Do photographers have not only a right but also an ethical obligation to defy police?

Drew... If it's midnight with no one else around and I see a crime being committed then I'll call 911. If it's daylight and a hundred people are around then I'll shoot video... and call 911. I'm not as stoopid as I sometimes seem.

Just the other night I heard loud banging across the street at my neighbor's house. They haven't been home in weeks. I didn't know the address (it's a rural area with most addresses unmarked) but did my best to describe to the sheriff dispatch officer precisely where the home is. I walked outside to the gate in plane sight of the person I was concerned about. I wasn't worried and carried my side arm and stayed on my property. The deputy sped down the road and would have missed the property in question had I not been there to direct him to the right place. I was in a very conspicuous position. It turns out it was the property owner changing out a power box that had been damaged. Both the sheriff and the home owner were thankful for someone looking out for the other guy's property. And no, I would never have gone over there in the dark of night to confront nor shoot video.

This isn't that kind of neighborhood here. Where I work it's very safe during the day. Right across the tracks is one of the finest boutique shopping streets in northern Calif. Everybody goes there with no worries. After dark everything changes. Businesses lock up. Patrols stop.
The ghouls and addicts start roaming the same streets. People have been murdered right smack where I park my truck in the mornings.
Heroin needles are laying all over the lawn in the city park down the street. Rapes occur; bodies of prostitutes are thrown out. That's
also the time these career anarchists drum their little mobs the next town over. There is also have a chronic problem with "sideshows", which sometimes end with fatal car accidents, spectators being hit, or erupt into gunfights. Show either a gun or a camera under those circumstances and ten people might pump bullets into you instantly, or maybe miss you entirely and shoot innocent bystanders. It happens
all the time. In a big city area like this, you have to think like a cat, and be aware of not only territorial lines, but how they can change
during different times of day. 90% of the murders are on very predictable streets, which uncoincidentally are also distinct territory lines between rival drug distribution gangs. Crossfire is just routine. And all the "gun rights" political rhetoric in your part of the world means
exactly zero in these neighborhoods, where absolute idiots might be packing anything, including fully automatic weapons. Sometimes even
old Thompsons are confiscated. And these guys can be so high on whatever, no telling what they'll do, or where those bullets will go. It's
not like back when Pirkle Jones documented the Panthers, because they were deliberately courting mass publicity. Pimps, drug dealers,
and looter/burglars are a whole different category. I grew up in a very rural setting, and know the cultural/demographic distinction very
well. And ironically, the sheriff's dept way out there was what everyone was afraid of. Guess who the big drug kingpin was?

Ah, Oakland. Sounds like a great place to do some photography!

Drew... I'm accustomed to dangerous neighborhoods. I lived in one of the worst areas in the San Antonio, TX area for thirteen months. I rented a home while I was looking for a place to buy. I trusted the realtor... BIG mistake. There were drug dealers and gang members all over the place. Gunfire was heard every night. Two murders occurred in those thirteen months.

One night I heard a lady screaming for help. I first called 911 then stuffed my .45 in my front pants pocket and walked outside to see if someone really needed help. It was pitch black... overcast sky, no moonlight, no lights on in the nearby homes and no street lights. All I could see was the bright lights of a car shining in my eyes and the faint outline of a person on the ground screaming for help. I could see the outline of a larger figure standing over them. I could tell the person on the ground was a woman because of her voice, screaming and pleading for the other person not to hurt her. I can't walk very well due to a neurological condition but I made may way there as quickly as I could. I was thinking, OMG, I don't want to shoot anyone. Just then a car pulled around the corner and told me the man standing over the woman was a cop. At that moment the cop standing over the woman yelled for me to back off and a police vehicle, this one with it's emergency lights on, pulled up beside the other police car which was then lit well enough to see what it was. The other police officer was a female so I turned around and hobbled home.

Make no mistake, I would never have drawn my firearm until I had all the facts. I don't scare easily. If I had family relying on me I probably wouldn't have gone out there. But being alone and in poor health it just doesn't matter as much if I'm shot dead. I did what I thought was right and would do it again. If the event happened in daylight then I would have shot video.

Rural areas can be just as dangerous as urban ones. You just have to know your surroundings. The same friendly deputy that might protect
you from an assault in some coastal town might bury your body back in the woods if you happened to accidentally photograph a pot plantation out somewhere run by one of his cronies. A tripod set up in some paranoid sagebrush rebellion holdout might get you accused of being a govt spy or even shot at; or someone might just stop and start up the friendliest conversation you've ever heard. There is simply no substitute for keeping a level head and using common sense, which includes responding to law enforcement politely, even if when they are conspicuously in the wrong. I had a helper who spent three nites in a Nevada jail for sassing a Nevada game warden who himself had ventured into California waters, and then demanded a Nevada fishing license. A cooler head would have defused the whole misunderstanding.

Wise words, Drew.

Drew, I value your opinions, and not wanting to be the grammar police, but it's very hard to read your posts when you don't use paragraphs and breaks.

I want to read what you have to say but they are large unwieldy blocks of type.

Could you......??

Thanks. I understand; and I make a lot of typos too. Multitasking. I make these posts as a diversion, to clear my mind between intense bursts of business activity, so get constantly interrupted (as I should be), and rarely have time to clean up and review what I wrote.

Just separate thought patterns with space. Not difficult. (It comes quite easy for me, as there is much space in my brain between thoughts.) - David Lyga

Ancient OP, yes, defy police, but do it candid. If not you may get your head cracked or worse. Police are bad biz. I try to avoid them.

Here, press photographer Spider Martin sums it up...

https://archive.org/details/ExcuseMeIThoughtYouWereANiggerSelmaAlabamaSpiderMartin

In the instance the OP posited to stop taking photographs of an accident, back off so that one is not interfering with the investigation and photograph using a longer lens from a publicly accessible location.

I came across this thread just now, so the link I furnish may have already been posted. Bert Krages is a lawyer and photographer; he's developed a handy guide to the law as it applies to photographers in the US. I try to keep a copy of it in each of my camera bags. Here it is: http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm Also the ACLU has some good info on their web site.

GRHazelton said:

I came across this thread just now, so the link I furnish may have already been posted. Bert Krages is a lawyer and photographer; he's developed a handy guide to the law as it applies to photographers in the US. I try to keep a copy of it in each of my camera bags. Here it is: http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm Also the ACLU has some good info on their web site.

Click to expand...

This should be bookmarked on the website for easy access.

The link to the lawyers sheet is nifty, however things do change and there are local issues to consider.

In some jurisdictions you aren't allowed to take photos of cops in uniform. In almost any jurisdiction they have the legal right to take any footage you shoot of say, that big accident or fire down the road. In some cases, its the only way they catch anyone.