Pixiq

Obviously, anyone with a camera in Times Square is a pedo.

Great photo. Makes me want a hot dog. LOL

While I find it hard to condemn anyone for choosing to act a particular way in such situations, I do feel that Resnick could have been more assertive while still maintaining his calm, cool, polite demeanor that he seems to find so important. In my experience with law enforcement, having a polite attitude helps you only very slightly more than being a dick. In my experience, police officers who confront photographers are already adopting a belligerent attitude, and no amount of politeness seems to defuse the situation. I do agree that adopting a confrontational attitude with the police rarely helps the situation, but the cop's insinuation that he was a pedophile should not go unchallenged, whatever the photographer feels about his other rights being trammeled. Far too often the shibboleth of "are you some kind of perv?!" is used to put innocent people on the defensive, and no one seems to challenge this for fear that they will be perceived as "protesting too much". Even if he doesn't challenge the police officer face to face at the time, he should file a complaint. In fact, from his account, he should file a complaint just based on the fact that the officer assaulted him (by his account, the officer grabbed his camera bag in a way that he perceived at the time to be an attempted robbery). It's one thing to take the passive approach and be all nice and polite at the time, but to not follow up through the proper channels after the fact seems lazy. He seems to be taking the position that photographers should remain polite and cooperative with the police when confronted, but seemingly does nothing to work towards combating the attitude and perceptions the police have about harassing photographers. He is essentially saying "Oh, it really sucks that the police are harassing us photographers... but I'm just going to quietly let my rights be violated and move on to some other corner to shoot." What happens when you run out of other corners, Resnick? What happens when the cop follows you for another few blocks?
I'm not saying that every single photographer has to fight the good fight tooth-and-nail to combat the growing paranoia over public photography, but at least do something more than posting a wishy-washy complaint on your blog where you tell other photographers to allow the police to walk all over you. There's pragmatic issues to consider, but there's also a bigger picture to consider, and Resnick does photographers no real favors with his advice.

Most disturbing to me is the fact that this is not just an everyday photographer. Not only is Mr. Resnick the current Editor of the Adorama Academy and the past Managing Editor of Popular Photography & Imaging, the world’s largest circulation photography magazine, he is also a photographer who teaches street photography. He openly states in his blog "I also advise my students that when an officer tells you to stop taking pictures, you stop, and don’t argue."

This is a man that can do more damage than most with his actions and his teachings.

The next photographer confronted by this officer will most likely encounter a more difficult time thanks to Mr. Resnick.

The actions of the photographer are as disturbing as the actions of the cop.

That fact that this guys is a photography teacher and says stupid shit like "He's armed, your not" makes this encounter even worse.

Yeah sure Manson, he will pull out his weapon and pop a cap in ya arse just cause you tak'n photo's in front of all those witnesses and everything... moron

The school he teaches at should fire him for being stupid and propagating to the students his stupidity.

I wouldn't take as much of an issue with his actions here if it weren't for the fact that, as Scott pointed out with a quote from Resnick's blog, he advocates doing this EACH AND EVERY TIME. I'd really like to know his reasoning.

"There are a lot of school groups here today, lots of children."

No shit, it's a city.

"The officer told Resnick that he had received "several complaints" about him."

And with all those children some of them will have obnoxious helicopter parents who think the world needs to adjust itself to better suit their precocious little monsters.

I wish that cop had run into Carlos, that encounter would have gone differently.

Now, Now guys. This was Mr. Resnick's call, I am certain he had his reasons. I, on the other hand, would have been in the cops face, but none of us were there, Mr. Resnick was and it was his choice to make.

"I've received several complaints about you"

Officer, could I please have your name and/or badge number as well as the current time. I would like to verify with your precinct that there have been several complaints about me.

"(which is probably what DIDN'T happen)"

There, fixed that for you.

On thing I do believe is that cop received complaints, as I pointed out before most likely from busybody, paranoid parents who think every male pointing a camera in their kids direction is a pedo. The issue here is what was done after that. He should have told them they are in a public area with no expectation of privacy. It's Times Square for christ sake, possibly one of the most densely populated areas in the U.S. When you have that many people, kids are going to be there, a LOT of kids. If you are photographing crowds, there will be kids there. If you are taking pictures of the buildings in all likelihood there will be people, INCLUDING kids there. I've never been to NYC, but if I went I'd be sure to bring my camera and take a LOT of pictures, ESPECIALLY of Times Square. If helicopter parents and paranoid cops don't like it - FUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUU!!!!!!

Have you noticed?

Even though we all know what the Cop did was not only wrong.. but legally wrong (after all, the photos were being taken from a public street) "JL" (by NOT mentioning that what the Cop did was wrong), has in fact (once again), lived up to his motto of..

"Cops Can Do NO Wrong!!"

Who would have thought otherwise?

Rail Car Fan

Conversation summary:

SteelToad: "I'd call the office house to see if there were really any complaints!"
Johnny Law: "It wouldn't do any good, as there's a good possibility that the complaint didn't get called in."
Rail Car Fan: "OMG JL SAYS AGAIN COPS CAN DO NO WRONG!"

Clear that up any?

A similar thing happended to me - I took shots of a day care center located next to a radioactive site in Passaic City, NJ. There are NO chilren in the photos. See:

http://www.wolfenotes.com/2008/06/polluted-land-and-urban-schools-a-phot...

About 4 hours later, when I returned home, I was visited by a local police officer (I live 60 miles away from Passaic) who asked why I was taking pictures of young children!

Hit send too soon!

I immediately challenged the police officer and expressed outrage that he was implying that I was a pedophile!

I told him about my work, why I was taking the shots, and that I had just been investigated about 2 weeks or so previously by Homeland Security and FBI for taking shots of schools located near toxic chemical emission sources, like chemical plants and oil refineries.

During that investigation, the Homekland Security guy suggested I might be like a Chechen rebel, seeking to blow up a chemical plant near a school!

Fucking assholes!

Contacted ACLU and they were not at all helful, nor was my Congressman about being on watch list (I was told that those who, ike I did, trigger regional FBI incident reports/investigations are palced on watch list).