William Robb wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Gonz"
Subject: Re: More Texas Photo Issues
Well thats the thing. I have three daughters, and maybe their privacy
is not protected by the government when in public and relating to
these types of situations, but if I caught some perv taking said
pictures of them, you can guarantee I would exercise my right to alter
his gender without the benefit of anesthesia. I feel that their
reasonable rights to privacy would have been violated. I would hope
that laws like this are designed to do just that, protect the privacy
of individuals when out in public.
If I read Blakely's earlier post correctly, it would seem that in your
country, anyway, you don't have a reasonable right to privacy when in
public.
Perhaps that is because one of the definitions of public is that it
isn't private.
OTOH, you don't have a right to commit battery on anyone, unless they
are at least physically threatening you, or commiting battery on you.
Maybe not Federal laws, but surely state laws. There are alot of
privacy laws in the state code. And I know there are even some in
county and city code. Of course that presents a problem, in that your
reasonable right to privacy varies from place to place and you never
know what it is. Who knows, maybe the laws are more liberal in
California, where they usually are, and probably err on the side of the
perpetrator and not the victim (I'm just speculating here based on
rough evidence).
Dont get me wrong, I love personal freedom. But freedom is a two way
street, I dont have the freedom to perform lewd acts in public,
because there is a higher level of freedom that takes precedence, that
is freedom from having to confront such an act in public. I would not
feel free if everyone had a right to do what they wanted where they
wanted, otherwise I could be spray painted by someone wanted to create
art on the street, or worse.
It could be argued that my freedom from titillation is dependant on your
daughter's dressing in a manner not designed to titillate.
I agree that if an individual is going to dress "to kill" as they say,
they will probably get attention, they are just going to have to expect
that. Its hard to tell from the story, but I doubt if that was the case
in the photographs in question. In my estimation, they were taken of
children and women in vulnerable positions. And if they were to be asked
if it was ok to take a picture of their crotches when they were sitting
down, they would probably answer no.
William Robb
