"Street Photography" and the "Public" and a BILL IDEA
Share
This guy is just being a horrible person and violating so many different laws in this video. People have a reasonable expectation of safety and privacy at work and that goes for public employees as well. And just because they may work for "The Public" and it might be legal to photograph and video public employees at work from a public place. Does not mean that it is the right thing to do.
This is a street photography problem. The law he is citing is in reference to legal photography in the the public. As an an American if you are out in public like on a street, or public park, or anywhere that is not private property it is 100% legal for anyone to photograph or take video of you without your consent so long as the photographer is taking a legal photo from a legal place and is not in violation of any laws.
Here is how wrong he is on all of this.
1. Mare Island is technically and jurisdictionally a complex zone, First: there is a National Security concern because there is an active Army Depot near the graveyard which was placed there after the Russians changed the headstones of some Russian soldiers buried on the island without going through the proper channels and procedures of the State Department and Solano County, the Russian government showed up in the middle of the night and changed the headstones. Then under the Obama Administration, the Army decided to put a depot at the entrance to stop that nonsense from happening again. The point being is that Mare Island is technically not fully "Public"so pictures taken on Mare Island as a street photographer exist in a grey area.
2. The laws regarding art, and what art is and isn't, are fairly clear. It has to deal with a creative project of almost any kind to be considered "art". He repeatedly refused to explain his artistic project, which essentially is to be a creepy photographer videotaping government employees until he gets arrested so he can post in on YouTube and get views and subscribers to monetize his channel. Being an asshole is indeed a skill, being a government asshole is a special skill, being a street photography asshole is also a special skill. There are classic street photographers who have done work in NYC and Paris who were complete assholes but also did it as a form of art.
This guy is just being an asshole for no reason other then it's legal to be an asshole and google exists and he looked up a few cases to sound smart.
3. My Dad's old co workers videoed by this guy are handling this in the right way. it reminded me of one time as an intern for Cristina Garcia when the School Vaccine fight began and RFK got his wackjob anti vaccine people to get upset. One day I was manning the front desk, and three people from Orange County walked in. One with a video camera video taping me, another was videotaping a man, and the man was screaming and yelling at me about school vaccines for about 2 minutes. My co workers in the office shut their office doors, calmed down, didn't say anything. I just sat there nodding my head in silence, when the guy was done, I think I said "do you have an appointment? or do you just want me to relay your message?" they then left, unsatisfied I didn't go irate on them. Then, then security escorted them out of the building because you actually have to have consent of government employees to video tape them while at work. Me being an unpaid intern experiencing that made it legally just members of the public having a conversation in a public building, which is a grey area that the law does not have protections for, and probably has only happened to me in the history of the CA Legislature. Ofcourse I knew that which helped me remain calm, because I just thought "this is a street photography thing, don't be the asshole who gets upset to give this asshole a photo or moment he wants."
4. Just because someone works for the government as a "Public Employee" does not mean where they work is a public place. He wouldn't try this at a jail, or a courthouse, hypothetically if he began wandering around taking video of clerks who were filing legal documents, refusing to give his name, asking questions, being an asshole, there isn't a courthouse in the country that would allow that bullshit to happen. If he tried that at a community hospital, or veterans hospital he would get arrested because those are private places. Schools are also private even though teachers are technically "Public Employees". Random people can not just walk into any classroom and begin videotaping teachers at work.
BILL IDEA.
Clarify what the law of "public place" is when it comes to photography and art. The outside of the building from a public street is a public place, but the inside of the building is not a public place and a reasonable expectation of privacy exists, video and photography of employees inside the building without prior consent is prohibited.
This change is just a small change to street photography law, and actually existing laws prohibit this guys behavior anyway. It is probably not needed.
Any way this guy is an asshole, how can he have a channel "Bay Area Transparency" but then also be non transparent about his name, his reasons, why he is doing something, and not allow other people to embed his video.. While also giving government people crap about transparency.
Like I said.
He's an Asshole.