On 8/15/05, P. J. Alling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I seems to me that you were the victim of assault. You were doing > nothing wrong but were threatened by a complete stranger. I would have > asked the police to arrest the woman so that I could press charges.
Probably. But we were there to take pictures, not to save the world from crazy people. I would absolutely press charges if I'm touched in this circumstances--that is definitely assault. But I don't want to out-wack the wackos, if you know what I mean. j > > Juan Buhler wrote: > > >My biggest confrontation of the sort was in the San Jose flea market, > >a few months ago. I was with Rolling Red (you might remember her from > >some brief posts here). At one point, out of nowhere, a woman came > >yelling at her, demanding to know why "she was taking pictures of her > >kids". All she had done was point her camera in their general > >direction. We were photographing people, kids among them, but those > >specific kids hadn't been our subjects. > > > >Explaining to this woman that her kids were not in our pictures did > >not work. We even showed her the pics in our istD and istDs, to no > >avail. She kept yelling and saying she'd call the police. When > >RR--understandably pissed off I'd say--said something about people > >being "f*ing paranoid", the woman completely flipped, and called 911. > > > >The cop that came, from the market's police station, saw what was > >happening immediately. He cooly told us we'd have to go with him, and > >as soon as we were out of the woman's eyesight, he said "don't worry, > >just follow me a bit more, and be careful about crazy people like that > >next time." He was going to let us go, but he had to take us to their > >office when he got a call from there to check what had been going on. > >The other cops were equally nice, although they had to take our names > >and other data. They agreed that photography was not prohibited, and > >just said that it is understandable that some people would freak out > >if you photograph their kids. > > > >During the discussion with the woman, I was all "We are street > >photographers, and we take pictures of people and interesting > >situations and such. Your kids are really cute, and if I had taken > >their picture I would show it to you and offer you a copy--why are you > >being confrontational? Can we just be friends?" It was interesting to > >see the (little) effect that politeness had on this crazy person.I > >think she felt she was saving the world or something. > > > >In general, I try to avoid these situations and just walk away, as all > >they do is take my time. I have to be in a special mood to actually > >want to get in one of those conversations, and it's usually just for > >my own amusement. Any picture opportunities are usually gone when > >conversations like these happen. > > > >j > > > > > > > > > -- > When you're worried or in doubt, > Run in circles, (scream and shout). > > -- Juan Buhler http://www.jbuhler.com photoblog at http://photoblog.jbuhler.com
