Back of the Federal Appeals Courthouse, originally uploaded by Vidiot.

This picture got me in a bit of trouble last week. (It depects the back of the federal courthouse in Atlanta that houses the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.) Seconds after taking the shot, an Atlanta city cop sitting in a white Jeep marked "FEDERAL POLICE" (it was blocking the street at the end of the block) called me over to him.

The conversation follows. (Picture an older, gray-haired, pot-bellied, take-no-shit Southern cop oozing menace):

Cop: "Who do you work for?"

Me: "Who do I work for?"

Cop: "You heard me. Who do you work for?"

Me (wondering what possible bearing my employer has on anything...perhaps he was waiting for me to say "al-Qaeda, and what's it to ya?"): "[my employer]."

Cop: "Don't do that."

Me: "Do what?"

Cop: "Take pictures of that building."

Me: "I'm sorry, Officer. I wasn't aware that taking a picture of a building from a public street was against the law."

Cop: "It ain't illegal. They just don't want you to do it."

Me: "Okayyy...." as I walked away.

I was completely in the right, legally speaking, but if this cop had wanted to hassle or arrest me, he still could have...I'd still wind up in jail, however wrongly. And I didn't want to explain to my employer, who flew me to Atlanta for a business trip, why I couldn't go to work because I was in jail. So I let it be.

It still rankles, though.

Comments

[Vinny]

Bastards. I hear stuff like this and my blood just boils. And don't think it'll be any better in New York now; the New York Paranoid Department is going to jump on anyone that clicks a shutter now that security is "heightened."

[Bee]

Followed you from a link on JPG Magazine on Flickr (complicated, much?) -- I think what gets me the most is his comment of, "It ain't illegal. They just don't want you to do it." I need a better reason than that, buddy.
:)

[Derek Powazek]

Sorry to hear you got hassled, but it's very common these days. So common that we at JPG Magazine devoted a whole issue to this important issue. Check it out: http://jpgmag.com/issue5.html