The men who The Government said attacked The World Trade Center were ALL in this country LEGALLY! In fact the Government was well appraised of the suspicious actions they were taking and SEVERAL agencies were advised to investigate them, but NO! The Government “Bureaus of Three Letters” were far too busy keeping adults from smoking marijuana, preventing online gambling, and trying to further gut The Fourth Amendment to be bothered with a genuine threat to this country!

Now you want us all to give up our Constitutional Rights? You’re a fucking idiot!

There was plenty, and I mean PLENTY of evidence before 9/11 to arrest the terrorists, and prevent the attack! Evidence that was actionable, and would have supported a search warrant in any court in the land! Hey! Guess what! IT WAS NEVER USED!!!

Carlos has the right to do what he is doing and if you disagree with our rights that brave men have died for so YOU could have, then why don’t you go somewhere else?

As for myself, I stood in from of a big American flag in Atlanta ion 1978, and swore to “defend The Constitution of The United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic”. I never rescinded that oath, and I never will! I look at it as a holy task which I will do as long as I have the life in me to do it!

Now if you think it is just fine and dandy for The Police to beat American Citizens, and not to be photographed while they do it, YOU are an enemy of The Constitution, as The Bill of Rights is part of that document! Carlos has put his personal freedom on the line to protect The Constitution, and that makes us allies!

Now it seems that YOU are the one hiding behind a screen name, and attacking our civil liberties. I guess that makes YOU a coward!

Many times I’ve been making feature pics in parks and have had concerned mothers stop me and at that point it’s all about how you handle it. I am a parent and can completely empathize with a parent’s concern in this day and age. A simple, “I’m sorry it bothered you, I won’t photograph your kid anymore,” usually works fine. Kindness, understanding, and an explanation normally will solve the problem right there.

But a police officer must be held to completely different standards because he is a representative of the government and it’s laws. The first amendment guarantees that photographer the right to take pictures and the police have no right to seize film, it’s just absurd. The point of the first ammendment guarantees the people that their will be objective witnesses to what goes on in our society and goverment. I would hate to think of things likeprotest where the police get out of hand and beat down some protesters viciously, and I have caught it on film, that they could then demand my film….. it’s not far from there to the days of the soviet union my friends.

As I’ve read this post it seems a lot of the comments are very black or white, but reality is a shade of grey. As photographers, we do have the legal right to photograph who and whatever we want to in public, but that doesn’t make it okay to stop being a human being and thoughless to the feelings of our subjects.

It’s not about being “big brother”, it’s about confirming the accuracy and credibility of people’s comments.

Last I heard, the First Amendment doesn’t protect one from misrepresenting himself.

Damn Carlos, checking on people’s ip addresses? That’s very “big brother” of you. What happened to first amendment freedoms and anonymity? I guess everything has its limits, right?

In other words, the police officer needs to abide by and uphold the law regardless if he personally agrees with the law.” ~

I agree.

He didn’t do that.

I wasn’t really “concerned”, I just didn’t feel like that comment deserved a response.

Today, you proved that you are able to leave comments stating your opinion without resorting to juvenile phrases.

And we actually had a decent debate.

If Larry is authentic, then he must be using the same computer as Jorge because they both have the same IP address.

Larry has to be authentic. I don’t think anyone with half a brain would be able to write that badly, no matter how hard they were trying to make it look authentic.

I didn’t even know that they had Internet access over there in the Pork and Beans.

Or should I say Jorge? I thought you were Cuban, not black.