This photogrophy student (from Middle Eastern descent) has a few run-ins with the American police while working on a project. A rather sad story.

Very sad indeed. Seems like some police are so desperate to find terrorists that they forget that someone can be not-white, not a terrorist, and a photographer at the same time. What a demeaning experience.

If I was in his place, I'd send that good article to every news outlet I could find, and also send copies to the Police Board and the local government. It might not accomplish much, but then again, it might.

Yes it is, this is how paranoid the US get. we've seen it before, in the Cold War...

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Terrible!!!!

I recently had some security officers break into my van and take out my 2 dogs claiming abuse because they were in for over 2 hours (lies as I had been gone 45 mins and they had claimed they had taken them out an 1/2 hour ago), and almost dead (lies as they tend to sleep in the van, had just got a cool bath, drink, and they looked far from dying ). I said the windows were open and in a big cool van they were in no danger (They claimed they were not and they opened them, more lies as the windows are electronic and can't be opened without the key, plus I had a witness). They made me feel like a criminal and later I got a call from an animal rights officer, who had to check the complaint. She was very understanding as she said they over reacted, and were not suppose to enter my vehicle. It happened to her before after leaving dogs in her car to shop for 10 minutes, some idiot reported her and she works as an officer. Many people Overreacted, like to abuse their authority, cause problems for others. Hopefully Darwin's law will eventually remove them from the big picture.</font>

[ 08-06-2004, 02:03 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

When you've lost a bunch of folks to terrorists, all of which were non-white middle-eastern males, parenoia begins to look more and more like justifiable caution.

True, but he had all his photography notes, a copy of his assignment, etc, etc. I have no problem with the first cop doing the followup visit to his house, but the eight cops closing him down is a bit much.

I think it was pretty obvious that he was what he appeared to be (a student, not a terrorist). Some of those cops were heavy-handed with no reason. Yes, you can say that a terrorist will have a similarly good story, but to me that crosses the line from understandable suspicion to unreasonable paranoia. If a corroborated story like that isn't enough to dispel the suspicion, what will be?

Wow... not a pleasant situation. The only good way I can think of for this to end would be to contact a local human-interest reporter from the paper and see if he thinks there's a story there. They need articles on a regular basis, and one about the challenges of being different in today's world may be worth something.

I might also talk to a lawyer about how to protect myself the next time it happened. 'Cause it will, you can be sure.

I think the key thing is in being prepared ahead of time. I'd probably meet with the local cops at some time when I wasn't planning to take pictures, and then explain the situation, appreciating their point of view and challenge, and ask what would need to be done to make sure that there were no future problems or issues for either of us. Easier said than done, I'm sure, but that would be, IMHO, the best way to get there without getting anyone's feathers really ruffled.

There is a fine line between paranoia and safety. Think what might have happened if some of the 9/11 security folks had been a little more paranoid... what might have been avoided.

i read that police report...

incident classification: suspicious.. whaaaattt???

it is considered suspicious because it is a major trafic way (sort of) and anyone photographing such things are considered suspicious. if you photograph a major federal building, they will arrest you :( sad? yes. stupid? yes, but that is the way we live our lives now :(

I didn't know terrorism had a skin color.

Parenoia is understandable, but it's things like this that shows how bad things are getting around the states lately. Because of the 9/11 attack, discrimination has just gotten worse.