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Also this issue: Off the Mapp Casino Royale Charles In Charge At-Large Gripe The Bell Curve |
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February 27-March 5, 2003
city beat
 Bridge Over Troubled Water: A shot like this got Iman Radito in hot water with the feds. Photo By: Michael T. Regan |
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Law enforcement is increasingly wary of photographers.
It's been a tough month for people taking pictures in Philadelphia.
On Mon., Feb. 24, Iman Radito, an Indonesian Muslim, was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $5,000 for overstaying a student visa and possessing false documentation, including a forged "green card" and Social Security card. Meanwhile, a number of Haverford College students were interrogated by police after shooting photos of Suburban Station for an urban studies class assignment.
Radito was picked up by an agent from the Philadelphia Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) on Sept. 11, 2002, at Delaware Avenue and Vine Street in Old City after being observed taking photographs of the Ben Franklin Bridge. Radito, who was led into the courtroom wearing a green prison jumper and handcuffs, pled guilty. While his lawyer argues that he was an aspiring photographer, prosecutors hint at something more sinister. They point out that Radito took classes at a Florida flight school, and had $10,000 in his bank account though he worked at an Asian restaurant in Bucks County. According to the U.S. Attorney's sentencing recommendation memo, "the extent to which this defendant has forced the government to utilize the precious -- and finite -- resources of the JTTF cannot be understated. The defendant's alarming conduct which led to his arrest -- photographing a bridge, a target for terrorism -- has never been adequately explained. While the defendant claims he is not a terrorist, he has tried very hard to appear one to this government." Radito was sentenced to pay a $5,000 fine and spend six months in prison, after which he will be deported to Indonesia.
Before the sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Winter grumbled to colleagues that she was "tired of" constant criticism that the government is targeting Arabs and Muslims. Winter told U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Savage that it was not Radito's heritage but his lies that spawned the investigation.
While it is true that Radito did not help himself by making numerous false statements to investigators, he is not alone in being a target of law enforcement scrutiny of those taking pictures in Philadelphia.
On Sat., Feb. 8, a South Asian Haverford College urban planning student was detained for questioning by the SEPTA transit police after he was observed making sketches and taking photographs of Suburban Station. After verifying that the student was enrolled in Bryn Mawr College's "Form of the City" class and was completing an assignment to observe the station during off-peak hours, SEPTA police released the student.
Joseph Disponzio, the course's professor, says the individual looks South Asian. Though other students were questioned, only the minority student was detained. "My gut feeling is that the student was profiled," Disponzio says via e-mail. The student in question did not respond to City Paper's request for an interview.
Gary McDonogh, the department chair, also hints that the police were practicing racial profiling, mentioning that the cops "actually helped other students take photographs. The difference is quite troubling."
SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney could not confirm or deny that police helped other students take pictures, but he insisted that racial profiling did not take place "because of the current level of security alert. I can assure you if Tom Ridge in the flesh were doing the same thing, he would have been treated precisely the same way by SEPTA police," Maloney says. If the professor had let SEPTA know about the assignment in advance, Maloney insists, the student would not have been questioned.
There are no signs prohibiting the taking of photographs in Suburban Station. According to Maloney, individuals are free to take photographs of the station, but they should also be willing to answer questions from police.
According to Stefan Presser, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, "a police officer can approach anyone anywhere in the United States in a public domain and say, ŒI'd like to ask you a few questions.' It's also constitutionally true that people don't have to answer questions and don't have to stop just because an officer asks."
Still, Presser says, "apparently police officers think that simply photographing public sites now gives them authorization to detain and that's alarming." He describes the general level of racial profiling in post-9/11 America as "a nightmare. What's happening in this country is nightmarish."
Presser says he is currently trying to contact course instructor Joseph Disponzio. The ACLU filed a letter of protest to the City Solicitor's Office in July 2002 after two white men, William Madeira and Jonas Lundqvist, were handcuffed and detained for questioning after being observed photographing a Sunoco oil refinery in South Philadelphia. Neither man was charged with a crime. The two settled their claims against the city in the fall, each collecting $2,500.
Lundqvist is a former dancer with the Pennsylvania Ballet and Madeira, a ballet patron. The two are also amateur photographers and enjoy shooting industrial sites.
With these types of incidents taking place all over the country, photography advocates are worried. According to Bert Krages, a Portland, Ore., attorney and semi-professional photographer, the rights of photographers have been under attack for decades, but 9/11 has made matters worse. Krages says the fear of photography is irrational and comes mostly from TV shows like Mission: Impossible, in which each undercover operation begins with a file full of blown-up glossy photographs. Of the "10 biggest terrorist attacks over last 50 years, none of them depended on photography," Krages says. "A prospective terrorist wanting to attack something would get limited information from a photograph." Furthermore, he argues, "a terrorist would be less likely to do something if he knew there might be people there with cameras."
In February, Krages posted a downloadable one-page summary of photographers' rights on his web page. Krages says the sheet is the equivalent of the ACLU "bust card," explaining your rights if you are arrested, for photographers. Since it was posted, it has been downloaded 16,000 times. Krages is also the author of the Legal Handbook for Photographers. "It came out, believe it or not, in September 2001," he says.
Howard Altman contributed to this report.
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