Taking pictures of a federal building a 3 a.m.? Sorry that is...odd.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

[font color=red] FYI this is posted in Arizona Group[/font color=red]
This has been posted in GD by damnedifIknow, but this is more of a local thing. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022835132

Full Story @ http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2013/05/11/arizona-man-winds-up-jailed-unemployed-and-homeless-after-photographing-courthouse/ And you will want to read the FULL story.


Mainly this about the story is about a guy in Phoenix, one Raymond Rodden that got stopped at 3 a.m, yes 3 in the morning, by the cops because he was out there taking pictures of the Federal Building. And as you keep reading the whole story the guy does more and more to make him look even more suspicious to the cops.

He continued walking when he noticed he was being followed by a Phoenix police patrol car. Before he knew it, he was being followed by an additional two marked cars as well as an unmarked car, not to mention a cop on foot.

“I kept walking around because I knew if I got into my car, they would pull me over,” he said.

They kept trying to talk to him but he kept asking if he was being detained and they said no, so he kept walking and they kept following, He walked around for more than an hour as the cops kept following, waiting for him to slip up.

That was when he walked into an alleyway, thinking he was not breaking any law.

But according to the story there is a law, Phoenix Municipal Code 36-61 that says “no person shall use an alley within the city as a thoroughfare except authorized emergency vehicles.”

The story also tells that they searched his car (story says " Phoenix police bomb squad tore his boss’s car apart searching for explosives&quot and they did find an old out of state warrant.

For the record I am skeptical of this story because I can not find any other sources for the story. I also think, IMO, that this was suspicious behavior. Taking photos at 3 a.m. of a FEDERAL Building? It is almost like he was trying to get the cops to take him in.

I think the Cops did right because his behavior is just to odd to me. And Raymond Rodden employer seems to agreed. Mr Rodden was apparently hired to take care of the employers 6 year old son. He has now moved down to Tucson due to, according to Mr. Rodden, "find something to nail me with".

If anyone can find more on this, please share. I would like to find more than one source on this.

[CreekDog]

1. They were right to arrest him? What law was broken?

none.

i thought i had something in common with you, but i don't believe in arresting people without there being evidence that a law was broken and you do believe that.

what a shame.

[Downwinder]

2. The Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Courthouse

is a landmark building. Although it spends half its time in darkness I did not find any nighttime photos online. A glass clad structure, nighttime photos should be quite impressive. There are numerous daylight photos of the building online.

No I would not think it odd.

But then. I don't think it suspicious for a pedestrian to be walking on the sidewalk after dark.

[Kali]

3. odd behavior might merit a look-see, but not a freaking arrest.

I can understand the paranoia of the cops, but that doesn't excuse arresting the guy, sorry.

Phx is a big city, people and businesses are open all night, it should not be illegal to walk around down town.

In fairness there was a bomb threat made last week down there (something to do with that sensational murder trial?) and there were evacuations at the time.

[madmom]

4. Um...NO!

[Mosby]

5. The article left out his felony conviction and mental illness

http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Raymond-Rodden/272813404

Raymond Rodden III, 24, a former part-time business student at Pima Community College, was sentenced to 1.5 years after he pleaded guilty to the felony charge of engaging in a hoax.

Rodden sent an e-mail on Oct. 30 in which he threatened to shoot at least six students "or anyone else who gets in my way at the University of Arizona Library," two days after three nursing professors were slain at the college.

Rodden was among the first in the state to plead guilty to the charge of "hoax," in which someone gives the impression that "an act of terrorism" will take place and expects an emergency response by a governmental agency.

At the time he sent the threat, Rodden was already on federal probation in a 1999 case.Impersonating an actual U.S. Customs agent, Rodden called 911 to report he had been shot in the desert and couldn't move.Authorities conducted a search until the actual agent was reached at home.

Rodden, who said it started as a prank and he didn't intend for anyone to get hurt, asked for probation because he wanted to get treatment for bipolar disorder.

[Megalo_Man]

6. Taking pictures of a public building, or any building at all, even

a nuclear power plant or a military base, is not a crime, and not reasonable suspicion of anything. Once you're on private property if you do something they don't like, and they ask you to leave, and you don't.. you're trespassing, and can be removed and arrested by police.