Re: [Leica] Security In Public Places

[Jerry Lehrer <jerryleh@pacbell.net>]

Ted

This all reminds me of the time I was arrested for taking pictures
of the George Washington bridge  between NY and NJ.  This
was in 1942 and I was 12 years old.  They confiscated my Argus
C2 camera and all the film I was carrying.  I spent hours in the
police station, and never got the camera back.  When my father
appeared to pick me up, they almost arrested him too, as he had
a German accent!

No, I did not demand any rights, as no one thought that we had any.

Jerry

Ted Grant wrote:

> Leonard J Kapner offered wisely:
> >> This "incident" was a non-confrontational, congenial dialogue about a
> > > commonly-shared problem, and was resolved in a pleasant, respectful
> > > manner. If I had become argumentative or defensive, I suspect the
> > > situation might have turned out differently.<<<<
>
> Hi Len,
> Well done, well done!!!! A perfect situation where you still succeeded
> getting your pictures without pissing the officer off. It's almost
> impossible to win a confrontational police situation. Why?
>
> They got the guns! They got the Law! They have the authority! Nothing is
> gained by getting yappy and waving the "I have rights" banner as that only
> pisses them off more.
>
> Far more is gained by being polite in a friendly manner. In other words more
> things are gained with honey and cream than being a loud mouth freedom to do
> whatever you think you have the rights and freedoms to do.
>
> Yep and sometimes you may well be absolutely in your constitutional rights,
> whatever the hell that is, but getting all snotty and yappy is going to get
> you nothing but a trip to the judge in the back seat of a cruiser.
>
> And yep they may well let you out the jail door 5 minutes later. But do you
> know what? Even if yer right,  you wont have any pictures!!! Be smart, be
> quiet, get along because the ultimate goal is having pictures.
>
> I'll admit I've had to deal with severely intelligence challenged security
> people of all stripes and I've ended up with teeth marks in my tongue to
> avoid the fateful back seat of a cruiser where you see your competition
> shooting the good stuff you could have had, if you only kept your mouth
> shut.
>
> Look, if you run into a situation where you are told to move back, leave,
> whatever due to the
> " police officers think you could be in danger," that's only their opinion
> not necessarily the truth. Don't argue, think smart!! Get out the 300mm, a
> 1.4 or 2 times extender and look for a better angle, maybe higher up, any
> shot that allows you to do an end run and come home with successful
> photographs. But whatever you do don't argue!! It will get you nothing.
>
> The long lenses aren't just for football and photographing birds!
>
> The other side is, the yapping smart ass photographer giving the officer a
> hard time is also giving all of us a bad name with the police, which inturn
> produces a police attitude of "damn photographers are nothing but a pain in
> the ass!" And the next time they have to deal with any photog situations, we
> are on the bottom of the barrel before we even get a chance to explain what
> we'd like to do. Don't argue and whatever you do.... "Don't challenge their
> authority!!
>
> Yeah yeah I know some of you guys are going to come back about your rights
> to freedom of the press, constitutional rights and all that crap! Trust me
> you may have all the freedoms in the world, however shooting your mouth off
> at just the right-wrong time is only going to get you an un-exposed roll of
> film whether you like it or not.
>
> Len, a great job of handling a situation that could've been totally
> non-picture time. Good on you lad.
> ted
>
> "DOCTORS' WORK" Leica book
> www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant
> Ted Grant Photography Limited
>
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