By Carlos Miller
Fresh from his victory against Amtrak – not that he ever confirmed anything – Duane Kerzic hit the streets of Manhattan last weekend with his Canon 5D, looking for something interesting to photograph.
He thought he found it when he came across a group of Secret Service Agents in front of a popular Midtown camera store.
“These guys were all standing there in cheap suits and raincoats with dongles hanging out their ears and talking into their hands” said the man who became a poster child for photographers rights when he was featured on The Colbert Report last month after having been arrested by Amtrak police for taking photos for an Amtrak contest.
Kerzic figured someone famous or important was inside the store, so he stood around waiting to get a photo.
“This Secret Service guy comes up to me and tells me I can’t stand there anymore. He starts rattling off some law that I never heard of,” he said in an interview with Photography is Not a Crime Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Kerzic snapped away, taking several photos of the Agent.
“He knew I was taking his photo and didn’t seem to mind that,” he said.
The Secret Service Agent told a couple of uniformed New York City police officers to arrest him if he did not move at least another 40 feet.
“The cops told me they didn’t want to arrest me but they would if they have to,” he said. “So I moved back but it made me miss the shot.”
He said the NYPD cops were nice guys and asked him to take their photo, which he posted on his site along with the rest of the photos from this incident.
It turns out, the Secret Service Agents were protecting an unknown French diplomat.
Kerzic then took the train back to New Jersey where he attempted to take some photos for that infamous Amtrak photo contest that got him arrested last December.
He walked up to the third floor of the Patterson Street Garage in New Brunswick and took a few shots of the train below which he posted on his site when a security guard from the New Brunswick Parking Authority drove up to him and told him that photography was not allowed.
“He told that because this was private property, I was not allowed to take photos there,” adding that they spotted him through one of the various surveillance cameras throughout the garage.
“He told me I had to leave.”
So Kerzic continued on his merry way but made sure to snap a couple of more photos of the building once he was standing on a public street.
“That’s when he ran out and pointing his finger at me,” he said.
Kerzic wasn’t sure if the said, “Do you want to photograph me?” or “Do you want to fuck with me ?”
Kerzic continued snapping away before walking back to his car.
He arrived at his brother’s house and did a little research on the internet and learned that the Patterson Street Garage was actually public property.
NJSA 40:11A-19. Taxation exemption
Every parking project and all property of the parking authority are hereby declared to be public property of a political subdivision of the State and devoted to an essential public and governmental function and purpose and shall be exempt from all taxes and special assessments of the State or any subdivision thereof. All bonds are hereby declared to be issued by a political subdivision of this State and for an essential public and governmental purpose and to be a public instrumentality, and such bonds, and the interest thereon and the income therefrom, and all service charges, funds, revenues and other moneys pledged or available to pay or secure the payment of such bonds, or interest thereon, shall at all times be exempt from taxation except for transfer inheritance and estate taxes and taxes on transfers by or in contemplation of death, and in lieu of taxes by political subdivisions upon the property of a parking authority, the authority which owns or holds such property may agree to make payments to a political subdivision for the services, improvements or facilities furnished by it for the benefit of a parking project.
He then fired off an email to the parking authority and received a phone call from its executive director who apologized for the incident and assured him that they would begin addressing this issue with the guards.
“He told me that they were going to start retraining them that day,” Kerzic said. “That they will remind them during roll call every morning that photography is allowed.”
Only time will tell if this sinks in.
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12 responses so far ↓
1 genewitch // Mar 26, 2009 at 5:45 AM
who says you can’t change the world with a camera?
2 Duane Kerzic // Mar 26, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Remember, “Cameras for Safety”
3 the bulldog // Mar 26, 2009 at 10:12 AM
changing the world, then million pixels at a time!
4 Simon Jester // Mar 26, 2009 at 12:05 PM
That’s a pretty picture of the cops. I get the impression that I could talk to them on a civilized basis. If a cop were to ask me, as opposed to telling me to please stop, I would more than likely do so. I’d want to know why, but I would listen. Yelling and bullying works very poorly with me, as I’m sure it does with others.
And I got a smirk when I saw the one on the left had his eyes closed.
5 Duane Kerzic // Mar 26, 2009 at 12:57 PM
Thanks for the compliment on the photo. They were both nice regular guys without trying to push anything. They did all they could to help me with the Secret Secret Service Agent. When he was out of ear shot they said if that guy told them to take me in they didn’t have a choice they’d have to and they didn’t want to do that.
I figured I could prove as much by writting about it on the internet as I could by sitting locked up for 3 or 4 hours waiting on the Secret Service guy to come back and decided there wasn’t really anything I could be charged with. I need to call the SS again since they haven’t returned my last message.
6 jones // Mar 26, 2009 at 4:36 PM
Looks like the SS won that round but the real issue is your photos. The police photo has one officer with his eyes closed and most of the pictures of the security guard are blurry. How long have you been a photographer?
7 Bugs // Apr 8, 2009 at 3:13 PM
Once again: Either there aren’t any rules or nobody knows what the rules are. So the people enforcing the rules make some up.
I feel so secure here in my homeland…
8 Duane Kerzic // Apr 8, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Bugs,
In my experience it’s a combination of things. But mostly people don’t know the rules.
With the parking authority for some reason many of the people that worked there were under the impression it was private property. I was told that they charge parking on private property to people that park there and don’t pay. Yet it’s clearly public property and the executive director confirmed such. But the executive director has had people retrained. I went back to take photos for about 2 hours and wasn’t bothered. But I don’t know that I was observed.
With the Secret Service I’ve finally reached someone that took my complaint. I’m waiting for someone to call me back. The powers of the Secret Service are defined in TITLE 18, PART II, CHAPTER 203, § 3056. Powers, authorities, and duties of United States Secret Service. There is some further powers given in TITLE 18, PART I, CHAPTER 84, § 1752. Restricted building or grounds. You’ll see they don’t have the power to stop you from taking a photograph of the protectee. I don’t believe they have the power to make you stand further away than anyone else just because you have a camera which is what they did to me.Their job is to prevent the assault of the protectee not prevent the protectee’s photo from being taken in an embarrassing moment.
9 Duane Kerzic // Apr 10, 2009 at 4:56 PM
I was finally contacted by the Secret Service yesterday. I had a discussion about what happened with two separate agents yesterday. When you finally get to the right person they take this very seriously. I was asked several times if I was pushed or shoved by the agent. They wanted to be very clear about exactly what I was threatened with. They said part of the job is to provide for safe demonstrations because that is activity that’s allowed by the constitution. I got the feeling they are striving for perfection. No attempt to hid anything and no attempt to circle the wagons and deny what happened.
I can assure you it was a much more serious discussion than what most of the LEO’s that post here provide. It’s not well its us and it’s you, we have the guns. The discussion was we are here to uphold the law not to harass people. They didn’t give me the “you don’t know what I know and I’m not telling you what I know” answer. They didn’t give me the you aren’t equal to me answer. They were the utmost in respect which is why I assume they are part of the Secret Service.
So here are the important parts of what was discussed.
They are most concerned with safety of the protectee in a situation like I found myself in. They are out in public and they don’t have the normal security setup when they are in other settings. OK, this is much like when Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, I get that. So they are more alert and more cautious.
They have some concerns about cameras. Cameras can be used to conceal bombs. Again this makes sense. It would be easy to remove the internals of a lens and body and pack it with explosives. You have a battery and a button. Perfect hiding place. So this isn’t as far fetched as the gun in the camera. Also the people they are protecting tend to be heads of state and the equal. So the time, money and planning that would be spent to conduct an assassination would be much higher. The stakes are also much higher in the case of an assassination, World Wars have resulted. In this case I’d say it’s a valid concern. As far as someone going to all that trouble to shoot an average officer with a fake camera I don’t think it’s a valid concern.
Next I asked how to I prevent this from happening in the future.
One thing was to allow the camera to be screened. Basically if you can take a photo with it it’s not a bomb. So it’s simple to demonstrate to the agent it’s a real camera.
Next is to ask where the general public is allowed. If the general public is allowed than you are allowed with your camera.
Next is to ask is there a place where you would like me to stand. I’d probably say I’m looking to get a good photograph as part of that one. You’ve shown that you are trying to be helpful, I’d like to think the favor would be returned.
If you aren’t treated properly you need to call the Secret Service. They seem very concerned about answering to the public and preventing problems in the future. Wouldn’t it be nice if all goverment agencies behaved that way.
10 ALL BE DAMNED // Apr 11, 2009 at 4:15 AM
Wow DK
good advice ill try that with some police next time they harrass some one or me. that is some realy awsome stuff atleast one Protection agensy that happens to know the law follows it FOR THE MOST PART and are willing to adress the issues at hand. as for them asking you to move down the street i guess they had some lagit resons. cant blame them there. And they ask you to report COMBATIVE agents and the like. They realy have their heads on stright..
GOOD JOB DK
11 Jones // Sep 18, 2009 at 1:50 AM
The whole thing is ridiculous. With so many microcams spycams on the market for under $100 if I was a terroroist I could videotape the whole station without anyone even knowing.
12 Robert Iowa // Jun 10, 2010 at 8:38 AM
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