Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Jeff Moore wrote: > > 2001-09-06-16:24:56 Mike Gil: > > Has other luggers been harrased in this way before or > > this building just going over the top. I think I might > > post some of the photographs on the web, I'm getting > > scared. > > I've been in the habit of wandering around my neighborhood snapping > pictures of anything which happens to catch my eye for the eleven or > so years I've been living here. A few months ago, a longtime vacant > lot became a job site, as a pretty disturbingly huge apartment complex > went up. I was strolling down the public-looking access road between > two halves of the site when a beefy construction boss type ankled up > and demanded to know who I was shooting for. He didn't really try the > encroaching-on-legalities approach to try to stop me; he relied on good > old-fashioned threats and personal intimidation. He was sturdily built > and seemed a little crazy, so I beat a mild retreat; found the whole > thing unusually disturbing, though. On my last but one trip to the UK [in 1998] I learned that the police in the Midlands ..... Birmingham, Coventry and Warwick area ...... would, at that time at least, respond very quickly to citizens' complaints about photographers who wandered around inner city areas taking street photos of people, commercial buildings, and residences. The reason I was told was the fear that photographers were planning robberies. Based on casual conversations I had I got the impression that the population at large was paranoid about petty burglaries and break-ins and that anyone whose behaviour looked as if it might be associated with b and e's would be given very short shift by Mr Plod. Forget about civil rights, human rights etc ........ the UK doesn't have a charter of rights! jh