I am not a terrorist!

[Izzy]

About 7 years back when I was doing weddings I was sitting waiting patiently for my wife while she did some shopping. I was trying out the new digital camera (Sony F828) and was snapping pictures of whatever while testing the manual settings as I was used to shooting manually with film.

I snapped a few pictures of a bush next to a recruiters office and thought nothing of it. My car was clearly marked on the doors that I was "Concept Photography, "The idea begins with you".

About 2 hours later I was contacted by the local police as a "person of interest". The recruiter had called me in as a possible terrorist. I was short on the phone with the officer and basically told him he was stupid and to p#$s off. After I hung up on him I realized that I would soon have problems. I knew they would run it in the general interest criminal complaint column of the paper. I had to work fast.

Luckily I had a client at the time that was understanding and shared my sentiment about the whole ordeal. This I knew could ruin me or make me better known or both. Instead of trying to hide it, I contacted every possible news agency in my area that might be interested. I was going to get someone to run this to the point that it was a mockery of the powers that be. The nearest major metropolis to me (Madison, WI) was all over the story and did a good job of mocking the powers that be. It was run with my company name on the local radio stations as well as on the TV on several channels as the story heated up. It was run for the 6pm, 10pm, and the 6am news. It was quickly turning into a racial profiling spin, which I did not intend but it was working. I think it was also picked up by bigger news agencies but I can not confirm it as it was second hand knowledge.

Naturally the police department involved was trying to do spin control as it spiraled out of control on them. They went so far as telling people they should call in anyone taking pictures of power plants and other utilities and so on. They were so paranoid that it was not funny. I can tell you it was not a good time to be an industrial photographer of which I also did in down time.

Do you have a similar story where you were picked as a terrorist because of your photography?

I had thought of taking pictures in a turban just to piss them off.

[Jim Poor]

Love to see some links to the story.

[Izzy]

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

Love to see some links to the story.

I actually found an old link to it!!!

Impressive
Have a camera? Then you may be a terrorist! Crabbyolbastard Ruminates

[Jim Poor]

Gotta love it. Maybe the recruiter was worried that the lies he told were coming back to haunt him!

[Izzy]

Here is a link to the Channel 3000 story
Baraboo Photos: National Security Threat? - Madison News Story - WISC Madison

[theosus]

I live near a nuclear power plant. One evening at sunset I was driving past it, the sky was a beautiful blue and the sun lit the side of the containment building up a pinkish color (the reactor looks like the old L'Eggs pantyhose things, the plastic ones from the 80s., a hemisphere on top of a cylinder, and the whole thing is white). I pulled off the side of the road to take a few pictures. Its a public road. No sooner had I taken three or four pictures while playing with various settings, than security trucks started hauling a$$ my way, lights blinking. Not wanting to face your issue, I left. They never did catch up to me. They're probably just recording all my ingoing and outgoing e-mails now. *Waves at Homeland Security*.

[Izzy]

Originally Posted by theosus

They're probably just recording all my ingoing and outgoing e-mails now. *Waves at Homeland Security*.

My uncle who has friends in the Secret Service assures me we ALL have files on us.

I had always wanted to catch one of those shots like you described but I presently do not live near a nuclear power plant. There was one near Raleigh, NC when I lived out there, every time I passed it, it was at 70mph and someone else at the wheel and no camera. I know I missed some great shots.

The bad part about the terrorist ordeal is that I don't even have image that goes with the story. There is no great shot that I got int trouble for, I just got in trouble.

[freybear3]

I was taking photos of a local ski team, and they called the police cuz I was a "suspicious person" I was like WTF. I had all my equipment (camera & tripod) in the front row and just taking photos of the ski team. (I think it had to do with me having a SLR camera)


Another time, I stopped and took a photo of an accident. And the police were up in my face yelling at me and threatening to arrest me for taking a photo. I was on the street, so I wasn't in the wrong. But this was prob. the closest I ever came with getting in trouble for photography. 8 police officers surrounded me, yelling at me, and threatening me. They let me go, after I told them i was going to contact the local media, for violation of my photographer rights.

[Crossfire905]

Originally Posted by Izzy

Do you have a similar story where you were picked as a terrorist because of your photography?

I live near a small but somewhat busy municipal airport, and I've often thought it might be fun to try for a few shots of the small planes landing [Cessnas and the like], especially now that I have a good camera with a couple of big lenses, but there's always the possibility of some whole stupid paranoid "guy with a beard taking pictures of the airport" fiasco. As it happens, the only decent vantage points would be in the parking lot of a large shopping center across the street or from the sidewalk at the north end of the airport. So, maybe I won't... <*shrug*>

Google Maps link

[Photologyst]

Congratulations, Izzy!

Why should you be the only one who gets harassed for no reason?

As a Nordic looking blonde of a certain age I am always assured that my person and my luggage will be thoroughly searched every single time that I fly, which is often. That means everything will be unpacked, dropped on the floor and disheveled by TSA because, I clearly have the profile of a terrorist. So do old, white people in wheel chairs not to mention children’s toys. Of course, men of a certain phenotype get to walk right through security lest we “offend.”

Not only that, but I always get a love note from TSA in my luggage. Chef’s knives and photo equipment are suspect don’t ya know.

Photo nut that I am, I no longer am obvious about taking photos of airports. Evidently the TSA people are too stupid to comprehend that a real terrorist might have a clandestine camera instead of a monster SLR.