Via Scibling Corpus Callosum comes this story of a photographer arrested for taking this photo of an Amtrak train. . . in order to enter Amtrak's own "Picture Our Trains" contest. Uh, PR snafu, anyone?
This is especially annoying because it's been an ongoing problem in DC for some time. Tourists often take photos in Union Station - and often get harassed by guards for doing so, even though station reps have admitted it's not against the law. It's hard to say how taking photos like this one, from public areas, is a security risk - but if it is, Amtrak should get some kind of consistent policy in place. And not tell people to go take photos of their trains.
Picture source: photographer Duane Kerzic's website
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This kind of shit is just fucked on so many levels. The bottom line is that it is nothing more than a manifestation of authoritarianism purely for authoritarianism's sake, without even the pretense of a genuine purpose. This shit makes me want to fucking puke.
The right hand is saying "look out for suspicious activity!" while the left hand is saying "Picture Our Trains!" Unfortunate and kind of dumb. I wonder how it would work in Britain, with the phalanxes of trainspotters at every station? They'd need BUSSES to round up the perps.