"Carlos Miller and his blog Photography Is Not A Crime has to be the best blog I have come across to date that documents the ongoing battle that photographers and videographers are facing in increasing numbers."Hodson Report
"Anyone who promises to 'mock, madden and maybe even muckrake' has my attention - especially when he's fighting for my right to plant my sticks wherever the Constitution says I can."Lenslinger
"With a seemingly increasing number of stories of police harassing and arresting photographers making headlines, one man has made it his job to watch the police."B-roll
"This is not a partisan issue. It's a police abuse-of-power issue, and 'security' is no excuse for this sort of totally unacceptable and unconstitutional behavior by officers of the law. Carlos Miller is a great source of information about these unfolding stories."Brendan Loy
I have a bunch of RSS feeds on my smartphone, and I tell ya, this is one i read constantly. Great info, and it is unbelievable what is going on right here in the USA.... Virginia Beach Photo Club
“Photography is not a Crime” is informative, well written and takes no prisoners. The Photojournalist
"If you read enough of his site, you start to understand that Miller has a bit of an ability to instigate. I don't blame him for this. I think that in order for society to progress, authority must continually be challenged. [Post] Modern College Life
The Bad
"This Carlos Miller character is just a jerk, no redeeming social or personal value."Conservative Cave
"You're a good writer, Carlos, but until you're able to recognize and acknowledge your biases, your quests for justice will be seen by most as little more than sour grapes by a man with a chip on his shoulder."South Florida Daily Blog
The Ugly
"You are a cockroach and boil on the ass of journalism in Miami and the sooner that responsible journalists in Miami disown you and repudiate your actions the better.""Hank"
"Your arrogant, crass, thug-like behavior crops up at every turn. One only need to read your blog to see that.
You can’t seem to cover anything without getting into a potentially violent confrontation.""Hank"
Recognition
The South Florida Daily Blog Post of the Month February 2008The South Florida Daily Blog Post of the Month June 2008The South Florida Daily Blog Post of the Month November 2008Some Cranky Guy
Uber Amazing BlogNovember 23rd, 2008
By Carlos Miller
Two years ago, Dominic Sylvester VonZabern was arrested for photographing a group of homeless people protesting after being ordered out of an encampment by police in California.
About 15 protesters had formed a circle by linking arms, refusing to budge from the encampment. As police tried to pry the protesters apart, VonZabern crossed the street to take some photographs.
According to the arrest report, he was “endangering” police officers with his camera:
”When Officer Marsolan saw him cross the street and move closer to the officers, endangering them, Officer Dickson assisted in taking VonZabern into custody,” stated an arrest report in VonZabern’s court file.
But it took police a month to come up with an “obstruction” charge against him, which VonZabern wasn’t aware of until he learned there was a warrant out for his arrest in January 2009.
The trial begins Monday and is expected to last five days. If convicted, he could spend a year in jail.
Why do cops fear cameras so much? They represent accountability. The slightest hint of having to be accountable for their actions makes them paranoid and vengeful, as we’ve seen hundreds of times. They have to “neutralize that threat” fast and come up with some BS charge.
This abuse needs to stop and it won’t until enough people get real mad and DEMAND changes from our elected officials.
The cops are right, in their own perverse way. The accountability of being photographed does endanger their fat pensions when they’re documented beating the serfs.
And no, demanding change from elected officials doesn’t work.
As one Republican Senator said, 90% of people contacting him about the bankster bail-out said “no.” And the other 10% said “hell no!” He still went with the banksters wishes.
And if you voted Obama, how’s that change which you demanded and got (for about 2 seconds) working for you yet?
Cops are tools of the big boys, and you’re gonna get beat down if you’re small people. That’s that.
Michaelk42: That’s true, but the unwashed masses need to get angry enough about the people getting arrested for these crimes.
In america, i think that a celebrity will need to get arrested for this.
Richard Dawkins is having an investigation of a speech he was supposed to give at a university investigated on the grounds that the “state” was paying for a speech about atheism. It’s also a first amendment issue, but how many people have heard of that case?
“the unwashed masses need to get angry enough about the people getting arrested for these crimes”
They don’t care if some gang member gets kicked or some silly photog gets hit with trumped up charges. It’s not bad enough.
I know what will get them though: The number of pedophiles and sex offenders in blue.
I nearly fell out of my chair the first time I read the “sex offenders in law enforcement” section over at Policecrimes.com. These types of crime are #2 according to Injustice Everywhere, yet this fact is not well known. Just recently he wrote about not one, but two pigs who could not leave 14 year old kids alone. Get these stories out. The stories (and percentages) will anger even the dumbest cop supporters. Cops are a danger to women and children and that’s no lie. Spread the word.
Kol I have to disagree, at least slightly. If enough people nag, politicians will have to at least pretend they’re doing something to fix a problem. They fear not getting re-elected, so the masses have some power over them.The economy is a bit different then police abuse. Hmm and with this bad economy, why are we paying so many lowlife cops who only hurt people and cost the taxpayers millions?
For years lawyers have been hitting police forces in the pocket book; that’s not working. Let’s hit them where it will really hurt, their EGO. The number of pigs who prey on kids, what they do to their own families http://www.behindthebluewall.blogspot.com how they don’t get rid of the bad ones–this is not well known enough. We can’t have a defeatist attitude when so many are in the dark about how bad the problem really is. There’s always strength in numbers. When the majority is still under-educated about the pigs how can we expect change?
The good thing is, I am facing a new judge, not my old nemesis who did not appreciate me blogging about my first trial. He paid for that. 25 minutes ago
My question is: How can one be charged with resisting arrest if there is no underlying charge to base the arrest on? We'll soon find out. 29 minutes ago
I have a trial coming up on Tuesday. I am being charged with resisting arrest when all I did was photograph a cop. Let justice prevail. 35 minutes ago
@igz Thanks for the tip. I just posted it on my blog. 37 minutes ago
My name is Carlos Miller and I am a multimedia journalist who was arrested by Miami police after taking photos of them against their wishes, a clear violation of my First Amendment rights.
Since that arrest on Feb. 20th, 2007, I've fought a lengthy battle against the State of Florida to prove my innocence. After going to trial in June 2008, I was acquitted of all charges except resisting arrest without violence. I appealed that conviction pro se, meaning I represented myself, and I won a reversal.
However, I am now fighting another arrest for photographing cops against their wishes. On Memorial Day Weekend 2008, I was arrested on Miami Beach on a single charge of resisting arrest without violence after I photographed a couple of cops against their wishes.
Click here to read more.
Their side of story
Police “escorted defendant to the middle of the street and told him to cross to the sidewalk. Defendant for the fourth time refused the verbal commands and that’s why he was arrested.” Read arrest report.
A legal view
The general rule in the United States is that anyone may take photographs of whatever they want when they are in a public place or places where they have permission to take photographs. Absent a specific legal prohibition such as a statute or ordinance, you are legally entitled to take photographs. Examples of places that are traditionally considered public are streets, sidewalks, and public parks.(more).
SPJ’s protest letter
National leaders of the largest journalism organization in the United States have expressed their disappointment in Miami-Dade County Court Judge Jose L. Fernandez for violating my First Amendment rights.
Fernandez, as I mentioned in a previous post, gave me an extremely harsh sentence and criticized me for having blogged about my case.
Read the press release from the Society of Professional Journalists.
Sarcasm Disclaimer
I am a very sarcastic person in person. And I am probably even more sarcastic in my writing.
But if you’ve never met me, you might not see that sarcasm. After all, sarcasm depends on tone and delivery for pure effectiveness, something that is hard to do with the written word.
So if you are ever offended by something I write, whether you are a conservative, liberal, Catholic, Jew, atheist, American, foreigner, black, white, southerner, yankee, homosexual, straight or whatever, chances are, I am just being sarcastic.
Truth is, I am not a hater. I don’t even hate cops. I just want them to abide by the law.
Support the blog
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Fernandez, as I mentioned in a 
This is complete and utter bullshit.
But it’s worse in Australia, where we have no “constitutional rights”.
what a crock of sh*t, really how does someone taking your picture endanger you. really, today cops are nothing more then street thug with badges
Sickntired:
He endangered them by stealing their souls, duh!
Somehow the article is “no longer available” so I guess I won’t be reading it in full.
Bloody half-arse newspaper sites.
Why do cops fear cameras so much? They represent accountability. The slightest hint of having to be accountable for their actions makes them paranoid and vengeful, as we’ve seen hundreds of times. They have to “neutralize that threat” fast and come up with some BS charge.
This abuse needs to stop and it won’t until enough people get real mad and DEMAND changes from our elected officials.
It’ll be thrown out.
But the police will still have won, because they have cost him time and money and aggravation, and there’s no repercussions for them.
The cops are right, in their own perverse way. The accountability of being photographed does endanger their fat pensions when they’re documented beating the serfs.
And no, demanding change from elected officials doesn’t work.
As one Republican Senator said, 90% of people contacting him about the bankster bail-out said “no.” And the other 10% said “hell no!” He still went with the banksters wishes.
And if you voted Obama, how’s that change which you demanded and got (for about 2 seconds) working for you yet?
Cops are tools of the big boys, and you’re gonna get beat down if you’re small people. That’s that.
@Kol. Klink
But they can’t beat every one of us down every time, forever. Nor do we have to stay down.
Michaelk42: That’s true, but the unwashed masses need to get angry enough about the people getting arrested for these crimes.
In america, i think that a celebrity will need to get arrested for this.
Richard Dawkins is having an investigation of a speech he was supposed to give at a university investigated on the grounds that the “state” was paying for a speech about atheism. It’s also a first amendment issue, but how many people have heard of that case?
Kol. Klink is perfectly right – it’s ACCOUNTABILITY that the Police fear .
“the unwashed masses need to get angry enough about the people getting arrested for these crimes”
They don’t care if some gang member gets kicked or some silly photog gets hit with trumped up charges. It’s not bad enough.
I know what will get them though: The number of pedophiles and sex offenders in blue.
I nearly fell out of my chair the first time I read the “sex offenders in law enforcement” section over at Policecrimes.com. These types of crime are #2 according to Injustice Everywhere, yet this fact is not well known. Just recently he wrote about not one, but two pigs who could not leave 14 year old kids alone. Get these stories out. The stories (and percentages) will anger even the dumbest cop supporters. Cops are a danger to women and children and that’s no lie. Spread the word.
Kol I have to disagree, at least slightly. If enough people nag, politicians will have to at least pretend they’re doing something to fix a problem. They fear not getting re-elected, so the masses have some power over them.The economy is a bit different then police abuse. Hmm and with this bad economy, why are we paying so many lowlife cops who only hurt people and cost the taxpayers millions?
For years lawyers have been hitting police forces in the pocket book; that’s not working. Let’s hit them where it will really hurt, their EGO. The number of pigs who prey on kids, what they do to their own families http://www.behindthebluewall.blogspot.com how they don’t get rid of the bad ones–this is not well known enough. We can’t have a defeatist attitude when so many are in the dark about how bad the problem really is. There’s always strength in numbers. When the majority is still under-educated about the pigs how can we expect change?