Please try to refrain from making assumptions about me.

If a change was made here, it certainly wasn’t because of the video. A phone call to the CEO from someone who is being calm and explaining what happened WOULD do the same thing and it should have been what happened the first time around. Gathering friends and going back with a video camera hoping to catch it on tape is something that I would expect from teenagers, not adults.

If your so certain that individual photographers need to be making changes right now, please do something about it. Start a legitimate organization, get photographers, non photographers and even better, companies to support you. If a big change is to be made, effecting these situations, the organizers of such a group will most likely spend years getting it to a point where the changes are seen.

Do you honestly believe that small groups of vigilantes with video cameras are going to change the crappy attitude received from bored, underpaid security guards all across this country?

In both of my previous comments I have been quite calm and reasonable, explaining things from the perspective of someone who also wants to see a change but realizes that this isn’t the best way to go about it.

If these guys made a change at this location, congrats to them and I hope they see the change in the future.

With that said, it could have very easily gone bad. The out of line security guard could easily have lost his temper and grabbed the video camera or shoved one of them. In a heated situation like that, there’s no telling what will happen. If a fight would break out on or off camera, both guys would be going to jail. Cops aren’t standing on the sidewalk watching a video to see whos the bully. So say it happened off camera, at that point it would be the word of paid security guards against the word of a group of guys with cameras, in court. In court man! Is that really what you want to take this to? That didn’t happen here but watch the video, watch the guards hand movements and tell me that it wasn’t really close to happening.

If this kind of action is the photography community’s general consensus as to what needs to be done, people trying to duplicate this might not be so lucky. Is this approach really what we want to reflect onto younger generations of photographers?

Its definitely not the approach that I will be taking.

That’s the problem with most people in the country. They think everything is “pointless” so they don’t even bother trying to improve things.

You’re obviously one of those band wagon hoppers who once you see enough people on board, then you’re in.

But if it’s just a small group of people, then you’re not in.

Everybody is so concerned about not rocking the boat that they do not even realize we’re losing our Constitutional rights faster than a sinking ship.

For those of you that question the tactics of these photographers, you probably haven’t been swarmed by a group of muscle-bound, low IQ cops or security guards threatening you with arrest or physical harm if you don’t do something it is our guaranteed right (established by many court cases, I should ad).

I have no doubt you would scurry away with your tail between your legs as soon as someone told you to stop taking photos.

These guys may have been assertive in their tactics but they were not violent and they were not acting in an unlawful manner.

It’s really shocking to see them being accused of not being “polished” enough or of “bad behavior” or of “sensationalism”.

The point was to document the fact that U.S. Bank security guards are violating the rights of citizens. The banks may own most of the country, but they don’t own the sidewalks. At least not yet.

But if it were up to people like you, they would own the sidewalks and decide when you can and can’t walk on them.

Unbelievable.

So you were harassed once, knew that the particular area was a problem, gathered your buddies and went back with a video camera. Legal or Illegal, you were asking for a confrontation.

“I felt emotionally and psychologically abused. Seriously.”

Didn’t you go back to this place a second time?

Like I said before, I see both sides of this but like others have said here, its obvious from watching the video and hearing things like “did you get that on tape” and “so what do you think we accomplished” that these guys had some idea that this might happen. Its pointless. Even if you were to gather a photowalking group to do this same thing in every major city across the US at the same exact time, it wouldn’t make a difference. Going to one building in one city with a little group of friends isn’t going to make a difference either.

Its never a good thing to loose a right. That goes for ANY right but im a little confused as to what you were looking to do here. Certainly not effect the big picture right? So possibly to post it on the internet and have a few hundred people take a look… possibly spark a little argument on a blog.

Especially the ones going on about exposing structural weaknesses. First there’s the fantasy that there is some critical structural weakness to be found. Followed by the even sillier delusion that if it existed it would be magically obvious in non-load-bearing cladding? Where do you people get this nonsense? These are buildings next to public sidewalks, they’d be trivial to McVeigh if someone was so inclined.

But even if there was some defensible reason to not want photos, that’s STILL not justification to lie about the law, lie about having called the police, and get in people’s face.

The good news is that a big chunk of downtown L.A. photo hostility is from Maguire Properties-owned buildings. They’re going splat like an egg from the 30th floor when their debt comes due, debt they’re almost certainly too far underwater to refi. So these buildings will all have new owners in the next 12-24 months, hopefully the vultures are a little friendlier.

It doesn’t matter how the photogs were approached or what the guards were saying. RISE ABOVE that and be CALM, INTELLIGENT and RESPECTFUL even if they are not respecting you. If you want to have a conversation with the guards, yelling, calling them names, screaming you have rights… and yes, baiting the guards isn’t smart or intelligent. Thankfully the guy in the glasses at the end shut his trap. The security guards are doing their jobs. And also note that in the end they listened, only after calm man spoke with them with respect. A lesson for anyone that is approached like this. My last word is standing up for photog rights is fine and I support it, however it is not a priority in my opinion. There are thousands of more important issues we are facing in this country that need our energy focusing on. Not yelling at a security guard.