RNC 2012 Protests Part 2 & Recollection of the Police in Tampa.

 Thanks to the Google every photo I have taken over the past couple of years is forever preserved in the cloud tubes. Since I dug up those flyers to share I figure I would share these photos too.

The one to the left was definately taken in Perry Park on the 27th, The camera is covered in rain gear, although it did not rain much at all. The wind was pretty strong to this yankee, None of the locals seemd to mind.

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 The rest of these photos were from the march route. The police at the RNC were unusually polite, at least to the media. Much more so than the cops in Charlotte would be.

They make an intimidating presence, the police, and the three conventions I have been to have all had a huge police contingent. That phalanx of bikes was really cool. I wish I had video of them moving into and out of that formation. It was pretty impressive.

This ice sculpture and the guys playing music were from another park in downtown Tampa that the protesters rallied from.

Barricades and police in St Petersburg 

One of the police groups re-hydrating in their gator. Like most people they didn't like being video'd while on their job, but they must have been well briefed by their superiors, because I had only one encounter with an officer and it went pretty smoothly.





That incident was almost inevitable. I was shooting live bump shots of the security checkpoint on the opening day of the convention. Video of the checkpoints is always touchy, although I think foolishly so. Nothing I show on video is anything couldn't be scouted in person, but I digress. The officer told me to move, and I told him I couldn't because I was live, and I couldn't move until I was cleared. I did reposition so I would be out of the path of vehicles. Of course my director asked me to go back into the street and shoot again, so I did and the officer stopped me.

I continued to shoot the checkpoint until I was cleared by my director. Once I was, I told the officer I would move along and he escorted me down the street. He told me I couldn't shoot there anymore, I told him we had permission to do so, and I might come back later. The officer asked me, actually asked me, to wait for a second while he walked off. I thought I was going to be harassed some more, at least have my footage reviewed and maybe erased.

When the officer returned he was with another cop. They exchanged a few words just out of earshot and the original guy, came back and apologized to me! He pointed to the other officer who was walking away and he said, that is my commander. He said you can shoot anything you want as long as you are not blocking vehicle traffic, sorry about the confusion.

The guy put his hand out and I shook it. He said it was the Secret Service guys who told him to tell me to move. The officer, like many of the police in Tampa that weekend, was not local. He had been brought in just for the convention. He said it was tough because the Secret Service would give orders, without much authority beyond just being SS guys, not even commanding officers themselves.

I haven't had any horrible encounters with police. Most of the time I avoid them completely, because they act like jerks who can't be bothered or like bullies, but this guy actually acted like a civil servant, in all meanings of the term.