"Let me handle this one rookie, this old man is armed with a camera and the situation could become very volatile. Just stand back there and watch and learn..."
Posted on 12/23/2011 10:12:27 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Two grandparents were kicked out of the University Park Mall Tuesday after they took a picture of their visiting grandson in the Food Court.
"We were going to take our grandson, he's five and visiting from California, to see Santa and we were just sitting around the table having something to drink, talking about what we were planning and that's when my husband took the picture," said Grandmother Debbie Cassella.
Cassella said immediately a mall employee instructed them to stop taking pictures or they would be thrown out of the mall.
"I believe she said you can't take pictures at the mall. I thought she was joking and I said ‘I’m taking a picture of my grandson’, I’d understand if I was taking pictures of the architecture or the products in the stores and she became a little hostile and aggressive," said Grandfather Don Oberloh.
Oberloh and Cassella said they were unaware of the University Park's policy against picture taking and requested.
"I asked to speak with a mall manager and she flashed a badge at me, and I didn't see it, and asked ‘is this good enough?’ and I tried explaining things to her and she came back, I apologized and she was more belligerent and I asked again ‘may I speak with the mall manager’ and she said ‘that's me’ and I said ‘there's nobody higher than you?’ and she said ‘one person’, ‘may I speak with that person’ and then security came over," said Oberloh.
Oberloh left the mall after being asked by security, but Cassella stayed behind to wait on her daughter, who had gone into a store.
"I told him I can't just leave and then he said that he would remove me physically and then he called another security guard and that guy came over and then my daughter showed up and I said we were just here to take my grandson to see Santa and he said you can't see Santa," said Cassella. "It was embarrassing and I felt bad for my grandson. I'll never go back to the mall. I’ve shopped at the mall regularly and I’ll never go back to the mall. I don’t' feel comfortable there."
A spokesperson for the University Park Mall declined an on camera interview, but said mall managers are investigating the incident and reiterated the mall's policy against photography. She also said the mall does not immediate remove shoppers after a picture is taken, but will remove guests who do not comply with requests to stop taking photos or are aggressive with staff.
Soviet Union did the same
Nowhere did it say this was government police. It was mall security enforcing a private malls rule. You might want to check with your favorite mall, they probably have the same rule. It’s for legal protection from our wonderful legal profession
The grandfather is a “community organizer”, just like your president.
OMG!! WE pay for these lawsuits????? Is that what he is saying?? He can bring a lawsuit that the GOVT .....WE the TAXPAYERS are paying for??
Notice they have different names. Read down and there,s more to this than meets the eye.
To ban photography, video or audio recording in any place open to the public today is simply ridiculous.
Maybe if you’re not the one paying the legal bills for the mall. My local mall has the same policy and it is probably more common than you might think. You can take whatever pics you want with whatever device you like, but if caught you are asked to leave. Blame it on lawyers
Good catch!
Still, if they can do it to that shyster, they can do it to all of us.
This “grandfather” has the Obama/Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton playbook memorized, it seems. And he has the liberal media on his side, too.
I had the heat on me for taking pictures at the local skatepark. In ‘middle age’ but no slouch, I handed my photo gear to the LEOs, dropped in and threw some angry-but-good grinds all over the ‘big kids’ bowl. The cretinous crusader who reported me quickly vanished and the officer handed back my camera, etc.
I’m a magnet for this kind of sh*t ... don’t let me near an empty kidney pool, or “crusaders”.
Another way we can all be criminals.
Nothing was at all implied this was a crime. It is a mall rule, no different than you not allowing photos on your own property
Managers usually blame lawyers for stupid policies, but the decision maker is usually the owner or manager and it is they who are to blame for rolling over to every potential problem which may occur.
Rather than defend common sense, public openness, this company’s CEO is hiding in the corner cowering to every fear his attorney can conceive of.
Why hire a CEO when your attorney will run your company?
Wrong...my tracphone for a whole $19.99, comes with a camera, bluetooth, and double minutes for life.
Speaking of, does anyone know if the mall Santa was offering pictures with Santa? Most do,IIRC.
Yes they do. Those are charged for and copyrighted so you can’t buy one and legally take it to the Kodak kiosk and make your own prints.
"Let me handle this one rookie, this old man is armed with a camera and the situation could become very volatile. Just stand back there and watch and learn..."
There is nothing worse than a stupid person with a badge,
Even if it is a mall security badge.
These cop wanna-be’s are should be avoided at all costs
Stupid REAL cops with a badge can be much much worse though
Managers usually blame lawyers for stupid policies, but the decision maker is usually the owner or manager and it is they who are to blame for rolling over to every potential problem which may occur.
Rather than defend common sense, public openness, this company’s CEO is hiding in the corner cowering to every fear his attorney can conceive of.
Why hire a CEO when your attorney will run your company?
They’re in business to make money, and malls are in a steep decline for a variety of reasons. There are consulting companies writing rules that are being implimented in malls everywhere these days. Many are aimed at the out of control non-customer youth hanging out there
Perhaps you shouldn’t rely on one side of the story. I am sure the policy is because this “grandfather” is a known serial-suer and he was just using his grandson to get evidence for another frivilous lawsuit.
If anyone is using Gestapo tactics, it is this “grandfather”.
Cause they got to have liability insurance and the insurance company is probably the one telling them to instigate the rule or not be covered.
Same problem. We are literally paralyzed with PC and zero tolerance because of fear of stupid judges.
The Gestapo was an official extension of the German government. A mall is private property. If you own it, you control it. It’s called freedom. The fact that people are used to thinking of a mall as a collectively held property is an interesting cultural wrinkle, but it’s not factual. If you owned a store and you had a rule that somehow helped you do business, would you really want people coming in and violating that rule at will, just because they think you’re being mean? Is that what freedom is? Nope.
In fact, just the opposite. That’s how you lose control to collectivist-minded activists. In effect, they become a self-appointed Gestapo. The ADA is law. Compliance can be enforced. But compliance can also harm good businesses who cannot easily adjust to the blunt force of a law with no sense of scale. The most ardent do-gooders often do the most harm. Even Solomon said there’s such a thing as being “too righteous.”
I meant to cc you on #58
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