Categories
personal photography

Can’t Get a Break

You really have to feel for cops nowadays. Its getting to the point that they just can’t beat the shit out of anyone these days without a video showing up on youtube. Not only that, but now they’re in danger of losing their jobs over it. Life’s just not fair.

Now the FBI’s going to get involved because of it. Also, the SJPD is going to start testing over the ear cameras, but I doubt that’s going to help, since the footage in such a case will get “lost” or “corrupted” or they’ll have “forgotten” to start recording.

More links:

Herhold: Phuong Ho interview offers key to beating case

4 San Jose cops put on leave after video shows student beaten

Editorial: Beating video calls for strong city response

Categories
personal photography politics

War on Photography – Jan 4 2009 Edition (Updated)

Stories like this just piss me off. Its yet another example of police abusing their powers by making up anti-photography laws on the spot, usually because of 9/11 or terrorism.

Right.

That’s why this police shooting at the Fruitvale BART station is so infuriating. The official story is that police broke up a fight between two groups and that one of the officer’s weapons accidentally “discharged” while they were questioning the men, killing one, Oscar Grant. The witnesses tell a different story. They said that the doomed man was handcuffed behind his back and on his belly when one of the officers shot him in the back. The bullet passed through his body, ricocheted off the floor and re-entered his belly.

Anyone who’s ever taken BART should immediately be asking themselves why what happened is a mystery since there are surveillance cameras in every station, including on the platform. Except that according to BART, those cameras are for monitoring only and are not capable of recording anything.

Riiiiiight.

So here we have a situation where witnesses’ and the police accounts differ significantly, and there’s a man dead at the hands of the police. There are cameras everywhere, but they’re apparently useless. There’s an investigation, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the officer will be found to have applied appropriate force and suffer no consequences, just like pretty much every other time a cop murders someone.

But the real reason why I’m pissed about the Amtrak story is because of what wasn’t mentioned in the Chronicle stories, but was mentioned in the Kron (SF Channel 4) piece: the police confiscated cell phones and cameras from people in the crowd. Cops lie, witnesses can lie, be intimidated or be simply mistaken, but pictures don’t. Especially when multiple pictures and videos from several sources at different angles all tell the same story. As much as governments and corporations want to use cameras to watch us, it is those same cameras, in the public’s hands that can hold those with power accountable for their actions, and THAT’S why there’s a war on photography. It has nothing to do with terrorists, but with abusive and corrupt officials knowing that they can’t act with impunity as long as people are there recording them.

I know from personal experience that the mere act of pointing a camera at people can cause them to behave differently. But there’s a difference from people not making complete stops at a stop sign in the middle of the night and a badged officer of the law, armed with a deadly weapon and baked with the power of the state and the authority to take your freedom away deciding to abuse that power. That’s why we need to keep our cameras out and pointed at power.

UPDATED 21:00

Well, well, well. It would seem as if the cops didn’t get all of the passenger videos, because one of them got out and guess what? It shows the cop in question shooting Grant in the back while trying to handcuff him. Of course, BART Police are “seriously investigating.” Somehow, I still think its going to be ruled a good shooting with no consequences whatsoever. On the other hand, it seems as if the only way the truth would ever come out was through citizens recording police abuses. Another shocker there.

Categories
photography

Imperial Fleet Week

This video from Current TV is freaking awesome. That is all.

Categories
personal photography

Flickr Pro

Apparently I bumped up against Flickr’s ceiling of 200 photos for free accounts. While they said that they wouldn’t delete my old photos, they would be “unavailable” until or unless I went pro. I would cry extortion, but it is kind of a free service, and I was kinda-sorta meaning to go pro anyway, since it’s only $25/year for unlimited bandwidth and organizational control.

Typically, as soon as I did, I spent an hour uploading and making sets. Money well spent? I think so!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dssstrkl/

http://www.flickr.com/people/dssstrkl/

Categories
personal photography stoopid

SF MOMA and the War on Photography

Everyone’s been talking about Thomas Hawk’s misadventures at the SF MOMA, detailed here and here, and I just wanted to chime in.

My comment on TH’s Flickr post pretty much sums up my feelings.

I don’t always agree with Hawk’s actions or choice of friends (see: Scoble), but there’s no denying that he is one of the staunchest and most public defender or photographers’ rights on the net, and I think that that cause is always worth defending. I think its sad that predatory photography like celebrity-hounding paparazzi are allowed to harass people without consequence, while the rest of us who merely want to document the world around us, create art or enjoy their families risk arrest, harassment by authority figures, being labelled perverts, etc. Its got to stop.

Additionally, for someone of Blint’s position to act in such an unprofessional and hostile manner towards anyone, let alone a paying member of his museum is totally unacceptable. He represents the SF MOMA and his actions reflect the same. If I yelled at someone in the lobby of my institution the way Blint yelled at Hawk, I have no doubt I’d be shown the door that day, as would most people at virtually any place of work. If the MOMA doesn’t dismiss Blint, I know that I’ll never spend a single dime there, as they are an institution that simply doesn’t value their patrons.