Man arrested for trying to report suspected crime

By Carlos Miller
Photography Is Not a Crime

John Nix pulled out his cell phone after spotting what he thought was a gang of thugs mugging a man in the parking lot of a North Carolina shopping mall last week.

The former city council candidate ended up in jail after the men who were in street clothes turned out to be cops arresting a suspected shoplifter.

They thought he was taking their picture.

More photog false arrests

By William R. Toler

The last time I checked, photography was not a crime. But a rash of arrests this year would seem to suggest otherwise.

Courtesy stockphotopro.com

We’ve already introduced you to the work of Carlos Miller who has documented an alarming number of incidents where people have been arrested, usually for videotaping or photographing the police or federal buildings.

The most recent case involved two reporters, including Reason.tv’s Jim Epstein. Their crime: having cameras at a public meeting of the DC Taxicab Commission. Contrary to most open meeting laws, the Commission bans videotaping because it has “found television cameras to be disruptive to meetings.”

It started when Pete Tucker from thefightback.org was approached by an officer and asked to turn off his camera. “I’m a reporter,” he pleaded with the officer. After refusing and repeating multiple times that he was a reporter and it was an open meeting, Tucker was arrested. Epstein followed toward the door, camera in hand. One lady asked him not to record her. “I don’t give you permission,” she said. Epstein was then arrested himself.

Photography is not a crime

By William R. Toler

Shutterbugs across the country noticed a disturbing trend and some have even found themselves behind bars for doing their job or passion: photography.

Carlos Miller, a “multimedia journalist,” maintains a blog featuring stories of people arrested for photography. Dozens of photo-activists have been incarcirated for videotaping police officers, usually to catch abuse of authority. According to Miller’s website, he has been arrested twice for photographing cops and beaten both charges.

One case that’s been getting a lot of attention from the liberty movement involves John Kurtz, a real estate agent and photo-activist. Kurtz, founder of Orlando Copwatch, was arrested Jan. 1 after police say he interrupted an investigation and shoved an officer, the Orlando Sentinel reports. He faces a maximum of six years for “resisting without violence, battery on a Law Enforcement Officer, obstruction of a police officer.”

Here are the facts according to Orlando Copwatch:

Surveillance Society

By William R. Toler

As technology increases, both in the government and private sector, it seems that our right to privacy continues to decrease.

Recently, Popular Mechanics reported that the Michigan State Police may have been using forensic analyzers on smart phones during routine traffic stops. The magazine mentions a letter sent from the American Civil Liberties Union to the state police alledging that troopers have been violating the Fourth Amendment by using the Cellebrite Universal Forensic Extraction Device.

The manufacturing company’s website boasts that the UFED system “extracts vital information from 95 [percent] of all cellular phones on the market today, including smartphones and PDS devices.” A list of information that can be extract is listed on the product’s page including: contacts, text messages (even deleted ones), call history, audio, video, pictures and ringtones.

TSA: Photographers are terrorists

By William R. Toler

Photographers beware. You could be mistaken for a terrorist.

As if taking pictures of police officers (blog coming soon) and government buildings wasn’t bad enough, now if you’re caught taking pictures of airplanes you could be brought in for questioning.

The Transportation Security Adminstration has put out posters portraying shutterbugs as terrorists.

The blogosphere has been abuzz with the assinine assertion from the TSA that photographers will blow up planes. The poster contains the phrase “If you question it, report it.”

When I posted a link to the story on my Facebook page, the response I got from two photographers was simply, “WOW!”

Mall Santa snapshots lead to arrest

By Corey Friedman

Maybe R.C. Basford’s just camera-shy. Perhaps he’s an adherent of some obscure aboriginal faith that teaches that a snapshot snatches away the soul.

Either would be preferable to the more likely alternative — that Basford is a bully who doesn’t think the law he’s sworn to enforce applies to him personally.

A Charleston, W.Va. police officer, Basford arrested a professional photographer who tried to take his picture inside a mall Tuesday, according to the Charleston Gazette. Scott Rensberger had previously been seen snapping photos of children with Santa Claus.

Parents approached Rensberger and expressed concern that he had taken pictures of their children. As a courtesy, Rensberger deleted the images, but Basford later approached him and asked why he’d photographed the kids.

“I can’t believe you are asking me that,” Rensberger said to Basford. “Do you mind if I take a picture of you?”