Pixiq

So when do they plan to go around and close down all the camera stores?

The mayor’s contact information, including email address, for those who have questions regarding the town’s policy on harassing people engaging in perfectly legal activity:

http://kentwood.mi.us/mayor/default.asp

I think the camera stores have been closed down.

But it was the internet that killed them.

I’m sad to admit that I use to live there. City officials there are oblivious to the laws. There is no justice unless you are greasing the palms of the officials.

Looking at those pics, I would have taken a pic of the tanks too if I was near them. A LOT of people are opportunistic photographers, they snap pictures of anything they come along that looks interesting to them.
Maybe he should have called the cops on the utility guys. It sounds like a case of unwarranted harassment.

I’m working a case against local county government for corruption and retaliation in a former attempted lawsuit that triggered harrassment intimidation and even an attempted murder and payoff to the legal team to make it go away.

I have a rather sarcastic and pointed letter ready for Mayor Root but I’m honestly concerned about sending it and having the jackboots show up on my doorstep.

Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t meant they aren’t out to get me.
Peter Greene recently posted..Fullscreen capture 4152009 43709 PMbmpjpg by Peter Greene

Here is the email of the Chief Of Police.

Mattice, Richard

Oh no. The nationally prized and historic Kentwood water towers first...the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate next. Quick! No more photos of them either! They're "targets"! =/

This is what happens when terrorism does its job. We have elected officials living in fear and panicking, leading to huge abuses of authority.

Wish I lived closer.

We should all get the biggest, scariest cameras around (SLR’s with a long lens…terrorists choice, of course), and head to Kentwood en masse for an extended photoshoot.

And dress in all orange just to make a point.

We need to organize a group of lawyers ready to file federal civil rights lawsuits against these (and other similar) individuals.

@Mark Kalan: They have. It’s called the ACLU.

I ain’t scurred, I sent the mayor an email, albeit a fairly civilized one:

“Your treatment of Ed Heil and your stated policies concerning photographers are outrageous. If this is the treatment that law-abiding US citizens are going to get, then the ‘terrorists’ have accomplished their purported goal. They have succesfully turned America into a jackbooted police state. We are no longer a free country. Or at least your hyper-nanny state town is.

At least now I know to avoid Kentwood, Michigan at all costs.”

I even signed my name and hometown to it.

No surprises here. Even in Boston, which I’d consider a more civilized segment of our country, I get harassed taking photos of chimneys that are visible anywhere within a 3-mile radius:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawhead/4285944683/

The other day, on my way home after dropping my son off at his elementary school, I spotted some flowers on the sidewalk where I had my car parked. Stooped down to take a few snaps:

http://twitpic.com/2qw25h

30 minutes later, a cop shows up at my front door; he asked me if I’d had my car parked on that street, and what I was doing there with some kind of camera like thing.

Apparently, somebody on that street thought I was some kind of terrorist and called the cops on me, not forgetting to do their patriotic duty and jotting down my license plate so they could report me to the cops.

Fortunately, the cop was a decent one, and as soon as I explained to him what I had been doing––perfectly legally taking photos of flowers on the sidewalk, he apologized and left.

Guys, Carlos, I appreciate your work, and I’ll do what I can to fight back this tyranny, but I just don’t think this is going to get any better. It’s just going to get worse and worse.

The city of Kentwood actually change the page where the water tower image is at because it did state the water supply was used for over 25000 or some number of residents….

In any event they removed the population number from the website….But the law is that anyone can photograph anything from the sidewalk or street as long as they do not trespass onto someones private property without permission….

Alright. So I manned up and let one rip in Mayor Root’s direction. If I get jacked up by Homeland Security, ya’ll come and bail me out, right?

My letter to Mayor Root:

City of Kentwood
Attn: Mayor Richard L. Root
Kentwood City Center
4900 Breton Ave. SE
P.O. Box 8848
Kentwood, MI 49518

September 28, 2010

Dear Mayor Root,

I was recently alerted to the interesting architecture of your town’s water towers by an article in The Grand Rapids Press and the blog by Carlos Miller, Photography Is Not A Crime. I’m an avid photographer and I am considering a trip to Kentwood to try to photograph the water towers.

I’m just wondering if the taking of photographs of the towers is going to have the police harassing me for doing something constitutionally protected as legal during my stay in your city. Perhaps I should visit City Hall and get a letter from your office before I photograph the towers? You could take my fingerprints and run a full background check to be sure I’m not on anyone’s terrorist watch list as well as alerting Homeland Security. Out of curiosity, did you do a background check on the photographer that took photos of the towers that you have posted on your website? How do you know those photos aren’t going to be used for diabolical purposes? Perhaps you should consider removing them before Homeland Security sees them.

By the way, I am also planning on doing other perfectly legal things while I am there such as walking and driving. Are those suspicious activities as well? I mean, name one terrorist who never walked somewhere, right? You just can’t be too careful nowadays. I was also thinking of having a meal and perhaps quaffing a local ale in one of Kentwood’s public eateries. Will that even be legal by time I get there?

I think it is abhorrent that you encourage public utility workers to behave like jackbooted soldiers. Who gets to determine what suspicious activity is? Why is photography suspicious? Are the water towers bashful perhaps? What if I just drove by and looked really hard. Is that suspicious?

And when the cops come and ask my name, should I just tell them “Juden” and show them the numbers tattooed on my arm? Do I have to address them as “Comrade Police Officer?”

With respect to your office, you will have to excuse my use of sarcasm to make my point. I’m decorated US Army combat veteran and I swore an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States While I understand your paranoia, I cannot standby idly while I see photographers such as myself having their First Amendment rights trampled and treated like second rate citizens.

I would welcome your public rebuttal, if one is forthcoming. I believe you and the City of Kentwood owe Mr. Ed Heil an apology for the overly aggressive actions of private citizens and the condoning of such inane action by your city government and, specifically, your office.

Sincerely,

Peter Greene
Portland, Oregon
Peter Greene recently posted..Fullscreen capture 4152009 43709 PMbmpjpg by Peter Greene

But Kentwwod officials did not buy his folsky demeanor. When they spotted him photographing the water tank, utility workers demanded to know his name and the reason why he was photographing such a prime terrorist target.

Heil refused to answer their questions and walked down to the local library, which raised even more suspicion.

OMFG!!!!111!!!!1!!one!!!elven

Call the cops!!!! Now, we’ve found a dork.

The utility workers were praised by the mayor and by the city’s utilities manager for their diligent work in keeping the town safe.

Yeah, like those terrorists who blew up the Mackinac bridge…oh wait….nevermind.

Maybe we should send these utility workers to Detroit, they’ll get that crap hole cleaned up in no time, after all they’ve faced down hardened Al Qaida operatives.

“You’re never certain what the intention is,” Root said. “I’m sure you’d find the Coast Guard very excited if somebody (was photographing) the Mackinac Bridge.

Right not like it isn’t a f*cking landmark or something.

Being this stupid really should hurt….alot.
Steve Verdon recently posted..Alan Grayson Digs Hole Even Deeper

I live in Grand Rapids (of which Kentwood is a suburb) and I know the local Flickr group is organizing a photowalk to the main watertower.

Also, the mayor’s statement about the Coast Guard and the Mackinaw Bridge got us laughing. He obviously doesn’t realize that the Mac Bridge is photographed hundreds of times each day.

What’s sad is that the former mayor of Kentwood was a photographer (I believe he’s deceased.)

Oh, and Carlos…

There is a cameras store still around here, and it’s actually about 3 miles form the watertower in the article.

It’s behaviour like this that is keeping the terrorists out of America.

The terrorists needn’t bother as long as law enforcement and even public utility workers are doing the terrorizing they can stay safe in their caves in Afghanistan. Where, I’m sure, they are laughing at us.

Are we sure these idiot officials aren’t secretly part of Al Qaida?

They are doing a better job of restricting freedoms than anyone from the mid-east EVER has.

We have met the terrorists and they is us.

I am a fan of your website and wanted to bring to your attention a NY Times article re: reporting “suspicious” conduct such photography to the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative.

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/opinion/28farmer.html?ref=opinion

Thank your for your efforts to protect our civil liberties.

Wow. Seriously?

The NSARI sounds eerily like the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Nazi Security Service, and a sister organization to the Gestapo (State Secret Police).

Himmler tasked the SD with the detection of actual or potential enemies of the Nazi leadership and the neutralization of this opposition. Later, the same organization helped weed out the Jews and Gypsys.

We all know how that turned out.
Peter Greene recently posted..Fullscreen capture 4152009 43709 PMbmpjpg by Peter Greene

People need to grow some balls and nut up to people like these public works employees, and other authoritarian fascists. Seriously, what are they going to do when you tell them to “get fucked”? Hit you? Make millions of dollars for you in a lawsuit against the city?

“Oh please don’t hit me Mr. Nobody city employee. I just don’t think I could handle a 7 figure settlement from your fine township at this time.”

why give them your real name. They’re not cops?!

@RawheaD

“Even in Boston, which I’d consider a more civilized segment of our country”

Good old Boston, where the Priests are bright and gay and the girls have to be in by 12 o’clock. The city where public transportation shuts down before the bars do but DON’T DRIVE DRUNK!!! Where if it has lights and wires, it’s a bomb( http://www.animatorsunite.com/data/blogs/mooninites-explodeed-in-boston-... ) Boston, and Massachusetts in general is LOADED with busybody nanny state mentality idiots, your story of being harassed not once but TWICE (and the second time for taking pictures of flowers for christ sake) doesn’t surprise me in the least.

I sent my letter, may be a few days before he reads it, seems he is taking a small vacation.

“I will be out the office from September 27th, 2010 through October 4th, 2010. Please contact Rich Houtteman at 616.554.0770 if your inquiry requires immediate attention.
Thank You,
Mayor Root”