If you want to get people real excited go walk around on railroad property and see how quick the privately-hired cinderdicks will check you out. When I was a photographer for a local paper I went out to take shots of overturned trains after a tornado. No one was around, or so I thought. The railroad cars were empty, most just boxcars and coalcars. Within about two minutes I was looking at a big black guy with a gun strapped to his hip- railroad security. Running didn't even become an issue, and it didn't occur to me to avoid the security guy as he came closer. He asked my name and what I was doing, let me take some more pictures and made sure I left so he could continue his beat.
Now I'm just an artist who goes around snapping pics for my files of just about everything, and I imagine when I pick up roadkill specimens or plants or whatever, it might make people curious. I have to make sure that sample-taking is legal and be aware of other people's property rights at all times, even getting permission for taking photos of their farms and buildings as a matter of courtesy. (I don't want people to see me taking snapshots of their buildings and make them lose sleep wondering who I was or what I was up to.) I meet people all the time and have yet to run away and no one has ever confiscated my film or notes.
Last time I checked, taking photos was OK... but running away from security is a justifiable reason for them to come looking for you, just as zipping off when a landowner spots you out by his mailbox or his livestock gives the landowner a reason to call the sheriff out to let him know a stranger's been around and to keep an eye open. All this is as it should be. People have as much a right to know who you are and what you are doing if you are out snapping photos of them or the property they are entrusted to protect, as you do to take photos of things that aren't your exclusive property.
they were amateur aviation buffs, and were out scrapbooking. Perhaps they were Hosers, and didn't want to risk finding themselves on the wrong side of American aviation psychosis.
If I were not US, and someone got suspicious of me around an airport, I would haul tail out of there as fast as I could. In saner times, this would not be a big deal, but now it could be the difference between an innocent misunderstanding and a one-way trip to XRAY.
My points in earlier posts were to lampoon the chorus of the "suspend the Bill of Rights, we are in an undeclared, undefined war" crowd.
BTW, I appreciated your comments on the Lindh thread. Many of your points were valid, although I still disagreed with much of what you were saying. Perhaps another day.
FReep on,
-Orion
you were reading my mind. No one runs if your just take pictures innocently.
The people trashing the poster like he is out of his mind always forget the little detail about how they split - in a hurry.
Like with my five year old - they've got guilt written allover there little terrorist faces Regards,
Lurking'
The most likely story concerning these guys was:they were amateur aviation buffs, and were out scrapbooking.
I guess I'll have to bear the burden of the one who is always right. (/humble sarcasm)
FReep on,
-Orion (documented almost always correct, 97.7%)