The transfer is scheduled for today at 9 a.m. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take, but if you have problems accessing the site, that is the reason why.

Once the transfer is complete, you can continue logging on to carlosmiller.com and you will simply get redirected to my new page on Pixiq.

For those of you who use a news feed, I would imagine you would have to switch it to the new site. I’m not really sure how that works.

Anyway, this is a big step for PINAC and I’m hoping for the best. I know there are some skeptics out there (and I wouldn’t expect anything less from my readers) and in all honesty, I also have some reservations.

But you have to take chances in life.

Either way, I still own all the content on PINAC, so if worse comes to worse, I will just move my site back here.

The immediate benefit of all this is that I plan to do more blogging, now that I am generating some income.

By Carlos Miller
The City of Kentwood, Michigan, (population less than 50,000), believes terrorists are targeting its water tanks, so they will gladly terrorize anybody who dares photograph these tanks.

However, they haven’t done anything about the pictures of the tanks on the city’s website, which are posted above and below, putting the entire town at risk to any potential terrorist savvy enough to do his research online.

But they did send out a message to self-described nerd Ed Heil, a 40-year-old computer programmer, who was caught photographing these very same water tanks last week.

“It’s a nerdy thing I like to do,” he explained to the Grand Rapids Press.

But Kentwood officials did not buy his folksy demeanor. When they spotted him photographing the water tank, utility workers demanded to know his name and the reason why he was photographing such a prime terrorist target.

Heil refused to answer their questions and walked down to the local library, which raised even more suspicion. The utility workers followed him as he sat down at a computer terminal. They continued demanding his name.

After much prodding, they finally broke him down.

“I was physically shaking with anger and fear, and let them know in no uncertain terms that I did not believe this was a legitimate exercise of authority, and I wanted them to cease harassing me and let me work,” Heil said. “I told them they had no right to demand any personal information from me, but they were so intimidating and threatening, I did give them my name and they finally went away.”

The utility workers were praised by the mayor and by the city’s utilities manager for their diligent work in keeping the town safe.

In fact, the utility manager even referred the case to the Department of Homeland Security, which might land Heil on some kind of terrorist watch list.

But Mayor Richard Root said no one takes chances any more. He said he was proud of city workers for their diligence, adding that they responded appropriately.

“You’re never certain what the intention is,” Root said. “I’m sure you’d find the Coast Guard very excited if somebody (was photographing) the Mackinac Bridge.

“I hope (Heil) is not too offended, but on the other hand, I think we did a good job.”

***

John Gorney, Kentwood’s operations and utilities manager, said his concern wasn’t the content of the photo, but the reason behind it.

He was summoned to the scene Thursday. If he had to do it over again, he said, he would’ve called police immediately, a new policy that took effect Friday morning.

But he made no apologies.

So rather than create a policy that would educate city workers about photographers’ rights, they’ve created a policy that would escalate the situation by getting the cops involved.

But that still doesn’t change the fact that Heil would still be legally allowed to refuse to provide his name to the officers.

After all, there is no reasonable suspicion in photographing a public water tank.

One of the city's water tanks displayed on the city's website

One of the city's water towers that is displayed on the city's website

By Carlos Miller
Common sense is finally prevailing in Maryland where a judge today dismissed all the wiretapping charges against Anthony Graber, who was facing 16 years in prison for uploading a video to Youtube.

The video, which became viral, shows an uncover Maryland State Police officer jumping out of an unmarked car with a gun in his hand, ordering Graber off his motorcycle.

The officer, Joseph Uhler, did not identify himself as an officer for several long seconds. Graber thought he was about to become the victim of a carjacking.

According to The Baltimore Sun:

Judge Emory A Pitt Jr. tossed all the charges filed against Anthony Graber, leaving only speeding and other traffic violations, and most likely sparing him a trial that had been scheduled for Oct. 12. The judge ruled that Maryland’s wire tap law allows recording of both voice and sound in areas where privacy cannot be expected. He ruled that a police officer on a traffic stop has no expectation of privacy.

“Those of us who are public officials and are entrusted with the power of the state are ultimately accountable to the public,” the judge wrote. “When we exercise that power in public fora, we should not expect our actions to be shielded from public observation.”

The man claims it was a public meeting even though it was taking place inside the Emmanuel Temple Church in Portland.

He describes it on Youtube as a “Meet and Greet” where voters would get to hear former governor John Kitzhaber speak. Kitzhaber served from 1995 to 2003 and is running for governor again this November.

The Urban League of Portland organized the event. A local TV station, KOIN Local 6, also took part in organizing the event.

For illogical reasons that are not apparent, a moderator told members of the audience that they would not be allowed to videotape the speech.

The man continued videotaping and it wasn’t long before he was confronted by a couple of men who sat on both sides of him. One of them was wearing a name tag identifying him as being from the African American Alliance, but they came across more like the African American Mafia.

The man on his left grabbed at his camera, then the man on his right punched his camera into his face – an incident that was caught on another camera from across the room. The videographer was left with a scar on his nose.

The man videotaping is possibly named Mike, if he is the same person in the video below that was obtained from the same Youtube channel. In that video, you can see the guy clearly opposes Kitzhaber and is trying to grill him with questions, something every politician should expect when running for office.

His actions end up concerning some of Kitzhaber’s people who try their best to shield the candidate from the videographer. At this point, they don’t have an issue with him videotaping the exchange as much as they do him drilling the candidate.

You can also see several people with cameras in the crowd not being harassed.

I think it’s obvious that the only reason they suddenly announced that videography was not allowed was because they feared Mike would somehow use the video against the governor. But it was a public forum even if it was in a private church. The event was free and open to the public and the candidates had no expectation of privacy, especially of anything they are saying on stage.

ESPN writer Wright Thompson said hundreds of people crammed into the gym to catch a glimpse of one of the most renowned sports figures in history, who unfortunately, has been stricken with Parkinson’s Disease and is only a fragment of his former self.

For whatever reason, bouncers at the festive event were forbidding people from taking photos, even though the sole purpose of the event was to generate publicity and even though “official” photos were eventually allowed.

“Put your cameras away,” one organizer yelled. “This is no joke!”

“If you have a phone or a camera,” another yelled, “it’s gone.”

***

A woman aimed a camera and Marilyn and Bernie pointed frantically. A guy took a picture and a bouncer snatched his phone and then physically pushed him toward the door.

“You gotta go,” he said.

The event folks wanted to make sure everyone else got the message.

“There’s the first example,” they crowed.

But after the bouncers proved themselves to be strong-armed thugs, they suddenly allowed people to walk up to Ali for official photos.

But in the moment, people crowded around him for official photos, dozens of people, moving in and out, grinning, putting their arms around him like he was a mascot. He didn’t acknowledge them, or look at the camera. They smiled and posed. He looked down at the book. I wondered what he was thinking, if he felt like a freak show at the carnival. I wondered if he remembered the old building next door, remembered the Beatles coming to visit him there, remembered the promise of those days. He looked sick, and I thought about how much he must love Angelo to fly down here for this.

His lips were pursed. He looked absent and lost, like a wax statue, and I found myself 15 feet away from the most famous man in the world, overcome with sadness. I hoped this was just a bad day, hoped tomorrow would be different. The groups of people came and went for their picture, one woman giving a fist pump and hollering “Yeah!” after the shutter clicked.

Ali just sat there, sunglasses hiding his famous eyes. He flipped the pages, slowly looking at photographs of the man he used to be.

While the 5th Street Gym is a private venue that can dictate whether people can take photos or not, they still do not have the right to confiscate anybody’s cameras.

And they don’t have the right to “physically push” anybody towards the door who has not been physically confrontational. All they can do is ask someone to leave if they did take the photos after being asked not to take them.

And what’s the point of preventing people from photographing one of the most photographed people in modern history anyway?

Jojola was at a scene where investigators were attempting to recover the body of man who had been swept away in the rushing water of an arroyo after a heavy downpour.

Jojola and his news crew were ordered three times throughout the day to move their live truck from public areas. Three times they complied as a “favor and a courtesy,” as Jojola explained on his blog.

The fourth time, they did not comply.

The fourth time I wasn’t having it after we were told to stay in a certain area far from the active scene and from other public areas.

It was obvious the Incident Commander didn’t want media coverage of the scene. Too bad. He’s not the king of New Mexico and he obviously doesn’t understand the First Amendment and rights of the free press spelled out in both the State and Federal Constitution.

In the above video, you can see how Jojola refused the order without losing his professionalism.

He ended up talking to the local fire chief, who informed him that they were concerned that they would videotape the actual body, which is still not against the law, even though something like that is rarely aired on network news.

The chief let them stay where they were.

Jojola reported a similar incident on his blog last July.

By Carlos Miller
After facing eight years in prison for the “crime” of videotaping a court security officer, George Donnelly accepted a plea deal where he only had to pay a $500 fine.

Still, the 39-year-old activist has regrets because the plea deal forced him to admit to a crime he did not commit.

But considering how biased the system proved to be against him from the time he was arrested to the moment he faced the judge, it was probably his best bet.

“I wanted to put their feet to the fire but my attorney was busy and he didn’t have time to do that,” he said in an interview with Photography is Not a Crime.

“I was also under a lot of financial pressure.”

The absurd case against Donnelly proves what PINAC reader Sydney Carton, who is an attorney, once stated in the comments section of this blog.

“Once you walk into a courtroom, you’ve already lost. The best way to win is to avoid it at all costs, because the ‘justice system’ is anything but.”

Donnelly, who finalized his plea deal during a September 1 hearing, produced the above video with clips from the May 11 incident in which he was accused of striking a female court security officer.

The video shows it was actually him who was assaulted by a male security officer.

Not surprisingly, federal marshals deleted footage from two video cameras as well as audio from a voice recorder before returning the devices to him months later.

However, he was able to retrieve footage from one camera and the audio from the voice recorder to include in the above video. The footage from his Flip camera, which he pulled out after they had confiscated his Canon, was corrupted when he recovered it and unable to be used.

But enough was recovered to prove they created the case against him simply because they did not like him videotaping them. The action starts around the 3:43 mark.

“The security grabbed my camera and I held on to it,” he said. “I was hunched over with my hands between my knees holding my camera and they piled on me. They knocked me down.

“A marshal put his knee in my mouth and they got my camera.”

U.S. Marshal Enrique Trevino then pulled him up and sat him on a statue. Donnelly pulled out the Homeland Security bulletin that states that photography of federal buildings is legal.

Donnelly then pulled out his Flip camera and began videotaping, but Trevino told him it was “illegal to film.”

“I tell him to show me the law,” he said. “He then grabbed that camera. After a second of holding on to it, I let it go.”

Then he was handcuffed and arrested.

At no point did he have a physical altercation with Claire Burns, the female security officer, but Trevino swore in the affidavit that Donnelly had assaulted her.

Trevino also states that he was aware that Donnelly had attracted the attention of the security officers because he was videotaping, but then further down in the affidavit, he claims he had no idea what Donnelly was holding in his hand when he had the camera between his knees.

He claimed that he feared it could have been a weapon.

“Since it was unknown to me what the object was, and could have been a weapon which could cause harm to myself or other CSOs or bystanders that were present, Mr. Donnelly was taken to the ground with assistance from Supervisor Deputy U.S. Marshal Bryant Semenza, for security reasons. Donnelly refused continued orders to show his hands, and kept them tightly clenched between his legs.”

Donnelly ended up imprisoned for two days and under house arrest for six weeks. They also confiscated his five guns and his passport. He was also forced to wear an ankle bracelet.

While he was initially charged with assaulting a court security officer, he ended up accepting the plea deal for disobeying a lawful order.

Like Judge Jose L. Fernandez who told me he was “shocked” at my “lack of remorse” for photographing cops in my first trial, Judge Henry Perkin told Donnelly he needed to have “more common sense.”

But Donnelly never broke the law. That is evident in the video. And that should have been evident to Perkin. But Perkin proved to be another judge who acts on his own biases rather than on the actual law.

To read a full account of Donnelly’s experience, check out his blog post.

Now it is evident that one of the reasons for this increase is the lowering of police hiring standards in the recruitment frenzy following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Between 2001 and 2007, federal court cases in which cops were accused of violating people’s civil rights dramatically rose 25 percent, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

While figures are not available for the most recent years, anybody who keeps up with the news knows that there hasn’t exactly been a decrease.

Today, MSN.com complied a list of ten cases from 2010 in which alleged police brutality was caught on tape.

The story was first reported in USA Today back in 2007.

The trend doesn’t appear to be going away considering the Obama Administration plans to increase funding for police and prisons next year, according to the Justice Policy Institute.

As a child growing up in Miami during the early 1980s, we had a huge increase in crime due to the Mariel Boatlift and Colombian cocaine cowboys. That led to an increase in police recruitment, which, of course, led to an increase in police corruption, especially in the notorious Miami River Cops case.

By Carlos Miller
Every once in a while, I produce a video that does not get me assaulted or threatened or thrown in jail.

That was the case earlier this year when I produced the three above videos for the Miami Tour Company.

Although I did not get assaulted, I did immerse myself in the alligator-infested waters of the Everglades, if you might remember from this video I posted last year.

I’m posting the videos now because the rest of the nation will soon begin cooling down and Miami’s temperature will be getting just perfect, which is why many of you might come down here for vacation.

The Miami Tour Company also recently launched a new Spanish site, considering we get thousands of visitors from Latin America each year.

So if you do, come book a tour with us at the Miami Tour Company. Mention Photography is Not a Crime and you will get a discount.

And yes, photography is allowed on the tours.