[PRCo] OT: Prohibition of photography from trains and police action taken

[Jim Holland]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Fwd: Prohibition of photography from trains and police action 
taken
Date: 	Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:54:39 -0000
From: 	James B. Holland <PRCoPCC at P-R-Co.com>
To: 	unlisted-recipients:; (no To-header on input)



--- In LRPPro at ...m, Clark F Morris <cfmpublic at ...> wrote:

The following e-mail was sent to president at ... and did not bounce. If 
this is not a working address I would be interested in one that would 
get somewhere.

As an Amtrak passenger who takes pictures of trains and of scenery from 
trains and as a United States citizen living in Canada, I find the 
posting from the Episcopal Cafe saddening and enraging. To have a man 
taken off the train for taking pictures is Orwellian. I would hope that 
I would have the courage to both continue taking pictures and sue 
everyone involved if a similar situation happened to me. I also hope 
that I would help others in the same predicament. I am writing to urge 
that Amtrak take steps to investigate this incident and make amends to 
the Japanese traveler described below. I also urge that Amtrak 
communicate to the web site Episcopal Cafe the actions taken.

This posting from Episcopal Cafe has been reported on the Light Rail 
Professionals yahoogroup - LRPPro, the Canadian Transport 2000 
yahoogroup - Tr2000 among other places. This will not help either 
American tourism or Amtrak ridership.

Clark Morris
902-665-4006
cfmpublic at ...
Bridgetown, Nova Scotia

http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/war_and_peace/every_day_diplomacy.php

Episcopal Café
November 3, 2007

Joel Merchant is a teacher, business consultant, and essayist. He is 
currently working on "The Other Side of Time; Letters to My Daughter" at 
a-reminiscence.

Posted by Jim Naughton on 4:15 AM | Permalink | Digg this

Every day diplomacy

Note: we are receiving many insightful comments on this article from 
folks who aren't signing the comments using their real names. We are 
delighted to have your comments, especially from first-time visitors, 
but in the interest of transparency and accountability, we do require 
you to sign your posts with your real name. Thanks. The editors.

By Joel L. Merchant

Countries, like people, make friends with others one at a time. This is 
a story of one failure. In fairness to an unknown visitor to our 
country, imagine yourself in his place. The scene is on a recent Amtrak 
trip between New York City and Boston. The conductor collects tickets, 
requests identification, folds destination stubs into seatbacks, moves 
on to other cars. An older man across the aisle, traveling alone, shows 
his passport. It is clear from their conversation he doesn't know 
English. After decades as a frequent traveler, I have thousands of 
pictures -- scenery, buildings, people, architecture, from around the 
world. Today the train passes a lovely stretch of Connecticut shore, 
tidal marshes, nesting ospreys, the Long Island Sound. What little 
attention I pay as the visitor takes pictures, is that I'm impressed 
with his equipment. He and I, unknown to each other, are members of a 
picture-taking culture, fellow citizens of a show-and-tell world. I 
wonder if his will join the thousands on YouTube. I imagine, after his 
return home, how many friends he will impress with stories and pictures 
of this mild, early autumn, Saturday morning journey along the New 
England shoreline.

The train is a half hour west of New Haven when the conductor, having 
finished her original rounds, reappears. She moves down the aisle, 
looks, stops between our seats, faces the person taking pictures. "Sir, 
in the interest of national security, we do not allow pictures to be 
taken of or from this train." He starts, "I……." but, without English, 
his response trails off into silence. The conductor, speaking louder, 
forcefully: "Sir, I will confiscate that camera if you don't put it 
away." Again, little response. "Sir, this is a security matter! We 
cannot allow pictures." She turns away abruptly and, as she moves down 
the aisle, calls over her shoulder, in a very loud voice, "Put. It. 
Away!" He packs his camera. Within a minute after our arrival in New 
Haven, two armed police officers entered the car, approached my 
neighbor's seat. "Sir, we're removing you from this train." "I….;" "I……" 
"Sir, you have breached security regulations. We must remove you from 
this train." "I…," "I….." "Sir, we are not going to delay this train 
because of you. You will get off, or we will remove you physically." 
"I….." Nearby passengers stir. One says, "It's obvious he doesn't speak 
English. There are people here who speak more than one language. Perhaps 
we can help." Different ones ask about the traveler's language; learn he 
speaks Japanese. For me, a sudden flash of memory -- a student at 
International Christian University in Japan, I took countless pictures 
without arousing suspicion.

The police speak through the interpreter, with the impatience of 
authority. The conductor asked this man three times to discontinue. We 
must remove him from the train." The traveler hears the translation, is 
befuddled. Hidden beneath the commotion is a cross-cultural drama. With 
the appearance of police officers, this quiet visitor is embarrassed to 
find he is the center of attention. The officers explain, "After we 
remove him from the train, when we are through our investigation, we 
will put him on the next train." The woman translates. The passenger 
replies, "I'm meeting relatives in Boston. They cannot be reached by 
phone. They expect me and will be worried when I do not arrive on 
schedule." "Our task," the police repeat, "is to remove you from this 
train. If necessary, we will do so by force. After we have finished the 
investigation, we'll put you on another train." The woman translates. 
The traveler gathers his belongings and departs.

My earlier suggestion that you imagine being in his place leaves you 
free to respond and draw your conclusions. Remember: you've been removed 
from the train, are being interrogated, perhaps having your equipment 
confiscated; while I continue to do what I take for granted – traveling 
unimpeded, on to Providence.

The more I replay the scene, the more troublesome it is. It is the stuff 
of nightmares. Relations between people and countries lie at the heart 
of the issue. The abstract terms that inform political and social debate 
appear, as if in person, unexpectedly, near enough to hear, touch, feel. 
Taking no position is not an option. As an educator, I would prepare and 
deliver a lecture on how others perceive America in the world community, 
then seek an audience. I'll spare you. But -- I just watched armed 
police officers remove a visitor from the train for taking pictures. I 
don't understand this. I'm disturbed no, shaken – to bear witness to 
these events. Other passengers react with surprise and anger. "Since 
when is it illegal to take pictures?"

"Nobody's ever bothered me about it." "Is the only photography allowed 
from the space station and Google Earth? These people take pictures of 
everything, including my house, without my permission, and they're 
instantly available on the internet." An older traveler reflected, "I 
witnessed this personally in police states during the war in Europe."


In The Terror Presidency, Jack Goldsmith says it is right for a country 
to meet a threat in a way that keeps us safe, but must also "minimize 
unnecessary intrusion on …life, liberty and property.... and all those 
who are enjoying them with us." One passenger asked, "Would someone 
please explain the threat posed by taking pictures from the train?"


In Matt Stoller's review of A Tragic Legacy, he says the current 
administration has "transformed the way (people) speak about our country 
and its role in the world." The good-versus-evil mentality has "altered 
the political system of our country" and our relationship with the rest 
of the world – in ways which are "inappropriate for a modern power in a 
time of global turmoil."


It doesn't take more than five minutes, in any airport in this country, 
before I hear the loudspeaker, "The current terror threat is elevated." 
We hear "terror" endlessly – traveling, at home, on television, in the 
news. Recent political campaigns have reminded no, badgered – us, to be 
very afraid. What did Franklin Roosevelt say, that "the only thing we 
have to fear is fear itself." Terror. Paranoia. We can no longer 
differentiate between terrors. Is this our generation's enlightened 
contribution to American culture?


Watching police escort a visitor off the train, I felt anger, not 
comfort. This action was beyond irritating. It is intolerable, 
unacceptable. If it bothered me, it paled in comparison to the way it 
inconvenienced, and will long trouble, this visitor to our country. We 
disrupted his travel plans and family reunion. Even greater than the 
psychological damage we inflicted is the harm we've done to ourselves.

We missed an opportunity to show kindness, to be ambassadors of 
goodwill. The visitor will return home. He will indeed impress many 
people – not with pleasant memories and pictures of a quiet morning trip 
along the New England coast, but with a story of being removed and 
detained by American police for taking pictures. Do we imagine we've 
gained anything because a single visitor returns home with stories of 
mistreatment?


We engage in diplomacy whenever we have contact with visitors or travel 
abroad ourselves. If we conduct ourselves poorly as daily ambassadors, 
it is no wonder our country suffers a tarnished relationship with the world.


--- End forwarded message ---


^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
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Jim Holland
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Studying Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo)
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..............................From 1930 -- 1950
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Pennsylvania Trolley Museum (PTM)
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http://www.pa-trolley.org/
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N.M.R.A.
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http://www.nmra.org/