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I've been travelling for professional reasons for the past 2 weeks. My last trip was to Houston, Texas. Evidently, the first chance I had I went out to grab some pictures of skyscrapers and window reflections, which are all over the place there (I'll be posting some in the near future).
But here is an episode that made me wonder about the current mindset of some people in the US. I parked my car in a driveway of a building complex, so I could step out and get a good angle on a particularly interesting window reflection. Much to my surprise, one minute after I got out and started shooting, two security people came out of the adjacent building and asked me if I had permission to photograph the buildings (accross the street, mind you). Obviously I said I did not have, so the informed me that taking pictures was not allowed, and asked me to please step inside the building, where they proceeded to ask for my identification, called their supervisor because it was necessary to make an "unauthorized media incident report", the whole shebang. One of the officers informally told me that such rigor was due to 9/11 related fears of a repeat incident. They also asked me to delete the pictures I had taken.
So they wrote down all my id information (which is in Portuguese, but they had a hard time understanding that I am not Portuguese but Brazilian...), and told me, in front of a newly summoned Houston Police officer, that they would be filing this report. Then they were satisfied and said I was free to go. Before leaving, I inquired whether my offense was for taking pictures OF the property, of for doing so WITHIN the property, and they explained that it was the latter. If I stood in the public sidewalk there was nothing they could do. Of course, I immediately proceeded to walk out to another parking area outside the property, and took the pictures again.
While I was waiting to cross a traffic light (on foot, holding my camera), a foreman that was inside a maintenance truck came out and asked me if everything was ok, looking at my camera. I said yes, I was only waiting to cross the street. Then he asked me whether I was taking any pictures of wires/cables (he seemed to be doing some maintenance on them), and when I replied that I was only taking pictures of window reflections, and had no intrerest whatsoever in wires (to the contraty), he was satisfied and walked away.
Having come back from Europe, where I took thousands of pictures everywhere withouth being bothered once, I started wondering how sad it is that people have become so scared and paranoid in the US... things have definitely changed...
Has anybody had similar experiences?
Sammy68 says:
Anna says:
Adieu. says:
This is NOT my dream.
manganite says:
Daniel Schwabepro replies:
manganite replies:
Pat Hayes says:
Many years ago (pre-9-11) I was standing in a country road in England taking pictures through a wire fence of what appeared to be a large radio telescope, when an armed American GI in a jeep drove up and ordered me to stop. I pointed out that he was American and I was in England, and he told be that he would arrest me and take me inside the US base (and destroy my camera) if I gave him any trouble. So I left, as he had a gun. You just gotta love those Yanks, they are so freedom-oriented.
Daniel Schwabepro replies:
Unfortunately, however, things have changed since 9/11, almost everywhere... and it saddens me to see the way things are going, both in the US and elsewhere. Sort of a generalization of the attitude "if I carry a gun, I am right (and you are wrong if you disagree with me)", which escalates very quickly if both parties have guns...
Anyway, thanks for the visit and for caring.
Pat Hayes says:
BUt you are right that things have changed since 9-11, perhaps inevitably. Before coming to the USA I lived surrounded by British paranoia concerning Irish terrorism, with armed police at the airports and so on, but it didnt seem to penetrate into the ordinary culture the way that 9-11 has done in the USA. Perhaps it is because the US has never been bombed or suffered the effects of war first-hand until then, and the first time is likely to be more of a shock.