So now the Police are judges of the aesthetic value of photographs?

[n2doc]

Man Arrested Over Photo of Oil Refinery

By Adrienne Crezo in Crime & Law, Photography on Aug 29, 2011 at 8:42 am
Talk about a tough audience. Granted, it can be hard to take a photo that everyone is happy with, but recently a Long Beach newspaper photographer was arrested for taking pictures of “no aesthetic value.” Ouch.

Long Beach, Calif., police arrested a man for taking a photograph of “no aesthetic value.” Sander Wolff, who takes photos for a local newspaper, was detained after snapping shots of an oil refinery. Police say photography is considered “suspicious activity” if officers determine that it isn’t “regular tourist behavior.”

http://www.neatorama.com/2011/08/29/man-arrested-over-photo-of-oil-refinery/

[CBGLuthier]

1. The Ubiquity of the Modern Camera is a Prime challenge to Fascists

Everyone has a phone, has a camera, has a camcorder does not sit well with those who need to hide their activities.

[MineralMan]

2. The police will lose this one.

News photographers, even freelance ones, can take photos of what they wish. Indeed, we all can. Stupid cops in this case.

[hunter]

3. Someone might take a picture of corporate crime.

It's not about protecting industrial assets from random terrorist scouts, it's about protecting corporate criminals from anyone who might deliberately or inadvertently collect evidence of their malfeasance.

A simple snapshot might expose safety violations, releases of toxic chemicals, and other illegal and unethical behavior.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. Check out the story on this at Photography Is Not A Crime

http://www.pixiq.com/article/long-beach-police-trained-to-detain-photographers

It happened earlier this month

[Jmaxfie1]

5. nutzoid, all I have to say. n/t

[happyslug]

6. What would these guys have done about the Japanese Naval Officer who took picture of Pearl Harbor??

In 1941 a Fat Japanese Naval Officer, known to like his saki, would take his girlfriend to various places in Hawaii and take her picture. Show would be the center of the picture, clearly what he wanted in the center of the picture, but behind her was the positions of the US Fleet in Pearl Harbor.

Americans dismissed him as an incompetent idiot, just taking picture, eating to much and drinking even more. The problem he had been sent to Hawaii to get picture of where the US parked it ships when in Pearl Harbor. He appeared to drink to much and eat to much, look like he was looking for a good time only, for that reason he was dismissed by US intelligence, but that was his cover, his job was to picture of the harbor and where the ships docked in the harbor. The woman was his cover if the American ever caught on, he was taking pictures of her NOT the ships behind her.

As to artistic purpose, taking picture of your date while on a date is clearly something a tourist will do, thus his pictures, used to plan the bombing of Pearl Harbor, would have been viewed as meeting the test adopted by law enforcement in Long Beach. I wish someone would train Police officer what is and is not photos related to doing a crime (Probably because given the net, the ability to take pictures even without looking like you are and the vast amount of photos on the net you would quickly find that any photos can be used and there is no way to determine its use EXCEPT by finding evidence of some criminal plan on the part of the person who took the picture, i.e. look at the photographer NOT the Photograph.