At 04:44 PM 8/15/2005, you wrote:
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.
However, you have effectively encouraged the police to wrongfully detain
any other photographers who might be similarly harassed in the future.
There is no reason on earth they should have taken you to their police
station, or taken your names, or taken anything else for that matter --
*especially* if they didn't do the same thing with the lady who was
harassing you. I'm not saying that I would do it personally, but I'm sure
that some people would have sued the police for false arrest or something
to that effect. Remember, any time you don't feel at liberty to leave, you
are under arrest -- whether the police officer tells you are literally
"under arrest" or not. (At least, that applies in the USA.) Those police
officers have detained you, taken away your freedom, intimidated you, quite
possibly caused you emotional anguish, etc. These are not things police
officers should be doing without good cause.
What they should have done, is point out the actual relevant laws to the
lady harassing you, and told her to mind her own business, or risk getting
arrested. Instead, they took the easy way out, and removed the sane and
reasonable person from the quarrel, instead of removing the irrational
troublemaker. <sigh>
take care,
Glen
