‘That’s my kids!’ Dad confronts, videotapes stranger taking photos

Raj_55555

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I try my best to stay away from controversial posts, and although this isn't happening anywhere near me, or my country for that matter, I felt strangely disturbed by this.
I came to know about PINAC while browsing this thread, and found this very strange incident that happened a couple of days back in Illinois.



After doing a little research, I have no doubt that the person who made the video really does care for his children. In my book (to be published soon), an over-protective father can be excused, but I can not understand on what grounds the law enforcement officers arrested him later on. How is "alarming individuals attending a public place" a crime?

A quick google search even found a few articles here and there branding him as a pedophile. Now I would understand that if he was a registered offender or something, but why destroy a mans reputation based on an ill-informed opinion? Although irrelevant to the central idea of this post, I really doubt that the man had any malicious intentions whatsoever. Why else would he actually bring out the camera and show the pictures to someone who is clearly likely to call the cops?
 
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because:

(720 ILCS 5/26-1) (from Ch. 38, par. 26-1)
Sec. 26-1. Disorderly conduct.
(a) A person commits disorderly conduct when he or she knowingly:
(1) Does any act in such unreasonable manner as to
alarm or disturb another and to provoke a breach of the peace;


problem will be sticking him on the "to provoke a breach of the peace"

case will get dropped before he sees the courtroom again, he'll sue the police, and he'll end up with a nice settlement in a few years.
 
problem will be sticking him on the "to provoke a breach of the peace"

case will get dropped before he sees the courtroom again.

I have no idea how someone provokes a breach of the peace by taking photographs. :er: But then again I'm not a lawyer, so what do I know..:neutral:
 
you don't. Police in the US will typically arrest you on two bogus charges just to ruin your day: disorderly conduct and resisting arrest

notice how he wasnt arrested on "tak[ing] pictures of women and 13yo children" which is "illegal".
 
I had a really hard time with the language in that video.

I'm not talking about the cursing.

"I SEEN you!"
"..the pictures you had tooken..."
"Where's those pictures at?"
 
The so-called dad (assuming he is going by what's on the video) was at the man's home on his property yelling the f word at him. It's not appropriate to go follow the guy home, if he saw him doing something that appeared questionable at the lake, he could have gotten a park ranger or called the police and reported it when it was happening or reported it to authorities afterwards.

I don't even go to the door if it's not somebody I know. This was a completely inappropriate way to handle this.
 
I'm not condoning his wrongful arrest or the guy trespassing and confronting him (which I agree was in the wrong), but you gotta admit, sitting in your car taking bikini and kid pics is a little creepy and is sure to attract the wrong attention.

I mean, if that's his thing, ok, but expect to have something like this happen eventually, thanks to all the paranoia that's been programmed into modern society. I do hope he sues the cops and wins though.
 
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Looking at the website the dad apparently said after a few days the police didn't have a lead; I wondered if he got the guy's license plate number (somehow he found out where the guy lived). But even if not, if it would get reported with whatever description the dad could give would be a help. If there's someone like this guy that keeps coming to the lake and is acting suspicious or creepy then I wouldn't want to see him around kids either - but it needs to be reported to authorities.

From reading the rest of it apparently there were other complaints about this guy hanging around at the lake and eventually the police were able to act on it (since obviously they can't arrest someone for sitting in their car, or taking cell phone pictures). The more it's reported the more likely the police can do something about it.
 
Maybe the guy is a creep. It's totally possible. But just taking pictures of people doesn't mean he's creepy. In the video, he said the woman wasn't his wife but his caretaker, and that he couldn't stand for a long time. So maybe he sits in his car because it's easier for him, and he takes pictures of people having fun because he simply likes watching other people having fun. I don't know if all his pictures were of girls - maybe he just likes taking pictures of families together. Who knows?

And people complain not because he's doing anything wrong but because people get freaked out when someone is just different. "He's alone and taking pictures so therefore he's immediately weird and different and that must be bad!"

Or, as I said, he might be a creep.

If the pictures are any good, he could become this guy:
Miroslav Tichý - photographer - photo

;)
 
I don't want to speculate about this guy, but I was thinking that she should have just went back inside and called the cops on the guy for trespassing and the verbal abuse he was getting at his own home.
 
america is full of creeps and they have equal rights to the non-creepers.
 
I don't want to speculate about this guy, but I was thinking that she should have just went back inside, pick up the Glock and emptied the clip into the crazy maniac threatening her safety.

Fify. :)
 
Or just locked the door and not opened it again...

I noticed that too, that the guy doesn't seem to be moving around real well so he might have limited mobility to get out to do things. Of course if he's taking pictures, especially when it comes to kids, people may notice and wonder what he's doing. If that's all he's doing it would be nice if he could get to know people there, they'd get to know him and find out his story (if indeed he might be on disability and just likes to get outdoors and do some people watching).

I looked again at the PINAC site, it appears to be done by one self-proclaimed citizen journalist so I'd take it with a grain of salt. He's selling a book, there are ads on the site - but there's something too about it being a nonprofit and he's accepting donations (it shows tax exempt, but that would be for people donating to write it off, not for the guy running the site). I searched and it does not show up on either the site for the state of Florida or the IRS listings as being a registered nonprofit and I don't think a site can be nonprofit and take ads for profit...
 
The homeowner would be well within his rights to demand the man not only leave, but to delete the video he took if he did not consent to being recorded.

Remember, the video is taken on private property. And the owner of said property makes the rules.

If anything, the 'outraged dad' broke more laws than the old man.
 
Looking at the website the dad apparently said after a few days the police didn't have a lead; I wondered if he got the guy's license plate number (somehow he found out where the guy lived).
He posted the license plate number on facebook and offered monetary reward for the address..

From reading the rest of it apparently there were other complaints about this guy hanging around at the lake... The more it's reported the more likely the police can do something about it.
I just don't get it, why would police want to do something about a man sitting in his car, or hanging around a lake? Why does it matter if he had multiple complaints against him, specially since it mentions that nothing was ever proved against him.

Maybe the guy is a creep. It's totally possible. But just taking pictures of people doesn't mean he's creepy.

And people complain not because he's doing anything wrong but because people get freaked out when someone is just different. "He's alone and taking pictures so therefore he's immediately weird and different and that must be bad!"

Or, as I said, he might be a creep.
^This is exactly what I think.. People freak out and form an opinion so easily, a very good example is of the last link I posted. The writer branded him as a pedophile, I am clueless on where he got that information from.
 

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