Gravy
Downsitting Citizen
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2006
- Messages
- 17,078
Gravy's Rights: 1, Jackbooted Thugs: 0
Note: there are photos to accompany this account here, but read the story before looking at the photos.
I've taken about 6,000 photos on the streets of New York City in the past year, and I've never had an experience like the one I had on Friday, March 31. I was using my trusty little point-and-shoot digital camera to shoot architecture on Wall Street, where, at any given time during the day, there are about 50 people taking pictures, mostly of the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall National Memorial.
I decided to take pictures of a certain skyscraper that is architecturally significant. I won't give the address of that building, but I will say that it's where a Nitzer Ebb music video was shot, and it's main tenant, an international firm with 1.2 trillion dollars in assets, has a name that rhymes with "Beutsche Dank."* While standing on the sidewalk in front of this building, with my camera pointed up to capture its postmodern attitude, I was approached by two building security guards. I didn't know they were approaching, since I was looking straight up.
"Sir!" I still didn't know they were talking to me.
"Sir! Excuse me, sir!"
I pulled the camera down and looked at them, two fit-looking guys dressed in blue paramilitary fatigues: Marine-style caps, loose-fitting, untucked shirt-jackets that could be concealing machine pistols, stun-guns, grenades, Raisinettes, or none of the above, cargo pants with heavy things in the pockets, pant cuffs tucked into black military boots. Okay, the boots weren't jackboots, but I'm the aggrieved party here and I feel entitled to some poetic license. Anyway, on Wall Street they take their security very seriously these days, as well they should.
"Yes?" I said. They were about 5 feet away.
"No photography here," said the taller one while wagging a finger at me.
"What do you mean?"
"There's no photography allowed of this building."
"You should hide it then," I said, jokingly. This disarmed them a bit and the taller one said, "Yeah, we're working on that." (The building is 745 feet tall.)
"But there's no law against taking a picture on a public sidewalk is there?"
"Sir, we have an agreement with the police."
"Well I don't have an agreement with the police, so unless there's a law against it, I'll be right over here taking pictures." I said this nicely but firmly, but I was thinking, "How dare they mistake me for a tourist!"
"Then we WILL call the police," said the shorter one, sternly.
"Go right ahead." Where we were standing, if you wanted to call the police all you'd have to do is yell "Police!" in a westerly direction and they'd walk over.
I stepped back to the curb and decided it would be a good idea to have photos of these guys so they couldn't deny they were there when I spoke to their supervisor, as I planned to do. As I focused the camera on them, the taller one was talking on his radio and the shorter one started circling to my right, about 15 feet away. I turned the camera on him to get a shot, in case he was trying to skedaddle. He saw me do this and headed for me. I had both hands on the camera, my right index finger poised an inch above the shutter release.
"You taking my picture?" he shouted."You taking MY picture? I WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE!" It was a scary moment, because he was plenty close to do it and I was defenseless with my hands on the camera.
"If I push this button you're gonna PUNCH ME IN THE FACE?" He was circling around again, and then in he came, shouting.
"That's right, you got NO right to take my picture!" He was almost touching me, sticking his finger in my face.
"So you're gonna PUNCH ME IN THE FACE if I push this BUTTON?" My finger was still poised, trembling from anger, over the shutter release as I tracked him with the camera.
"You got no right! You're gonna be arrested! You better put that camera down! When I tell you not to take my picture, you can't TAKE MY PICTURE! That's MY right! I will SUE you if you take my picture."
"You certainly have the right to ask me not to–"
"That's right! I will SUE you!"
"–and I've got the right to take your picture anyway." Oh, my friends, he didn't like that.
So at this point I'm going to be punched in the face, arrested and sued if I take a photograph on a public sidewalk. And the thing is, I REALLY wanted to push that shutter button, to show him that he's just a jackbooted coward who likes to push tourists around, or to wind up on my back after taking one on the chin in the cause of freedom, and having the satisfaction of him being arrested for assault. But I just couldn't bring myself to push the shutter release.
Because that would have turned the camera off. When they said they would call the police if I kept taking pictures, I set the camera to "video" mode and filmed the entire tirade. With sound.
Well, the nut calmed down a bit, probably because he knew his boss would be there soon. And his boss did arrive as I was trying to get their names, but they wouldn't tell me their names. Before I took the boss aside to show him the video, I said to the thug, "By the way, I WAS taking your picture the whole time. It's video."
D'oh!
I'll spare you the details of what followed. I'm told that changes are being made, and I'll follow up on Monday to make sure that's being done. Now you can see some stills of the video here,with my comments (click on the set of photos that appears on the left of the page). I made humorous comments on the photos, but I don't want to suggest that the event wasn't deeply disturbing on many levels.
* As far as I know the security guards are employed by the building, not by "Beutsche Dank." While the other guard was perfectly professional, I include him as a J.T. because tried to intimidate me from exercising my rights.
Note: there are photos to accompany this account here, but read the story before looking at the photos.
I've taken about 6,000 photos on the streets of New York City in the past year, and I've never had an experience like the one I had on Friday, March 31. I was using my trusty little point-and-shoot digital camera to shoot architecture on Wall Street, where, at any given time during the day, there are about 50 people taking pictures, mostly of the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall National Memorial.
I decided to take pictures of a certain skyscraper that is architecturally significant. I won't give the address of that building, but I will say that it's where a Nitzer Ebb music video was shot, and it's main tenant, an international firm with 1.2 trillion dollars in assets, has a name that rhymes with "Beutsche Dank."* While standing on the sidewalk in front of this building, with my camera pointed up to capture its postmodern attitude, I was approached by two building security guards. I didn't know they were approaching, since I was looking straight up.
"Sir!" I still didn't know they were talking to me.
"Sir! Excuse me, sir!"
I pulled the camera down and looked at them, two fit-looking guys dressed in blue paramilitary fatigues: Marine-style caps, loose-fitting, untucked shirt-jackets that could be concealing machine pistols, stun-guns, grenades, Raisinettes, or none of the above, cargo pants with heavy things in the pockets, pant cuffs tucked into black military boots. Okay, the boots weren't jackboots, but I'm the aggrieved party here and I feel entitled to some poetic license. Anyway, on Wall Street they take their security very seriously these days, as well they should.
"Yes?" I said. They were about 5 feet away.
"No photography here," said the taller one while wagging a finger at me.
"What do you mean?"
"There's no photography allowed of this building."
"You should hide it then," I said, jokingly. This disarmed them a bit and the taller one said, "Yeah, we're working on that." (The building is 745 feet tall.)
"But there's no law against taking a picture on a public sidewalk is there?"
"Sir, we have an agreement with the police."
"Well I don't have an agreement with the police, so unless there's a law against it, I'll be right over here taking pictures." I said this nicely but firmly, but I was thinking, "How dare they mistake me for a tourist!"
"Then we WILL call the police," said the shorter one, sternly.
"Go right ahead." Where we were standing, if you wanted to call the police all you'd have to do is yell "Police!" in a westerly direction and they'd walk over.
I stepped back to the curb and decided it would be a good idea to have photos of these guys so they couldn't deny they were there when I spoke to their supervisor, as I planned to do. As I focused the camera on them, the taller one was talking on his radio and the shorter one started circling to my right, about 15 feet away. I turned the camera on him to get a shot, in case he was trying to skedaddle. He saw me do this and headed for me. I had both hands on the camera, my right index finger poised an inch above the shutter release.
"You taking my picture?" he shouted."You taking MY picture? I WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE!" It was a scary moment, because he was plenty close to do it and I was defenseless with my hands on the camera.
"If I push this button you're gonna PUNCH ME IN THE FACE?" He was circling around again, and then in he came, shouting.
"That's right, you got NO right to take my picture!" He was almost touching me, sticking his finger in my face.
"So you're gonna PUNCH ME IN THE FACE if I push this BUTTON?" My finger was still poised, trembling from anger, over the shutter release as I tracked him with the camera.
"You got no right! You're gonna be arrested! You better put that camera down! When I tell you not to take my picture, you can't TAKE MY PICTURE! That's MY right! I will SUE you if you take my picture."
"You certainly have the right to ask me not to–"
"That's right! I will SUE you!"
"–and I've got the right to take your picture anyway." Oh, my friends, he didn't like that.
So at this point I'm going to be punched in the face, arrested and sued if I take a photograph on a public sidewalk. And the thing is, I REALLY wanted to push that shutter button, to show him that he's just a jackbooted coward who likes to push tourists around, or to wind up on my back after taking one on the chin in the cause of freedom, and having the satisfaction of him being arrested for assault. But I just couldn't bring myself to push the shutter release.
Because that would have turned the camera off. When they said they would call the police if I kept taking pictures, I set the camera to "video" mode and filmed the entire tirade. With sound.
Well, the nut calmed down a bit, probably because he knew his boss would be there soon. And his boss did arrive as I was trying to get their names, but they wouldn't tell me their names. Before I took the boss aside to show him the video, I said to the thug, "By the way, I WAS taking your picture the whole time. It's video."
D'oh!
I'll spare you the details of what followed. I'm told that changes are being made, and I'll follow up on Monday to make sure that's being done. Now you can see some stills of the video here,with my comments (click on the set of photos that appears on the left of the page). I made humorous comments on the photos, but I don't want to suggest that the event wasn't deeply disturbing on many levels.
* As far as I know the security guards are employed by the building, not by "Beutsche Dank." While the other guard was perfectly professional, I include him as a J.T. because tried to intimidate me from exercising my rights.
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