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| Re: PATH and Photography (967024) | |||
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Re: PATH and Photography |
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Posted by rocketdriver2019 on Fri Aug 13 22:34:17 2010, in response to Re: PATH and Photography, posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 13 21:47:40 2010. Yup, I've been confronted several times by various transit employees and security guards and have always treated whoever confronted me with the utmost professionalism.Only once did the situation escalate to the point where things got ugly. That was in Brussels, when a tram driver, under the erroneous impression that we weren't allowed to take tram photos in the public park we were in that was not even remotely owned by the STIB, attempted to grab my buddy's camera without any warning. He was demanding my friend delete the photo he took of the tram (in French, I had to translate), which my friend complied with (even though he didn't have to) and then the tram driver grabbed my friends camera and attempted, quite violently, to pull my friend (via his camera) to the tram where he was threatening to call the police. I ended up telling him in the sternest French I could muster that it was I who was going to call the police and have him charged with assault and attempted robbery. I've never seen a camera let go so quickly, nor have I ever seen a tram move so quickly. I've also never seen a transit employee so oblivious to the fact that his tram had a fleet number. Telling the next tram driver about the ordeal, he said it's not the first time that operator had run-ins with passengers and he wasn't the least bit surprised... and after radioing in our complaint to their control centre (because we were asking for a supervisor, but STIB supervisors are far and few between so they couldn't get one to us for something like this), he expressed how embarrassing it was that we had to encounter that operator, assured us that his behaviour should not be taken as indicative of Belgian transit workers (and we knew it wasn't, the majority of employees we encountered there were fantastic) and then graciously allowed us to film his tram while performing a wye operation at the end of the line. That's all to say I've dealt with the worst and know how to handle them ;-) But as I told Jersey Mike, I prefer to comply with the rules set out by a transit system, even if they're ridiculous, and if I can get decent photos off property I will. If I can't, then I'll consider alternatives like the "I'm a tourist approach". Truthfully if PATH were in the Greater Toronto Area I'd be a little more bold about this and prepare for a fight against this policy, but being that I'm on vacation in another city (and country) I just want to relax and enjoy myself without worrying about this nonsense... so I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave it to the New Yorkers to fight the good fight :-) |
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