The MetroRail Photo Protest.

South Florida photographers held a "shoot-in" photo protest at the Douglas Road MetroRail station on Sunday.  The protest was arranged by photographer Carlos Miller, who has been actively lobbying for photographer's rights.

The protest was in response to several incidents of 50 State Security employees hassling photographers, and in one case they went so far as to seize a camera.  They gave it back, eventually, but the mood was ugly.  In each case, photographers had ascertained that the kind of shooting they were doing was allowed without a permit.  In each case, the security guards demonstrated a dismal awareness of the law.  Sunday's event was designed to change that.

The day went just as it ought.  We bought our tickets, we passed through the gates, we waited for our train, we rode the train, and we took loads of photos.

Carlos Miller asking if the guards have any problems with him entering the station with his camera.  They did not.

Carlos Miller as unfailingly polite and respectful, a professional in every way.  So were the guards.  I'm pretty sure they were briefed ahead of time: after all, the protest wasn't a huge secret.  So the guards worked very hard at not harassing us.  And there were extra guards on, so when you've got six guards not harassing you, that's a lot of harassment not happening.

Two of the guards at the Douglas Road MetroRail Station.

This is the only time I caught a guard expressing anything remotely negative.  And it's a crop from a zoom.  His partner seems OK with it.

Participants ride the escalator to the Platform

Photography is a right protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.  Just as we are allowed to voice disagreement with our elected and appointed officials, we are allowed to record their actions, and the results of those actions.  The law permits photography in public places, and permits you to take pictures of anything you can see from those public places.

A man videotaping his MetroRail trip from the train.

Sunday, all the guards we met were aware of our rights.  Will they remember them tomorrow?  Next week?

Only time will tell.

But for now, I have a batch of photos to sift through... feel free to peruse the set on my Flickr photostream.

50 State Security Guard Steals Camera

MetroRail needs to fire their security company, 50 State Security, before they get the county sued.  Over on CarlosMiller.com, Carlos miller reports that guards provided by 50 State Security seized his camera, and then assaulted him and tried to take his iPhone when he started filming with that.


The bad news for MetroRail and 50 State Security; it's all on tape.

Two things to be aware of:

• First, the public is allowed to take video and photographs on MetroRail property.  Miller was not doing anything wrong, according to the law, or to MetroRail itself. 50 State Security has been informed of this repeatedly. 
• Second, MetroRail security guards do not have the right to seize property, period.  Not for any reason.  No one is allowed to do that; not ushers in a movie theatre, not waiters in a restaurant, not even the police.  Seizure of personal property, under any circumstance, requires a court order.

Make no mistake; Miller's property was stolen.  It was ripped out of his hands. The 50 State Security guards committed a felony.  And even if Miller decides not press charges, MetroRail better fire these bozos pronto.  Our government has no business employing criminals.

No one is safe while 50 State Security is on the job.

A Rude Silence Follows

It's official.  John Callahan, possible the world's most offensive cartoonist, has died.

If you'd seen Callahan's cartoons, they probably offended the hell out of you.  He didn't "test boundaries," he didn't merely cross the line,  he left the line waaay back there somewhere.  He expressed ideas we didn't even have the guts to imagine.  He made Gary Larson look mainstream and normal.

Typical is the drawing the Grim Reaper, walking down the street with two Grim Reaper Children.  Across the street is someone with a box full of puppies they're trying to give away.  One of the Reaper children is tugging on the parent Reaper's arm, saying "Mommy! Mommy! Can we kill the puppies?"

A quadraplegic, he titled his autobiography "He Won't Get Far On Foot."  The
cover featured a sheriff's posse surrounding an empty wheel chair in the
middle of the desert.  A later work was titled "Will the real John Callahan Please Stand Up."  He found humor in exposing our own ridiculous tendency to go to any extreme to avoid offense, as well as the folly of trying to ignore your own limitations instead of learning to cope with them



I can imagine what he'd draw to commemorate his death: a mob of straight-laced, conservative people dancing on his grave.  It would be captioned "Callahan throws a party."

The world just became a duller place.