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How stupid are people? If a cop demanded my camera I’d ask him if I were under arrest and what the charge was. If I’m not being taken into custody, he’s not getting my camera.
I say no.
What is the police going to do if I refuse to turn over my camera ? Grapple with me ? Shoot me ?
I think they have a right to get your name and address, but to take your personal property is a no, no.
I do not see how they have that right...but welcome to Barry’s America.
We are getting there. The box is getting more corrupt and what rights we have smaller and smaller. When are we going to take some of the power back. Never.
Rape of Liberty ping
“Officer, I don’t have a camera.”
In a greatly lesser type of incident, I was approached by security personnel at a church in Dallas (same church Billy Graham is a member of..., or, at least, the last I heard, anyway...) where I was taking pictures one Sunday morning. I was outside on the sidewalk talking pictures of one part of their historic building, going back quite a ways. I was told that I couldn’t do that. I would have to get permission to do so. Well, I knew that was ridiculous, since I was on a public sidewalk and street taking the pictures. But, since I was in Dallas and it was my dad’s church that we were attending, I just quit taking the pictures at that moment. I also resumed taking pictures on a different day and more quickly.... :-)
The article said — “Needless to say, I now have Randazza’s cell phone number programed into my cell phone.”
It would seem that one needs to have a “lawyer on call” for so many things in life, these days...
Cops are just going to have to get used to the idea that everything they do will be recorded. Cameras are getting smaller, cheaper and stacked with more memory. It might even get to the point where many people just mount cameras on their shoulders or in their glasses to record constantly just in case something interesting happens. After all, if the cops aren’t doing anything illegal, they have nothing to fear being recorded. (just to turn cops reasoning for red light and speed cameras along with regular civil rights violations back on them).
This is a situation where you can be right, dead right, but be just as dead as if you had been all wrong. Officers have the ability, not necessarily the right, to arrest anyone anytime, anywhere. If you resist the situation just gets worse. Not only more charges, but possibly physical harm up to and including death.
Even you do go along quietly your problems are likely just beginning. It’s up to you to prove your innocence and you will have to bear the full cost of that personally. If you can even find an attorney who will take on the system. The government has virtually unlimited resources to mess with you. You, OTOH, are on your own, probably with limited resources at your disposal. And whatever you do, you will have to do it from jail unless you are freed on bond.
My wife has a cousin who was a retired army photographer. He went out to get his paper one morning and saw his the body of his neighbor hanging from a tree in her front yard. He went back in, got his camera and began taking pictures. The coroner accosted him and demanded the camera and or the film. He refused and was arrested and jailed. He could not find an attorney and had to settle for them quietly dropping the charges, after he had been booked and forced to post bail.
It might not be the law, but it’s certainly the outcome that you really don’t have the right to do anything an official doesn’t want you to do.
Fascism Expansion *PING*
Given the theme of the story Mr. Miller, you'd be better served to have that number in your wallet. :P
The position of the law seems to be that we, despite being private citizens are subject to being filmed practically continuously. How can a “public servant” except under extremely specific circumstances necessary to do their job, have more rights than those who pay their paycheck?
From what I was told in my photography class, that when someone told you to give up your camera, you did not give it up, because they do not have the ability under law to take it (I think he said let them call the police and they would tell the guard it was ok, when it wasn’t the police themselves. He said it was better to stand up to the police, it would be sorted out later, but to hang onto film/SD card). Also, if your told not to take pircutes in a place anymore, (like we were told at a mall not to, on the threat that the security guard would take away our cameras :D) you can still shoot them, and they cannot take your camera, and you still own the picture they have taken, and seemed to imply if the story was important enough, to take the pictures, and if you get in trouble for trespassing, invasion of privacy, etc. well it would be worth it.
W