Idiocy in America: Amtrak Photo Contestant Arrested for Snapping Pictures of Amtrak Trains

["Paul Ferguson" <fergdawgster () gmail com>]

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Carlos Miller:

[snip]

Armed with his Canon 5D and his new Lensbaby lens, photographer Duane
Kerzic set out to win Amtrak's annual photo contest this week, hoping to
win $1,000 in travel vouchers and have his photo published in Amtrak's
annual calendar.

He ended up getting arrested by Amtrak police; handcuffed to a wall in a
holding cell inside New York City's Penn Station, accused of criminal
trespass.

Kerzic says he was hardly trespassing because he was taking photos from the
train platform; the same one used by thousands of commuters everyday to
step on and off the train.

"The only reason they arrested me was because I refused to delete my
images," Kerzic said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime
on Friday.

"They never asked me to leave, they never mentioned anything about
trespassing until after I was handcuffed in the holding cell."

In fact, he said, the only thing they told him before handcuffing him was
that "it was illegal to take photos of the trains."

Obviously, there is a lack of communication between Amtrak's marketing
department, which promotes the annual contest, called Picture Our Trains,
and its police department, which has a history of harassing photographers
for photographing these same trains.

[snip]

Much more here:
http://carlosmiller.com/2008/12/27/amtrak-police-arrest-photographer-partic
ipating-in-amtrak-photo-contest/

This is what Bruce Scheier calls the "War on the Unexpected":

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/the_war_on_the.html

People in positions of authority in this country have clearly lost their
freekin' minds.

- - ferg

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-- 
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawgster(at)gmail.com
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/
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