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| Re: Detained on WMATA while taking pictures (343438) | |||
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Re: Detained on WMATA while taking pictures |
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Posted by Brighton Private on Sun Nov 26 10:15:34 2006, in response to Re: Detained on WMATA while taking pictures, posted by Palal on Mon Nov 13 19:58:11 2006. While I agree that, as a practical matter, it is smart to have a copy of the printout with you, as a matter of principle, needing to do so is appalling.It is absolutely not the same as being required to carry your driver's license while driving. Driving is a privilege bestowed by the state upon certain conditions, among them the requirement to carry one's license while operating the vehicle. But we are not required to carry proof of all our freedoms with us. Aside from it being impractical -- do we need documentation from the owner of every building we might choose to photograph? -- the implication is that the police are authorized to trample our rights and threaten us with arrest unless we meet some burden of proving the legality of our behavior, on the spot. That is 180 degrees the opposite of the entire American legal tradition and a fundamental violation of our civil rights. The best antidote for this continuing behavior by police departments (and it isn't limited to transit systems) are lawsuits. The ACLU, as has been discussed on this site, is preparing a lawsuit in New York. In Washington, a non-transit related incident -- the outrageous corralling and arrest of law-abiding citizens in Pershing Park during the World Bank protests -- led to a successful lawsuit and a major civil judgment against the city. The DC police have been much better behaved toward protesters since then. The idea that the police don't know what they are doing is nonsense. They know exactly what they are doing and they, or their superiors, need to pay a price for it so that it stops. |
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