How Ironic. Officials of the Metro North Railroad and the New York Transit Museum are seeking amongst other artifacts:

Still photos and moving images also are being sought as is ephemera such as tickets, timetables, menus and matchbooks from Terminal tenants. Flyers and advertisements for events held in the Terminal, such as galas, political events, USO entertainers, exhibits, movies, etc. also are welcome.

Seems these HYPOCRITES need pictures for their 100th anniversary celebrations.

Ironic indeed considering that these same officials have declared the platforms of Grand Central off limits to photographers. One incident is described here , and another here

Since photographers at track level are now routinely harassed where will the pictures be for the 150th anniversary or the 200th in the future?

HD Net has posted this video of the Metrorail Security guards assault on photojournalist Carlos Miller

A protest is now being planned. See Photography is Not a Crime for more details.

The protest will start at 1pm on August 8th at the

Douglas Road Metrorail Station
3100 South Douglas Road
Coral Gables, FL

METRORAIL REFUSES TO RESPOND to Email

Shortly after we saw the original incident on Twitter, we sent an email to Metrorail requesting clarification of their photography policy. To this date they are refusing to respond. Silence speaks for itself!

Breaking News -Security Guards employed by Miami Metrorail Assaulted Photojournalist Carlos Miller on Video:

In spite of the operations order some officers of the New York Police Department still think that they are above the law and are continuing to try to stop photography through intimidation. For example, this incident which is being reported in the New York Times:

As I stood at the open gate of the fenced-in parking lot at the southwest corner of West 40th Street and 11th Avenue, I started to aim my camera upward toward the building. Within seconds, an N.Y.C. taxi abruptly pulled in front of me. It was dark. There were rats. The cab startled me.

‘Can I help you?’ asked the driver in a tough tone. I then noticed the flashing red, white and blue lights in the cab’s grill. It was N.Y.P.D. in a taxi costume.

‘I’m taking photos.’

‘Of what?’

‘The new Javits building.’

‘Why?’

‘I like the building. Is that O.K.?’

‘Not in here.’

“By ‘here,’” Mr. Hahn continued in an e-mail to Lens, “I’m presuming he meant the fenced-in lot, in which I was not standing, by the way. Both of my feet were firmly on the public sidewalk next to the gate.”

As the photographer said, the action by this officer was a very thinly veiled attempt to intimidate the photographer into leaving.

Demonstrating utter disregard for FEDERAL LAW which permits photography of architecture from public space, security guards in downtown Norfolk harassed photographers who were participating in the in the Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk. According to one of the photographers in the group:

a Wackenhut rent-a-cop came over and scolded us about shooting. He said “You cannot take any pictures of any kind of the bank buildings” he said. I immediately challenged him. He refused his name, and both his badge number AND his name tag were covered in black tape.

I then asked him to tell me the law that says I cannot take photos. Of course, he could not cite any, just that “I have my instructions, and I am not to allow anyone to take pictures of the bank buildings.”

If the bank building can be seen from public space then it can be photographed. The behavior of these guards is inexcusable.

This in-depth article in the Washington Post confirms what we have been reporting here for the past three years:

Courts have long ruled that the First Amendment protects the right of citizens to take photographs in public places. Even after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, law enforcement agencies have reiterated that right in official policies.

[...]

Reliable statistics on detentions and arrests of photographers are hard to come by, but photographers, their advocates and even police agree that confrontations still occur frequently. Photographers had run-ins with police before the 2001 attacks, but constitutional lawyers say the combination of heightened security concerns and the spread of digital cameras has made such incidents more common.

The article includes a link to pictures people were harassed for taking and the stories behind them. Some of the stories were reported here and there are a few that are news to us as well.

The analysis is excellent and a must read for anyone interested in this issue.

This what Happens when NYPD kicks you off the Scene! Damn,
originally uploaded by fOtO Vs.Graf’z™ (its a fight for the final JPEG).

While the person who took this picture does not offer many details we can tell from the picture that an officer of the New York Police Department obviously violated his rights. There is no yellow tape or other barrier and in the distance we can see people walking even closer to the scene.

The law does not require a press pass for taking pictures of a crime scene, accident scene, disaster or ANYTHING from public space.

The widespread arrests of people who videotape police officers has finally gotten the attention of our lawmakers. Edolphus Towns (D, NY) is proposing the following resolution:

H.CON.RES.298 — Expressing the sense of Congress that the videotaping or photographing of police engaged in potentially abusive activity in a public place should not be prosecuted in State or Federal… (Introduced in House – IH)

HCON 298 IH

111th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. CON. RES. 298

Expressing the sense of Congress that the videotaping or photographing of police engaged in potentially abusive activity in a public place should not be prosecuted in State or Federal courts.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 15, 2010

Mr. TOWNS submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress that the videotaping or photographing of police engaged in potentially abusive activity in a public place should not be prosecuted in State or Federal courts.

Whereas prosecutors in several States are applying State wiretapping laws in the prosecution of individuals for the videotaping of police engaged in potentially abusive activity;

Whereas State and Federal wiretapping laws were not intended to be used for such charges;

Whereas some police departments have been using national security as a justification for the harassment, charges, or an arrest of individuals, based solely on a citizen recording, with no additional factors considered;

Whereas a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2000 indicated that 22 percent of police officers claim their fellow officers sometimes, often, or always use excessive force; and

Whereas the privacy and safety rights of the police officers in the line of duty must be balanced carefully with the public’s right to transparency and accountability of public servants: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that–

(1) citizen recording fills in gaps in existing checks against law enforcement abuses, when balanced with the needs of law enforcement, police privacy, and citizen privacy;

(2) national security alone is insufficient justification for harassment, charges, or an arrest for otherwise innocent behavior, such as videotaping; and

(3) members of the public have a right to observe, and if they choose, to make video or sound recordings of the police during the discharge of their public duties, as long as they do not physically or otherwise interfere with the officers’ discharge of their duties, or violate any other State or Federal law, intended to protect the safety of police officers, in the process of the recording.

It is about time considering the escalating harassment and interference with our First Amendment rights by police as explained in a recent editorial appearing in USA Today on the issue:

This is an abuse of prosecutorial authority and a misinterpretation of state law. But it’s typical of the attitude of too many prosecutors and police toward people who record their encounters with law enforcement and are usually completely within their rights to do so.

Websites that monitor these cases have posted stories from around the country of police ordering people to stop videotaping or photographing them, sometimes violently. Most of the time, the police apparently either don’t understand the law or are deliberately misstating it to bully people into putting away their cameras or cellphones

We not only hope that this resolution passes but that it is followed up with stronger FEDERAL LEGISLATION that guarantees the rights of citizens to videotape and photograph their police. After all we are not a police state (yet).

Employees of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority LIED to a group of students by telling them that photography was illegal, in spite of the fact that MBTA rules clearly state that it is perfectly legal.

According to one of the students whose photo shoot was ruined by the LIARS:

I retreated to higher ground, so that I could get a signal on my phone and pull up the MBTA website. Just as Skip was coming down the stairs. I told him what I saw, my classmate being talked to by an employee, and he immediately went to her. Once the page loaded, I joined him, where he was having a polite but clearly heated discussion with said employee.

As we were talking, another MBTA employee caught another one of our group taking photos, and pulled him towards us. Eventually, I got around to showing each employee (by now, there were three of them gathering us together) what their own website said.

They seemed shocked by this. The woman we initially encountered had already called dispatch, and was in the middle of telling us that three years ago, she underwent training that told her that all photographic activity on MBTA property was strictly prohibited.