Just another warning to be careful where you take your pictures. The guy is not sure if it was racially motivated but I guess that is debatable. I do know both Damian and I took photographs of Calgarys LRT (the “CTrain”) while we were there and were lucky enough to not catch any hassle for doing so.
Infringing Upon Freedom at After Hours with Sami Khan
So Calgarians, especially brown Calgarians, be warned, if you take pictures in the transit system you may be taken to the side by some policemen and questioned
With the paranoid times we live in I guess this will happen more and more, either legitimately for security reasons or as an excuse to hassle innocent citizens in cases where the individual likes to abuse their authority. I don’t think there is any way to prove which this case was one way or the other.
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4 Comments
I seriously don’t think it was a case of getting of authority getting abused, I can honestly say that myself having gone through it. The officer was well meaning, but it’s just sad the world in which we live and the consequences that it affords us. My only real concern is that I should be, as a citizen, made aware of the fact that something like this may happen. I can’t observe the law if it’s not made clear to me from the time I enter the premises. The gap that creates problems of people abusing authority is when I don’t know what your authority over me is and what rules I am suppose to follow to keep you from exercising that authority. If for instance I know that you can shoot me if I try to get away from you, then I am not likely to run if you show up and tell me to stop. It’s just that the norms have changed rapidly and there isn’t enough information out there in the public consciousness as to how they should act… If there was, we could reduce quite a few of these incidents which are traumatizing for law abiding citizens who believe that they’re doing nothing wrong.
I guess you are right Sami, it wouldn’t hurt for them to have a few signs around, eh?
Although by this happening and being publicised I suppose more people do know about it now. Just a shame it has to take someones distress for people to hear about it!
I still call BS. The way to protect our freedoms from They Who Would Harm Us is NOT by revoking those very freedoms.
And, what possible harm could taking a photo of a snowy train station do, anyway? If the “security” of our public transportation could be thwarted by a $200 digicam, it’s not secure in the first place. There is already much more “useful” info available freely online (most published by Calgary Transit themselves!)
I blogged about it in more detail
More information from Calgary Sun
It turns out there are no such regulations. Perhaps skin colour had something to do with it after all …