In times when security fears, whether justified or not, begin to creep over our lives, it’s important to remember that the tiny chipping away of legitimate rights can be a slippery slope to unwarranted governmental authority over our lives. We wrote in June about photographer Chip Py’s experience in downtown Silver Spring, as well as Kate Mereand’s similar confrontations all over D.C., and their subsequent formation of DC Photo Rights, a Flickr group dedicated to assuring rights of photographers when security detail claim they have none. Since then, numerous news outlets have picked up the story, including Marc Fisher at the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun.
The folks at DC Metblogs took a particular interest in the story and decided it was time to protest. They set up a web site, Free Our Streets, and have provided some interesting research about the Peterson Company, the developer that claimed Py had no right to photograph on Ellsworth Drive. The lease signed by the county to the developers contains an easement “for public access,” though it allows the private company to “enforce reasonable rules and regulations.” Both of these statements seem pretty obvious: photography is allowed on Ellsworth Drive. Non-commercial photography of the area in downtown Silver Spring is not only reasonable, but it constitutes part of “public access,” just like walking down Constitution Avenue.
The Peterson Company has issued a laughable statement in reaction to the recent publicity over this issue, and has somehow deemed itself the authority to “give” these rights to photographers, stating in a press release, “We permit all [photography, videography and other filming at our Center].” The developer is sort of like your boyfriend who decides to “let” you go out with your girl friends one night. They’re doling out rights that already exist, intending to “keep” the authority to stamp them out when they choose (as the statement continues, “We reserve the right to modify this and other policies”).
Py, Mereand and other local photogs aren’t buying it, and will hold their protest as planned tomorrow — on Independence Day, naturally — at noon (and will arrive to a banner saying “Welcome Photographers” hung by the developer). If you’d like to join them, bring a camera and meet them at the corner of Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street.
Photo of approaching security guard outside the Department of Agriculture by Eye Captain.
