Cops Won’t Let Journalist Take Pics of Ugly Government Buildings, Because 9/11!

Washington, D.C. is home to many
government buildings that are as ugly on the outside as they are
the inside. BuzzFeed’s Benny Johnson biked around town earlier this
week snapping photos of a few of the most hideous examples, such as
the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters, the U.S. Post
Office Building, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
You can
see the results here.

Today, in a follow-up article, Johnson explained that taking the
photos was no easy task—cops actually attempted to thwart him at
every turn. Even though representatives for the various departments
confirmed to Johnson by phone that it was perfectly fine to take
pictures of the buildings, law enforcement agents contradicted that
directive over and over again. From
BuzzFeed [I took out the pictures and condensed the text—you
can see the full thing here
if you’re curious]:

I asked, from across the street, why I could not come any closer
to the building.
But when I tried to take photos there… The four officers
surrounded me right here, directly in front of the building
entrance.

After taking the above photo of the public, ahem, Sponge Bob
mailbox, an armed security guard approached. He told me the
pictures I was taking were “suspicious” and said I was not allowed
to take them. “This is a public sidewalk, why not?” I asked. He
then told me I was no longer allowed on the property and to go
across the street immediately.

He said, “You would not want people taking photos of your
office, would you?” Ultimately, he asked me to leave.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Department of Energy Security
told BuzzFeed: “There is no problem or restrictions in taking
photos of the building,” and simply cautioned against photographing
employees.

After I took this photo of a public walkway in front of the
building, four armed guards surrounded me and my bike. I was
ordered off my bicycle and told to hand over my camera. “Where is
your identification? Why are you taking photos of our building?” an
officer asked me. I explained my role as a reporter and asked what
rules I had broken. “You are suspicious, and we are in a post-9/11
world,” he said.

The four armed guards prevented me from moving or getting on my
bike. After calling my boss, and discussing with the guards, I was
given my camera back. “Be smarter next time,” he said, “and don’t
take any more photos here.”

Don’t the cops have anything better to do than hang around
outside government buildings, casually invoking national security
when a reporter tries to snap some clearly innocent photos? Maybe
they’re self-conscious or something.

For more on this subject, check out Reason TV’s “The
Government’s War on Cameras.”