Photographers Rights under threat in U.S.A.

[AcadieLibre]

Photographers and Videographers in the U.S.A.are now being arrested for well nothing other than the police denying citizens of their rights and to cover up police wrongdoings. This is a very direct attack on photography and the freedom to shoot people in public places, with the proliferation of people with photo/video enabled gadgets and both pro and amateur photographers/videographers the police are getting caught doing bad things. Anyway here is the link to the story/essay (http://gizmodo.com/5553765/are-cameras-the-new-guns). Police on duty need to be allowed to be photographed to keep them honest, what they are doing is absolutely atrocious by arresting and charging people. This is not just going to affect the public but what the media is able to report and that should worry everyone no matter your political stance.

Photography is Not a Crime (http://carlosmiller.com/)

A site even us Canadians photographers should read even if just on occasion and I feel a MUST for all American photographers, could be a bellwether for us Canadians because at times when the Americans pass asinine laws or allow rights to be taken away we at times follow suite. I hope all American photographers here write their Senators and members of Congress to strongly and vehemently voice their opposition to this blatant theft of rights.

[casil403]

I posted this idea in another thread so I thought I would repost it as I think it applies.

I think there is something to be said about those Critical Mass Cyclists and all the awareness they have raised to make cities more bike friendly...
What they do is:

"Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists' right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world.
Critical Mass has a different flavor from city to city -- there's a big variety in size, respect of traffic laws (or lack thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police. So if you want to know more about Critical Mass, you'll really need to find out what your local ride is like. For those who must know more right now, here's a link to Chicago CM, which I suppose is a "typical" CM ride, if there is such a thing.
Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born.
CM is an idea and an event, not an organization. You can't write to "Critical Mass"
CM is intended to be a celebration, not an opportunity to cause trouble. Those who want to try to tie up traffic as much as possible and be confrontational with motorists are missing the point. We can assert our right to the road without being rude about it. Focus on the ride, not on the cars that also happen to be on the road."

Maybe we should have a Photography Mass once a month coast to coast country to county where photographers and like minded people gather in one place in every city/town and pick public places to shoot openly en mass. If shooting in Canada is not a crime, what better way to showcase that than a bunch of like minded photographers gathering in public places to take photos?
Not a bad idea to bring media awareness to the cause of what our rights are as photographers. Strength in numbers right?

I know a great building we can do our very first shoot at....

[AcadieLibre]

I think it would be a great idea to have a mass photography shoot in nation wide. It could be held in the various cities and communities around the country just to keep it legal and raise awareness that photographers are not criminals or terrorists or any other label we get hit with on occasion. Something for you to work on then? I would try and get it going but since it was your idea I would hate to seem like I was trying to steal you spotlight lol. I wonder if we could actually get something like that going, anyone want to suggest anything I would be willing along with others to see if we could do this. The more I think of it the better of an idea it keeps getting. Just need to find a date that has some importance for photography or some incident that a photographer was wronged some way. I like this idea more and more. Anyway if anyone is interested in this let me know here or in PM I have some experience organizing protests and this would be a positive and friendly event. I already have some ideas and I just read this and we do have photographers from around the country. I will start a separate post to see if we can pull it off.

[Matt K.]

Yes, I think this is worthy of action. With the political scene the way it is the amateur photographer may find him/herself in a lot of trouble, and it is high citizens recapture their rights. For your info, here is an interesting video from England:

YouTube - UK: Photographer films his own 'anti-terror' arrest, February 2010 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAUan2DXBsk)