Almost Arrested today @ SFWOA

OK, I pecked all of that out and supermandl deleted his post. That's a shame.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

coaster895 said:
Also doesn't the police officer have to have just cause to pull you over and search your car even if its just for a digital camera?

yes... which is why i am convinced we havent heard the whole truth... i am sure there is somthing out there hiding... i belive mongoose that it did happen... thats fine... but what lead up to the incident is where we are missing somthing

Yeah. I was driving slowly, taking pictures of the park.

Doesn't matter. Cops still had no right to erase his photos, period.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

Funky, This winter, my dad and I have drove by 2 times, just takeing pictures! In fact I went down for some pics from the freeway this afternoon! There is no cop who has the right to stop you for that!

PS, Valleyfair finaly spent the money to put a SECURITY in Vynal letters on the side of the trucks ;) bout time.

i was workin today... i was out there ;) in the park... that black jeep wasnt us... thats the auto auction security... i talk to those guys all the time... they are there cause the auto auction across the street uses our parking lot for extra storage... i aint sayin taking pics is bad... i do it... i just got a nice digital camera... but i only take pics from near the highway or of things that can be easyly seen from the highway... cause i know i dont have permission to take pics from inside hte park... even thought i walk the park everyday numerious times... and i'll be working again tommorow night with a bunch of other peeps...

I believe the real problem is that you "accidently" took pictures of track for their new gigacoaster (it's sad to say I need to add that that was a joke). Seriously though, something doesn't sound right with the story. I have read signs at shopping malls which dictate no pictures without permission, but I'm not aware of any themepark policy on this. I'd like to see a follow up on this story.
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Until you get a parking space with your own name on it, you're still part of the GP.

Unless he was urinating in public or doing something else illegal, the other side of the story doesn't matter. In fact, even if he was, that still gives the police no right to erase his photos. Why is that so hard to understand?

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

2 points

1 When I was there for the commercial shoot i did drive on that road just to look around. I never saw another car on that access road the entire time. The one person's point about causing an accident doesn't hold water with me.

2 I think the media is a great way to go on this one. After all they love bashing the parks anyway. Here in Pittsburgh we had a story on parks losing attendance after 9-11 just the other day. The big papers in cleveland(I think the plain-dealer or something like that) would eat this story up for breakfast.

I still dont think the police doesnt have the right to take away the photos.

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Inverted going to take flight for Valleyfair!

Here's just one point I'm not totally clear on. Now was this guy a county cop, or was he just a park security guard?

As Jeff said, get this into the media..., the news people love this kind of stuff. ;)
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SFWoA Online
http://sfwoa.coasterbuzz.com

Cops harrass people like this all the time. Obviously, the guy is a complete idiot, or somebody above him is an even bigger idiot. Its fine if you aren't the confrontational sort of person, I'm down with that, but i would have totally called him on it right on the spot. The idea that you couldn't take a picture of a rollercoaster from public property is 100% laughable, and I wouldn't have taken this to court or any such nonsense. I would have called him on it right on the spot, and he would have realized that he really couldn't do **** about it.

Wow. All this support. Thanks, guys. Not sure what/if I am going to do anything, but I didnt realize how much support I would actually get.

Thanks guys. Have a good holiday. Dont get pulled over!

I fully agree with what was said about the above, and think Mongoose should go through with this even though we can tell he doesn't want to :-P ;)

Ok, what about this situtation. Lets say you, key word: break the rules by bringing your camera onto a ride and snapping shots, and they caught you doing it afterwards. DO they have the right to take your film and/or have you delete the pics? What is "right" in this occasion?

Ok, now that I'm certain that is a Public Road that Officer had no right to do what he did. If a Coaster, monument, whatever can be seen from Public Property you can photograph it and they can't say boo about it. You need to go out and stand up for your rights. That's a bunch of b*** ****. I would seriously try to get this in the media.

I wouldn't really bother with making a big issue out of this. Its not really that big a deal on the scale of things, and there are other issues that are more worthy of the publics attention. What i WOULD do is go back and take more pictures and hope that the same cop bothers you. Antagonizing would be quite fun, at least for me. :)

Responding to SFDL post. Yes they could take you're film or memory and erase it and be ejected from the park. On a coaster is outside of park guidelines which is private property. They can set they're own standards on that. If you're in the park and taking pictures from the ground that is fine. Just do not try and sell them that is illegal, because again it is private property and you are there basically as a privilage.

This whole thing should not have happened. The officer had no right to do what he did.

Being a true professional and about to go to work on Christmas eve and Christmas to protect the same idiots who rip us apart, I think I have found the missing link to the story. It is just my guess that indeed he did stop in the middle of the road to take pictures. Which is a violation of the law if not two laws. Being the holiday season my guess is the cop gave him the choice of either deleting the photos or issueing the tickets. The fines in Wisconsin for the 2 violations that took place is $277.20. Thus mongoose just deleated the photos. That is why he will not take this to a higher authority to have it persued. My suggestion to him is if your story is 100% true File a complaint so it does not happen again. If your not going to file a complaint don't come here and cry about it. Because in fact you were wrong and got a break.

If this road is public, the cops had no right to erase the photos. Funkytones, you say he isn't telling something, I think he is. But even if he isn't telling the whole truth, as long as this road is on public property, the cops had no right to erase the photos. Even if he hassled the cops, they had no right to delete these photos.