Posted on 10/15/2015 1:35:52 PM PDT by Borges
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A man was stopped by police after taking a walk in the park with his camera last month. A neighbor spotted David Updike taking photographs and feared that he was taking pictures of children. She took his picture and reported a “creepy guy” to police.
Six police officers cornered Updike on the sidewalk near his home where he was questioned for 20 minutes. Updike was very upset by the anonymous neighbor’s behaviour. He did not do anything wrong. The entire situation could have been avoided if the woman had simply introduced herself.
Updike wrote this open letter about the incident to the Cambridge Chronicle. It it called, “To the woman in Dana Park who called the police on Sept. 23 around 5:30 p.m.”
Dear Neighbor,
Yesterday was a beautiful day, I think you will agree. I decided to take a short walk from my house on Hamilton Street to Dana Park, which I have been coming to almost daily since 1989, the year my son was born. As I often do, I brought my camera, sat on a bench for about 10 minutes, did one lap around the park and headed home.
I had barely gotten across the street when three police cars pulled up: I was told to stop, and swiftly surrounded by six policemen. I was “detained” there for approximately 20 minutes and questioned; another officer returned to the park to find out why you had called them.
My suspected crime, apparently, was having a camera in a public park, and allegedly taking pictures of children. As it turned out, I had taken no pictures that day. But I have been photographing in this neighborhood for 30 years, and have published a children’s book of poems and photographs, always with permission.
The policeman returned and wanted to see my “flip phone,” and then asked me if I knew how he knew I had a flip phone: I didn’t. He knew, he told me, because the woman who called the police had taken a picture of ME, sitting on the bench, and shown him the picture. They then took away my phone, scrolled through the few pictures that were on it.
They continued to hover around me asking questions. As it happened, I was standing near the house where my son now lives, and when my wife appeared, walking down the street after work, and saw me standing in front of his house with six policemen, she instantly feared something terrible had happened to our son. She was shaking, and I explained the situation. She is an English teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School; I am a college professor of English. Our son spent much of the first 15 years of his life in Dana Park.
You must be new in the neighborhood. I am often in the park, on foot or on a bike, talking to friends who have children who play in the playground. I know you were standing very near to me for the entire time I was on the bench, though I could not figure out why. Now I know: you were taking my picture.
Suggestion: the next time you suspect someone is up to no good, perhaps you should say hello, speak to them first and, if still anxious, ask what they are taking pictures of. That’s what people do in a neighborhood park: talk to each other. This would save someone the humiliation and degradation of being stopped and held by the police, and might save the police from wasting their time when they could be doing something more useful, like managing the daily mayhem in Central Square.
The fact that you now have my picture in your phone is both sadly ironic and, well, creepy. Could you please delete it?
Your neighbor,
— David Updike, Hamilton Street
“.... it’s hard to fault her for trying to protect the neighborhood”.
I agree and I’ll tell you why. Twice.... I’ve been somewhere where there were a lot of kids. One was at a mall where all the little ones wait to have their picture taken with Santa. The other was a busy playground. Each time, there was one “lone” guy with a camera taking pictures of little ones. And both times (how do I put this nicely) were obviously “excited” enough you could see it. Use to be in my childhood... the women of the neighborhood (all stay at home moms) would keep a watch out for all the kids. Do something naughty and Mom knew about it as you walked in the door. Have an accident(crash on a bike, for example) and the neighbor lady would drive/walk you home. I would rather someone say something if they think something is wrong (even if proven the person was okay) vs not saying something and tragedy occur.
Not without a warrant.
It wasn’t Larry Craig, was it?
Could have been! What I learned from the officer was that it happens a lot in public restrooms and rest stops.
Since the dawn of the age when the public start taking pictures with their own cameras, it's a good bet that many millions of people have been included in photos they were not meant to be in.
After being treated like my intent was to make a suit out of the skin of a young woman that I stopped to help when her car was broken down on the side of the road, I no longer stop.
Millenial shrews are the most dismissive, suspicious, unkind, closed-hearted lot there is. Miserable wretches devoid of souls... Sociopaths... and they are now entering the Government-Healthcare industrial complex workforce en masse as LPNs, CNAs, and RNs to “care for” (read as: “abuse”) the elderly.
Your milage may vary.
Not so. Check out most department stores, or most stores for that matter. Not only cameras inside, but outside as well. Same with banks, gas stations, etc. Not to mention red light camera intersections. My neighbor worked at the local police station and said those red light cameras can see every pimple on your face inside a car; they're spying into people's cars. You have no right to not be recorded in a public space; just not to be published or used for commercial reasons. Use of a telephone is a different circumstance.
#SeeSomethingHarassANormalCitizen
She thought he was suspiscious. Would she have thought the same if he was a she?
Who knows. Maybe.
When people don’t act on their instincts and horrible things happen, everyone wants to know why they didn’t say something. When folks do act, and are wrong, they should not get a ration of ridicule. The man behaved in a way she found suspicious. She erred on the side of caution. She did the right thing.
The woman should be thrown from the top of The Pru.
I bet this same woman wouldn’t bat an eye if Homeland Security showed up at her door and said “We’re installing Federally operated cameras in everyone’s homes, for your protection of course, we’ll just put one in every room and be on our way”.
It is if the subject is in a public place where anyone can wander by and see them. Using such photos in a commercial way is a different matter though.
Too many people relinquish their rights.
As well, too many cops wrongfully browbeat the wrong people to hopefully do the same.
Fine line, all up to those with the rights to hold them up (rights).
So, is “See something, say something to the Gestapo” still a go, or not? Why didn’t they just bust the old guy up for causing all the trouble? Even the Gestapo is getting all squishy today!
We can't condone the violation of constitutional rights over fear or suspicion from something as benign as the mere possession of a camera or cell phone. Even if he was taking photos of children, there is nothing illegal about overt photogrphy of fully clothed people engaged in legal activities in a public space.
I had a similar experience several years ago: Two state troopers detained me for nearly 30 minutes, in a public park, tearing apart my vehicle in search of a firearm that didn't exist. Apparently a busybody saw me stuff a "dark metallic object" into a knapsack. I was not under arrest, but not free to leave. The dark metallic object was a dangerous set of birdwatching binoculars that my kids had given me for father's day, and the park was promoted by the state as a sanctuary for migratory birds. (FYI -- although I had a concealed carry permit, I did not, as a law abiding citizen, have firearm on me at the time because the public park was a gun free zone.)
Does that mean that we should call the police every time we see a young black male in a mini-mart wearing a hoody or pants below his ass or an Asian behind the wheel of a car?
Diversity is not the problem. It's the project just outside of Central Square and the usual suspects that are the problem.
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