[Leica] OT - another horror story about photos and the Patriot Act

[timatherton at theedge.ca (Tim Atherton)]

> If this student had (1) been thoughtful and (2) not waited to the last
> minute he would have realized that he was photographing in what is the
> equivalent of a WW II mentality with regard to sabotage.
>
> So what's the right thing to do? Well telling people what you want to
> do, introducing yourself to law enforcement, and actually asking for
> permission for your project.



Two things Adam:

a) Never ask for permission to do something which is a guaranteed right and
freedom (informing whoever that you are going to do it is different - tell
them don't ask)

As soon as one or two people ask for permission, those being asked very soon
come to believe they actually have the power to grant that permission and
will then require everyone to seek such permission

(How will you feel when you need to ask for permission to leave your city
limits? or need to apply for an internal visa to cross State lines?)

> There are not many photographers on this list who were practicing
> during WW II. I wonder what responses the taking of photos with a
> tripod would have elicited from them? Probably not too friendly.

b) I believe the US was like every other major democracy during time of
actual war - they sought emergency legislation from Congress (?)(as Britain,
Australia, Canada etc did from Parliament) for special measure for the
duration. So acts such as photographing a bridge or a power station or a
transportation route or whatever were illegal. But only temporarily.

The Patriot Act is such legislation, but the Administration did  not seek
such brad and far reaching papers as were granted during WWII (probably for
several reasons - to do so would have been to admit the terrorists were
winning,  Congress probably wouldn't have granted them - nor would the
American people as a whole accepted them -even after 9/11). BTW the Patriot
Act nowhere mentions the prohibition of photography of any kind (the only
mention of photography I recall was for extra funding to provide
photogrpahic equipment to the Dept of Homeland Security or some such)

And despite what the Administration say, the US isn't at war and has only
sought the very minimum of such powers.

tim