Adventures with the First Amendment

Courtesy BoingBoing we bring you a blog posting from a photog who, for doing nothing more than taking pictures in an Oakaland warehouse district, was detained by police and told to stop taking pictures.

Should carrying a camera result in this kind of harrasment? Should the police be able to randomly stop you and run your ID for warrants or a background check merely for being in the wrong place with a camera? There is a chill in the air in this country right now but I'm not sure that taking it out on the rights of photographers is the correct answer.

On a more serious note, you remember how, during recent discussion of the renewing of the Patriot Act, much was made of the fact that the FBI had never exercised its power under the law to request library records? Well, they just have. (Link courtesy Return of the Reluctant.) The library in question is "in the Bridgeport, Conn. area" but, of course, the details are secret.

First Amendment, police, Oakland, harrassment, Patriot Act