Photography Is Not A Crime

The Metropolitan Police Department has agreed to pay $100,000 to a Las Vegas man who said he was beaten by an officer as he shot video from his driveway. The payment would settle the federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Mitchell Crooks, whose video of the confrontation with officer Derek Colling became an Internet hit. Get the whole story here

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 03:04 PM | Permalink

An active duty US Army soldier was confronted my military police at Hunter Army Airfield at Fort Stewart Georgia for taking photos of a KC-130 aircraft performing touch and gos. The soldier was told that he would be charged with a felony and images were deleted from his camera.

Details are still being forward to me at this time and I will update this story when the facts are in.

So far the facts that have been reported to me are these:

1. The photographer is an active duty US Army soldier who has served in Afghanistan

2. While detained, the military police told the service member that he would be charged with a felony. To my knowledge he has not been charged with anything yet.

3. The aircraft being photographed was a KC-130, a 4 engine propeller driven transport plane designed in the 1950's and used to refuel other other aircraft (nothing secret, stealth or high-tech about it)

4. Two photos of the KC-130 were deleted from his camera

5. The military police searched the soldier's facebook and flickr page for aircraft photos and said that he "must be doing this illegally"

6. The military police informed the soldier that he is no longer allowed to take photographs at Hunter Army Airfield or Savanna Hilton Head International Airport.

7. The soldier was told that it is "illegal to take photos of a runway"

One thing that must be kept in mind regarding this case is that rules, regulations, rights and freedoms for active duty service members on military property can be very different than they are for us civilians. But even considering that fact, it seems that this soldier may have had his rights violated by MPs that are making up the rules as they go along. We will see.

More details to come as they are forwarded to me.

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 03:54 PM | Permalink

After 4 years of running this blog and trying to bring attention to the issue of photographer's rights and point out violations of photographers right I have been called a "fake" by someone that I thought was fighting the same fight with me. The photography rights advocate and blogger Carlos Miller recently posted a blog entry calling my site a "Fake PINAC Blog Soliciting For Donations".

I am dumbfounded by this recent event. Aside from the occasional small donation I have received over the years I have run this site out of my own pocket, on my own time and asked for nothing in return.

I do not know Mr. Miller and I have never done anything to invite this sort of reaction from him. Actually I would have assumed until today that were allies in the same battle. I guess I was wrong about him and his character.

In his post Mr. Miller claims that my website was apparently launched in August of 2011 and only has 7 blog posts .... a fact that even if it were true (it's not) seems irrelevant. My website was launched 4 years ago and has 43 posts.

Mr. Miller seems to believe that I am somehow trying to make people believe that this little blog is his and therefore I am somehow infringing on his rights and his apparent desire to profit in some way from his advocacy of photography rights. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Mr. Miller, for whatever reason, seems to be offended by the fact that I have a "donation" button on my blog as many people do. He does not seem to understand that a donation to the site is optional and there is no profit motive associated with this site.

An email I received from Phillip Breske (I'm not sure what his connection (if any) with Mr. Miller is) suggested that someone might confuse my site with Mr. Miller's site. His comment: "Really? You can't see any way in which someone might confuse the two sites? None at all? I think a court would feel differently. I guess you'll find out."

Mr. Breske's comment has gotten me thinking, perhaps there is some remote chance that someone might confuse the two sites and if that's that case perhaps I have a case against Mr. Miller for infringing on my rights as I am the legal owner of www.photographyisntacrime.com and he has named his blog with a name that VERY similar to my domain name. I suppose if you have a blog you can name it anything you want, but I think if you use a name that is one letter away from a registered domain name there may be an issue of infringement ... I'll have to look into this.

If anyone knows what Mr. Miller's problem with me is please feel free to comment. After running this site for 4 years now this recent development has come completely out of left field. I've never had any correspondence with Mr. Miller and I cannot imagine what caused him to react in this way.

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 04:56 PM | Permalink

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 12:05 AM | Permalink

Cops are called because people are videotaping trains. After a quick and very polite chat with the photographers the cops go off and set the idiot train station worker right.

Too bad this is the exception rather than the rule ... but maybe someday everyone will understand that photography is not a crime.

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 06:50 PM | Permalink

Statement from the arrested teen:

On May 6th I began shooting film for a new video project about unwarranted raids in Wahpeton ND, I was standing on a public street filming a notorious officer (Dustin Hill) who commonly practices unwarranted searches and seizures. He asked if I 'needed something' I responded by telling him 'no, I'm just filming a story about unwarranted raids in wahpeton' . He immediately placed me under arrest for interfering with a police investigation, or hindering as he also coined it. There was no investigation going on, he was simply talking to a citizen on public property. I was taken into an interview room where I remained cuffed for roughly an hour, I was questioned by an officer without ever being read my miranda rights while he harrassed and grilled me. After telling him the United States Constitution gives me the right to film in public he left, he returned after a long period of time and told me to stand up so he could remove my cuffs. I was then told to grab my camera and leave, and notified that I had 'Pissed Dustin Hill Off' I was released with NO CHARGES and my parents were never notified of my detainment, this is Orwellian authoritarian tactics of detaining a minor illegally for exercising his rights to intimidate him. I'm currently looking for the most effective avenue to seek legal action against the department but I do not feel that any more phone calls will accomplish anything but if you are exercising your right to contact the department please do so RESPECTFULLY and PROFESSIONALLY . One act of disobeying the constitution under the protection of a shiny badge, is a strike against the rights of all men and women. I hope you will all stand with me in this fight against those who seek to overstrectch the boundaries of authority. Robert Wanek

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 08:07 PM | Permalink

The ACLU of Southern California sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and several of its deputies Thursday alleging they harassed, detained and improperly searched photographers taking pictures legally in public places.

The federal lawsuit alleges the Sheriff's Department and deputies "have repeatedly" subjected photographers "to detention, search and interrogation simply because they took pictures" from public streets of places such as Metro turnstiles, oil refineries or near a Long Beach courthouse.

"Photography is not a crime. It's protected 1st Amendment expression," said Peter Bibring, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. "It violates the Constitution's core protections for sheriff’s deputies to detain and search people who are doing nothing wrong. To single them out for such treatment while they’re pursuing a constitutionally protected activity is doubly wrong."

Get the entire story here at the LA Times website

Posted by Allen Rockwell at 01:04 PM | Permalink