Chicago Trib article about TSA illegally stopping filming mentions DU'er Carlos

[Bonobo]

Don't shoot photos or video? But it's a public space

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/orl-travel-troubleshooter-2-062111,0,753276.column


Such incidents are becoming increasingly common, making shutterbugs hesitant to take pictures that they're well within their rights to take. They include security guards harassing a photographer shooting in a Los Angeles park and a man being threatened for videotaping a whale in the Florida Keys. TSA screening areas are a flashpoint for these encounters, with officers sometimes threatening passengers, blocking their view or citing nonexistent rules in an effort to force them to stop taking photos.

"I used to deal with one of these a month," says Mickey Osterreicher, the general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). "Then it was weekly. Now it's almost every day. Citizens are being told that they can't take pictures out in public -- whether it's a building, a bridge or a train."

Why the crackdown on photography? Carlos Miller, a Miami-based multimedia journalist and author of the blog Photography Is Not a Crime, says that law enforcement agencies have felt threatened by photographers since the videotape of Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King made the rounds in 1991. It accelerated after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and has spun out of control with the development of social media, location-based technology and cellphones with easy-to-use digital cameras. "Cops feel as if they have to protect themselves," he says.

There's a second reason why photography in public places is frowned upon, according to Miller and others. Officials assume that there's a link between photography and terrorism, so anyone taking pictures of airports, screening areas, parks, bridges or any other site that terrorists could put in their crosshairs becomes a suspect, they say.

[RKP5637]

1. Now they think every citizen is a terrorist. The propaganda is working, turning

everyone against the other person, their neighbors, uncomfortable in public, can't take a simple picture. All tactics to usher in the police state of fear and intimidation. It's very sad to watch this country sinking into propagandized fear and desperation.

[HillbillyBob]

8. We know who the terrorists are they use the threat/fear of it against the

citizens and our rights. When are we going to become the land of the brave again and stand against this shit?

[CBGLuthier]

2. Cockroaches scurry away from the light.

[mopinko]

3. they "outlawed" taking pictures of or on chicago transit

vehicles or property. just like that. we made a rule. sorry about the constitution. terror, you know. :eyes:

we have a case wending it's way through the courts here, although the defendant is now quite ill. he was trying to get arrested selling art on the streets, but when he videoed his own arrest, that was the charge that stuck. the peddling charge was dropped.

[mopinko]

4. btw, this du'er is raging in miami.

[Blue_Tires]

7. thanks...i had forgotten his name...

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. "Just say, 'Yes, officer, thank you, officer.' And walk away."

Why does this conclusion to the article rub me entirely the wrong way?

[dionysus]

6. damn, i thought you were talking about jiacinto, lol.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

9. Me too! I was expecting an anti Nader rant!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Melinda]

10. I had the same thought when I saw the title. "Former subversive DUer makes the Trib", LOL!

:rofl:

Carlos was a ballsy troll, wasn't he. ;)

[bananas]

11. there are only two public areas where you can't take pictures: military bases and nuclear facilities

That could make it hard for whistle-blowers to document problems.
From the article in the OP:

Osterreicher says that there are only two public areas in the United States where you can't shoot pictures: military bases and nuclear facilities. "The warnings are clearly posted," he says. "Otherwise, if the public is allowed, then so are their rights."

[Occulus]

12. The sad thing is

when the DUer mentioned in the article came here with his story, he was met with people right here on DU who were accusing him of escalating a situation, who were telling him he was in the wrong, who were siding with the police against his right to photograph.

It was a vomit-inducing thread. I truly hope some of those fuckers got banned eventually....

[RagingInMiami]

13. Yep, that DUer quoted in the article is indeed me.

Some of you might remember my first arrest for taking pictures of cops against their wishes.

That compelled me to start a blog documenting these types of incidents, which I described on DU as "my new mission in life" on May 2, 2007.

The blog became very popular and I'm now not only getting paid to write it, but I am considered a national expert on the subject.

And I am also working on a book.

So keep me in mind when you hear of people getting harassed, threatened or arrested for taking pictures or shooting video.

Check out the blog below.

http://www.pixiq.com/contributors/carlosmiller

[Matariki]

14. For the EXACT same reason Syria is arresting journalists.

Don't what the public to see the abuses of authority because of the public outrage it causes.

When anecdotes of authority overstepping bounds and abusing people are only word of mouth it's easier for the public to ignore. But those photos in the OP, and the many, many like them - well thye ought to be causing outrage.