Category: Photography is Not a Crime

FOXNews.com – Straight Talk: Videotaping Police – Opinion Radley Balko has an op/ed piece up this morning talking about the importance of us being able to photograph the police.

He cites several examples of abuse by police including last month’s altercation between Brian Kelly and the Carlisle, PA police where Kelly spent 26 hours in jail after videotaping the police on a routine traffic stop, as well as a recent case involving Carlos Miller that I also reported on.

He also points to more serious abuse cases like the one of Eugene Siler, who was beaten and tortured by five sheriff’s in Tennessee. Fortunately for Siler his wife had surreptitiously switched on a tape recorder when this was going on.

Now I think most cops are honest cops. Some of my best friends are cops. There are cops in my family. Most cops are good cops. But there are bad cops too. And it is important that proper police training takes place so that police officers unequivocally *know* that they should not protest their being photographed in public. The courts have ruled on this already. It is an important first amendment right. And cops that get caught persecuting photographers? Well, they should get the book thrown at them.

It is important that we all as the new long tail photo journalists of the world retain this important right.

Balco says it best here:

“As noted, police are public servants, paid with taxpayer dollars. Not only that, but they’re given extraordinary power and authority we don’t give to other public servants: They’re armed; they can make arrests; they’re allowed to break the very laws they’re paid to enforce; they can use lethal force for reasons other than self-defense; and, of course, the police are permitted to videotape us
without our consent.

It’s critical that we retain the right to record, videotape or photograph the police while they’re on duty. Not only for symbolic reasons (when agents of the state can confiscate evidence of their own wrongdoing, you’re treading on seriously perilous ground), but as an important check on police excesses. In the age of YouTube, video of police misconduct captured by private citizens can have an enormous impact.”

The Cosmic Tap: An Accidental Interview with Lieutenant Phil Dreyer Anthony Citrano has an unfortunate write up about an altercation he had recently with Lieutenant Phillip Dreyer of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department.

Anthony was minding his own business, doing what many of us do, documenting our world with our cameras, and unfortunately, according to him, ended up instead harassed and threatened by one Lieutenant Phil Dreyer.

“Can I see some ID?”

My instinctive response, before I saw what he was holding, was “no.”

As he shouted, “I better or you’re goin’ t’ jaail!”, I noticed he was displaying in his hand some sort of police identification.

Finding him unusually aggressive, noting his weapon and ID, and hearing his threat of arrest if I did not produce identification, I decided to show him my license.

“Are you taking pictures for personal use or a company?”

“Well, it depends.. probably personal, but I suppose if someone wants to run them, they can… why?”

(getting in my face) “You ever hear of September the 11th?”

“Uhhh, yeah, but I’m not sure what it has to do with this.”

“You are between two buildings housing communications equipment.”

“OK… and I am in a public place, taking pictures of things in plain view. There’s nothing secret or sensitive here. I mean, if I had criminal intent, do you really think I’d be out here in the open like this taking photos?”

“You’d be surprised.”

“I would? Have you ever caught such a person?”

As he began a call on his cell phone (my license in hand) and talked (or pretended to talk) with someone, I noticed a news crew setting up about 50 meters away. He ended his call shortly thereafter and our conversation continued.

“How do I know you’re not going to give these pictures to someone [to do harm]?”

“Well, I suppose you don’t – but how do you plan to ascertain that by checking my identification?”

(shouting again) “LOOK – you give me any lip, and you’re goin’ t’ jaail!”

Police that abuse their authority make me terribly angry. Generally speaking I like the police. I have family members who are cops, good friends who are cops, etc. Yesterday morning before we all met up for photowalking, The Half Moon Bay Sheriff pulled up behind my car when we were parked on the side of the road taking some pictures. I showed him my camera and said we were just taking some photos and he waved back and went on his way. That was a cool cop. We were shooting this kind of interesting looking store by the way.

Later on when the same Sheriff saw us shooting out at the Half Moon Bay Airport, he drove into the parking lot, saw it was us and circled back out on the Highway.

Most of the time I believe that cops interact with photographers very responsibly. But there are always bad cops and one bad apple can do much to taint the whole bunch. If police want respect then people like Phil Dreyer need to be put in their place when they abuse the system. As much as Officer Dreyer seems to insist in the story linked above by Anthony that he not be told how to do his job, actually somebody does need to tell him how to do his job. His job is to enforce the laws, not harass photographers.

I appreciate Anthony writing his blog post and documenting this instance of harassment. For those of us that are photographers, the best way to make this stop is for enough public light to be shown on the bad cops. You are doing nothing wrong. The September 11th line is a bunch of BS. Stand your ground, report when this happens to you and especially if you can, photograph the police involved. Hopefully for a long, long time anytime anyone Google’s Lieutenant Phillip Dreyer’s name people will know what a prick this guy is.

Thanks for the head’s up Henrik!

Category 305 Miami politics, culture, nightlife, and traffic – Journalist Arrest Case Continues: For the past few weeks I’ve been following the unfortunate arrest case of Carlos Miller. To recap for those of you who have not read my previous posts on the matter, Miller is a working journalist in Miami. On Feb 20th Miller was arrested and charged with nine counts by the Miami PD.

Miller’s real crime? Daring to take photographs of Miami PD who asked him not to take their picture. The problem is that photographing the police is not actually a crime and is actually protected by the First Amendment.

Miller has now hired an attorney and I’m looking forward to his case against the Miami Police Department. There is a lot more information and update on his situation here.

Photography is not crime.

So the arrest stories that I’ve been running on Miami journalist Carlos Miller have been getting a lot of attention. The story has appeared now on both Digg and BoingBoing and has generated quite a few comments with regards to the matter.

A couple of things I’d like to point out. First, I have been in contact with Carlos Miller directly on this matter. Carlos has not responded directly in these threads and forums to some of the criticism because there may be legal action pending on this one. For what it’s worth, I hope he wins. But because of potential pending legal action he can’t really carry on in the debate on this one at this time. He is reading the comments of course.

Carlos sent me the photo above which was one of the first photos that he took. In response to people who say that he was initially shooting in their face and not 20 yards away you can see his distance in this photo.

But what I also see in this photo is that the accident scene that the police are working on is not particularly a busy one. There is not rushing traffic by it. In fact there is a “Road Closed” sign right behind it. Seeing this photo makes me question why the police felt it was a safety hazard having him near them shooting. I think it’s more plausible that these cops simply did not want their picture taken and someone stood up to them.

Now. Some people have suggested that Carlos is in the wrong here simply because when a cop tells you to do something, well, you’d damn well better do it. But here’s the thing. These cops absolutely should *never* have asked Carlos not to photograph them in the first place. They should know that as public officers that they are allowed to be photographed. This has gone to court. The case is settled. But when he defied them they still should have taken the high road and just put up with it. Because again, the courts have ruled that having the ability to photograph the police is an important First Amendment right.

I’m glad that Carlos insisted on shooting the police even when asked not to because he stood up for my rights and the rights of every other photographer. The problem is that if everyone just does whats asked of them in the interest of “getting along” then abuse like this can happen. It reinforces it. I get in scuttlebutts with security guards at buildings here in San Francisco all the time when they tell me I can’t photograph their building. A lot of people criticize me saying why don’t you just do what your told? Why do you have to be a prick?

The reason why is because the security guards have no right asking me not to photograph a building from a public street in the first place. Likewise the police, in my opinion here, had no right to ask Carlos not to photograph them. Look at the photo above. There are plenty of places he could have shot this scene from without being a danger to himself or others.

Some people have objected to the flash. Saying that it’s uncomfortable doing your job with a flash firing. Well it’s uncomfortable for the celebrities that have the paparazzi shooting flash at them too. But it’s not illegal. The fact of the matter is that our government and courts have ruled that when in public, photographers can take pictures of people. If people don’t like this then have the rules changed. But until then it’s not illegal to take a photo of someone with a flash.

Other people have suggested that it’s just rude to take a photo of someone who does not want their photo taken. I happen to actually agree with this kind of. I’ve actually had plenty of people who afterwards asked me not to photograph them and almost every time I’ve complied. But there are times when I haven’t and that’s when people are abusing their power. Telling me I can’t shoot a building. Running illegal background checks on me etc. Telling me not to shoot something that is not their person or their family.

Anyways, I’m glad to see that this issue is getting the attention that it deserves. I’m sad to read comments from people saying that Carlos was in the wrong for simply not listening to the police. This kind of attitude that the police can do what they want with impunity may in fact be a sad fact of life in places, but the only way to make things right is for the Carlos Millers of the world to stick up for themselves when this abuse occurs. I’d hope that I’d have the guts to stick up for myself the way Carlos did.

I actually really like the police in general. Some of my closest friends are cops, family members of mine are cops. I don’t think all cops are bad. I think most cops play by the rules and act accordingly. I shoot cops here in San Francisco all the time and never have had a problem. When I shot a police action on Market Street here about a year and a half ago this cop actually turned to me after I shot him and made a joke saying, “make sure you get my good side.” That attitude is refreshing. I appreciate that cop and the hard work that he does for me here in San Francisco. What I don’t appreciate is cops who overstep their authority and abuse their power. And that is what I think happened to Carlos Miller.

So I promised you all the “other side” of the story I’ve been reporting on regarding the recent arrest of Carlos Miller. Carlos Miller is a Miami based journalist who was recently arrested after, according to Miller, he was told not to photograph the police who were investigating a “private matter” and asked to move along.

Rather than comply with the police, Miller instead continued taking photographs of them, a crime for which he asserts he was arrested. In the end Miller spent 16 hours in a Miami Dade jail and now faces nine counts over the incident. You can read Miller’s take of what happened at this story here. The Miami Herald is also reporting on it here.

So the “other side” of the story? Well here from the police report:

“While Officer Read was conducting an investigation of an accident, defendant approached the scene with a camera without identifying himself. Because the accident was at a busy avenue (Biscayne) and was heavy traffic, Officer Read told to the defendent to go to the other side of the street (safety issue) and do not stand in the middle of the street obstructing the traffic at which time defendant refused to obey Officer Read’s commands and stated, “this is a public road and I can do what the hell I want.” And continued refusing to obey after being told to do so. Defendant (made?) myself [and other officers] escorted the defendant to the other side of the street (safe location) by the sidewalk at which time the defendant got violent by refusing to walk freely, tensing himself and taking pictures with his camera.

Then defendant was told to place his hands behind his back, but instead he started putting resistance by pulling his arms away, and non complaint to our verbal commands. Defendants actions caused motorists to stop their vehicles concerning about the comotions. Also defendants actions caused a delay with the accident investigation that Officer Read was conducting. Defendant was arrested without further incident.”

You can read the entire police report (with Carlos’ personal information redacted) at the links below.

Carlos Miller Arrest report page one.pdf

Carlos Miller Arrest report page two.pdf

Ok, a couple of things. First off, the photos that I saw that were taken by Carlos were not photos from the middle of the street. They were photos taken with the police between him and the street. Second. I just find it super hard to believe that even if someone is blocking traffic that they deserve to be arrested over this. People jaywalk all the time. Maybe give him a ticket or something. But to arrest the guy? And I like how the police throw in there that he “got violent” by refusing to walk freely. That’s just ridiculous. I suppose that’s the justification they will use to justify why Carlos was injured in this arrest (Carlos says they smashed his head into the street).

I guess I’m just not buying the cop’s story here. To me it seems like overkill to put Carlos through what he was put through. It doesn’t all add up. I can envision a scenario where what really happened was a photographer was taking photos of cops who didn’t want to be photographed. They asked him not to photograph them and he continued, so they used their power to teach him a lesson. The problem is that the cops should not be telling anyone not to photograph them. If they want to be in a job where they won’t be photographed public service is probably not for them. Also regardless of whether Carlos “identified” himself as a journalist or not, this is not relevant. We are all citizen journalists and as an actual journalist Carlos holds no special rights over any of the rest of us.

I hope that this matter is investigated and that if Carlos indeed was unjustly arrested that the cops in question lose their jobs at a minimum. I hope that his story gets the attention that it deserves and that police everywhere and photographers everywhere are better educated about our respective rights.

Miami Police Department Sergeant RahmingCategory 305 Miami politics, culture, nightlife, and traffic – Miami Police Arrest Journalist Two days ago I posted an article about a Miami journalist who goes by the name of RaginginMiami regarding a recent incident he had with the police. I promised more and here are more of the details. It’s really horrible to read.

The journalist referred to previously as “RaginginMiami”‘s real name is Carlos Miller. He was on assignment shooting Biscayne Boulevard when the police asked him not to take photographs of them. The thing is it’s not against the law to take photos of the police. In fact very specific court rulings have upheld this important right.

Here’s Miller’s account after he took more photos of the police when asked to stop from catergory305 where he works:

“Suddenly, Miller said, the officers lost interest in the man they had been questioning, and focused on him. The commanding officer at the scene, a Sgt. Rahming, walked over to him and took him by the elbow. Rahming escorted him across Biscayne Boulevard, to the sidewalk on the east side.

Miller then made the decision that probably got him thrown in jail. He reached up with one arm and snapped a photo of Rahming. “I knew it pissed him off,“ Miller admitted, “But it’s not illegal.”

Miller turned and saw that the other officers were also walking across the street. He took a couple of shots of them as well, motioning him to keep walking. And that was it. They’d had it.

Miller said that in the next instant, he was surrounded by the officers. One attempted to trip kick him to fall to the ground, but he was concerned about his expensive camera equipment, so he tried not to fall on his face. He heard one officer say “He’s resisting arrest!” “

I have been in contact with Carlos Miller personally and I have also been in contact with an Officer at the Miami PD who has told me that she will provide me a police report of the incident. There are of course two sides to every story and I’ll update again once I obtain that police report — but I will say this. If in fact Carlos’ story is true, these police officers should be fired and should also be put in prison themselves.

While I have a tremendous amount of respect for the police, have friends who are cops, etc. There is no room in this world for dirty cops. The law is the law and the law is clear. Cops are allowed to be photographed. If the cops don’t like this law, they can work to have it changed or move to a country that does not have this law. But when empowered with guns and arrest power they need to use this power only in legal ways.

It’s very upsetting to read stories like this and I hope that Carlos’ story gets the attention that it should and that more photographers and police will be educated about this important First Amendment right.

Update: I have been in contact with a friend of the person arrested (RaginginMiami) in this case. I just left RaginginMiami a voicemail and will publish more details on this after I speak with him. In addition I have been in contact with the Miami Police and have a person in their department working to get me the police report on this incident. Once I have that report I will share more details.

Andrew Ferguson pointed me to a very troubling post today. I’m trying to research the story more, but here’s what I’ve got so far.

A photojournalist who goes by the name RaginginMiami was on assignment shooting Biscayne Blvd in Miami and was shooting a police action from a public street. The police asked him not to photograph them and he continued, resulting in a forceful arrest and his being charged with multiple infractions over the incident. He ended up spending 16 hours in a Miami Dade jail.

From his account:

“One of the cops told me to keep walking because this was a “private matter”.
I said that I will not keep walking because this is a “public street”.
Within seconds, the five officer left the first man alone and came after me. One cop escorted me across the road. As I stood on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road, the cops began surrounding me, which was when I shot several more shots.

That was when they slammed me against the pavement even though I offered no resistance, causing a deep abrasion on my right knee. One officer grabbed me by the back of the head and repeatedly bashed my forehead against the sidewalk, causing abrasions and swelling to the right side of my forehead.

Another officer grabbed my right hand and bent it backwards in a 90 degree angle, causing me to scream out in pain and continuing to do so even after the handcuffs were placed on me. As I verbally protested, one officer threatened me with a taser gun if I did not stop talking.

The officers charged me with five counts of disobeying a police, one count of obstructing justice, one count of obstructing traffic, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of resisting arrest without violence.”

The photo above is one that RaginginMiami says is of the cops who abused him.

When I hear things like this it makes my blood boil. All photographers have absolute rights to photograph the police. This is an important right. It is a check and a balance against police abuse and brutality. Without this right things like the Rodney King incident and others might never be recorded.

Apparently the abused journalist has contacted the ACLU and is working to fight back this week.

I’m trying to make contact with the journalist and will report more of the details on this as I learn them. I hope that these cops pay dearly for their decision to use force on someone for exercising their First Amendment rights.

A few years ago Flickr photographers Aqui-Ali, Ropeboy, Ranjit and myself were stopped by the Alameda Sheriff’s department. They ran our IDs for background checks for doing nothing but taking photos. The Alameda cop asked me not to take his photo but I took it anyways when he wasn’t looking.

You can digg this story here.

Had a unusually pleasant run in with the local security guard down at 50 Beale St. this morning. I usually don’t blog my pleasant run ins but since I’m still trying to figure out who this jackass is from Bechtel I figured I’d blog it anyway.

Me, minding my own business, taking morning shots of 50 Beale Street…

Security Guard: “Um, I’m going to have to ask you to not take photos of the building.

Me: “And I’m going to have to say no.”

Security Guard: “Are you shooting for the building?”

Me: “No.”

Security Guard: “The building doesn’t allow the building to be photographed.”

Me: “That sounds crazy, I’m still going to have to say no.”

Security Guard, heads back into her little station in the building and gets on the phone.

Me, finishes up my morning shoot and heads off to work.

You can check out more of the shots I took this morning here.

Atavistic: the home of Evan Ratliff — The photo police Evan Ratliff, who writes for Wired Magazine, the New Yorker and New York Times Magazine, followed me around San Francisco a few months back on an average afternoon photo shoot. He was covering my photography for the Test Issue of Wired magazine which is on newstands now. Based on our photo shoot he wrote an article entitled “The Right to Bear SLRs.”

Wired doesn’t have the article up online yet, but Evan has a .pdf copy and html version of it on his site here.

On our shoot we did encounter some security guards as I do quite frequently while out and about shooting the city. One guard was pretty cool and just chatted with us a bit. I got into it a bit with another guard who threatened to call the Highway Patrol on me while shooting in the TransBay Terminal. Neither altercations were very eventful but did serve to highlight the increasing anti photographer climate that is out there at present.

Thanks Evan for hanging out with me and for writing the story for Wired. I had a great day and your article hopefully will build more awareness about a photographer’s rights to shoot in public.

I just got back a rather disappointing email from the Neon Musuem in Las Vegas. I had written to the musuem to inquire about taking photographs of some of their neon signs this past weekend while in Las Vegas. I’m not going to link to the museum. You can find them on Google if you want.

For those of you who don’t know what the Neon Museum is, it’s a boneyard of sorts of many of the old Las Vegas neon signs. It’s a place that these signs go to die and the non-profit Neon Museum states their mission as “to collect, preserve, study and exhibit neon signs and associated artifacts to inspire educational and cultural enrichment for diverse members of our international community.”

Unfortunately their policy with regards to photography does not seem to fit with their stated mission.

My interest in shooting the Neon Musuem was simply to share in a non commercial way my interpretation of neon art with the rest of the world. I already have a decent size collection of neon signs and images up on Flickr and I was hoping to add to my collection with some historically significant signs from the Neon Musuem. Because I value the preservation work that someone like the Neon Museum is doing I even offered to make a donation to the museum in conjunction with approval to shoot some of their pieces. I mentioned that my desire was non commercial and simply to promote the museum via my blog and flickr.

What I got back from them was something which I think runs contrary to their mission statement:

“Although many people have taken it upon themselves to post photos of the Boneyard on Flickr and other photo-sharing websites, we ask that no one do so. We are an educational facility first and foremost – and therefore do not allow stock photography. Photos that are uploaded to sites such as Flickr are not copy protected, and therefore are able to be lifted and used by unscrupulous people. As a result, we are trying to limit the number of images from our collection that are hosted on the web.”

This is wrong and backward thinking. As a non profit that says it’s mission is to exhibit their neon signs and who specifically mentions an international community, to restrict the exposure of their collection this way flies contrary in the face of both promoting and exhibiting their work internationally.

Rather than let the whole world explore the historically significant collection (did I mention I found out about the musuem in the first place by perusing shadowplay’s excellent set of neon sign images on Flickr), the Neon Museum would seek to lock their collection up lest (god forbid) some unscrupulous person dare use one of their images somehow. I’m not sure how potential unscrupulous users outweighs letting an entire international community (it’s not always easy for everyone from China or India to get to Las Vegas) appreciate their collection and build awareness and publicity for the good work that they are doing via the web.

I would hope that the Neon Museum would reconsider their policy of excesively protecting their images (really signs that in many regards probably most appropriately belong to all of us as historical artifacts of past generations). It is an unfriendly position for them to take and it is not at all what a public, non profit museum ought to be about. I fail to see how when the de Young Museum, with even greater valued art and artifacts, and the Oakland Musuem of California can open up their galleries for public photography that someone like the Neon Museum insists on being so unfriendly towards the very constituents, promoters and donors that they should instead be courting. Especially as neon is particularly well suited for photography I find this to be a shame indeed.