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

[Mark McGuire]

Applause, applause, Rich!

I first encountered this when photographing the LRVs at South Hills Village with Fred III, Bruce, and Russ Jackson. Was stopped by a transit cop and told the new law of the land that, "you can't take pictures of the trolleys". Of course it didn't help when I stepped over the contruction tape barrier to use the port-o-let and while there taking a photo. But I have a feeling we'd have been stopped anyway. It is absolutely rediculous. Yep, the terrorists have succeeded in transforming our great country into a bunch of political scared rabbits.

And you are not alone, Rich. It pisses me off too.

-- "Richard Allman" <allmanr at verizon.net> wrote:
this nazi-like prohibition of a lawful activity really pushes all my 
buttons. the harassment of transit's best friends and advocates, for 
specious reasons of "security"-what the morons are saying is that the 
terrorists have won the so-called "War on Terror." Public transit 
facilities, heavilly tax-supported are just that-public. No military risks, 
no security risk, no exposure of nuclear facilities, no exposure of military 
facilities, no divulging of trade secrets, no rationale whatever except the 
brain dead response "because we say so!" We are as a faternity as un-scary a 
group as could ever be encountered. If they want to prohibit entry onto 
non-public space-yards, onto tracks, etc-I think they're within their 
rights. The energies of the transit nazis would be better expended on 
enforcing rules about eating and drinking, disposing of trash, loud radio, 
panhandling playing rather than just proclaiming their fascist existence. 
Hopefully someone will ask ACLU of St. Louis to enter this dispute about 
nonsense. I know that Walter Zullig, whom I don't know personally but whose 
commitment to this cause  I much admire might well have some valuable input 
into this matter. It's really time to fight back before maybe comes the next 
step of this downward spiral of basic rights-confiscation of the collections 
that so many of us have asssembled, or forcing existing photos off the web. 
The stupidity of the transit agencies is monumental-they should have bigger 
things to worry  about. I know one tries to get wins "picking the low 
hanging fruit", but in this matter of harassment, they're scraping garbage! 
Maybe a forced face-to-face with mangement of the agencies where the 
stupidity is so rampant, and en masse "photo-in" like the civil rights 
demonstrations of the 60's, or some other way to make them look like the 
nudnicks they are! Now I feel better!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 5:57 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: OT: Prohibition of photography from trains and police 
action taken


> And have them tax me?
>
> On Nov 20, 2007, at 5:43 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>
>> Exercise that First Amendment right........let it be known what is
>> really happening.
>>
>>
>> Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:
>>     2) When I asked for a copy of the law that required me to show
>> identification in order to buy a ticket, the station agent in
>> Lancaster called the policeman over who pulled me out of line and
>> told me that, "there is no law and if you don't like our regulations,
>> you don't need to buy a ticket. You don't have to use the
>> train."
>>
>>   other currencies coming into this country is probably
>> offset by U. S. dollars spent at home by people who are fed up with
>> TSA hassles at airports and have chosen to spend vacations here.
>> If the motel and restaurant owners were making a huge stink over
>> these idiots because of lost business, one might suspect it would
>> stop. On the other hand the President is so determined that he is
>> correct that it might just not stop.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Herb Brannon
>>
>>
>
>
>