I managed to get this one before I was ushered – or rather ‘ordered’ – away from where I stood by some grumpy and (or for want of a better phrase) ’round’ high-vis jacket wearing, rather self-important security person… The trouble with trying to take any pictures in London these days is the incredibly officious, jumped up and [attempting to be] intimidating security personnel, that assume all camera wielding people are terrorists [naturally], appear to have multiplied like a bad rash in the past few years. I wonder when these plastic police will outnumber tourists at such popular attractions as the London Eye, Westminster or along the South Bank.
There is a deeper message to this though, that has been raised in light of numerous confrontations where amateur photographers have been wrongfully detained or otherwise hassled by (and sometimes not even official) police with quite absurd accusations, often thanks to small minded individuals who end up wasting police time and resources over nothing, and that is something that has brought about strong – and growing – objections in the photographic community. Although to any reasonable and intelligent person you’d probably be able to spot a dodgy looking character taking photos covertly and behaving in a suspicious manner, the sweeping generalisation of the Met Police’s poster portrays photographers in a bad light. A man recently planned his solo assault on Heathrow Airport apparently using online maps, surely a more ‘covert’ way of planning terrorist activities – especially with all the CCTV etc around – would merely be achieved in much the same way? Another way of looking at it I suspect is now you’ve hired all your goons to loaf and meander with ‘security’ in mind they might as well do something.
Terrorism becomes a dangerous catch-all excuse for too many who care not to adequately justify their actions and poor understanding of the law…no one has the power to search you on the street, that’s the law, yet it is so poorly understood – perhaps hoped so too by security goons – that your innocent amateur photographer can be intimidated and humiliated into complying. There’s quite a lot of info here that may shed a little more light on what’s what. Bottom line is
don’t be intimidated, know your rights.