Hassled For Taking Photo's - Patriot Act (illegal, highway, military)

[RonAriba]

Have you been hassled by private security police when taking pictures? I recently have been hassledfor taking pictures of all places in the Greyhound bus deposit. Security came up to me citing the PatriotAct/Homeland Security and told me to stop taking pictures or the police will be called.Went across the street toanother building with retail stores and took some pictures in the mall whenagain approached by security to stop taking pictures or I would be charged with trespassing. Is this the good old USA or what? Is this a common problem in your area? How do you react when approached by security and what are your right?



I hope Homeland Security won't be knocking on my door tonight for publishing these photo's

[CLees]

Ugly pictures. Lol that law is bs and a total infringement upon our constitutional rights.

[hammertime33]

Is that the Denver Greyhound station?

[chuckmann]

Originally Posted by CLees

Ugly pictures. Lol that law is bs and a total infringement upon our constitutional rights.

Look upon them as documentation of a place and time. I take a lot of photos of the ugly buildings along the highway that runs through town. Just to show a snapshot, if you will, of what was.

Havent you seen displays of old photos of buildings and streets from the past?

[chuckmann]

Originally Posted by RonAriba

Have you been hassled by private security police when taking pictures? I recently have been hassledfor taking pictures of all places in the Greyhound bus deposit. Security came up to me citing the PatriotAct/Homeland Security and told me to stop taking pictures or the police will be called.Went across the street toanother building with retail stores and took some pictures in the mall whenagain approached by security to stop taking pictures or I would be charged with trespassing. Is this the good old USA or what? Is this a common problem in your area? How do you react when approached by security and what are your right?



I hope Homeland Security won't be knocking on my door tonight for publishing these photo's

I was walking through the outside of the Sacramento Airport taking photos of the wonderful art displays (metal sculptures of airplanes and various other abstracts) and the artwork on the public buses driving through. I was approached by security and told it was illegal to take pictures at the airport and would have to cease and desist.

As I did not have the time to spend many hours in detention arguing that I have every right to photograph public tax payer supported buildings and artwork, I just packed up and went away.

But this is crap.

I've been through that whole mall thing too. In that case, the mall is private property and so yes they can restrict you from photographing the inside. Funny, though. I have seen many people taking pictures in so called restricted areas of private property on their camera phones. I guess we old fashioned camera kinds of guys are second class citizens.

In common practice, there is no expectation of privacy for any individual in a public place. Nor does a building have an expectation of privacy.

So, they are worried that terrorists will take picture of public buildings, and use that information to plan attacks?

Yoo hoo, people. Ever heard of Google Earth?

Buncha morons. The terrorists have won after all, because they have succeeded in turning America into an ever growing police state.

[Drewcifer]

I do a lot of urban photography so I have gone out of my way to educate myself on this issue. The Supreme Court has been pretty clear over the years that the first amendment guarantees the right to take pictures provided you are on public property (like a sidewalk) and taking pictures of something in plain sight. The main exception to that is in certain areas around military bases (secured airport areas may also be a special case). Security guards frequently do not know this and end up going beyond their legal powers. Police have the right to stop you and ask what you are doing but they can't go beyond that. I've been stopped by both the Minneapolis and St Paul police while doing urban photography, in both cases they were courteous to me, I was polite to them, we had a two minute conversation and were both on our way. I have heard of people having less positive interactions in other jurisdictions.

[chuckmann]

Originally Posted by Drewcifer

I do a lot of urban photography so I have gone out of my way to educate myself on this issue. The Supreme Court has been pretty clear over the years that the first amendment guarantees the right to take pictures provided you are on public property (like a sidewalk) and taking pictures of something in plain sight. The main exception to that is in certain areas around military bases (secured airport areas may also be a special case). Security guards frequently do not know this and end up going beyond their legal powers. Police have the right to stop you and ask what you are doing but they can't go beyond that. I've been stopped by both the Minneapolis and St Paul police while doing urban photography, in both cases they were courteous to me, I was polite to them, we had a two minute conversation and were both on our way. I have heard of people having less positive interactions in other jurisdictions.

One of my fellow camera club members was hassled by the County Fair goons. He was told that published rules forbad the use of long lenses within the fairgrounds.

As I had plans to do some HDR shooting of the floral displays, I wrote and called the fair administration people to discuss the matter. See, there were no such prohibitions in the published policy. I called them on it.

No surprise there was no response, but I showed up with my tripod and long lens and got some wonderful shots. A time or two a security person looked at me cross eyed, but no confrontation.

I think we the people need to continue to push back at this petty tyranny, directed by people without klew. We are not slaves and they are not our masters.

[pknopp]

This is an important topic for many reasons. Authorities told people they could not record them doing their jobs also but the courts have been ruling against that. I was only approached once and that was a security guard so I really wasn't all that concerned and he went ahead and left me along once I guaranteed him that I wasn't going to step foot on their property. (I had no right to be on their property as it was private property so that was no problem)

This is one of those stupid feel good things. With a proper lens there is likely very few things you couldn't photograph from somewhere that you wouldn't even be noticed.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by RonAriba

Have you been hassled by private security police when taking pictures? I recently have been hassledfor taking pictures of all places in the Greyhound bus deposit. Security came up to me citing the PatriotAct/Homeland Security and told me to stop taking pictures or the police will be called.Went across the street toanother building with retail stores and took some pictures in the mall whenagain approached by security to stop taking pictures or I would be charged with trespassing. Is this the good old USA or what? Is this a common problem in your area? How do you react when approached by security and what are your right?



I hope Homeland Security won't be knocking on my door tonight for publishing these photo's

You were standing on private property, they can tell you whatever they want.

[GregW]

If you are taking pictures of your girlfriend in a bra and panties or the equivalent bikini you can photograph damn near anywhere. Just have her vamp in front of the background you want to photograph.