http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LGwDUV5GWKc/SCr0_MxaYII/AAAAAAAAAFE/nbd-ziGagQI/s1600-h/copper.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/nyregion/18about.html?_r=1

Argg..NYPD!! Save yourself the unnecessary legal trouble by A) knowing your rights, even though they may not mean much depending on the officer’s mood. B) And more importantly – learning to suck it up unless you like to spend your free time in the legal system. I know your argument is good. But YOU know it’s not being heard.

The sad-but-true scenario here is: 1) you get arrested, you get your summons, as well as any other out-of-this-world charges they care to slap on you 2) you most likely take it to court where charges are dropped (hopefully all of them but maybe not). 3) You assist your captors in burning taxpayer money by trying to fight something that just can’t be fought. At worst, your arresting officer gets a stern talking to; that is if they, oh say, shove you off your bike or shoot you in the head right there on the subway platform.

(Ok way too pessimistic… you get my point.)

The big picture – as in the UK situation – is definitely worth fighting for. Because it’s something people are standing behind as a whole. But when I picture the scenario of lone photog vs. power-hungry MTA cop, I picture two children fighting over a toy. Somebody – no matter how right they think they are – needs to say, “I’ll be the bigger kid here.” And you know who’s NOT going to say that. So why don’t you?

It pisses you off and it makes you feel helpless. So tack it on to your list of things that suck that can’t be changed, at least not in the foreseeable future. I’d rather be home and pissed than be in a detention center and be a whole lot more pissed.

There’s a time and a place to be heard. I’m just not sure this is it. Boohoo.

You sound like the sort of person who happily cheers this sort of authoritarian action on, while telling themselves with a certain smug satisfaction:

“What do I have to worry? I’m not a terrorist. The police are only going to use these laws against those ghastly evildoers. I am an upstanding citizen and therefore have nothing to hide or fear.”

Unfortunately throughout history many millions of people with that mentality ended up kneeling at the edge of a sandpit, with a gun stuck in the nape of their neck, mumbling to themselves: “But I didn’t do anything… this is a misunderstanding…I reported all the terrorists… I’m innoce-”

I read about a protest outside Scotland Yard not long ago, about this very issue. Since UK police have already shot one innocent individual they thought was a terrorist, perhaps this issue is much more serious than it looks. If governments never made mistakes, then we have nothing to worry over, but that’s an ideal that does not exist anywhere.

and that’s just the tip of the ice berg. I think it’s a bit to late to stop us photographers from helping terrorist. A terrorist could learn everything they to know about the house of parliament london almost down to the blue prints with out ever going there.

Google as a learning tool. You know I agree again. Unfortunately I don’t agree with google learning tools for depressed areas. At least not in the places I have been. Internet access is too slow to load up things like google maps, etc,.

I keep my own images low res on the site as I know some friends from West Africa and Nepal like to tune in. Hence I took down google maps on my home page, it was taking too long on their connections.

High speed or more to the point, regular good internet will help a lot of people in developing areas of the world.

I like a half full glass my self. But at heart I am a pessimist that uses it for optimistic hope!

I just see civil rights slipping away under the guise of protecting. Hopefully a change in the presidency will help. But again, I think a lot of this is bottle necked these days. Hopefully I am wrong.

Thank you for the good wishes.

You are forgetting what a great learning tool Google is. A child who lives in a depressed area, who cannot afford to travel, can go see the nations capitol here, Taj Mahal, the Great Barrier Reef, etc. virtually in a classroom. I am a half full glass type of girl…..hope is the only positive energy that creates positive change.

I am sorry to hear of such troubles in the UK. I did see your website. Very, very interesting. Good luck with your explorations of the world. Be safe in your journey’s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/nyregion/18about.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Yes Manuello, I speak with him often! And no, he didn’t have to deal with multi-colored alerts. He lived in a different world – literally and figuratively.

What is the best way to deal with police in the US, of course other then
common sense and being open and non confrontational? is there maybe a standard piece of info on the law I can print and show them?

what would make them ease off the quickest?

All this stuff is pretty horrendous,
that we now have to make it soo clear
that we are not the enemy!

thanks
marc

Sooner or later the government will get them to hand over a large chunk of that data.

Meanwhile, continue zooming in on the bobby outside the palace

Likewise the amount of people living the UK (I beleive it’s a UK law and not just ‘England’) is higher than ever. Visitors to the mid east and asia are on the increase. People want to see for themselves what it’s like there.

Again, strangely people visiting ‘muslim’ countries come away finding it a lot safer walking the streets there then in the UK.

While bad things happen in Muslim countries they also happen in Christian, Hindu, and “democratic” free countries the world over.

The UK may be a great place to live, but laws like this are making it slip terribly.

http://www.fivecomputers.com/2009/02/stop-search.html