George Will, a Detained Photographer and Terrorism

I'm trying to write interesting, useful and positive hubs-- like articles about out-of-the-ordinary places, life's anecdotes-- uplifting things, you know? I really am, but I roam around the internet for inspiration and I keep finding outrageous items that I feel need to be exposed to sunlight whenever possible. I'd rather not be Mr. Negativity, but Mr. Main Stream Media isn't doing the job.

When a conservative like George Will writes stuff that I agree with, well, that's just not right. I may have to actually open my mind and reconsider that there are conservatives worth listening to-- you know, like before the GOP was hijacked by the evangelist far-right-wingers. I can't disagree with them just because of a label. What caught my eye today was Mr. Will's commentary entitled “George F. Will: Police overreach in name of fighting terrorism”. My first reaction was to ensure that it was THAT George Will. I mean, what Republican would even hint that police might overstep the bounds when terrorism is involved? In it, he discusses the cases of two photographers detained by police for taking photographs.

I did some more digging on one of the photographers, Shawn Nee, who was detained for taking pictures of new subway stiles in an L.A. Subway. He is a documentary photographer and, as such, knows his rights (at least as they currently stand). In 2009, after a deputy in the subway repeatedly demanded to know whether he was going to sell the pictures to al-Qaeda, Shawn repeatedly stated there was no law against taking pictures there and that he had broken no laws. When the deputies detained him and searched him, he exercised his right to remain silent.

At this point, one of the deputies said:

“You know, I’ll just submit your name to TLO (the Terrorism Liaison Officer program). Every time your driver’s license gets scanned, every time you take a plane, any time you go on any type of public transit system where they look at your identification, you’re going to be stopped. You will be detained. You’ll be searched. You will be on the FBI’s hit list.”

So, regardless of Mr. Nee's intentions (or guilt or innocence), he faced having his livelihood ruined; being put on THE LIST is not a GOOD THING. The deputy didn't care one way or the other-- he could just do it-- and that would teach this irritating man bleating about his “rights”.

On another, unrelated occasion, Mr. Nee had also been told by deputies not to take pictures on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at Hollywood and Vine.

In February 2012, the ACLU took up Shawn's case (as well as others) and is suing the L.A. Sheriff over such harassment, stating that “Photography is not a crime. It's protected First Amendment expression”.

As I read of this and other such incidents, I think back when we read about minders in the Soviet Union not allowing tourists to point their cameras at certain places or, more recently, police in the UK harassing photographers. It can happen here; it is happening here. Just because they don't have the guts to try to make cameras illegal doesn't mean they won't try to stop us from using them.

One more thing. I'm going to pay more attention in future to writers I may unconsciously be dismissing as right-wing-puppets. After all, there are left-wingers that write crap, too. And I want to be fair. No one has the monopoly on truth and it is in such short supply.