From the NY Times:
It is O.K. to take photos while standing in public spaces near federal buildings, after all. In a settlement with the New York Civil Liberties Union reached Monday, the federal government agreed to instruct its employees in writing of the “public’s general right to photograph the exterior of federal courthouses from publicly accessible spaces” and to remind them that “there are currently no general security regulations prohibiting exterior photography by individuals from publicly accessible spaces, absent a written local rule, regulation or order.”
7 comments:
You may indeed click away. Terrorists will photograph building and bridges with hidden cameras. See your local spy shop for hardware details. You can't prevent a determined person from imaging. The signs "No cameras or videos" at the bridges and tunnels are a joke.
Why take pictures when you can get any wide assortment of any landmark and hard target in NYC on hundreds of websites and blogs. If you look hard enough, you could probably get all kinds of blueprints and floor plans for said landmarks/targets.
This is the psychology of the projection of power to signal "we care" and "cooperate with us and do your part to stop terrorism".
As GTA said, anyone doing real terror planning is going to avoid being obvious about it.
On the other hand, maybe its a scam to confiscate cameras or at least memory cards.
The people with the big giant cameras and lenses are going to be BETTER FOR SAFETY than the general public walking by without a camera.
Why?
(1) they are studying what they are looking at, and will notice things that seem wrong
(2) they care about what they are shooting, and will feel the need to protect what interests them.
(3) they are 'watching' the subject for extended periods of time, sometimes hours, waiting to get a good shot, not just a quick glance as you are walking by. Its like having a security guard standing there.
(4) If you are a criminal, what would you rather target? Something that everyone is aiming their cameras at, or something that you know has a smaller chance of being caught in the act since there are less cameras shooting at you?
If you look hard enough, you could probably get all kinds of blueprints and floor plans for said landmarks/targets.
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Alot of that information is public domain. Many places require you to filing blueprints with the planning department, which is subject to Freedom of Information act. Especially, on gov't projects that are public domain anyway.
On top of that, architects/designers have a right to publish their drawings for promotional uses, and can throw whatever plans and drawings they want onto websites, into books, trade mags, etc, etc. Unless contractually bound to confidentiality, which, even then, is only upheld under reasonable conditions.
Alot of that information is public domain. Many places require you to filing blueprints with the planning department, which is subject to Freedom of Information act. Especially, on gov't projects that are public domain anyway.
On top of that, architects/designers have a right to publish their drawings for promotional uses, and can throw whatever plans and drawings they want onto websites, into books, trade mags, etc, etc. Unless contractually bound to confidentiality, which, even then, is only upheld under reasonable conditionss.
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OK, so I was right....
Maybe the signs are there for the nitwit terrorist who doesn't know how to use the library.
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