I'm not sure what to say that hasn't been said before or implied by the person reporting on this following situation recently in Pittsburgh. I guess post-911 means that one must shut their brains off in the name of blindly following orders that have large wiggle room for interpretation. (Translation: It's not just TSA screeners who act this way.)
-rick Infowarrior.org http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ So yesterday I was walking around downtown Pittsburgh with my camera. When I found myself next to the PPG building, I pointed my camera upward like a tourist and took a shot. (If you've ever seen a skyline shot of Pittsburgh, you've seen this building; it's the distinctive mirrored one with the points on top. If you're a photographer, you've probably seen a shot of the Pittsburgh skyline, since it's the best view east of the Mississippi.) I had time to shoot *one* frame before I heard, "Excuse me, sir, but they don't like it when people take pictures of this building." I looked over and saw the private security guard there. I said, "Um, oh. Okay. That's kind of too bad, isn't it?" "Excuse me?" he said. "It's a public area," I said. "Well, technically it's private property." "It's open to the public," I said, looking around at the hundreds of people milling around and/or playing in the fountain. "Are you telling me to leave?" "Well, no." "All these other people are taking pictures, too." "Well, they don't mind eye-level stuff, but when you point the camera up, they start to get nervous. Since 9/11, you know, terrorism." At this point, I lept on my opportunity. "Oh!" I said, a shocked look on my face. "Is it a secret building? Because if it is, I'll stop." "What?" "The building. Is it a secret? Because I really thought the cat was out of the bag already, since you can see it from ten miles in every direction, but if it's a secret I'll stop. I wouldn't want to be the one to get the word out to the terrorists about it." At this point he realized it was a rhetorical question. "I don't know, sir, that's just what they tell me." "You know it sounds absurd, right?" "Well, I don't know about that." "You said that eye-level pictures are okay." "Yes." "So if I go around taking pictures of the best places to plant explosives, or ways to break into the building, that's okay, but if I take a shot of the 25th floor, which I can't reach, that's bad. This kind of tells me the policy isn't very well thought out." "I don't know, sir. That's what my boss says I'm supposed to say." "Well, I guess you're just doing your job, but I'm not going to stop unless you order me off the property. I mean, the police don't seem to have any problem with it." (There were police visible, who were entirely uninterested in my activities.) He shrugged, clearly not knowing how to respond to that. At that point, I walked away from him, and he did not pursue. You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
