Schneier: The War on Photography

Jun 18: Schneier: The War on Photography

A while ago, security expert and all-around common sense advocate Bruce Schneier wrote the following essay. He posted it to his blog the day before Lori was born; thus the delay in my posting about it.

The War on Photography

Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We've been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about -- the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 -- no photography.

It's quick and a must-read for anyone interested in photography or the erosion of our rights.

This brings to mind a couple of recent cases of security over-stepping their authority at DC's Union Station. First, was an NPR photographer who was testing some new equipment there when he was almost arrested. And then, while doing a report on photographers being hassled at Union Station, the camera crew of our local Fox affiliate was hassled by Union Station security.

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Posted by ben in Government and Politics, Photography on 06/18/08 12:53 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

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Yeah, this Union Station action is old news. I, and a friend, were approached in ~2005 by a cop while photographing Union Station. The cop told us to stop. I asked why and said I wouldn't. More cops showed up. We thought it was best to stop.

Their explanation was that Union Station is a privately owned building and, therefore, not under any US government-related controls of open photography. I did a little bit of research and it turns out the building is privately operated.

What impact this has on legal photographing is not clear to me, but the absurdity of this and all the other anti-photographing ish is clear.

#1 JK (Homepage) on 2008-06-18 21:22 (Reply)

I've posted an update to this entry here:

http://www.furiousblog.com/archives/444-Update-to-the-War-on-Photography.html

#2 Ben (Homepage) on 2008-07-30 09:02 (Reply)

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