Photography is not a crime, or is it?

According to the Metrorail guards it is. They have been assaulting people for taking photos on the Metrorail premises. Wonder how many tourists have been attacked taking pictures of the views high over the Miami river as the train passes.

Well, Carlos Miller, who also was assaulted by the guards held a protest last month and then held another one Saturday starting at the Grove's 27th Avenue station. Folks came out with their cameras and dared to shoot! ABC's Nightline was there filming for a future episode and that went well.

But when a Miami Herald reporter, Theo Karantsalis, showed up at the Coconut Grove Metrorail station to take photos, one guard told him absolutely not, that he could not take photos for blogging or reporting, but he could take them for personal use, another told him there was no problem taking photos for any reason. Carlos has a video of this on his Photography is not a Crime blog here.

Some of the Metrorail guards are bullies and also ignorant to the laws, they are big shots when there is one person with a camera, but when people show up in large numbers (with a tv crew), they turn into wimps. Such is the life of a rent-a-cop.

Photography is not a crime, at least the last time we looked. And the views from the Metrorail high above the city are spectacular. We highly recommend bringing your camera along next time and getting some pretty shots of our fair city. It's legal.

A set of photos from the protest is on Flickr here. Below is a photo of Carlos with a friendly guard, who didn't seem to mind the photos. Douglas Clark took this photo.