From: Anthony Farr
<snip>
Right.
And ~then~ they charge you with resist arrest...
cheers, frank
I would have thought the cop had to actually be arresting you before
you were able to resist arrest. If he simply lays hands on you or
even takes hold of you it's still not arrest if the cop hasn't
pronounced it or read any rights. Of course the cop could claim you
assaulted him but if he physically accosted the "suspect" without
formally making an arrest, then his legal ground would be shaky. OTOH
if it came to court, the cop's testimony would be the one respected
by a judge or jury.
You're making the common mistake of expecting justice instead of THE
LAW. They're not the same thing.
Am I the only one here who thinks this photographer was being a bit
of an arsehole? Being a professional, he must have known that
shopping malls are a legal grey area regarding rights to photograph,
being not public property but "privately owned public space". The
Santa's Palace or whatever it was called was a commercial operation
whose operators would be wary of having their income potential eroded
by parents/relatives/friends poaching a sly photo on the side. The
Dad's were arseholes because they took the photographer's apology,
saw him delete every shot of their kids, and THEN went bleating to
the mall cops. Pricks! The cop was an arsehole because he made up
the law according to him, ignored the photographers rights and didn't
follow a proper formal procedure of arrest.
But it comes back to the photographer who, I feel, taunted the cop
when discussing the situation. Not smart.
regards, Anthony
I'm sure the photographer WAS being an "arsehole", or actually an
asshole, since it happened in the US. In the United States, being an
asshole is a a right protected by the First Amendment.
There is no "legal grey area regarding the right to photograph", unless
YOU are willing to give up your First Amendment rights.
Maybe not your First Amendment rights, if you're not located in the U.S.
you probably don't have the protection of the Constitution. But we are
supposed to have them here in the U.S. and those rights are protected
whether the location is owned by the government or not.
See U.S. Constitution, Article 6.
There is no "privately owned public space". It is either a public space
or it is not a public space. It cannot be halfway in between. Opening
the space to the public for commercial purposes opens it to all lawful
purposes protected under the Constitution. Including photography.
The law in the United States of America is pretty simple. You are
allowed to photograph anything with the following exceptions:
• Certain military installations or operations.
• People who have a reasonable expectation of privacy. That is,
people who are some place that's not easily visible to the general
public, e.g., if you shoot through someone's window with a telephoto
lens.
You can shoot pictures of children; your rights don't change because
of their age or where they are, as long as they're visible from a
place that's open to the public. (So no sneaking into schools or
climbing fences.)
And yes, you can shoot on private property if it's open to the
public. That includes malls, retails stores, Starbucks, banks, and
office-building lobbies. If you're asked to stop and refuse, you run
the risk of being charged with trespassing, but your pictures are
yours. No one can legally take your camera or your memory card
without a court order.
You can also shoot in subways and at airports. Check your local laws
about the subway, but in New York, Washington, and San Francisco it's
perfectly legal. Airport security is regulated by the Transportation
Security Administration, and it's quite clear: Photography is A-OK at
any commercial airport in the U.S. as long as you're in an area open
to the public.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
If you're in the United States, there are two articles worth reading, so
you understand what you can and cannot do, and what a mall owner, shop
owner, mall cop or any other officious asshole (American spelling) can do.
http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf
http://www.andrewkantor.com/useful/Legal-Rights-of-Photographers.pdf
The one SURE WAY for you to lose your rights is to fail to stand up for the.
Again, if you're not in the U.S., you may not have protected rights to
lose. You're on your own.
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