Ten years ago today, terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center, suddenly turning all photographers into suspected terrorists.
But there has never been any evidence that terrorists used cameras to document their targets before striking them.
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But despite this logic, police and security guards still associate photographers with terrorists, including an incident last month where a professional videographer was arrested for allegedly making bomb threats after he was confronted by a security guard for videotaping the outside of a building.
It’s been a decade of madness, escalated by the fact that almost everybody is carrying a camera these days. It is just now that the ACLU has begun an aggressive campaign against this insanity.
The truth is, this ongoing war against photographers has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with the fact that we all have access to the internet.
For the first time in history, we have true Freedom of the Press through blogs, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and more recently, Google Plus.
And that’s a freedom that scares the hell out of authorities.
via 9/11 Sparked Decade Of Madness Against Photographers | Pixiq.
Thankfully, my type of work does not being me into contact with the people who suspect all photographers to be terrorists… It beings me into contact with models who suspect all photographers, period.
The modeling world spreads disinformation even faster than Fox News.
However, I read blogs such as “Photography Isn’t A Crime” and I get angry as our basic civil rights are eroded by the Jack Boot mentality, not just from police officers, but from the average citizen. The people of this country are becoming more and more fearful, and they express this fear by becoming antagonistic towards those they suspect.
To some extent, the US went through this in the 1950s with the Red Scare.
We got through that as a nation, hopefully we’ll get through this. In the 1950s we had Senator McCarthy being the rabid dog jerk who drove so many people into fearful fits of apoplexy about communists. In the 2000s, we have Faux News, Rush Limbaugh and scores of other demagogues driving people into fearful fits.
No matter what, there will be people, morons all, who will latch onto the most insane idea if it reinforces their own inner fears. The more enlightened way is to face your fears and defeat them. Religions and politicians all try to get your cooperation by invoking a fear in you.
It’s a sign of insanity.