On the last night of the Republican National Convention, we stopped by a security checkpoint where two videographers had been detained earlier in the week, asking Homeland Security police on what basis did they detain them.
The cops were unable to give us a straight answer, referring us to a public information officer in Washington D.C. instead.
As we know, I don’t have the best experience with public information officers, so I didn’t bother calling, knowing I would only get a programmed statement.
But I think we got our point across that video recording checkpoints is not a crime despite the fact they had detained the two videographers from Houston as well as Dave Id and Jacob Crawford from Indybay on a separate occasion, both who had joined me last night in questioning the cops.
As we were walking up to the checkpoint, a voice comes across one of their radios, saying what sounds like, “they have cameras.”
I have a bunch of photos to post from the convention but I’ve been having some technical issues because they are showing up as broken links. Still trying to sort that out.
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the “donate” button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I’m documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested. I did not pay for this transplant, which is why I’m promoting the doctor through the hair transplant blog.
While it’s true that the overwhelming number of police outside the Republican National Convention in Tampa have been relatively respectful of the journalists documenting their presence, at least two journalists were detained for video recording some of the checkpoints in downtown.
Dave Id and Jacob Crawford of Indybay were detained Monday night for about 20 minutes.
They were ordered to hand over their identifications. Jacob refused, handing over his press pass, and Dave obliged. Their names were entered into a database.
Obviously, these cops are under the impression that documenting checkpoints is somehow reasonably suspicious for them to legally detain you.
It’s not.
So I’m going to join Dave and Jacob in a couple of hours to walk around downtown Tampa and document these checkpoints and ask these cops on what basis are they legally able to detain people recording the checkpoints
Their detainment was documented in the above video and they talk about it in depth in the video below.
Also below are a couple of other videos they shot and edited while down here.
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the “donate” button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I’m documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested. I did not pay for this transplant, which is why I’m promoting the doctor through the hair transplant blog.
For the most part, the platoons of cops from every corner of the state that are roaming the streets of Tampa on bike, horse and foot appear bored but content.
Content they are making loads of overtime without having to do much but look intimidating. And that intimidation falls apart as soon as they start rolling out the red carpet for photographers.
Perhaps they are treating protesters a little differently but there are hardly any protesters so far.
Not nearly enough to justify spending $50 million in federal money on security measures to handle the chaos that was expected from thousands of protesters descending upon town.
Charlotte also spent $50 million for next week’s Democratic National Convention but it doesn’t appear that’s going to be any different.
The insanity, chaos and mass arrests – especially against photographers and journalists – that took place during the 2008 Republican and Democratic national conventions in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Denver respectively have yet to be seen here.
At first, we thought it had to do with the potential hurricane but it may have more to do with geography, according to my photojournalist friend Al Crespo, who has documented protests for years.
He said that most of the hard-core activists, the Black Bloc activists, the ones that are known to destroy shops and terrorize photographers, are based in the Northwest and it just becomes too time-consuming and costly to travel completely across the country.
He also said many of them have gotten older and just don’t have the same energy they had during the Seattle protests in 1999.
But Black Bloc activists have always represented a tiny percentage of protesters and surely did not represent most of the protesters during last year’s Occupy Wall Street movement, so it’s still not clear why there has been such activist apathy during this convention so far.
On Tuesday, I documented a protest about voting rights in Ybor City, about a few miles from downtown Tampa.
I would estimate the entire march consisted of less than 500 people and that’s being generous. And of those demonstrators, less than 30 were masked anarchists that were bussed down from New York City.
Tampa has a law that forbids people from wearing masks on the streets unless they are part of a protest, so the activists were forced to expose themselves before and after the protest to avoid arrest.
On Monday night, they arrested one activist on this charge.
Ironically, the guy in the top photo had an issue with me photographing him with his mask on when I could have photographed him numerous times without his mask, not that he seemed that interesting to photograph unmasked.
Things have been so uneventful that police have been cancelling their scheduled press briefings because there has been nothing to report.
Even the six members of the annoying Westboro Baptist Church that are walking the streets with their anti-homosexuality signs are inciting more mockery than rage.
In the video below, Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association, talks about how he spent time educating local cops in how to deal with the media.
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the “donate” button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I’m documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested. I did not pay for this transplant, which is why I’m promoting the doctor through the hair transplant blog.
I arrived in Tampa Sunday afternoon with the threat of a tropical storm plowing a path behind me, threatening to turn into a hurricane.
At this time, Isaac is still a tropical storm and has veered into the Gulf of Mexico where it may turn into a hurricane before striking New Orleans.
So maybe God is a republican, after all.
At least I’m sure they’ll be telling each other that during the Republican National Convention, which was postponed a day because of the hurricane threat, meaning it will begin Tuesday instead of Monday.
But that’s not going to stop the protest that was scheduled for noon Monday, which I intend to cover.
I took a walk around downtown today with Joel and Robert Chandler, the brothers who have been helping me obtain public records from the Miami-Dade Police Department in preparation for my trial next month.
There were no signs of protesters but plenty of cops. But the cops we ran into were very cordial, including an Orlando police officer named Pasley (pictured above) who jokingly grabbed my camera strap for a photo opp, asking me to not “write a bad caption.”
Other cops offered us refreshments from a cooler. Much of this positive attitude stems from Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, who has been training the cops in how to deal with the media. We met with him for dinner shortly after the photo was taken.
Osterreicher is a veteran when it comes to covering political conventions, starting back in 1972 during the Democratic National Convention in Miami when he was a bushy haired hippy teenager with a press pass and a camera.
But the piece he wrote for JPG Magazine is worth clicking on not just to see that photo, but for all the other photos and conventional wisdom he offers. The Citizen Media Law Project also provides some good links and handy advice.
Hopefully, the cops will remain cordial during today’s protest where I plan to meet with photojournalist Dave Id, who recently won a settlement stemming for an unlawful arrest.
And speaking of cops who are not cordial, Miami-Dade Police Major Nancy Perez, the media spokeswoman who arrested me in January (and most likely ordered my footage to be deleted), is once again proving to be a detriment to her own department.
Robert Chandler had asked police attorney Bill Lyons for a copy of the Standard Operating Procedure regarding media relations. That’s the manual that outlines the way cops are supposed to deal with journalists.
Obviously, it’s something most cops don’t read because they usually don’t have a clue. But you would expect the head of the police department’s media relations bureau to be familiar with it.
But she ended up responding to Chandler saying it would take her three hours to find it.
She obviously is not aware that the Chandler brothers have sued more than 70 government agencies in Florida over public records and will gladly sue the Miami-Dade Police Department over this matter.
The fact that she would even involve herself in a public records that pertains to a case she is directly involved in shows she doesn’t know the meaning of “conflict of interest.”
This was after she told my lawyer in a deposition that she had no clue who I was before she arrested me.
I can’t imagine what she will say when she takes the stand during my trial September 19. Or maybe they will offer me another ridiculous plea deal beforehand.
Chandler responded to her assertion that it would take three hours to find the Standard Operating Procedure by requesting her personnel file through the department’s attorney.
This is how he worded it:
Mr. Lyons,
I would like a copy of her entire personnel file. Please let me know how much of a deposit is needed and I will pay with a money order. Please show me the statute that allows for charging for redaction. Fees are governed by 119.07(4) and I see no subsection that expressly allows for the charge of redactions. To my knowledge, this has not yet been challenged in the judicial system. My reasoning is that by virtue of 119.01(1) “Providing access to public records is a duty of each agency.”, therefore part of that duty is to protect confidential information while still providing access to the public. Essentially, redacting records is a ministerial duty as “custodian”. I am more than happy to hear your thoughts on this issue. I see too often cost for redactions being used to keep records from the public through excessive fees.
I also received a letter today from Major Perez informing me that the cost for the MDPD SOP manual in a digital format will cost $79.56 for 3 hours of research time. I challenge your agency to explain this. She is telling me that the SOP manual took 3 hours of research to find. How can the MDPD expect to follow the SOP if it takes the PIO 3 hours just to find it. She asked me to contact Captain Bibiana Santana if I had any questions. I am still trying to run all my requests through you directly, as you requested.
Ergo I am making a subsequent public records request about my request.
(1) Please provide to me the salary of the lowest paid employee (or volunteer) that could have searched for the records.
(2) Provide to me a copy of the time sheet or any other documents of the employee documenting the 3 hours of search time to find the responsive records.
If the records exist in electronic format, provide them as such. If the cost of production is to exceed $1.00, provide a written estimate prior to production.
It should also be noted that Perez has refused to provide a copy of the SOP to my attorney who asked for it months ago as discovery, putting her dangerously close to being in contempt of court.
In one of Chandler’s requests, we discovered that the department’s Homeland Security bureau had learned that I had planned to drive up to Tampa to document the protests outside the Republican National Convention, so they had planned to notify Tampa authorities of my arrival.
Or as PDN Pulse said: “Apparently, Carlos Miller is being scheduled for another arrest for daring to hold police accountable to the First Amendment. Stay tuned.”
Obviously, Officer Pasley in the above photo did not receive the memo.
In other news, I’ve been testing out a new camera called a Looxcie that enables users to clip on their ears like a Bluetooth phone and live stream. You can also purchase an accessory that allows you to clip the camera to your cap as you can see in the photo below.
I haven’t figured out the live stream part of it but so far, it records excellent video as you can see in the clips below, including the clip from the restaurant tonight which was shot in extreme low light. It was so dark that we had to hold the candles up to the menu in order to read it.
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the “donate” button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
Also, in an unrelated PINAC matter, I recently went through a hair transplant operation and I’m documenting my recovery on this blog if you are interested. I did not pay for this transplant, which is why I’m promoting the doctor through the hair transplant blog.
Eleven hours before I was arrested during the Occupy Miami eviction in January, the Miami-Dade Police Homeland Security Bureau sent an email to various police officers, which was then forwarded to the department’s public information officers – including arresting officer Major Nancy Perez – informing them that I would be documenting the action.
The subject of the email was “Multimedia information/Situational Awareness.” It included my Facebook profile photo where I’m trying my hardest to look like a terrorist thug.
It also included the following statement about me.
Carlos Miller is a Miami multimedia journalist who has been arrested twice for taking pictures of law enforcement. He has publicly posted on social networks that he will be taking pictures today in order to document the eviction.
The email makes it clear that the Homeland Security Bureau was monitoring my Facebook page since before my arrest – not that I have an issue with that considering I have my profile set to public.
But it also makes it clear that Perez should have known exactly who I was when she singled me out from a horde of other journalists documenting the eviction and had me arrested.
Perhaps that is the exact reason why she had me arrested.
Even more compelling is why did Detective Maritza Aschenbrenner of the Homeland Security Bureau feel the need to advise officers of my presence when there were going to be countless other reporters and activists also documenting the eviction with cameras?
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, who has fired off two letters to Miami-Dade Police Director James Loftus over my arrest and the treatment of an América TeVe reporter, is also flabbergasted.
“I find it very troubling that a unit formed to deal with terrorist activities found it necessary to send out an email advising other departments and law enforcement officers that a journalist would be covering a newsworthy matter of public concern,” he wrote in an email after I sent him a copy of the email in question.
“It would be best if they followed their own directives that photography is a First Amendment protected activity and ‘should not be reported absent articulable facts and circumstances that support the suspicion that the behavior observed is not innocent . . . but rather reasonably indicative of criminal activity associated with terrorism or other crimes.’
“Unfortunately it appears that by their very actions they continue sustain the misguided belief that by its very nature photography is a crime. At best – behavior that chills free speech is extremely unprofessional – at worst it is criminal.”
Perhaps I’ve been on their radar ever since the department’s Homeland Security Bureau responded to the 2010 incident where Stretch Ledford and I were detained for taking pictures on the Miami-Dade Metrorail, an incident that led to us getting “permanently banned” from the Metrorail.
Not that I ever took that ban seriously as I proved a month later when I returned with a news crew only to get assaulted by a security guard for shooting video inside the station, an incident that prompted me to file a lawsuit that is still pending.
Public Records Request
The above-mentioned email is one of more than 200 emails obtained through a public records request made by Robert Chandler, brother of Joel Chandler, who was recently honored by the Knight Foundation for his work in keeping government transparent.
Robert Chandler, who runs Raw Dash Cam, also previously obtained the video footage of my arrest through a public records request as well as the total costs in overtime to evict the encampment, which resulted in a single arrest. Yes, me.
The five others that were jailed that night were arrested by City of Miami police and have since had their charges dismissed.
In his request, Robert Chandler asked for “all emails sent or received by any and all email accounts used by Major Nancy Perez from January 30, 2012 to March 14, 2012 that contain any of the following keywords - ‘Carlos Miller,’ ‘Photographer,’ ‘PINAC’ and ‘occupy.’”
On Thursday, I picked up a PST file from containing 214 emails from Bill Lyons, a legal advisor from the Miami-Dade Police Department’s legal bureau.
Lyons, who was very professional and courteous in person, charged me $23 for the records.
The very first email in the file was the one where the Homeland Security Bureau was advising other cops of my presence at the Occupy eviction, proving that you can’t get anything past those sleuths.
After all, this is a bureau that lists “Inappropriate Photographs or Videos” in a PDF titled “Signs of Terrorism” on its website.
Someone recording or monitoring activities. This may include the use of cameras (either still or video), note taking, drawing diagrams, annotating on maps, or using binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices
The Homeland Security Bureau also provides a Suspicious Activity Report form that encourages citizens to report suspicious behavior, which, of course, includes photography.
More Emails
So given this paranoia about photography, it is no wonder why Major Glenn Stolzenberg, who heads the department’s Homeland Security Bureau, believes it was illegal of me to have posted Perez’s photo in this article, even though the photo was obtained through the department’s own website, making it a public record.
When Stolzenberg, pictured above, received an email from fellow officers informing him about my article in which I first had identified Perez as my arresting officer, he stated the following in his response:
Thanks Maggie. Please have someone take a look at this. There maybe a statute that deals with posting pictures of LE officers.
Fortunately, another officer named Brandy Conway had enough sense to know that I was not breaking the law when I posted Perez’s photo.
I do not think there is anything that prohibits this type of open source reporting. The picture was obtained through the unsecured webpage and there is no threat or slander in the post. Either way, I contacted Bob Diers from Legal, who advised that under FSS 119.071 it is unlawful for the governmental agency to release photographs or personal information of officers, but not for media to release the pictures. At this time, he has not violated any laws regarding the release of the photo or the post but this is something we definitely must keep an eye on. Some tactics used by activist groups involve harassment and that would violate numerous statutes depending on the methods they utilize. We will continue to monitor the sites and postings of Mr. Miller and ask that Major Perez please keep us notified of any contact made by this individual or his representatives/supporters.
In another email, Perez mentioned that some commenters on this blog were making physical threats against her, but I have reviewed the comments in the article and have not seen anything like that.
Just to be clear, physical threats against anybody is something I won’t tolerate on this site. I really didn’t agree with the disparaging remarks about her appearance but I tolerated it because it is protected speech.
Remember, it was her who insinuated that she and fellow officers would physically hurt me if I gave them the slightest provocation when she said, “we don’t want to have to hurt you” at 4:17 in the video below.
I won’t stoop down to that level.
As I continued writing about Perez in my updates, Aschenbrenner of the Homeland Security Bureau continued keeping tabs on my blog, passing along the articles to Perez.
In one mail, she sent Perez this piece, stating the following:
Hello Major Perez,
Have you seen this article? It was posted last night at 9:40pm.
Carlos Miller is on his high horse again. He continues to post negative statements regarding law enforcement. I will continue to monitor for additional information.
Perez responded with:
No I actually had not seen it. Thank you for sending it to me. Also, multiple demonstrators have begun to call my office wanting to engage me in conversation about Mr. Miller. Just an FYI
And Aschenbrenner responded with:
Interesting. Like I said before, this guy is targeting you and I believe he is trying to get some monetary gain as well as publicity.
Perez, who told my attorney during last week’s deposition that she is a good Christian woman, responded with the following:
No worries.
Romans 12:19
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
There was also a discussion as to whether or not police officers would be attending a panel discussion that I was sitting on where we were discussing the right to document police activity during demonstrations.
Officers decided not to attend when they realized they could view it through live stream.
In the panel, I mentioned that I plan to drive up to Tampa in August to document the demonstrations outside the Republican National Convention, which, of course, prompted another “situational awareness” where I’m sure Tampa authorities will be warned of my presence.
Here is Aschenbrenner’s recap of what I said during the panel discussion.
Carlos Miller repeatedly mentioned his recent arrest and how he has previously dealt with the police.
*Carlos Miller stated he intends to to attend the RNC in Tampa August 27-30, 2012 to record and document the event.
Proper notifications will be made for situational awareness purposes.
Most of the emails were not related to me and some reveal a sense of humor as you can see in this photo of a Miami police officer pretending to be sleeping in the trunk of his car in an email stating, “Taking a break after the Occupy Miami Takedown!”
Perez forwarded the email to Delrish Moss, the public information officer at Miami police, with the words, “FYI / for your eyes only. Please remind them that someone is always watching.”
Yes, it’s true. Somebody is always watching. They are watching me. And I am watching them.
As long as we all keep it legal and civil, neither side should have anything to worry about.
If you want to read through all the emails, download the PST file here. You will need to import it into Outlook, then click on “root items.” At least that’s how I got it to work on a Mac.
Now some unrelated news
I will be getting a hair transplant today, Monday, April 23rd, which will be live streamed if anybody is interested in watching a doctor slice away at my scalp only to transfer hair follicles to the front of my head.
Dr. Ricardo Mejia offered to do the hair transplant in exchange of me documenting my experiences on this blog.
I figure that as long as police insist on arresting me for completely legal behavior, I might as well look the best I can for my mug shots.
I imagine the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Homeland Security Bureau will be tuning in to the live stream for situational awareness. After, of course, they notify the Jupiter Police Department of my camera-carrying presence in their sleepy coastal town.
After all, you just never know what I might say under anesthesia.
I am immersed in a legal case where I not only want to clear my criminal charges stemming from my arrest in January, but I want to sue the Miami-Dade Police Department for deleting my footage, which I was able to recover.
My goal is to set some type of precedent to ensure this does not happen as often as it does today where cops simply get away with it.
So if you would like to contribute, please click on the “donate” button below and contribute whatever you can afford.
You can also contribute to my Legal Defense Fund by purchasing a photographer rights lens cloth and/or laminated card to wear around your neck like a press badge through Zap Rag.Please write “carlos3″ in the comments section of the Paypal transaction to ensure I receive a portion of the sale.
Dressed in riot gear and wielding wooden batons, police swarmed a group of citizens outside the Republican National Convention in 2008, arresting anybody who stood in their way.
Filed last year on behalf of Democracy Now! by the Center for Constitutional Rights and pro bono attorneys Steven Reiss from Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP in New York and Albert Goins of Minneapolis, the federal lawsuit asserted that the government cannot, in the name of security, limit the flow of information by intimidating and arresting journalists who engaged in constitutionally protected reporting on speech protected by the First Amendment such as dissent or law enforcement activities.
The settlement includes compensation of $100,000 for the three journalists and an agreement by the St. Paul police department to implement a training program aimed at educating officers regarding the First Amendment rights of the press and public with respect to police operations — including police handling of media coverage of mass demonstrations — and to pursue implementation of the training program in Minneapolis and statewide.
The settlement will be covered by an insurance policy taken out by convention organizers, according to the Associated Press.
Democratic National Convention
In August, eight plaintiffs, including at least one photographer, agreed to a $200,000 settlement after they were arrested outside the Democratic National Convention in Denver that same year.
That settlement also required the Denver Police Department to go through mandatory training.
That settlement will also be covered by an insurance policy, which was purchased by the federal government.
So in reality, the cities and their police departments got off pretty easy.
But it was never about the money, said Kim Sidwell, a photographer who was among the arrested during the Democratic National Convention.
“This taught me to never give up my rights,” she said in an interview with Photography is Not a Crime. “It empowered me even more than before.”
A man who apparently works as a photographer in the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison grabbed another man’s video camera after a heated political discussion.
The staffer, whose name is not known at this time, did not return the camera until the other man threatened to call police. The staffer then disappeared into the senate chambers where citizens are not allowed.
The victim, who goes by arthurkr222, uploaded the video on Tuesday. He started arguing with the staffer while he was videotaping Dan Kapanke, a republican state senator who is in the process of being recalled.
Arthurkr222 said he reported the incident to capitol police but they did nothing about it.
Jason Johnson is tackled and tasered by several police officers on Sept. 2, 2008 in downtown St. Paul. Johnson is suing the city of St. Paul for $1 million, alleging excessive and unreasonable force was used on him when he was detained. (source: Minnesota Daily)
-1.jpg "Photo by Carlos Miller")
