Innocent photographer or terrorist?

[diver-hloc]

I am not concerned about no-photography allowed INSIDE that station grounds, which is private property, and the SMRT have every right to stop it there (if you didn't ask for permission beforehand), I was referring to the case whereby a young man was stopped while he was taking pics of the St. Andrews church from OUTSIDE the station grounds......

It was reported here in Clubsnap, and the station manager called in the Bomb squad! What a waste of their time!!

HS

Well.... knowing S'poreans, everything is a waste of time or effect till one day a bomb goes off and a few get killed..... then S'poreans would question why is this or that is not done.

The irony of protecting S'pore.....
* Is it better to be careful or carefree ?
* Is it better to play safe or throw caution to the wind ?
* How much should we follow the Rules Vs how little should we follow....

Btw.... I think we've OT abit too much..... now it seems we are like in some politic corner in some Anti Govt or Pro Govt Fourm......

 

[redstone]

I am not concerned about no-photography allowed INSIDE that station grounds, which is private property, and the SMRT have every right to stop it there (if you didn't ask for permission beforehand), I was referring to the case whereby a young man was stopped while he was taking pics of the St. Andrews church from OUTSIDE the station grounds......

It was reported here in Clubsnap, and the station manager called in the Bomb squad! What a waste of their time!!

HS

Where/when was it reported?

 

[sprintist]

I'm quite sure that you are not required by law to delete YOUR photos taken by YOUR camera just because the MRT staff tells you to. of course if you don't want to kick up a fuss and don't think the photos are worth keeping then up to you.

that is why use D3 to shoot..can store 2 memory card..delete one but the other one still has it...

anyway like what they had mentioned earlier, using a dslr covertly or overtly whatever with evil intentions is pure stupidity..

one doesn't need that camera to do a job they need..the layout of the building are all similarly the same. crowd density varies, position of security cameras, peak hours, patrol timings are more crucial if they really intended to note down those points..

given all these tight security, there really isn't any photography liberty at every so call public places anymore. the govt could impose a ban on google earth, if not every tom dick and harry can see where the key installations are.

very sad...

 

[zoossh]

Well.... knowing S'poreans, everything is a waste of time or effect till one day a bomb goes off and a few get killed..... then S'poreans would question why is this or that is not done.

The irony of protecting S'pore.....
* Is it better to be careful or carefree ?
* Is it better to play safe or throw caution to the wind ?
* How much should we follow the Rules Vs how little should we follow....

Btw.... I think we've OT abit too much..... now it seems we are like in some politic corner in some Anti Govt or Pro Govt Fourm......

i would think there is something that is done when suspicious personnel using handphone or pns cameras are checked up on. i dun think looking up obvious targets and ignoring suspicious targets are being careful or play safe.

 

[lsisaxon]

er.. i think that means "govt" land? which although not private property, is not public either. i'm not too sure about taking photographs on such premises. sorry.

Where in SG is considered public?

 

[lsisaxon]

I am not concerned about no-photography allowed INSIDE that station grounds, which is private property, and the SMRT have every right to stop it there (if you didn't ask for permission beforehand), I was referring to the case whereby a young man was stopped while he was taking pics of the St. Andrews church from OUTSIDE the station grounds......

It was reported here in Clubsnap, and the station manager called in the Bomb squad! What a waste of their time!!

HS

Just feel that security people should spend more time on likely targets than unlikely ones like us photographers. If someone is shooting the locations of the security cameras, light switches, power points, even with a mobile phone, they should be stopped and questioned. No point stopping an amateur photographer trying to get a shot of the train coming and people in motion blur..

 

[xyz123]

Thanks for your advice, diver-hloc. what about doing transactions in the mrt stations? i ever meet people inside mrt stations to buy/sell camera equipment... scared.. how? smrt got take my pictures or not? will they suspect me for terrorism?

I work for SMRT, so my advise is try very hard not to take any photo..... no matter how innocent, while inside the station.

After the last few bombing around the World..... SMRT is very serious about such threats. Yes, you may claim that the photos would be used for a school, company project..... but it could be used at the same time for terrorist to plan where is the best place to put their bombs for max number of killing.



You are quite right about that...... but then the police will be called and you handed over to them..... which means a long talk at the station, follow by the same likelyhood that your photos will still get delated at the police station. So, at the end..... it will just waste more of your time.... not including the fact that for the next few weeks, your life record will be check inside out..... Not something I would want to go throught.....

Best to write-in a request to SMRT HQ for permission for such photo shoot...... save your work from being delated and the police being called..... :thumbsup:

Hahaha..... there was a case where 2 HK tourist was arrested by CID and 'Question' for more than 4hrs inside the staffroom of a N/S station because they were snapping photos inside the station...... happens a few weeks after the Singapore JI case was release...... :sweat:

 

[zoossh]

Thanks for your advice, diver-hloc. what about doing transactions in the mrt stations? i ever meet people inside mrt stations to buy/sell camera equipment... scared.. how? smrt got take my pictures or not? will they suspect me for terrorism?

if they do not abuse their legal rights or do anything illegal, it should be al'rite. i suppose they may speak to you politely and invite you to the office at most for a short while, and if any photos (testing pics) in the mrt taken, probably to be deleted. would there be any serious sequele? dun think so. no reason for that, rite?

but anyway, if it is something that requires time to check and scrutinize, the mrt may not be the best place. better to seat down and take a short while to check and deal.

 

[Deadman1709]

Well, I got a story from another forum. It's on taking pic of properties but of children. Sometimes, the parents over-react and call the police since some guy with a camera is taking pictures of their child. Most of the time, the photographer is innocent (well, let's hope so). But there is one case it went a bit too far and the police got a warrant to search this poor bloke for child pornography. They found nothing. However, they found his collection of switchblade :bsmilie: and he was charged with unauthorised possesion of weapons. I gotta say that the police got a fishing trip search. Poor guy

BTW, is switchblade and butterfly (ballisong) are considered weapons in Singapore?

 

[SianZronG]

So the rule to take a picture in the mRt is to as ka friend to take first then the smrt staff will go and question him and all his attention will be used on him and you can freely take picutres else where in the station. While your friend says sorry he is not aware and deletes all his pictures, which in the end he can retrieve with a simple software or even might be using a transmitter to beam to a near by laptop. yawnz , a super flawed deterrent for the morden times. but hey maybe they can sniff your wifi signals and do some signal jamming? LOLx.

Not that i say they are not trying but these measure are put in play to just try out luck only. like why police is placed to go on partol on random hours. If tio heng if never tio never mind lo just put more ppl to patrol. =P

 

[skopio]

Where in SG is considered public?

if u go to the website i gave earlier. it maps out which are state land and which are private etc. state land is the same as those open fields we see around - meaning the state owns it, and no private individual - unless he is representative of the state - should be demanding to confiscate your camera, delete your photos or detain you.

 

[surge]

this have been happening since long ago. back in 2001/2002 attack. once i went to changi village with the intention to go pulau ubin to take some photos. at the jetty, decided to take some photos with boats parked alone the bay...problem is i was using bronica medium format. mounted on tripod with lens, the thing does look huge. then the police came over and ask me what is this and what am i doing ( the fact that he has not seem a medium format camera is not my fault). i had to exlpain that i just enjoy taking pictures for keep sake and he kept asking for reason why i needed the photos. luckily was w my gf who is using a SLR and that does help the situation. anyway i told him if too sensitive then fine, i will take somewhere else.

another incident, went malaysia and everytime i return, i would bring over some shuttles as i play quite a lot of badminton( and shuttle is alot cheaper there.. the security at the custom started questioning me what is this and what is in the tube.....what the h***!!!!its stated on the tube shuttlecocks!!!


i told them is shuttles for badminton and he started questioning me why need so much.

i had to explain to him that in my group there are some people who are better players who hit hard and thus shuttle breaks and need to change!!!

 

[SianZronG]

The shuttle **** questions sounds commical. "Why you need so many cocks?" Maybe he think it's tube bomb. But wth just open it up and all shuttle cocks LOL next tim question us for bringing many CF cards, why you need so many cards? Trying to steal national data?!?!?! lol.

 

[Gizmore]

I think the problem is that there is over-zealous 'security this and security that' ever since sep-11 and security officers are poorly trained on what they should really be looking out for, how they should go about checking (in a polite manner) and the legal rights of what they can do to an individual they suspect.

Now that we have a 'terrorist' on the loose, there is even more emphasis on suspicious looking people on the streets. And its little wonder that people with huge a55 cam gets targeted.

Having read some of the personal experiences here in this forum and having being stopped on several occasions, my conclusion is that, these security officers conduct their routine checks on the basis of what has been taught/told to them without using their own discretion.

Some of these security officers can't barely speak proper english let alone understand the legal rights of an individual. They communicate poorly and created misunderstanding. Big-hoo-ha over some abstract pictures of building structures is the result of such miscommunication.

And I think this is what pisses general photog off.

 

[aquaobsession]

I wonder what will happen if we try to take pictures of those 'army' officers walking around with big guns. We 'shoot' at them, they shoot at us.

 

[torchf4]

It's Singapore and they are the law. Get used to it! The xenophobic mentality will only get worse not better thanks to those JI numbnuts.

 

[lsisaxon]

i told them is shuttles for badminton and he started questioning me why need so much.

i had to explain to him that in my group there are some people who are better players who hit hard and thus shuttle breaks and need to change!!!

Should have just told them it's cheaper up north just like petrol.

 

[lsisaxon]

I wonder if these people at SMRT realise that REAL terrorists will NOT take pics in the open?

They will do it covertly, just as was shown several years ago in the case of (I think ) 20 people and some were videotaping an MRT station from inside a car?

HS

Maybe the SMRT people are thinking one step ahead.. They probably realise that terrorist know that if they take pictures in the open, the SMRT people will pass them off as photographers, then jialat....

Oh BTW, shouldn't this thread be under Kopitiam?

 

[zoossh]

Maybe the SMRT people are thinking one step ahead.. They probably realise that terrorist know that if they take pictures in the open, the SMRT people will pass them off as photographers, then jialat....

Oh BTW, shouldn't this thread be under Kopitiam?

always think that cs need a thread for non-tech talk, revolving around interactions with subjects and practical techniques.

 

[diver-hloc]

Thanks for your advice, diver-hloc. what about doing transactions in the mrt stations? i ever meet people inside mrt stations to buy/sell camera equipment... scared.. how? smrt got take my pictures or not? will they suspect me for terrorism?

They don't bother ppl doing transaction..... but if you want to try the lens out.... better to do it outside the station.