[Leica] re: NYPD republicans?

[scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)]

I agree. Most LE in my experience are normal folks.

Related tale from just this afternoon. Dropped off a test roll
of color film. Ritz 1 hour, right in my neighborhood. So while
waiting, I was testing out new 28/2 - alignment, VF coverage,
exposure with contrasty shots and what not.

Well, I'm taking some picture of newspaper boxes. Real close
and angular trite kind of thing :-)  A woman from the Metro (subway)
approaches me. Says I can't take pictures in the Metro. Says
something about "people are afraid of terrorists."

In public, I'm a very polite, well mannered and somewhat jovial
kind of guy (years of management, I guess). So I explain I'm not
taking pics in the metro, that I'm just on a public street, that I live
right here in the neighborhood, that I'm a hobbyist using "old
fashioned" (hee hee) equipment, taking B&W pics and developing
my own film, and that I'm clearly not a terrorist in any case.

So she warms up and tells me she's taking a night class in
photography at a local community college! I say I'd like to take
a printing class at the Smithsonian.   Then I tell her I have no
intentions of breaking the law, and since I'm not in the Metro,
I ask if there are some sort of distance rules or something, since
I'm just shooting on a normal street on public property.

She tells me she has no idea and just kind of just wanders off.
That's it. Weird. No resolution, good or bad. A definite connection. 
A bit of embarrassment on her part? Not sure. I'm not really sure
what to do or make of this encounter.

BTW, this is near one of the two metro stops where folks get
off to go to the National Zoo, so tourists and cameras are
everywhere.

In any case, there's definitely some big *failure of public
management* going on.  This woman was real nice, and a
shutterbug as well!  So what is she doing talking to me? 
In the end, even she doesn't know exactly.

How did she know I was outside on the street taking photos?
Did some citizen "notify her." Ok, we'll always have paranoid
people. No problem there. But there was clearly no official way
to set anything straight between us, of if there were, she clearly
was not informed of it.  She had no pamphlet to give me explaining
the rules. She wasn't sure there were any. She didn't even ask me
for my identification.  The whole thing is a mess.

I can only imagine how many picture snapping tourists (here in
DC that = $$$) must go through similar awkward situations here
in Wash, DC every day. Having spent a few years on DC's
technology business council, I would imagine that the DC tourism
lobby (much bigger) would have some concerns here.

I can only imagine the weird political ins-and-outs at and above the
NYPD that led to the recent super-unfortunate and unwarranted LE
actions.

But elsewhere, when it comes to taking simple snap shots on a city
street in a tourist-thick neighborhood, we also have a good old-
fashioned failure of public policy and everyday public adminstration.
Nothing partisan about it. The rules aren't clearly stated, and public
employees don't even seem to know them or if their are any in many
cases.  But harrassment continues.

It's just a "good government" issue.  I haven't visited any city council
members in a few years, but maybe I'll suit up and pay some a visit.
In the past, at least, several would at least give a good listen. Since
this is an issue which affects tourists ($$$), maybe a few will perk up
their ears and pick up their pencils.

Scott

Kyle Cassidy wrote:

>>From: "Jon" <jon.stanton@comcast.net> 
>>
>>Any one that thinks the NYPD is an extension of the Republican party >has
>>    
>>
>been inhaling something besides Rodinal.  
>
>I agree. 
>
>Laura Catherine, who was arrested in the same group, wrote of the
>experience:
>
>" ... an officer grouped me with 4 other women and took all of our
>information and started filling out foms. He was my arresting officer (AO)
>and turned out to be really nice. He told us that he's retiring in 3 months
>and thinks the way police are handling the protesters to be very
>unnecessary, and as long as we cooperated, he would give us the lightest
>charge possible. While that was all very nice it still sucked because he was
>still arresting me and just following his orders."
>
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