Indianapolis, IN

Thu 28 June 2007

So, I’m thinking about the law against taking pictures of federal buildings. I recently heard a story on Channel 13 about a guy who was visiting Indianapolis from Texas. He was taking a picture of some public art. One of the things that I like about Indianapolis (well, the downtown area mostly) is that it has a lot of public art. I forget the name of the display, but it’s the one that looks like a city that’s about four or five feet tall. However, it’s in front of a federal building, and due to an issue of national security, you evidently can’t take a picture with part of the building in view. So, according to the story, a couple of police officers came up to this man and took his camera and deleted his pictures of the art. My thing is, why are you going to put up public art (that you know people are going to take pictures of) in front of a building you CAN’T take pictures of? On one hand, the man was understanding about security issues (he happens to work for NASA, so yeah, he would understand), but on the other hand, he was wondering if his civil rights had been violated by the police officers confiscating his camera. Ever since 9/11, we have become a fear-driven society. The government created a plethora of laws now and granted themselves the authority to do “whatever they need to do” in the name of national security. But does it really make us feel safer or more secure? I don’t feel any safer than before 9/11. I’m just more inconvenienced now. We’re just more aware of what’s going on, that’s all. Because the truth of the matter is, no matter how tough we make it to do certain things, there is always a way to get around it, if you really wanted to. I abide just because going to prison isn’t on my list of things to do. I’m far too busy. I don’t feel safer because someone couldn’t take a picture of the outside of a federal building. (I can understand about the inside, but the OUTSIDE?) I don’t feel safer because I can’t bring my bottled water (which I bought at the airport) onto the plane. Come on, now. We’re not safer; we’re just more ticked off. And I get mad at the people who would willingly wait in line for 6 days to have all of your belongings dug through like a Columbian drug lord and submit to a full body cavity search in front of 500 people if they were told they’d be safer for it. But what can we do? It’s just a matter of national security.

: Indianapolis public art, photography prohibitions, national security, Department of Homeland Security, civil rights, federal buildings