Photographer Arrrested : For......well....Photographing Trains !!

[brianw999]

and in this case these morons don't deserve any respect.

Unfortunately though, they're the one with a gun !

The police are pubic servants

That unfortunate keyboard glitch opens up a forest of possible comical comments.

[exmanx]

Unfortunately though, they're the one with a gun !



That unfortunate keyboard glitch opens up a forest of possible comical comments.

Strange how it's you who finds the glitch Brian. I do wonder sometimes!!

Andy

[brianw999]

Andy,

Where've you been lately ? I've been missing the quick smartass replies.

[exmanx]

Andy,

Where've you been lately ? I've been missing the quick smartass replies.

I've been moving, working and ill. And I didn't renew my Elite membership until very recently. Had to debate wether it was worth it or whether I should limit the sites i belong to.

I now have several hundred slide scans to upload!

Andy

[rohank4284]

Right now I have a feeling the Amtrak police officer is regretting what he did....IF.....the story the guy is telling is true. Assuming the story is true then I think the officer will be searching for a new job in the near future.

I rode the train up to NYC on Amtrak the day before this took place. All of the officers were very courteous and I think most of them were NYPD officers. I saw a few Amtrak people on the tracks and they had no problem with me taking a picture. They actually saw me trying to take one and asked if they were in the way and moved off to the side so I could get a clear shot. So I think there are good officers who don't take it to the extreme and will let you off with a warning and hear you out if you have a disagreement and are calm and reasonable with it. Then there are those who do take it to the extreme and as soon as they put on that badge in the morning their "power" goes to their head.

What's worse is having an airline employee threaten to call the airport police and TSA on you if you don't stop taking pictures out the window of an airport. Of course it's more of a crime to have a professional lens and take the picture than to have a little P&S. She walked by and went off on me while the guy next to me snapped away with his little camera. Now THAT makes me mad. Though I was reasonable with her and she still was like "I'm gonna get the TSA over here" So we walked away and passed a TSA officer and asked him if he cared, and he obviously said that it was perfectly legal and didn't have a care in the world.

Best of luck to the guy!

-Chris

Well, Chris this is an unfortunate consequence of having a big, expensive SLR with a good lens. We all know why people are interested in taking photos of planes or airports, much of the general public doesn't understand why anyone would want to take such photos.

Here's what goes through the mind of a person unfamiliar with aviation photography, from the perspective of a police officer:

1. That guy over there, why is he taking so many airplane pictures, doesn't he have anything to do.

2. He has gigantic lens and an expensive camera, why would anyone need such equipment to take a few photos of planes for family memories. I wonder if he's up to something.

3. Let's go ask, most probably impolitely.

4. He sounds pretty normal, relaxed, calm and collected, I guess he isn't up to anything. I will leave him alone OR he's sounds very angry and agitated.

5. This doesn't look good and the situation gets ugly

I completely agree that having a big camera is not a crime, but it plays into people's psychology. The TSA has generally been very good about handling that stuff, without bothering people too much, but some airline employees can be done right annoying. Many of the ground employees are contracted employees, who generally have little to no interest in aviation and just want to feel powerful.

One of the reason's why I chose to buy my Canon Rebel XSI was because of itsrelatively compact size, this is also why I keep my tiny P&S with me on trips. I have never been questioned by anybody in a US airport, only once had a friendly BA employee come up to me in LHR, to talk about planes, turned out to be a very nice discussion.

I had to do a college project on Denver's commuter rail system once and I was taking photos of the RTD lightrail with the XSI and had a rail cop ask me if I was getting some good pictures and he helped me find some good spots. Of course, he did ask me why I was taking photos of the light rail, but when I calmy and politely explained to him, why, he just moved onto another topic and was very polite and helpful. Police officers are often curious as to why people are taking photos, remain calm and polite, sometimes difficutlt to do, I know, and you will get rewarded. If you get angry and annoyed at cops, it never helps.

I am willing to bet that the photographer in this story got annoyed at the cops, the cop asked him to delete the photos, the photographer shouted "NO" and the story went on the wrong turn.

In the US photography in most public places really isn't a problem, however, in some countries photography is against the law. This was the case in India and many tourists, even Indians, used to get their cameras confiscated because of it. Indian police have a reputation of being extremely corrupt and very unhelpful, I can personally attest to this. Thus, airport situations would often turn ugly. Recently, the Indian govt. has allowed photography at non-defense airports and on the planes. In addition, most Indian airports now use private security, instead, of the more corrupt govt. police, so the photgraphy situation has improved a lot. Before taking photos in public places in foreign countries, always check tourist phamplets, internet sites, govt. sites, etc to make sure that photography is allowed.

When photography wasn't allowed at Indian airports, most tourist phamplets generally warned tourists not to snap pictures of rail stations or airports.

Sorry to hear about your experience with that stupid airline employee, kudos to the TSA employee for actually doing the right thing.

I hope the Amtrak photographer will get released from jail and companies marketing depts. really have to be better about communicating with their security departments.

Regards,

Rohan

[Shaggy]

Strange how it's you who finds the glitch Brian. I do wonder sometimes!!

Andy

Good lord. It's back