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How much should you charge for a photograph?Photojournalist gets harassed for photographing FBI building in Seattle
If you want photos of the Abraham Lincoln Building in Seattle, all you need to do is search for 1100 3rd Avenue on Google Maps.
However, if that photo appears a bit too distorted for your taste, then all you have to do is log on to the architectural site Emporis and you will come up with a set of ten quality photos from various angles of the building.
You will even have the option of purchasing high-resolution versions of these photos.
But if you happen to be in Seattle and you decide you want to take your own photos of the building, then you will be instantly harassed by FBI Agents.
At least that is what happened to a photojournalist from the Seattle Weekly last week.
The Abraham Lincoln Building, you see, houses Seattle’s FBI field office.
You wouldn’t know that by scrolling through Google Maps or Emporis.
But the feds have a way of blowing their cover even as they attempt to keep their cover from being blown.
Now anybody who reads this article – as well as the tens of thousands of people who have read the original piece in the Seattle Weekly – not to mention the thousands of others who read about this incident in various other blogs know exactly where the FBI hangs its hat in Seattle.
As SW photog Steven Miller began clicking off shots, a building security guard suddenly stepped out onto the public sidewalk, where it is legal for anyone to take pictures. He asked what they were doing.
“We told him,” says Hildes, “we’re taking pictures on a public sidewalk. He asked that we not include the building. We said that was the point. He asked if we knew who was in the building. I answered, ‘The FBI and Washington Fusion Center.’ He asked what I had against the Washington Fusion Center. I declined to answer. He asked my name. I declined to answer that as well.”
The guard made a call and, says Hildes, “A few minutes later a man dressed in a designer camo shirt – ID around his neck but tucked into his shirt pocket – introduced himself as an FBI agent and asked what we were doing and why. He asked for my ID repeatedly. I declined and we kept on shooting. He asked for my ID again. I said he didn’t have a right to it. He insisted he had a right to ask for my ID. I noted that I had a right to refuse. He said it again, and I told him I had a right to tell him to go jump in Elliott Bay, and pointed out the location for him.
“By this point there were three more FBI agents all demanding to know who I was and what we were doing.”
Comments
What’s happenning to America. It sounds like Vietnam 20 years ago.
Soooo… Internal Affairs polices the police, The FBI polices Internal Affairs, but who polices the FBI?
When are you going to post the video of the off duty dallas officer shooting up a patrol car?
So what’s the rest of the story… it just seems to stop. What was the resolution?
CIA
There’s no resolution. They ended up leaving. And it doesn’t really look like they got the photo they wanted judging by what they posted in the article.
Which video? Post a link.
Carlos Miller recently posted..Photojournalist gets harassed for photographing FBI building in Seattle
Get, oh, say between 50 and 200 people together to gather outside the building and take pictures. They can take pics of the building, or of each other standing in front of the building. Shoot vid clips. Do mock "news" reports. Whatever.
Sounds like I am going to have to go to this building and start taking a few snaps now. I don’t live all that far away.
I spent almost 9 years in the military and 24 as a police officer. For the record I do not now and never have had any problems with being taped while on duty. I have in fact been taped many times over the years. I conducted myself at all times as if I were being recorded and taught rookie officers to do the same. No one in the public sector, whether they be cops, politicians or maintenance workers has any expectation of privacy while doing the work the American People are paying them to do. In fact, the very idea that they may operate in secrecy flies in the face of logic and democracy. We expect and are entitled to ethical behavior by our public workers. If a veritable sea of camera armed citizens is the price of ensuring that behavior it is a small price to be paid by our very well compensated public servants. Catch that phrase?
Public Servants.
For those who have or are contemplating laws against taping public officials on the job. Such laws are anathema to Americans and certainly unconstitutional. Shame on you. The honest ones have no problems being taped while they go about their duties and the ones who do merit such scrutiny.
If these laws become widespread you can count on general disobedience, including from this former public servant. I may be retired but I still remember who and what I am and I say such laws cannot stand in The Republic.
Six recently posted..Israel
Barbara Streisand Effect.
I like this post. A lot.
I’m glad to hear a former police officer saying this.
Six, Well said. I wish there were more that thought like you.
Amen to this comment.
Thank you for your service, as a police officer and in the military as well, and thank you for this post. It’s refreshing to read something from one of the good cops out there. God bless you.
Thank you sir for your service and your words. Would you please consider sending this letter to the Editor of as many papers in Maryland as you can..
My brother is a retired cop, and a very good one. His motto was: “I don’t do anything on duty or as a cop that wouldn’t make Mom proud of me.”
If you photographed or videoed him, he probably just smiled at you.
Also, at least twice his dash cam video clearly showed his version of a contested arrest was true.
*applause*
Amen! Great post!
Reminds me of this previous post you made.
http://carlosmiller.com/2010/04/30/clueless-federal-security-guards-thre...
They may have learned somethings from this.
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2010/06/acts-17-in-dearborn-city-jail.html
Christian videographers arrested on shaky changes and camera confiscated in Dearborn while attending a muslim festival.
Retired cops are the most vocal critics of today’s police agencies. I know several and they have the same general opinion. Our primary problem are the young people, who never really knew the freedom we once had in this nation. They’ve grown up since Waco, 9-11, etc. and think this tyranny is perfectly normal. Police agencies recruit them and they obey orders without thinking that they are wrong.
Carlos, love your blog, please install a share button on your story pages.
Rich, if you can get me some e-mail addresses I’d be happy to send it. Or, if you or someone else cares to send what I have written you have my blessing.
Six recently posted..Israel
six, i applaud your comments
my father, also, was a public servant — in fact also a police officer and at the time of his retirement a warden of a united states federal penitentiary located in the former american panama canal zone
i think he would have liked you
mike
You are the kind of LEO we want. One who believes in this nation and its liberties. Bravo.
I was harassed by FBI police for taking a picture of the FBI Building in Washington DC. That was one of the funniest things I have ever dealt with
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