Please watch this video for insights into SeanPaul’s airport experience and read my offering below. I invite you to share all of this with people you know who work in public and government offices and agencies and ask them to spread the word. Unchallenged, we could fall into the abyss where civil rights as we know them today are a thing of the past. It’s happened in other parts of the world. We cannot let it happen in America. . . and while it’s getting better in some nooks and crannies, there is a huge job to be done to uplift and upgrade the knowledge of all! Be a part of the solution. . . and not the problem. I thank you sincerely.

What to Look For in this 1^st & 4^th Amendment Video.  .  .

When you travel, the  chances are good that you may find that air travel is  in your plans and that you will be in at least 2 airports, from origination to destination and back, and both may be in the US.  You need to know the following information and watching the videos I post here will illustrate these points:

1. Unless you are specifically going to a private airport, probably because you chartered a flight on a private jet or you have fractional, or full, ownership of a jet, you will be going to a PUBLIC airport. Both domestic and international  airports are public airports.
2. The US Constitution, Supreme Court decisions and decisions of US  District Courts have upheld the following:
3. There is No Expectation of Privacy in Public. This means that once you leave your house, the private residence of a friend/associate, or a privately operated business or the grounds of a privately operated business, YOU ARE IN PUBLIC which means that you can’t expect privacy.

      And that means that someone with a camera who wants to photograph you or capture your image and voice on video has a Constitutionally Protected Right provided by the 1^st Amendment  to photograph you and anything else one can see from a public space without any written or verbal permission from you or  anyone else! If you don’t want to be photographed, turn away from the camera, go  into another room, leave the area, put on a hat, sunglasses, a mask, put up the hood on your sweater, hold up a newspaper or magazine in front of your face . . .the  onus is on you to create your own privacy. The US Supreme Court and District Courts have upheld this right again and again! Asking the photographer to stop recording your image makes you a violator of that person’s civil rights and the photographer becomes the victim  of a crime and the accuser becomes the criminal which could end in a court case.  The results of  such law suits generally ends with photographer winning both a moral victory and, often,  a monetary victory!   If you  are a public servant, someone whose salary is  paid from taxpayer funds, someone who works for an agency/division/office  of local, state of federal government, and, especially if you are a law enforcement officer, you may  well lose your qualified immunity  if the photographer tells you that you are breaking the law and violating her/his civil rights and you forge ahead with detainment, arrest, incarceration, and, possibly worse and the  worst cases have wound up with either settlements or awards from trials that include monetary damages, penalty monetary damages and legal expenses for complainant which are often 5-, 6-, or 7-figures!

b) The same laws which give the public the right to film as an extension of Free Speech, give the government at all levels the right to photograph the public in public with cameras on every pole and building inside and outside, and give photographers, dubbed “paparazzi,” the right to congregate in public areas and photograph  anyone they wish to photograph. If you needed to get written or oral permission to take photos of others in public and photographers did not have that  permission, all of the masses of paparazzi would be rounded up and arrested by police. For those who didn’t get it before, do you get it now?

3.  If you go to a public airport, you can take photos in all public areas (except rest rooms). That includes taking photos at TSA Checkpoints! How about that! The fact is that the government website for the TSA posts the specific rules which should also be posted at the TSA checkpoint site but know that you can easily find the rules online if they  are not easily spotted.  Many TSA staff are well informed but, regrettably, not all, so you need to know your rights. Here is a quick update from the TSA site:

“TSA does not prohibit photographing, videotaping or filming at security checkpoints, as long as the screening process is not interfered with or sensitive information is not revealed.

Interference with screening includes but is not limited to holding a recording device up to the face of a TSA officer so that the officer is unable to see or move, refusing to assume the proper stance during screening, blocking the movement of others through the checkpoint or refusing to submit a recording device for screening.

Additionally, you may not film or take pictures of equipment monitors that are shielded from public view.”

NOTE: Similar language  appears in rules and regulations in federal buildings, including US Post Offices, IRS buildings and other buildings under the auspices of the  federal government, outlining the rights. . . RIGHTS.  . . of visitors to federal buildings to photograph  in public places, in all public  areas in those public  places and EVERYTHING   they  can see while standing in public places even if those things are in  a restricted area! If the photographer is standing in a public spot, the rule is that their  “eyes cannot be trespassed.”  You can photograph/film/video (it’s all considered the same thing) anything you can see. Photography is  eyesight what written words are to spoken words.  Photography and written words are an extension of FREE SPEECH.

ALSO  NOTE:

Cameras, on their own, do not qualify the photographer to be labeled as  “suspicious.”  A camera, on its own, is not a legal reason to ask someone to leave a public space, does not equate to disorderly conduct or obstruction.

Obscene gestures and obscene words, cuss words, are protected free speech. Hate speech is another issue. But cuss words and associated gestures are protected under the 1^st Amendment.

To be asked to leave a public space, one has to be suspected of having committed a crime, is in the process of committing a crime, is believed to be about to commit  a crime.  The law enforcement officer(s) called to a public area because someone is engaged in 1^st Amendment protected photography, after investigating and assessing what is happening, the law enforcement representative must be able to state what crime is being committed in order to be able to demand identification from the photographer. Only a few states have “Stop & Identify” laws. Most states uphold the concept that law enforcement’s job is to protect and serve and work for the rights of the public, upholding the US Constitution and the constitution of the state they work in. They can only ask for your ID when they can provide “reasonable articulation of suspicion of a crime.” If there is no articulable crime, they can ask for ID but the person in question has no legal obligation to provide it and can decline. 

Remarks from law enforcement officers that the photographer is obstructing the officers’ investigation by not providing ID is not valid because:

• Under the 5^th Amendment, one is not obligated, nor expected, to participate in helping law enforcement to incriminate oneself.  It is legal and wise to invoke your rights, under the 5^th Amendment, to remain silent. . .which is a really  good idea!  Regrettably, it appears that it is no longer required for police forces to “read Miranda rights” to those being detained or arrested.
• Not providing ID when no crime is articulated is not obstruction. Obstruction is a physical act. Not cooperating in providing information for  an investigation when no crime has been committed is not an unlawful act.

When the photographer/visitor knows his/her rights and states them, too often the photographer becomes the victim rights violations.  If this victim survives the experience, which doesn’t always happen, a lawsuit will follow which, sadly, creates a monetary award that taxpayers pay for! This whole process is an expensive way to learn the law as it related to our civil rights.

I have learned that, while there are some public officials and law enforcement personnel  who know and respect our  rights, the vast majority, it appears, haven’t a clue as to what Free Speech, 4^th Amendment protection of rights related to unlawful searches and seizures and 5^th Amendment rights to remain silent and not participate in self-incrimination.    And I have unearthed the reason, in at least one state, of why there is such ignorance among publically paid employees of public offices and agencies of government as well as law enforcement and that emerges from training materials that actually,  from my analysis, provide explanations and laws related to legal conduct in public places that is everything from misleading to incorrect!

Watch for the material I am developing to provide “Everything You Want to Know about Our Rights in Public!’  Given that I have a Masters Degree in Education & Social Science, I actually know how to do this! Now, I need to devote the necessary time to bring this project to fruition and help to spread the word to everyone  who works in every  public building, every public site, indoors and outside, and every office, agency  and division of government. 

Start, please, by educating yourself.

And if you work for the public or in a public building or agency, when you see a peaceful person exercising their 1^st Amendment right to engage in photography in public, welcome them, ask if you can help, and if they don’t need your help, let them be! Or use the moment to engage in telling them why they are in a wonderful place, a wonderful town, city, state or village, and let them know where there may be places they  might want to explore that are of historic and natural interest and value and let travelers know they  should put that destination on their Must Visit list.  There’s nothing like tourism to uplift your tax rolls and boost your economy!  Welcome the Visitors who are documenting  their visit with their cameras. It’s their constitutional right in public spaces!