[shuttertalk]

I was walking from my carpark to work today, and walked past an interesting sight...

A policeman looking through the photos on a digital camera of a dejected looking youth. Didn't stop to find out why, but I was very curious indeed.

Suspected terrorism maybe? The youth was sitting outside a 7-11 store... maybe a couple of blocks out from the CBD...

[StudioJ]

Maybe the youth looked dejected because his shots were bad!

It is pretty bad here now, I was outside a club last night waiting for the doors to open and quite bored so I took a few shots of the street lights and reflected light off of buildings, some tungsten lit trees in a park etc and because the whole area has police cameras monitoring the area I ended up with a couple of Mr Plods coming up and asking me what I was doing. Its a bit sad really.

[EnglishBob]

I've never been bothered by the police but a couple of friends have, they were shooting pictures of a bridge and the police wanted to know why as it wasn't a tourist attraction!

[Toad]

A sign of the times. Makes me yearn for the old days - me and all the other old farts.

We are so afraid of terrorists these days, that we cannot live our lives normally without suspicion and fear.

If Osama Bin Laden's goal was to destroy the Western way of life, he couldn't have planned it much more effectively. I guess that is what terrorism is all about though - making you feel unsafe at home.

Tragic, really.

[Don Schaeffer]

I agree. This war is an endless war existing as much in myth as real life. The purpose of the war is to maintain a high state of fear so that people will allow governments greater authority. It is the classic start of authoritarianism in America.

[Kerridwyn]

Hear Hear

I totally agree which is why I want one of the following shirts;

[adam]

hahaha! I remember that shirt

[Kerridwyn]

If you are interested this is the shirt art for a polo and tshirt to have the text on the front or back;

[Kombisaurus]

I agree. This war is an endless war existing as much in myth as real life. The purpose of the war is to maintain a high state of fear so that people will allow governments greater authority. It is the classic start of authoritarianism in America.

I agree completely Don, and not just with regards to America. I think the same thing is happening elsewhere (including Australia) to some extent.

I found StudioJ's story about him taking photos of buildings quite interesting.. that the police questioned him for openly taking photographs in a public place... yet the police themselves were semi-covertly photographing StudioJ with their surveillance cameras!
While I see the benefit of surveillance cameras when used responsibly... what controls are there over their use? Especially by private organisations? Who gets to watch these videos? And where can they end up? I find them far more intrusive than a person holding a camera in plain view. Even if we knew where all the security cameras were, we forget we're being watched all day every day and so have a false sense of privacy. I even saw security cameras *inside* the public toilets at a shopping centre here in Perth a couple of years ago!

But I don't know what the answer is. Without these security measures, would there be more or fewer attacks? Personally I think the level of policing won't stop attacks, they will just move them to more vulnerable places (ie: Its too hard to bomb Sydney, so lets bomb Bali instead).
Is that really a solution? Or just passing the buck onto those who can least afford it?

Difficult times... And I think they'll get worse before they get better...

[sixty7a]

There are several reasons why a police officer may have been checking the images on the boy's camera. terrorism would be just one. With only a limited amount of information its hard to tell for sure which one it was.

The store manager/clerk could have called because of what he appeared to be photographing and how he was acting when doing it. Perhaps to plan a burglary or robbery at a later time.

He may have been taking photos or approaching young children or women and acting suspicious in how he was doing it and a passerby called.

Sometimes its hard to draw a conclusion as to why his camera was being checked just from seeing that and NOTHING else.

Who, what, when, where, why?

Just my rhoughts.............................

[EnglishBob]

Very good point.

[shuttertalk]

True true...

[sixty7a]

BTW: Love the shirts!

[Don Schaeffer]

It's not all security. Stores don't want designs copied. I am not allowed to photograph in the mall any more. It appears that anyone interested in watching, smiling at, or photographing children is automatically a pervert. Are children so sexually alluring that they drive people to the depths of evil? Even if I should photograph a child what harm have I done?

There are many issues here, issues of unfounded, urban myths of security fear, issues of missing the privacy of life we used to take for granted, issues grown out of an exaggerated variation of copyrite protection and twisted notions derived from public fights about intellectual property ownership. Does ownership of property extend to ownership of the visual experience that surrounds the property? Does the owner of a mall or the merchant own the visual experience that goes into my brain or my camera?

--Don