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| How NOT to handle an encounter with police (Re: ROBBED BY A COP— PROPERTY DESTROYED!) (424771) | |||
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How NOT to handle an encounter with police (Re: ROBBED BY A COP— PROPERTY DESTROYED!) |
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Posted by railbus63 on Thu May 3 13:07:29 2007, in response to ROBBED BY A COP— PROPERTY DESTROYED!, posted by Nilet on Sun Apr 29 20:42:32 2007. Sorry, but IMO you could have handled this encounter with the police much better. Were you within your rights to photograph in the station? Yes. Is an officer wrong if they (allegedly) delete your photos? Of course. But, geez, you could've avoided that outcome with a little common sense. You crossed the line when you accused the officers of unreasonable search and seizure when all they were doing was looking at the photos on your camera. Look at the situation from their point of view - why did you have a problem with them looking at all of your pics? Did you have something on that camera that you didn't want them to see?You then compounded this by recording their badge numbers - was that really necessary? Up to that point, they had done nothing wrong that I can see, and now you've basically told them that you're going to report them. So if you did in fact come across cops who are willing to break the rules, you just got on their bad side. The result was an embarrassing episode of being handcuffed in public and having your camera taken away and the photos somehow lost. Wouldn't it have been preferable if you addressed your concerns about being told not to take photos after the fact with the NYPD? You still would have had your pics and video. Regarding your complaint - let's look at it from a neutral point of view. You have two officers who were presumably called to the scene by NYCT employees when a suspicious individual was seen taking photographs and making customers 'jittery'. These officers will no doubt have detailed reports which justify their decision to stop you on the platform and later putting you in cuffs. If they did delete your photos, then they may well say that the photos were still in the camera when they gave it back to you. You have no proof that it was the NYPD that deleted these photos. Absent any concrete proof of wrongdoing, it will come down to the word of two uniformed police officers against your word. Few of us will win that encounter. What's worse, you've also pissed off two police officers and perhaps their friends on the job. We need to get the police to understand our hobby and understand why it is OK, not give them justification to make life miserable for any other rail buffs they come across. We photographers have the law on our side, but we still need to find a way to establish our rights with operating employees and law enforcement officers. This was not the way to do it. My $0.02 worth. Jim |
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