Video: Stopped for taking photos of white house

[fjrabon]

LOL at all the 'SS' remarks. The guy very obviously is there to cause trouble. It almost seemed like he started to get annoyed that the officers didn't escalate things more. He clearly has a really poor understanding of his rights and what it means to be arrested and what it means to be questioned. What it seems like very clearly he was hoping to get the officers in trouble the entire time. The officers seemed to be like 'jesus, just give us the answers we want and we'll just let you go, quit trying to bait us.'

Also, the title was highly misleading, he was stopped because he was taking pictures detailing the security routines of the officers. Not for taking photos of the White House.

He also has no idea what the Supreme Court has said, lol. He just keeps saying "you know what the supreme court says" but never actually gives anything.

Also, lol at when he starts getting questions that indicate that he regularly tries to do this, he tries to change the subject for his camera.

 

[shootermcgavin]

This is totally the photographers fault, what an @sshole. It's your ID, come on what an idiot. If some stranger walking down the street said can I see your ID I'd probably say sure, who the hell cares? They should arrest this guy just for being a punk. If you try and show someone in a position of power that you know more than them then you deserve what is coming. I always am 100% honest with police, customs whatever. I have been let off from DUI, and illegal contraband I guess because I was honest with whoever was asking questions. I have brought Cuban cigars into the country and because I told the people when they asked the truth they didn't even take them away. I got pulled over once going 120mph and when they cop asked if I had been drinking I said yes and probably too much because it was pretty stupid going that fast and I just got a speeding ticket. There's no reason to find 20 ways to avoid answering a question when 1 way, answering correctly, would work so much faster. This guy doesn't value his time at all, he'd spend 24 hours in jail to prove a stupid point.

 

[fwellers]

What a complete waste of our taxpayer $$. Those guys have nothing to do, so they all hang around this "crime scene" and take notes like they are in a training class or something. They make me sick. I don't feel it's right to have to provide them a license so they can run it, and keep it on record and do whatever gestapo tactics the letter of the law will allow them to. Not if I'm doing nothing wrong.
All those questions they were asking him, I've been asked before by power hungry idiots just like them. They must have some comic book they all read to come up with the same retarded questions.
So in the end, the only thing that was accomplished is that they harrassed the hell out of a citizen, got him to stop taking pictures ( would have been awesome if he stayed right there and continued to shoot ), and are going to waste some more time sending agents to his house to harass him some more.

It's a crying shame and I am disgusted with it !

 

[12sndsgood]

usually cops ask you questions like that to see your responce. to see if you get nervous. or hiding something etc. there more or less looking for yoru reaction not your responce. these guys were pretty tame and just doing there job. they were no where near power hungry. they didn't get out of line with the guy. they were always polite thru the entire thing.

 

[jwbryson1]

I have been let off from DUI, and illegal contraband I guess because I was honest with whoever was asking questions. I got pulled over once going 120mph and when they cop asked if I had been drinking I said yes and probably too much because it was pretty stupid going that fast and I just got a speeding ticket.

Sorry dude, this is not bragging rights. Please don't drink and drive, especially 120mph. I'd like to live and my family to live a few more years.

 

[fwellers]

usually cops ask you questions like that to see your responce. to see if you get nervous. or hiding something etc. there more or less looking for yoru reaction not your responce. these guys were pretty tame and just doing there job. they were no where near power hungry. they didn't get out of line with the guy. they were always polite thru the entire thing.

Except for one thing. they were harassing him. Please tell me that you don't think they really thought he was a terrorist. They knew darn well that he was doing nothing wrong, and at most they knew he was baiting them. Is it really that easy to bait Secret Service ? Are they so gullible ? Nah, they are bored and have procedures designed to not give a rats behind about the bill of rights.

 

[fjrabon]

usually cops ask you questions like that to see your responce. to see if you get nervous. or hiding something etc. there more or less looking for yoru reaction not your responce. these guys were pretty tame and just doing there job. they were no where near power hungry. they didn't get out of line with the guy. they were always polite thru the entire thing.

Except for one thing. they were harassing him. Please tell me that you don't think they really thought he was a terrorist. They knew darn well that he was doing nothing wrong, and at most they knew he was baiting them. Is it really that easy to bait Secret Service ? Are they so gullible ? Nah, they are bored and have procedures designed to not give a rats behind about the bill of rights.

Except the guy has been warned several times to stop taking pictures of the security measures if he doesn't want to be asked questions about it. Sure, he has a right to take those pictures, but the police do have a right to ask questions about that sort of activity. The guy wasn't just taking pictures of the whitehouse lawn, he was taking pictures of the officers communicating with one another (as he admitted a few times on the video). Documenting how the security force works is one of the most questionable things you can do. Now, yes, they probably knew this kid was just causing trouble, but if they don't stop him, then they can't stop someone who does look like they are perhaps actually doing recon on the security without resorting to profiling.

People don't want profiling, but then when a white kid gets busted for doing something that could be sold to terrorists, we're also up in arms about that, because he 'obviously wasn't a terrorist'. We can't have it both ways.

I have friends that live in DC and take plenty of pictures of the whitehouse. This doesn't happen to any of them. This has happened to this kid several times. He's been questioned by agents multiple times (which they found out by running his info). He has some sort of vendetta against the secret service and is hoping he can bait them into doing something questionable. This was the best he could get.

edit: also notice that he was completely ready for the situation, he orchestrated it, did something that he knew would get the secret service to react this way and was waiting with a video camera.

 

[12sndsgood]

usually cops ask you questions like that to see your responce. to see if you get nervous. or hiding something etc. there more or less looking for yoru reaction not your responce. these guys were pretty tame and just doing there job. they were no where near power hungry. they didn't get out of line with the guy. they were always polite thru the entire thing.

Except for one thing. they were harassing him. Please tell me that you don't think they really thought he was a terrorist. They knew darn well that he was doing nothing wrong, and at most they knew he was baiting them. Is it really that easy to bait Secret Service ? Are they so gullible ? Nah, they are bored and have procedures designed to not give a rats behind about the bill of rights.

who am i to judge wether someone is a terrorist? if i saw timothy mc veigh walking down the street at the time i problaby wouldn't have thought he was a terrroist but look what he did. or are you trying to say that you can point out any terrorist walking down the street? he was taking pictures of security so they wanted to ask him a few questions.

 

[shootermcgavin]

I have been let off from DUI, and illegal contraband I guess because I was honest with whoever was asking questions. I got pulled over once going 120mph and when they cop asked if I had been drinking I said yes and probably too much because it was pretty stupid going that fast and I just got a speeding ticket.

Sorry dude, this is not bragging rights. Please don't drink and drive, especially 120mph. I'd like to live and my family to live a few more years.

Not bragging and it was years ago when I was young and stupid. I definitely don't drink and drive anymore, it's one of the stupidest things you can do and for something so easily avoidable it could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars from losing a great job opportunity. I'm very against it and just mentioned it to prove a point, unfortunately some people don't learn at a young age.

 

[shootermcgavin]

edit: also notice that he was completely ready for the situation, he orchestrated it, did something that he knew would get the secret service to react this way and was waiting with a video camera.

It's pretty obvious he was looking for a reaction, but even that aside if someone was taking pictures of me and I asked them to stop I'd be pretty pissed and might even get physical if the person acted like this jerk. He never once said hey I was just taking pictures of the white house you were in the shot sorry, he was basically taking pictures of just security from the sounds of it. Also he could have handled it better by saying I'm a photographer who specializes in shooting police, firefighters... that kind of thing and I'm just trying to create art. This guy was trying to create drama though.

 

[fwellers]

usually cops ask you questions like that to see your responce. to see if you get nervous. or hiding something etc. there more or less looking for yoru reaction not your responce. these guys were pretty tame and just doing there job. they were no where near power hungry. they didn't get out of line with the guy. they were always polite thru the entire thing.

Except for one thing. they were harassing him. Please tell me that you don't think they really thought he was a terrorist. They knew darn well that he was doing nothing wrong, and at most they knew he was baiting them. Is it really that easy to bait Secret Service ? Are they so gullible ? Nah, they are bored and have procedures designed to not give a rats behind about the bill of rights.

Except the guy has been warned several times to stop taking pictures of the security measures if he doesn't want to be asked questions about it. Sure, he has a right to take those pictures, but the police do have a right to ask questions about that sort of activity. The guy wasn't just taking pictures of the whitehouse lawn, he was taking pictures of the officers communicating with one another (as he admitted a few times on the video). Documenting how the security force works is one of the most questionable things you can do. Now, yes, they probably knew this kid was just causing trouble, but if they don't stop him, then they can't stop someone who does look like they are perhaps actually doing recon on the security without resorting to profiling.

People don't want profiling, but then when a white kid gets busted for doing something that could be sold to terrorists, we're also up in arms about that, because he 'obviously wasn't a terrorist'. We can't have it both ways.

I have friends that live in DC and take plenty of pictures of the whitehouse. This doesn't happen to any of them. This has happened to this kid several times. He's been questioned by agents multiple times (which they found out by running his info). He has some sort of vendetta against the secret service and is hoping he can bait them into doing something questionable. This was the best he could get.

edit: also notice that he was completely ready for the situation, he orchestrated it, did something that he knew would get the secret service to react this way and was waiting with a video camera.

What you say makes sense. I would buy it better though if I weren't stopped and treated the exact same way for something similar. And I wasn't baiting. They really need to chill out about the photography.

 

[fwellers]

usually cops ask you questions like that to see your responce. to see if you get nervous. or hiding something etc. there more or less looking for yoru reaction not your responce. these guys were pretty tame and just doing there job. they were no where near power hungry. they didn't get out of line with the guy. they were always polite thru the entire thing.

Except for one thing. they were harassing him. Please tell me that you don't think they really thought he was a terrorist. They knew darn well that he was doing nothing wrong, and at most they knew he was baiting them. Is it really that easy to bait Secret Service ? Are they so gullible ? Nah, they are bored and have procedures designed to not give a rats behind about the bill of rights.

who am i to judge wether someone is a terrorist? if i saw timothy mc veigh walking down the street at the time i problaby wouldn't have thought he was a terrroist but look what he did. or are you trying to say that you can point out any terrorist walking down the street? he was taking pictures of security so they wanted to ask him a few questions.

Well then, I guess you just made your case for a police state to make us all safe from each other. Bravo

 

[fjrabon]

What you say makes sense. I would buy it better though if I weren't stopped and treated the exact same way for something similar. And I wasn't baiting. They really need to chill out about the photography.

I'm not saying there aren't very questionable things that the secret service does. I'm sure that some agents do some crappy things. It just didn't happen here. And throughout the course of the video the kid admits: 1) That he was specifically photographing the secret service and 2) That he's been stopped for this same reason multiple times.

He keeps threatening lawsuits, and honestly it almost seems like he was hoping that they would do something that he could bring about a civil suit for. I'd almost guess his friend was an attorney and not an actual police officer (I don't know any police officers that would do something like talk to a friend on the phone while he tries to bait other police officers into getting in trouble)

 

[fwellers]

What you say makes sense. I would buy it better though if I weren't stopped and treated the exact same way for something similar. And I wasn't baiting. They really need to chill out about the photography.

I'm not saying there aren't very questionable things that the secret service does. I'm sure that some agents do some crappy things. It just didn't happen here. And throughout the course of the video the kid admits: 1) That he was specifically photographing the secret service and 2) That he's been stopped for this same reason multiple times.

He keeps threatening lawsuits, and honestly it almost seems like he was hoping that they would do something that he could bring about a civil suit for. I'd almost guess his friend was an attorney and not an actual police officer (I don't know any police officers that would do something like talk to a friend on the phone while he tries to bait other police officers into getting in trouble)

Yea in my bias against what a lot of cops do, I failed to realize that the kid was baiting them pretty hard. However wrong was done on both sides. Listening to those cops asking if they could talk to the other party on the telephone and some of the other stupid questions they were asking him, made me think that they are just winging this and looking for a way to nail him or something. He was baiting them and in a real sense they were baiting him too, which is what a lot of law enforcement does.

 

[dots]

Aren't they always. As well young, white, male with nothing better to do than piss and moan about 'rights'. Maybe he could find something worthwhile to do with his camera/life. He could go down S.America and confront police in the same way - enquire of them where all the street kids disappeared to, one night; before the VIPs came to visit.

Clownshoe.