Not just railfans

It soesn't say whether he explained himself very well or if he was a smartass either.

Sort of a touchy area if you ask me, but I guess you didn't aske me.

( but we are used to people being stopped at gunpoint trying to cross a bridge in new Orleans......)

Smartass or not, he was doing nothing illegal, and was only a threat in the minds of those who've imbibed too much of Bush's War On Terror (c) koolaid.

What's touchy is the rampant Chickenshit Littleism ever since what Bush has turned into his universal excuse ("Can you say 9/11, children?"). But what can you expect from a nation led by them what have never been shot at, indeed by them who made very goddam sure they would never be in any danger of being shot at? Shrub [jumped line into a safe bullet, and coldn't even be bothered to complete his obligation], Cheney [5 student deferments], Feith, Perle, Wolfowitz, and many many more. When _they_ prate about Patriotism it makes me want to puke.

Not to a photographer. It was April. Early morning (and late afternoon or evening) light is conducive to more interesting shots. A terrorist who didn't have access to the refinery company's glossy annual report would shoot in full daylight, and from concealment in a van. But hey, let's not let rationality and common sense (let alone liberty) get in the way of a good panic attack.

It was an assignment for an art course fergawdssake! Night photography, IOW. Not easy to master.

Ok, my point is being missed ( my fault )

What I wonder is exactly what was his attitude towards them ?

It's one thing to explain what he was doing and show them his ID etc., it's another to just say " I have a right to do this, I'm not doing anything wrong".

I guess it's the teacher in me that will always look at someone in a situation that's out of place and wonder: " ok, now what is HE up to".

claiming / protesting to the cops that he was doing nothing wrong.

I try to teach my kids that it's a shame, but with many authority figures, it's much easier on you if you are polite even when the authority figure is in the wrong. If a cop pulls you over, he's already got an attitude going so all you need to do is be a smartass and he will FIND an excuse to write a ticket.

Or do like we do, we have two cops in our club so when we want certain pictures we get them to go with us................................Hell, we even get invited into towers and such, meet the yardmasters and trainmaster and are allowed to take all the pictures we want.

It's more of a point of being smarter then those out to give you a hard time.

Hah! What a typo - I meant billet. Not a Freudian slip, by any means, as the only thing worse than that sniveling coward would be Draft Dodgin' Duck Cheney.

Land of the free and home of the brave, eh?

If you awoke at 425 am and looked out your front window and saw someone with a camera taking pictures of your house would you not at least question what hell they are doing ?

Then when they start telling you they have the right.yadda yadda yadda.

Now, if the guy would have come by in the afternoon and told you what he wanted to do, showed you ID as to who he was and asked permissoion, would that have not been easier all the way around ?

I might ask, but I sure as hell wouldn't approach him armed and with hand cuffs. I'd more than likely take pictures back, get his license number, and anyway I'd assume he was a realtor [my apologies to any photographers thus insulted by linkage to those who sell their mother].

he was on public property and therefore he could do as he pleases as he understood it to be. I wonder what his attitude. really was. There are enough Barney Fifes in this world without giving them an excuse to be an ass.

tame. I can very well see police in my area getting out of the car with guns drawn.

Even before Katrina if someone was in front of a house at 4:30 am doing ANYTHING, most of my neighbors would have met them with a gun. Since the storm it's even worse.

I guess it's looked at differently in different areas of the country.

Of course we will never really know the whole story as to whether his attitude egged them on, or if they were really out of line. Of course at that time of the morning cops are usually upset when a call disturbs their donut break.

The stupidity of all of this is the cops asking him " are you a terrorist".?

Very true; but regardless of the attitude, they WERE out of line, with sweet reason, sweet liberty, and the constitution. Chickenshit bastards!

There are regrettably some individuals in law enforcement just waiting for a chance to prove their "Defenders of 9/11" chops. Too bad they're not more interested in proving their defenders of the Constitution chops, but maybe it wasn't in their oath. It was in the one I swore when I joined the Navy.

I agree Steve, but if a cop ask me, " are you a terrorist", , I think I would realize that I'm dealing with the guy who had the lowest passing score to get on the department..

Maybe thats what the guy realized and figured , " hey, I can get a lawsuit out of this one".

Maybe he will spend his money on building a layout for his kids !

Anyway, it's been a good discussion.

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays