I can be in them.
I've experienced similar "national security" type occurrences in my travels to the U.S. and unfortunately it is a real turn-off from traveling there. I know there are a lot of others who like me try to avoid going through the U.S. in a connecting flight when flying internationally.
Such a shame such a beautiful country, with so much to photograph, is coming down to this.
thank goodness we have just ONE network that is not the current administrations private news organization. Lets see, a commercial free 30 min on matt lauer last week.. the PSA's on another of the admins programs on education. The hour long programmig they gave him to promote the healthcare/welfare give away. Please let us have ONE non-obama programing network
Gee whiz guys, you have cbs, abc, nbc, msnbc, pbs, all licking the sweat off obamas balls, and are losing there ass doing it. I used to think olbermann was a comedian like maher, till i saw he was a news common tater. WHy cant we have just ONE news group that has the other side. You dont like em, you dont have to listen to them. Get your news from olberman, bill maher, and the girl with a neck like a pro linebacker on msnbc. IF they are so bad, why do all there ratings seem to be so much better, SOMEONE besides conservatives must be watching the programming, and I doubt its just those hatefull conservative teaparty folks, im sure a lot of independent thinking, working people not interested in obamas reparation programs under the guise of fundamental change are the ones watching.
Too bad you got harrassed, but at least you werent at a philly voting booth with some "NEW" black panthers there with clubs trying to stop you from voting..What ever happened to those guys,, the current admin let them go., so i would nt worry to much about a camera incident, just use that as your legal defence
Now you are in Verizon's database...whatever that means. The Po-Po needs to be reminded who they work for, the 'people' or the corporations.....
