The National Press Photographers Association has come out in support of photographer Steven Sunshine, a New York Daily News contributing photographer, who was taking photos of blizzard-induced flight delays at JFK airport in December. JetBlue security personnel told Sunshine he should have requested clearance three days earlier, despite the fact that the Sunday storm’s severity was not known until the day before. Sunshine was escorted out of the terminal and, when he filed a complaint with the Port Authority Police, which oversees the airport, they threatened to pull his credentials.
“For you to have singled out Mr. Sunshine, who identified himself as a credentialed press photographer is an insult to our profession and members, who are also part of the flying public. While I appreciate your concerns for the safety of your patrons and employees I would hope that you can understand that photography/videography by itself is not a dangerous or pernicious activity.”
Now this one takes the cake. A credentialed — and major, we might add — photographer is harassed by Secret Service while taking photos outside the White House. Mannie Garcia, best known for his Obama photo that turned into the ubiquitous “Hope” poster and the lawsuit that followed, was taking photos of a World Aids Day rally on Pennsylvania Avenue, when an officer approached him and demanded he delete the photo.
“He just charged me,” Garcia told PDN Pulse. “He came right at me and grabbed my camera. He had his hand on his weapon and said give me that photo and I said no.”
Garcia walked away without further incident, and it was all quickly sorted out. The officer was apparently young and green, and Garcia said there has been a tense “mood in the air” lately.
Even so, maybe the Secret Service should reevaluate whether this officer is right for this post in front of one of the most photographed sites in the world.
While legally filming a TSA enhanced screening pat-down at Nashville International Airport I was confronted by an Airport Police Officer and told to stop filming. The officer later removed my iPhone from my hands, despite my protests, saying “I don’t need a warrant.”
When TSA officials told him I was within my rights to shoot footage of the checkpoint, he gave the phone back to me. As I was leaving, TSA agents insisted that I could not show the footage without their permission, which is false.
This occurred at Nashville International Airport in Nashville, Tenn., Monday November 22, 2010. at 5:30pm CT.
ALSO: Blogger/photographer Steven Frischling writes that he was harassed by the TSA at Bradley International Airport in Hartford, CT. While photographing TSA checkpoints, he was stopped by a Connecticut State Trooper who informed him that “photographing a TSA security checkpoint was illegal, and specifically a ‘Federal Offense.'”
Frischling knows his rights, though and informed said trooper specifically that, “the TSA publicly states that photography of checkpoints is legal, with limited restrictions.” (Uh….just how do you think all those photos of celebs going through airport security get into Us Weekly?!) The officer accused Frischling of hiding and concealing his camera, then detained him, and then another plainsclothes TSA employee in some unidentified capacity showed up — which is when Frischling speed-dialed the TSA communications office.
Less than 20 minutes after I was told I was being detained and that I was not free to leave the terminal the TSA agent approached the State Trooper, whispered something in the Trooper’s ear and I was quickly apologized to … with that both the TSA agent and the Trooper quickly leaving me alone.
The TSA has a major image problem right now, if you hadn’t heard. They’re already treading on a perilously thin line, quickly heading into invasion-of-privacy territory. So you’d think they’d train their officers, employees and the state police that work the airports of their clearly stated photography regulations. And maybe then those TSA personnel could instead focus on feeling up passengers.
The students of Berkeley in California are outraged by a proposed 8% hike in tuition cost and decided to protest it. This is where the police come in. Not only were they refusing to allow people into the public meeting but they were using excessive force (pointing guns at unarmed people) as well
Have you ever wondered who are the ones watching the watchmen?
Well, it’s people like Jacob Crawford of CopWatch in San Francisco, who learn the hard way that the watchmen do not like being watched and will do anything to blind your prying eyes.
Such as this unidentified female officer who attacked and unlawfully detained Crawford for videotaping her and asking questions that she refused to respond to but is legally obligated to answer. The officer also claimed, “You can’t film people who don’t want to be filmed,” after Crawford was handcuffed, lying face-down in the street, and surrounded by other cops.
Just so you know, former undercover officer, we can film you—and people like Jacob Crawford are going to continue watching you with their cameras. So get used to your newfound viral glory because our cameras are everywhere—actually protecting and serving the public.
More important, your actions were criminal, and if you weren’t a cop, you would be spending the night in jail with the other criminals.
Here’s Crawford’s account of what happened:
“On November 18th I was assaulted by Plain Clothes Officers. We started off our shift at 16th in Mission in Sf by seeing several strange people. I assumed them to be plain clothes officers because I could see vests under their shirts. When they refused to identify themselves I wondered whether indeed these were “on the job” cops. Many cities around the country are known for having rogue units that take the “law” into their own hands, or are involved in organized crime. As I questioned a woman on her involvement she grabbed my camera and ran at me. From all directions came men who neither identified themselves as cops or gave orders. I assumed I was getting attacked, and I was unsure of by who. As I ran into 16th street two cops cars pulled up with lights on, it was at that point that I stopped and let the arriving officers take me down. Within seconds they could see that the move was faulty, and they released me with no charge[.]”
A fish rots from the head down. Especially in the New Haven (CT) police department. That’s where Assistant Chief Ariel Melendez ordered the arrest of Luis Luna for filming an altercation with his iPhone one early morning in September. Luna, 26, says police took his iPhone, erased the video he took of officers breaking up a fight outside a bar, and then charged him with interfering with police. He spent the night in jail.
Assistant Chief Melendez noticed Luna and approached him “in a very intimidating manner,” Luna recalled. He asked what Luna was doing.
“I said, ‘Filming,’” Luna recalled. “He grabbed my phone and walked away.”
Melendez ordered officer Kristen Fitzgerald to arrest Luna for interfering.
“I just could not believe it,” Luna said.
Apparently this isn’t the first time police in New Haven have been caught harassing and even confiscating camera phones in the recent past. But still, Police Chief Frank Limon claims that he knows filming police is not illegal.
Assistant Chief Melendez didn’t get the memo though, despite 31 years on the force. He doesn’t mind using jackbooted tactics to enforce nonexistent laws. Know why? Because he knows he’ll get away with it.
Remember in the old days when cops would raid your parents’ home and charge you with illegal wiretapping after you uploaded a video to YouTube, showing one of America’s ‘finest” violating the law, wielding a gun, killing someone, or just acting like a power-tripping thug who should not be wearing a badge?
Well, that’s like soooooo two months ago.
Because if you upload a video of a cop acting like a jackass there is now the possibility that you could be sued by the officer. And if you leave disparaging comments and make your own parody videos ridiculing the cop for his egregious behavior, YOU WILL BE SUED for defamation in a frivolous lawsuit.
In his statement of claim, Josephs calls the cartoons and several comments “devastatingly defamatory,” alleging they have brought him “ridicule, scandal and contempt both personally and as a member of the (Toronto Police Service).”
Sorry Miley, but if you’re so concerned about your 10-year-old sister being photographed then maybe you shouldn’t bring her out in public where there is no expectation of privacy and it is not against the law to videotape anyone. And if being photographed in public bothers you so much that it causes you to act like a self-righteous clam and put your hands on someone else’s property, then you should stay home and have your private chef cook you breakfast.
It was you, who was being rude…DUDE. Threatening to call the police because a woman was photographing you while in public? That’s a laugh. What would be the charge? More important, how can you even justify your behavior when your little sis’s picture is dreadfully already all over the place! Get over yourself.
This woman should’ve smacked you as soon as you touched her camera and told you to shut-the-fuck-up and go back to your overpriced fruit cup. But I love how you didn’t have enough bitch in you to do anything about all of the male paparazzi that were standing much closer to the restaurant photographing your annoying sister.
I’m presuming she’s annoying, since she shares your genes.
This video seems like a big joke, but it also makes me want to give up documentary photography and become a paparazzo. I already live in Los Angeles, and how great would it be to actually make great money taking pictures and then get to drop-kick Shia LaDouche’s ass after he throws coffee on you? Why don’t any of these paps ever kick the shit out of these celebrities going wild? Maybe Arnie should sign another law creating harsher penalties for celebrities who attack law-abiding photographers.
What a passive-aggressive pussy you are LaBeouf, running away like that.
boywithgrenade.org 