So there was a fatal accident for those who dont read the news in the area here in Palo Alto where an old lady passed. Now accident scenes are not my favorite part of my work but I still need to cover them. I pulled up to where they had the road block so I can get through and photograph the scene when the first police officer told me that I can enter at another point... so I said.. ok fair enough... so I sat in traffic for about 30 min trying to get around to this other point. Finally... in there! I pulled aside to ask the officer to let me through. "We are not allowed to have any one go up the street" said the officer. I replied as nice as I could and explained to her that I am a newspaper photographer and I need to cover the scene. Well after about 10 min of arguing to let me through I was fed up and parked my car. After parking my car I made my way through some trees and around the road block... well all good now im in the clear... but had about a mile walk ahead of me... I lugged my photo gear up the hill where police cars where flying passed. I finally get to the scene of the accident where all the firefighters and emergency crews had already taken off... bummer... so I started snapping photos... Finally I was noticed and approached by an officer on scene... he was polite but I knew he didt want me to be there. I explained to him that I had every right to be there and not letting me through the road block was unconstitutional. He then backed off and just asked me to stay away from certain areas... I just dont get it... a lot of police departments in the area act like the first amendment does not exist... its a bit irritating. All it comes down to basically is being aggressive and I have noticed aggressiveness has gone away in a lot of the field.
To read more on what happened that day to the lady visit: www.paloaltodailynews.com
1 comment:
I suppose I came across the nicer variety of officers when I was taking photos; either that or they were just too busy taking down reports of the accident and what not. The only time I was apparoached by an officer was when I was already leaving to go back to my car and he told me, albiet in an aggresive tone, to get back to my car. I assumed that they were going to be letting the cars that were backed up for about a mile to finally get moving again especialyl by the way all the emergency vehicles and cleanup crews were packing up and hurrying to get out of there.
Near of the end of the ordeal I got pretty brave and started dodging behind and in front of big rigs and other cars, but I never got too close to the actual scene.
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