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ummm...........why was "NASSUA COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT" moved to "NORTH CAROLINA?" Doesnt anyone know the difference between nassau county and north carlolina the state? I dont get it.
LOL, I was so confused when I started reading this thread! Can't believe it's still in the NC forum.
i guess the thread started in nassau county but since is the nyc forum i figured what the heck. i may as well make it pertainent here too. my wife and i are into photography big time so its a subject near and dear to my heart.
I hate to revive old threads, but I happened upon this one via Google and happened to see the other thread about Long Island police opinions. I did see John's video of my situation back in 2011, but never knew a thread about it was created here.
I'm the guy who was the original topic of this thread. In 2011, I was 15 with a decent amount of free time and took interest in buses and the photography of them as a hobby. There is a full blown community for people that do this and if you look it up on YouTube or Google, there are many results for those that follow this trend. At the time, as you probably remember, Long Island Bus was in the process of being transferred from MTA control to Veolia Transportation. Given it was somewhat of a historic moment, I decided to take the bus to the Mitchel Field depot in Garden City that July and was going to spend an hour or so taking some photos/videos of buses entering/exiting the facility for YouTube. I really hadn't ever had a problem with drivers or dispatchers from the company themselves. Before this, I had never had a run in with the law or any real experience talking to police. This was my first confrontation with anyone within this hobby.
So it's the afternoon, around 1-2pm on a Saturday, and its sunny out. I'm across the street from the front entrance of the depot, standing in the street between two parked cars in front of that construction parking lot. I'm out there are about 20 minutes taking photos and videos of buses driving in and out of the depot, refueling, driving by, etc. No tripod or professional equipment, just a point and shoot getting some good footage. After about 20 minutes, a security guard with a two-way radio comes out of the garage, walks up to me and starts asking me questions. He asks what I'm doing here, why I'm talking photos and for what? I thought, nice guy just doing his job, answered his questions, even went so far as to show him the community that shares this stuff on my phone. His response was really just an "okay" before walking back in and a warning to me to be careful that some drivers might be on edge because of the privatization that was happening and their jobs might be at stake. He genuinely seemed like a good guy, but he still could have gone along with the other guard and called the police.
I went back to what I was doing, standing in the same place in the street, not obstructing traffic or affecting anything whatsoever. Ten minutes later, another guard comes out and asks me to leave. His reason is that their security cameras caught me recording things on their property that shouldn't have been recorded. What, I don't know. At this point, I had acquired an adequate amount of footage though I would have liked to get more, but I didn't want to get into any real trouble, so I agreed to leave. I was taking the N27 bus back, but the bus stop was right in front of the depot on their side of the street. I figured what's the harm since it's a public bus stop anyway. I never stepped off of public property this entire time. I walk across the street, and sit in the shelter checking my photos and waiting.
Then I happen to see, from the direction of Oak Street, a police car turn onto Commercial Ave heading my way with it's lights and sirens on. What do you know, they stop in front of the bus stop. These were not auxiliary police, they were actual cops with guns. I'm just sitting in the shelter here. White male, no jacket on, sunglasses on my head, and just a camera in my hand and a phone/wallet in my pocket. The two cops get out of the car and start asking me questions, just like the first guard did. One of the cops asks me for my ID while the other one asks me for my camera. At this point, my heart is beating fast and I'm scared out of my mind, so I hand the camera to one of the cops and my school ID to the other cop after telling him it's the only ID I have. He starts questioning what I'm doing over there when I go to school in the city and don't live in Nassau County. He then pulls out a notepad and asks for my full address and phone number. The one question I ask them, though I wish I had asked more, was why did they need my address? His response was along the lines of "since 9/11, you have to be careful about terrorism with these kinds of things." It was apparently the same reason they wanted my school ID. I'll always remember this because it was the only time throughout years of doing this that I was ever classified or treated as if I was a terrorist. A terrorist that voluntarily left a public area at the request of some private security. Anyway, of course I give him the information since I have no idea what's going on and whether I'm being arrested or not. While this is going on, the other cop is standing right there deleting everything on my camera and the bus I was waiting for drives right by. My camera gets handed back to me, the driver says "alright, get out of here" and both of them get back into the patrol car. I even remember asking them "Well, my bus just drove by, so can I at least get a ride to the mall" and their quick answer was "no, get out of here." So I start walking away while they sat there in the car in front of the bus stop until I had turned the corner on Quentin Roosevelt Blvd heading north and was out of their view. That's when they finally drove past me and away.
Now I know you're probably wondering whether I did anything after all of this. Besides sharing it with some people, the answer is "no." I never filed any complaint because I just felt like it was an unnecessary burden that would most likely get my parents and family involved and probably wouldn't get anywhere since I handed the camera over to them under pressure. Unfortunate event, I thank John for making it a bit more public, but it's probably something I'll never forget. I hope this closes any questions that were left in this thread.
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