[MilCom] Fwd: [MilRadioComms] If you photograph airplanes at airports, read this:

[AllanStern at aol.com]

Of interest to those of us who photograph airplanes at airports:
 
UW professor detained after photographing power lines settles lawsuit  with
Snohomish
By Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times staff  reporter

A University of Washington art professor who was frisked,  handcuffed and
detained by City of Snohomish police after snapping  photographs of power
lines has received settled her lawsuit with the city for  $8,000, according
to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The  settlement was reached a year after a US District Court Judge John
Coughenour  found the three officers who frisked and detained 55-year-old
Shirley Scheier  "lacked a reasonable justification for their aggressive
tactics in completely  restraining Scheier's personal liberty."

Larry Bauman, city manager for  the City of Snohomish, said settling the
lawsuit was a business decision. He  said the city stands behind the conduct
of the officers involved.

"We  believe our officers acted appropriately and with courtesy,"  said
Bauman.

"The decision to settle was made by our insurance pool,"  Bauman said. "They
determined that going to trial would have cost $30,000 and  that an $8,000
settlement was a good business decision."

According to  court documents, Scheier had driven to Snohomish to take
photographs of power  lines near a Bonneville Power Administration (BPA)
substation on Oct 17,  2005, for an academic project.

Scheier claimed in the lawsuit that  officers questioned her vigorously 
about
the photos she had taken, searched  her car, handcuffed her and treated her
"roughly."

Scheier, who uses  photographs of public land and structures in her artwork,
was on public  property when she snapped the photographs and there were no
signs indicating  that photography was not allowed, the ACLU said.

Bauman said when  officers initially attempted to stop Scheier on Highway 9
she "refused to  respond to police efforts to make a traffic stop." When she
did stop, Bauman  said, the three responding officers saw that she had maps
with big circles  drawn around other power stations and facilities.

Bauman said Scheier was  detained while officers ran her name through the 
FBI
database.

In  rejecting a motion for dismissal of the lawsuit by the City of  
Snohomish,
Coughenour found that Scheier's Fourth Amendment rights to not be  subject 
to
unreasonable search and seizure had been  violated.

"Generalized, unsubstantiated suspicions of terrorist activity"  does not
give police the right to ignore people's constitutional rights, the  judge
said.

In 2007, the ACLU helped obtain $8,000 in compensation  from the city of
Seattle for Bogdan Mohora, who was wrongfully arrested for  taking pictures
of police making an arrest in downtown Seattle.

In  2005, the ACLU assisted a photographer whose camera memory card was
seized by  King County sheriff's deputies after he took pictures of artwork
in the  Seattle bus tunnel. A year before, the ACLU assisted another
photography  student, Ian Spiers, who was questioned by law enforcement for
taking  pictures at the Ballard Locks.

AL STERN  Satellite Beach  FL
AllanStern at aol.com
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