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Re: ACLU tangles with Philadelphia MTA over rail photography
Author: Joe
Date: 06-01-2011 - 12:21
In searching around on their website, I found this:
[weblogs.baltimoresun.com]
This story is from today---June 1st.
The article basically says that the MTA does NOT have a policy that requires pre-authorization from them in order to take amateur photographs of their trains. It also says that the officers were wrong, and that the officers of the department will be briefed at their shift meetings in the coming days.
But this does not change my comments (above). Unless it's in Part 2 of the video, which I did not watch, why didn't Chris say to ANY of the officers, "You do not have a policy that states that I need prior authorization". I suspect the answer is that Chris did not know whether such a policy existed or not. His only argument to the officers was, "I videotaped elsewhere, so why can't I videotape here?". This indicates to me that he was totally unaware of whether or not such a policy existed. Therefore, everything I said I am standing by. He should have provided his ID, and confirmed to the officers that he is not a threat. When you are nice, and when you are cooperative, it goes a long way. If the officers still would not allow photography after taking that route, then his path is to file a complaint with the MTA and the officer's supervisor regarding what took place.
There was no reason for any of this to occur. If he had shown his ID and explained what he was doing (and even shown the pictures of the other rail systems), the outcome would have been much different---and much quicker. What a ridiculous non-event this was. The officers were just doing their jobs. Their goal was NOT to harass Chris. If it were, they would not have spent 45 minutes with him, being oh-so-patient. They were trying to keep the system safe. Does anyone remember the Oklahoma City bombing? It was a young white male who did that. The fact that the suspect was caught was pure luck---there was no "good police work" in capturing Timothy McVeigh. An officer made a routine traffic stop on him, and that is how he was caught. Had it not been for that officer and doing what he did, McVeigh probably never would have been caught, and it would still be a "whodunit" today. The officers had no idea who Chris was, and they even said that to him. They do not want to walk away without properly ID'ing someone who is detained for taking video of light rail trains. This whole thing is very upsetting, because it may very well stop a transit police officer in the future from doing his job due to the fear of getting in trouble...and the result may be that a real terrorist does get away with murder.
[weblogs.baltimoresun.com]
This story is from today---June 1st.
The article basically says that the MTA does NOT have a policy that requires pre-authorization from them in order to take amateur photographs of their trains. It also says that the officers were wrong, and that the officers of the department will be briefed at their shift meetings in the coming days.
But this does not change my comments (above). Unless it's in Part 2 of the video, which I did not watch, why didn't Chris say to ANY of the officers, "You do not have a policy that states that I need prior authorization". I suspect the answer is that Chris did not know whether such a policy existed or not. His only argument to the officers was, "I videotaped elsewhere, so why can't I videotape here?". This indicates to me that he was totally unaware of whether or not such a policy existed. Therefore, everything I said I am standing by. He should have provided his ID, and confirmed to the officers that he is not a threat. When you are nice, and when you are cooperative, it goes a long way. If the officers still would not allow photography after taking that route, then his path is to file a complaint with the MTA and the officer's supervisor regarding what took place.
There was no reason for any of this to occur. If he had shown his ID and explained what he was doing (and even shown the pictures of the other rail systems), the outcome would have been much different---and much quicker. What a ridiculous non-event this was. The officers were just doing their jobs. Their goal was NOT to harass Chris. If it were, they would not have spent 45 minutes with him, being oh-so-patient. They were trying to keep the system safe. Does anyone remember the Oklahoma City bombing? It was a young white male who did that. The fact that the suspect was caught was pure luck---there was no "good police work" in capturing Timothy McVeigh. An officer made a routine traffic stop on him, and that is how he was caught. Had it not been for that officer and doing what he did, McVeigh probably never would have been caught, and it would still be a "whodunit" today. The officers had no idea who Chris was, and they even said that to him. They do not want to walk away without properly ID'ing someone who is detained for taking video of light rail trains. This whole thing is very upsetting, because it may very well stop a transit police officer in the future from doing his job due to the fear of getting in trouble...and the result may be that a real terrorist does get away with murder.
