Photography is not a crime

By Carlos Miller
On July 4th, 2007, a Wackenhut executive dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase filled with taxpayers’ dollars, sprinted through the streets of South Beach while being chased by a giant finger and several sets of eyes.

The giant finger pointed at him in an accusatory manner and the giant eyes never let him out of their site, for they knew damn well he was a thief.

No matter how hard he tried, Mr. Wackenhut could not elude the finger and eyes.

And no matter how discrete he tried to be, he could not avoid the stares of hundreds of South Beach patrons, who were being handed fliers informing them that Wackenhut was being investigated for stealing more than $12.2 million from Miami-Dade County.

That was the first Street Theater Action we conducted against Wackenhut. It wouldn’t be the last.

This week, after a three-year investigation, Miami-Dade County officials determined that Wackenhut overbilled the county for millions in taxpayer dollars.

The thievery was not just limited to the head honchos because NBC6 also revealed this week that Wackenhut security guard Fabriciano Baez was videotaped stealing money from Metrorail fare boxes.

And when Wackenhut guards weren’t stealing money from county residents, they were violating my First Amendment rights by ordering me not to take photos on a platform of a Metromover station.

I even wrote an open letter to Wackenhut President Gary Sanders about that incident, but he never responded.

Perhaps Sanders had been sleeping on the job, as many Wackenhut guards were, as you will in the second Street Theater Action we did, a video I am proud to have produced. He resigned within hours after I had posted the video on the Internet.

Here is the video of the first Street Theater Action, which was produced by a fellow Colombian-American who goes by the youtube username, jcfractal. To see more photos I took that day, click (read more) below.

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By Carlos Miller
A 25-year-old Florida photographer will no doubt win a handsome sum if he decides to sue the thugs who beat him up and stole his camera.

Photographer Luis Santana said the thugs were limousine-riding bodyguards for hip hop artist Chris Brown, a 19-year-old boy wonder who had opened for Kanye West in St. Petersburg Monday night.

Santana, who was shooting for the Tampa Bay Times, took a few shots of Brown’s entourage as they left the Vintage Ultra Lounge to step into the limo.

Before he knew it, Brown’s bodyguards chased him and forced him to the ground, putting a knee on his jaw.

When he tried to push the knee away, the guards stole his camera, which was worth $3,000, according to the St. Petersburg Times, which publishes the tabloid Tampa Bay Times.

“This is outrageous. Our photographer was beaten up taking pictures on a public street,” said Neil Brown, executive editor of the Tampa Bay Times. “We anticipate the police can and will help us get to the bottom of this. We want our pictures back, and we want somebody held accountable for this assault.”

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By Carlos Miller
First he yelled at a homeless man. Then he threatened a photographer who was documenting the situation. And finally, he approached the photographer and grabbed his lens.

San Francisco photographer Jeremy Brooks said the man threatened to call his lawyer if his picture ended up on the Internet.

Brooks posted his picture on the Internet anyway. And so did Thomas Hawk. And so did I.

His picture has also been posted on Digg and the link has been posted on Reddit.

I’ll let you know when his lawyer calls.

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By Carlos Miller
The sight of a video camera in the courtroom sent shivers down the spine of the prosecution Monday morning.

As soon as I stepped in front of the judge, the young state prosecutor in my case asked for a 15 minute delay because a Local 10 cameraman had his camera trained on him.

The prosecutor told the judge that he needed to get clearance from his supervisor before he could proceed on camera. Judge Jose Fernandez granted his request.

Then, after more than 15 minutes had passed, in which Local 10 reporter Glenna Milberg had settled into the courtroom, the judge called my case up again, only for the State to ask for a continuance.

The young prosecutor, this time accompanied by his more experienced supervisor, admitted they were not prepared for the case - even though it has been more than 15 months since my arrest.

After all, they said, two of the arresting officers were unable to attend the trial.

Miami Police Officer Marvalyn Reid, second from right in the banner photo, was unable to attend the trial because she is on military leave.

And Miami Police Officer Anthonius Kurver, far right, was unable to attend the trial because he was sick.

How convenient of him.

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By Carlos Miller
I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when I walked into Tropicolor Photo on Miami Beach on Friday and was congratulated for having received an “Honorable Mention” for a photo I took in the 4th Annual South Beach Photomarathon.

In my competitive spirit, I was hoping for a First, Second or Third place monetary award. Not to mention bragging rights.

But considering my photo was one of six photos chosen from almost 2,500 photos taken by 104 photographers, I guess I am entitled to some bragging rights anyway.

The afternoon was highlighted by the fact that I got in a shootout with a Crime Scene Investigator from the Miami Beach Police Department. But more on that later.

First, check out the photo.

My photo was one of only three Honorable Mentions. Those photos, along with the First, Second and Third place winners, were the only photos that were turned into large prints and mounted on Plexiglass, courtesy of Tropicolor.

The Plexiglass photos, along with the contact sheets of the 2,496 photos that were entered in the competition, will be on display at Tropicolor, 1442 Alton Road, for the month of May.

Then the winning photos will be displayed at various Starbucks through South Beach. And then we get to take our photos home.

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By Carlos Miller
I am finally going to trial, even though it’s been more than a year since I was arrested after photographing police against their wishes.

Much has happened during the 15 months since my arrest, including the slaying of one of the officers; the firing of the prosecutor in my case; and the resignation of the original judge in my case, who is taking on a new TV gig where she will be known as “Judge Karen.”

It also included me switching attorneys to a former public defender named Arnaldo Trevilla, who is very confident about this case. Judge Jose Fernandez, another former public defender, will oversee my case in place of Judge Karen.

The trial begins Monday at 9:45 a.m. in room 2-11 of the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, 1351 N.W. 12th Street. If anybody is scheduled for Jury Duty Monday, you might get this case.

The charges I am facing are obstructing traffic, disobeying a police officer, disorderly conducting and resisting arrest without violence. And that’s that they already threw out five other misdemeanors I was initially charged with.

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By Carlos Miller
My new blog is called Magic City Mania and it will be more personalized and localized than my current blog.

Magic City Mania will consists mostly of personal stories growing up in Miami as well as personal reflections as I go about my day in this mad city. My first post starts at the beginning before I was even born; a story on my dad when he lived in Cuba.

Photography is not a Crime will continue to document First Amendment violations as they happen to me or any other person in the United States. It will continue to follow my case, even after I win my case on May 5th because I plan to pursue this in a civil court once they drop the criminal charges against me.

The goal is to turn MCM into a local literary blog while turning PINAC in a national journalistic blog.

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By Carlos Miller
Even a “known drug dealer” is legally allowed to photograph undercover cops as they serve a search warrant, if he takes the photos from a public space, according to a Florida prosecutor.

The photographer was 20-year-old Randy Sievert of Bradenton, who was arrested in February after he stood on a public road and photographed Manatee County sheriff’s officials conducting a search warrant on a private home.

Deputies ordered him to erase the images before they arrested him, charging him with interfering in a search warrant.

He was jailed without bail because the charge violated his probation in two drug cases. Although he is unemployed, he had $1,500 in cash in his pockets.

But Tony Casorias, an assistant state attorney, refused to prosecute Sievert, according to the Herald-Tribune of Sarasota

A person cannot be charged with obstruction or resisting arrest if the police detention is unlawful, an assistant state attorney, Tony Casoria, said in a memo released this week. Sievert did not physically interfere with the search warrant, the prosecutor said.

Casoria said Sievert “took a photograph in a public place, across the street from the home where law enforcement were conducting their search.”

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By Carlos Miller
A Boston photographer said he was shooting reflections off a window of an unidentifiable building when a voice through a loud speaker ordered him to leave or be shot.

“Leave now or we will shoot you!”

The photo he was taking was a distorted reflection of Boston’s Zakim Bridge.

Daniel Brim told the Bostonist that although he didn’t realize it at the time, the building apparently houses the Massachusetts State Police. However, he also said there were no visible markings or signs on the building.

And even if there was, would it be against the law to photograph it?
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By Carlos Miller
I wasn’t exactly surprised that Internal Affairs cleared the cops who arrested me of any wrongdoing.

But I was surprised that they went as far as interviewing witnesses to the incident and even went as far as obtaining my mug shot from the night of my arrest, which apparently shows my face and neck bloodied.

The witnesses were three men involved in the accident that police were investigating when I approached the scene with my camera. All three were across the street that dark night. More than a half block down the street. All three offered separate accounts of what actually happened.

The report was completed in February 2008, but I just received it this week. The Civilian Investigative Panel will now conduct its own investigation.

The first witness, Erwin Coney, who was the Miami-Dade Transit bus driver cited in the accident, gave an extremely colorful account of my arrest.

“Mr. Coney stated that the first officer to approach the photographer was the heavyset Hispanic officer, who took the photographer’s camera and slammed it to the ground. He was then joined by a slender Hispanic officer and both stepped on the camera.

“Mr. Coney stated that the sergeant slammed the photographer to the ground and placed his knee against his back. He stated that a short officer, later indentified as Officer James Walker, joined the Latin officers in kicking the photographer.”

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