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[May 15, 2008] |
Blogger takes picture of angry man.
So this guy was walking around with his camera, and he saw a guy yelling at a homeless man. He stopped to take a picture, and the man started yelling at him about how he was ignoring his rights. The man grabbed the blogger's camera, but backed off when the blogger started to call the police. He threatened "If you put that picture on the Internet, I'll call my lawyer!" So of course, the picture was posted on the Internet.
Most of the comments to this story are a kudos to the blogger. There are also a lot that insult the blogger repeatedly. By far most of the comments that take the side of the angry man are very angry. They use an incredible amount of profanity and obscenity. I find it kinda funny that most of the people on one side are reduced to yelling "CUNT! CUNT! YOU FUCKING SHIT!" while the other side tends to say, at worse, "Man that guy was an ass."
I'm amused at how little people understand privacy laws. In America, it is not illegal for me to take any picture of anyone if they are in a public place. If they don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy, then I can take their picture. (In some states it's not illegal to take ANY pictures, even with a hidden camera in someone's house, unless you record sound. That's freaking creepy and insane, and I would fight that law, but you can see how the law is definitely on the side of the photographer here.) Hell, if it were illegal to publish pictures without the written consent of the photographed, how would tabloids stay in business? If their entire medium was illegal, I'm not so sure they could fight their way out of the lawsuits.
Please note that I consider it very easy to distinguish between paparazzi-style hounding of celebrities by dozens of photographers and a guy walking down the street taking pictures of interesting things. While both are legal, the former is almost malicious, and I don't support tabloidesque photo-raping of anyone.
I'm also amused at the sheer amount of machismo/bravado bull going on in the comment section. Comments from the blog in question:
Come to chicago and take someone’s picture that doesn’t want their picture taken and you won’t be blogging anything. You’ll be calling your insurance company claiming your camera stolen while sitting in the ER waiting for the doctor to stitch up your face and trying to straighten your nose. If you think the law will protect you, you’re living in a fantasy world.
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cops or not, i would have smashed your camera on the road right then.
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While this guy is an a-hole, I think your douchebaggery far outweighs this guy. You see an unnecessary altercation, do nothing to break it up, take pictures of the guy, which only further enrages him, and then post the pics on your blog like some kind of “victory”. You shoulda clocked the guy when you had the chance. That’s a moral obligation. To post his pic and threaten to call the cops when he touched you is nerd rage, and you are the epitome of it.
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I especially like that last one. How dare the photographer call the cops! If someone threatens you, the only "valid" recourse is to beat the crap out of him personally! To do otherwise is to hide behind the pitiful facade of civilization you call "police!"
Of course, that really just means that the photographer considers himself part of civilization. Like me, he assumes that since the taxes he pays and the economy he supports fund a social infrastructure complete with police protection, he has the right to call on that protection. These other guys, apparently, are Conan-like warriors, real men who understand that civilization is nothing but a gigantic trick that the weak devised to protect themselves from the strong!
::rolls eyes::
And if anyone even tries to claim that this is normal and that they would do the same, I ask this: So is it completely impossible, then, to take a picture in the city? Do I have to make sure every person in the shot (or anyone who might walk into the shot) has given permission? Or is it just a fact of life that I should expect, eventually, for someone to take issue and beat the crap out of me?
Comment 185 on the blog sums up my feelings about the situation. If the man had asked the photographer not to post his photograph, and said he didn't want to be on the Internet, then I would consider the photographer an ass for posting the picture. But the man didn't ask. He attacked, called the guy names, and tried to break his camera. He escalated the situation, and I don't see any problem with the photographer escalating it right back by going ahead and posting the picture.
I think it's funny that so many people are so offended that the photographer responded with a legal escalation (posting the picture) to an illegal escalation (assault). I could almost go so far as to say this is the primary problem with our country. People are still in Elementary School; they think that if someone responds to them breaking the rules by "tattling," then the person following the rules is the bad guy.
Dude. The rules weren't put there by some high and mighty authority that has nothing to do with "the real world." The rules were put there by us, by society.
It's sad when someone still thinks like that into High School. It's downright pathetic when they continue into adult life.
Edit: Heh. Some people are responding to the "I'll kick your ass!" comments with sanity, like "You'd physically injure someone over a picture? Wow, that's just sad." These people are being called fags by the violent posters. It really is like Elementary School.
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