You are, of course, right. As I said, my mindset on these situations is usually being non-confrontational. Also, since the whole thing was mainly betweer RR and the crazy lady, I didn't feel free to make a big deal out of it.
j On 8/15/05, Glen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At 04:44 PM 8/15/2005, you wrote: > > >On 8/15/05, P. J. Alling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I seems to me that you were the victim of assault. You were doing > > > nothing wrong but were threatened by a complete stranger. I would have > > > asked the police to arrest the woman so that I could press charges. > > > >Probably. But we were there to take pictures, not to save the world > >from crazy people. I would absolutely press charges if I'm touched in > >this circumstances--that is definitely assault. But I don't want to > >out-wack the wackos, if you know what I mean. > > However, you have effectively encouraged the police to wrongfully detain > any other photographers who might be similarly harassed in the future. > There is no reason on earth they should have taken you to their police > station, or taken your names, or taken anything else for that matter -- > *especially* if they didn't do the same thing with the lady who was > harassing you. I'm not saying that I would do it personally, but I'm sure > that some people would have sued the police for false arrest or something > to that effect. Remember, any time you don't feel at liberty to leave, you > are under arrest -- whether the police officer tells you are literally > "under arrest" or not. (At least, that applies in the USA.) Those police > officers have detained you, taken away your freedom, intimidated you, quite > possibly caused you emotional anguish, etc. These are not things police > officers should be doing without good cause. > > What they should have done, is point out the actual relevant laws to the > lady harassing you, and told her to mind her own business, or risk getting > arrested. Instead, they took the easy way out, and removed the sane and > reasonable person from the quarrel, instead of removing the irrational > troublemaker. <sigh> > > > take care, > Glen > > -- Juan Buhler http://www.jbuhler.com photoblog at http://photoblog.jbuhler.com
