Slog - Comments on Another Photographer Detained http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained Here's another in the rash of tales since Sept. 11 about all sorts of photographers being questioned and detained for taking perfectly legal pictures. KING-5 reports today that the Snohomish police cuffed an associate professor of fine art at UW, Shirley Scheier, for taking pictures of power lines. Now the ACLU is suing the department. Here's a good primer on what you can and can't shoot when you're out there—and with few exceptions, the cops and the security guards crying "security" are wrong. Keep shooting. (Thanks for the tip, Betsey.)... Copyright 2008 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:57:19 -0800 Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:22:48 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Fnarf A rough rule of thumb is, if you can see it from property that's open to the public, you can photograph it. As Kantor points out, it's legal to shoot in a shopping mall, for instance, but it's also legal for the shopping mall to bar you and make you leave. They CAN'T stop or confiscate your photography, though.

I always carry this document with me: http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf


There was a case last week of a tourist on Amtrak traveling from New York to Boston who was photographing from the train, and the asshole of a conductor told him to stop. He didn't stop, because he didn't speak any English and didn't know what the guy was saying. So the conductor had the cops come on at New Haven and take the guy off the train for questioning. He was Japanese. Through a fellow passenger they were able to determine that he was going to see family in Boston who would be worried if he didn't show up on time, which interested the conductor and the cops not at all. They put him on a later train. That's the definition of a police state. Don't let them do it to you.

I was physically threatened and followed in a car by a homeless guy in Georgetown whose "home" -- a shopping cart -- I had inadvertently photographed. I didn't feel like discussing the finer points of the law with him!

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851051 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851051 Arts Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:09:39 -0800 Comment by infrequent i'm sick of the homeless and their police state!

]]> infrequent http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851057 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851057 Arts Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:15:59 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Friends don't let friends take pictures of power lines.

Power lines are for throwing shoes over to advertise drug dealer locations.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851071 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851071 Arts Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:31:43 -0800 Comment by Jeff Some friends of mine got confronted by a cop (or some sort of security figure employed by the gov't) two years ago for taking a picture of the outside of the federal court building downtown from the street. Being on a photo scavenger hunt, they weren't really in the mood to get arrested. They stopped taking pictures and were left alone, but it's still very troubling.

]]> Jeff http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851091 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851091 Arts Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:00:26 -0800 Comment by neilcrocodile Thanks for the info and the links Jen and Fnarf. Useful stuff.

]]> neilcrocodile http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851101 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851101 Arts Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:15:13 -0800 Comment by Fnarf I misspoke. We don't live in a police state. We live in a minimum-wage security guard state. And people eat it up, because Americans LOVE being ordered around by a retard who failed his GED with a sewn-on patch on his shirt and a radio on his belt.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851114 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851114 Arts Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:34:54 -0800 Comment by retard who failed his GED with a sewn-on patch on my shirt and a radio on my belt. Yeah, Dance for me you photo-taking scum, then bring me some pork rinds and red bull, you yuppie bootlick. You know you LOVE it... feel my power.

]]> retard who failed his GED with a sewn-on patch on my shirt and a radio on my belt. http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851206 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851206 Arts Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:09:22 -0800 Comment by Greg So what do you do if the police arrest you, take your camera, and destroy the pictures?

]]> Greg http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851242 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851242 Arts Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:42:30 -0800 Comment by DOUG. Do what THIS GUY did. Fight back. And become an ACLU member.

]]> DOUG. http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851258 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851258 Arts Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:31:38 -0800 Comment by DOUG. Let me try that LINK again.

]]> DOUG. http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851260 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851260 Arts Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:44:58 -0800 Comment by infrequent oh man, doug, that story is crazy. he's lucky he could prove (or they admitted) that they actually arrested him.

]]> infrequent http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851283 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/another_photographer_detained#c851283 Arts Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:22:48 -0800