Amtrak police arrest photographer participating in Amtrak photo contest
By Carlos Miller
[Excerpt]
Armed with his Canon 5D and his new Lensbaby lens, photographer Duane
Kerzic was
out to win Amtrak's annual photo contest this week, hoping to win $1,000 in
travel vouchers and have his photo published in Amtrak's annual calendar.
He ended up getting arrested by Amtrak police; handcuffed to wall in a
holding
cell inside New York City's Penn Station, accused of criminal trespass.
Kerciz says he was hardly trespassing because he was taking photos from the
train platform; the same one used by thousands of commuters everyday to
step on
and off the train.
"The only reason they arrested me was because I refused to delete my images,"
Kerzic said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime on Friday.
"They never asked me to leave, they never mentioned anything about
trespassing
until after I was handcuffed in the holding cell."
In fact, he said, the only thing they told him before handcuffing him was
that
"it was illegal to take photos of the trains."
Obviously, there is a lack of communication between Amtrak's marketing
department, which promotes the annual contest, called Picture Our Trains, and
its police department, which has a history of harassing photographers for
photographing these same trains.
[...]
Now he has sent out letters complaining of the incident to everybody from
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to New York Senator Hillary Clinton
to everybody in between and above, including Amtrak officials, New Jersey
Transit officials and even President Bush himself, in case he feels the
urge to do some work before he leaves office next month.
He has also contacted a New York City lawyer who specializes in First
Amendment cases and the National Press Photographers Association has also
been in contact with him.
And he has been documenting his case on his website,
<http://photos.duanek.name/Amtrak%20Problems>
including photos of his injured wrist and the various train platforms as
well as the letters he has sent out.
Now he plans to return to Penn Station and photograph the cops who
arrested him as well as continue taking photos for the Amtrak contest.
"If I win that contest, I would travel all over the country taking
photos," he said.
And if he wins the lawsuit, he may end up traveling all over the world.
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