If visiting Indy, don't take pics of any.....

[JSPhoto]

If you visit Indy do not take photos of any of the city or county owned buildings. It seems that when a Houston Tx man was visiting for the F1 race he got hassled over taking pictures downtown, one of which had a corner of one of the government buildings. As he was taking pictures of his trip he suddenly had two Metro Pd cars pull up with the lights on. The officers got out and questioned him, and looked at all the photos on the digital camera.... so much for Hoosier Hospitality
The police response was it is illegal to take photos of the city & county owned buildings ..... I want to see that law! And of course it all has to do with 911, a convient excuse for law enforcement to harrass anyone with a camera.
The oddest thing about this incident is that this guy has more security clearance than the two cops added together..... he works for NASA

JS

[Frog]

I vote that 1,000 photographers show up at the same time taking pics of all the municipal buildings.

[JSPhoto]

I vote that 1,000 photographers show up at the same time taking pics of all the municipal buildings.

LOL, yeah, then they would arrest everyone for : not having a permit for a parade : trying to start a riot .... and finally whatever this other so called law is


JS

[another view]

There were quite a few stories like this a couple/few years ago but I haven't heard anything recently. I didn't understand the idea behind it then, and still don't...

[JSPhoto]

There were quite a few stories like this a couple/few years ago but I haven't heard anything recently. I didn't understand the idea behind it then, and still don't...

I agree AV, especially since the city/county are always posting views of the buildings on their websites, and brochurs, not too mention these places are all 20-30 years old or more and then there are the hundreds of photos in the papers or thousands of feet of TV footage. If a terrorist wants photos of these buildings they don't need to go take pictures of them, there are plenty to be had by going to the library... so I guess in the name of security we also need to close the libraries nationwide and in the schools. Oh, and we better start being like China and limit internet access, especially out to the rest of the world.

JS

[another view]

I agree AV, especially since the city/county are always posting views of the buildings on their websites, and brochurs, not too mention these places are all 20-30 years old or more and then there are the hundreds of photos in the papers or thousands of feet of TV footage.

It was illegal to photograph the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco for awhile, in recent years. I wasn't there at the time but remember reading that it was enforced, too. Talk about a waste of police presence... There have to be millions of photographs of it. Probably some in the Library of Congress. Plenty of shots and footage showing how it was built. There's no way to round all of that up and destroy it, fortunately. I can't imagine that there isn't a square inch of that bridge that hasn't been photographed already, so why work so hard to stop new ones from being created? Like I said, I just don't get it...

[tink]

We had an incident here in my local town downunder of a local photographer taking photos of the sunrise which happened to be in the direction of the Shell Motor Oil Company site. Police banned him from going near that area again and warned others off taking photos in, near, or around areas which include major Companies such as Shell, again.

This particular photographer was warned if he was to do it again he'd have his camera and all equipment confiscated. Can they do this? They obviously think so!

I think the world is going crazy as a result of terrorism. It just doesn't seem fair does it. I guess it only takes just one who is not your regular photographer capturing the beauty of the world that is really a terrorist and is making plans for his future

[rovowen]

Don't come to the Cincinnati Area, Newport on the leevee, has guards that will threaten if you do not take your camera and leave. You can't even take pictures of Cincinnati from the Kentucky side if you are on the leevee.
I feel most police and guards tend to overstep their authority. But we are the ones that have the expensive equipment and I surely don't want to loose my camera and lens to prove a point.

rovowen

[swmdrayfan]

There were quite a few stories like this a couple/few years ago but I haven't heard anything recently. I didn't understand the idea behind it then, and still don't...

It's called paranoia, a v.

[Frog]

I'm onery enough that I'd go there and they would have to forcefully take my stuff and then they would have to pay in a large law suit.

[JSPhoto]

I guess we would also have to destroy many schoolbooks too since things like monuments and bridges are in those too, it's pretty sad to say the least. The terrorists can strike without photographs, just as easy if they had them. Considering the millions of photos of landmarks and government buildings it would be impossible to destroy all of them, so I don't get what the big deal is. Any group wanting to target a building will find a way to get what they want, and most of it is available on the internet, and it would be impossible to eliminate everything on the net.

JS

[another view]

It's called paranoia, a v.

You're right about that. We all know that our world (here in USA) changed on 9/11/01. Since we had not dealt with something like that day before, it's understandable that things would be a little crazy for a period of time. I can accept that, and I can accept holding off taking pictures of this or that because the powers that be are trying to decide what needs to be protected, and how to do it. Here we are coming up on six years later and some areas of law enforcement still have their heads in the sand. That's sad...

Tink, I'm surprised you're dealing with that too in Austrailia. I thought we had the market cornered on goofy ideas!

[SmartWombat]

They just want to be seen to be doing something - even if it is a total waste of time.
It's amazing how with just a little frightening from government propaganda, people will vote their rights away.

[JSPhoto]

Since we had not dealt with something like that day before, it's understandable that things would be a little crazy for a period of time.

We haven't? Throughout the history of America we have been attacked without warning, both in our homeland and overseas. We have had ships blown up, barracks blown up by suicide bombers, a Federal building blown up, airliners blown up by terrorists...and thats just since the 1970's. We dealt with all kinds of attacks, but just never responded properly. If we had put safety measures in place at our airports like Isreal has had for many years 911 wouldn't have occured because they are prepared. The US has always had a "wait and see" attitude towards security, then after something happens they say "oh, we should have done this or that". The same occurred when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
Our responses to terrorists over the years has been to throw a few punches and bloddy their nose ie: Lybia & leader Momar Kadafi, who's aif force took a beating numerous times following terrorist attacks on airliners, and even Kadafi himself being targeted several times. Oddly enough Kadafi actually stood up for the US and against the terrorists in the attack on 911 and since has helped US officials locate terrorists.
These quick attacks though did not do anything to upgrade US airport security, and even now many airports are still way behind in security measures and items that are not supposed to get onboard still do. Aircraft still do not have proper secure cabin doors.

Another thing that gets me is that the taking photos of certain buildings is illegal, but the buying and selling of software such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, which has the cockpit layouts of several large aircraft hasn't been limited at all, it also has the airports and blocky city scapes that included the twin towers, not to mention the geographic co-ordinates of all the airports and landmarks and how to use and disable the autopilot and the terrorist pilots had the software to help in their training. Tell me that Microsoft didn't fight to save that, it's probably their biggest money maker besides Windows. Once again $$ takes precidence over security, but it shows where the governments priorities are as well. Big companies get away with whatever they want, while the little guy gets harrassed for taking a photo.

JS

[another view]

We haven't? Throughout the history of America we have been attacked without warning, both in our homeland and overseas.

True, but 9/11 was such a huge magnitude here on our own soil, over the course of only a couple of hours and not while a big part of the world was already at war (as in the case of Pearl Harbor). Not to make light of any of your examples and others that have happened in history. Good point about flight simulator - hadn't really given that much thought. After almost six years, it seems like we're still focusing on the small stuff - cockpit doors on the planes I flew on as recent as two weeks ago didn't look any more secure than they did several years ago but I still have to take off my shoes (sandals, even), check my bag for fear of having the wrong sized tube of toothpaste and throw away a security-checked bottle of water in order to get on a plane. Then they run the schedules so tight that any minor problem results in system-wide delays. Road trips are so much easier...

[pisco]

on the other hand, you can take pictures of the White House, pictures of the Congress building, the mall, etc. I guess Indy and Cincinnati are more important, or at least that's what cops of those places feel... let them be

[JSPhoto]

on the other hand, you can take pictures of the White House, pictures of the Congress building, the mall, etc. I guess Indy and Cincinnati are more important, or at least that's what cops of those places feel... let them be

Let them be? So you have given up your rights? Not me! I will not allow them to harrass me like this. It's the people who say "let them be" who allow them to take our rights and turn this country into a police state.
As for "importance", somehow with the paperwork thats involved in getting homeland security funds, Indiana came up with the most "targets" of any state....incluiding a potato chip factory The feds finally caught on and are re-doing the paperwork, however the ones who put the list together went by the rules, it's not Indiana's fault that other states didn't count their patato chip factories
Indiana however does have it's fair share of "real" targets with a large Army NG training facility, munitions, chemical weapons storage, ANG facilities, Air Refueling and not too mention numerous vehicle plants, and of course the military payroll center and other military testing and R&D sites. Off the top of my head I can think of around 75 sites. So Indiana does have a lot of potential targets, even the two biggest sporting events in the world, and under the present logic we shouldn't be allowed to take photos at the Indy 500 or Brickyard 400.

JS

[another view]

Let them be? So you have given up your rights? Not me! I will not allow them to harrass me like this. It's the people who say "let them be" who allow them to take our rights and turn this country into a police state.

This is why we have the ACLU. I haven't read up to see what their involvement is with this issue, but it's just the kind of thing they seem to get involved with. Sure, they get a bad rap when they take the unpopular side of an issue but look at the big picture...

I can give up taking shots of a state office building for a few days, but chips? No way!

[mwfanelli]

People! Other countries, such as North Korea, China, Lybia, the old Soviet Union, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc. all have/had rules just like this! We joined them in promoting torture, why should this be any different? After all, security is much more important than something as silly as basic freedoms.

[Frog]

If it ever actually becomes illegal to take pictures of public buildings, what will they do about people with photographic memories?:idea:

[SmartWombat]

what will they do about people with photographic memories?

I've seen "Heroes" it's no problem ;)

[pisco]

Let them be? So you have given up your rights? Not me! I will not allow them to harrass me like this. It's the people who say "let them be" who allow them to take our rights and turn this country into a police state.
JS

Well, in other words, I just wouldn't care taking pictures or even going to their city if I'm not welcome (and of course, I'm not excited about going to Indianapolis)... and if lots of people avoid this cities, then maybe they realize it's a mistake (if $$ are going to the friendly neighbor city)
But you are right, it's giving up my rights, not the best thing... I guess I don't care because it's Indy, and my reaction would be different in a place where I'm interested in... (selfish?, not the best thing to do... )

[JSPhoto]

An update:
From the news tonight they actually said there is NO law regarding taking photos of the city & county buildings, BUT, the cities "safety director" stated that they will be watching everyone and respond on a case by case basis. They said too that they were not using "profiling" to decide how to deal with each situation.
Now I'd like to know how they are deciding if they are not profiling, and I bet that if I went down there and took some photos they would be on me like flies on .....
At the end of the segment they showed a view of downtown from a chopper, and it included all the "protected" buildings.....

JS

[Speed]

"At the end of the segment they showed a view of downtown from a chopper, and it included all the "protected" buildings....."

Typical!!!!!

It would be funny if it wasn't so absurd!

I would urge all of you in the U.S. to print and carry this with you.

http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf

[Frog]

I goodgled Indianapolis briefly. Found the floor plans for the Federal Court building