Another one from the Dumb Department
I regularly see people doing stupid things, being punished for being stupid and then complaining about it. The latest case is Shane Baker. He was at REI, a very large outdoor store in Seattle. Shane took photos of the private security guards refilling the ATM machine. First should he have taken photos of the security guards that were refilling the ATM? I don't think so, but when the security guards asked him to stop, he kept and taking photos and he started arguing with them.
So lets review the situation:
- A photographer with an attitude problem
- 2 rent-a-cop with guns
Guess what happened next? The real cops got called in, he was arrested... All the details are at his web site: Shane Baker.
I'm not disputing his right to take photos, even that's not clear since it's inside a private property. I'm disputing his IQ in arguing with guys that have guns. I wrote about my own experience in Coward.
In many countries and many places, photographers are considered terrorists. In the UK, they arrest photographers and seize their photos on average 15,000 times per month and that's just in London itself see: Metro Police London. I'm not giving you the exact web address, because they are trying to bury the information by moving it around. Do a search on ‘london police "stop and search"’ and it's usually a PDF document.
Why look for a fight when you will lose? They are bigger and their combined IQs are smaller than their shoe size.
I saw the same dumb attitude from a “professional” photographer that was so outraged that he started screaming at the customer. Guess what? That customer will never use his services and I will never recommend him to other customers. Yes, sometimes, I do recommend other photographers see: How NOT to lose.