Robbed on the 1st of may

[allan_l.]

"I told him I was photographing for the sake of photographing"

 

with all due respect:

you probably didn't even realize it at the time, but from the very first words you said to him you spelled out the fact that you have no respect for these people. all you cared about was your 'photography,' and these superleft thugs, as you describe them, and the rest of the demonstrators mean nothing more to you than their utility as photographic material. it doesn't sound like you made even the slightest effort at finding out exactly what the demo is all about, and what message they're trying to get accross. all you seemed to care about was your precious camera. even taking the pictures you wanted seemed to loose significance to you after someone had challenged you, and you decided you'd rather compare testicle sizes.

if you show no respect to your subjects, don't expect them to show you any.

 

hope that answers your question ("what did i do?")

cheers

[ratface1]

1) Even if it's just a lenshood, it's still his property. To all of you who said get over it, remember that when somebody takes your property. How mad would you be if somebody put a scratch on your car? Pretty insignificant right, but I bet anyone of you would be pissed and probably shout at the driver who dinged your car in a lot.

2)At least he was standing up for his rights. Jerks who try to remove me from area's I'm photograping don't receive a positive response either. Be they cops, fire fighters or other people who don't like me there. If I'm in an area out of the way where I'm allowed, good luck getting rid of me. Whatever his reason for photographing the rally was, he was allowed to be there and he doesn't need to ask permission from anyone.

3) Replace the hood, and keep on shooting. Good luck with getting yourself off hteir website.

[craig_gillette]

Gee, who would have thought a bunch of marxist rioters would have no respect for individuals or private property.

[daniel_smith6]

You have photos of them. Photoshop them into wanted posters as child molestors and post them around the streets. Or make them wanted criminals for killing dogs or sexually molesting sheep or some such.

 

Get even using the tools you have.

[michael_dimarzio]

Ok, late here again, not always easy to find interesting threads in a timely manner.

 

As I laid down on a bathroom floor with a pistol to the back of my head in a hotel bathroom in Brasil, along with other guests, after my wife was stabbed in the leg, they relieved me of a M645Pro, an FM3a, an F4s, lenses, meters, filters, tools, gadgets, all a lot of hard earned money. One of the other guests (that had a young daughter hiding on the roof) with his wife and 7 others in the bathroom tossed me a small packet and asked me to "hide this, they'll kill me if they find it". It turns out he was a policeman, it had his identification and a pistol inside. The weight indicated that there was a weapon inside. I left it alone as I did not want to go to jail in Brasil for murder. Later I found out that it's ok to kill someone to protect your life there. After that assault, I swore I would never, never permit a person or group to take what is mine.

 

Two years later I got my chance. Walking down the hill from the then under construction US Embassy in Angola, the police drove by and asked for my camera permit, (I was carrying a Contax 645). None is required, it's a common scam to extort money. As I was working there, I new enough names to drop and speak politly in Portuguese that I would comply with the request (to go to the police station to be extorted instead of on the street, but never did).

 

One hundred meters further down the hill, a group of 5 young thugs wanted the camera and my bag. Pretending it to hand it over, I hit the first guy in the head with it (a reccommendation to contax build quality, it was unscathed), this fat old bald guy (me) then went ballistic and picked up a large rock and was ready to SMASH the head of the next guy, he flinched and started they started to run. As much as I wanted to, and was willing to kill him (as they were to me), I stopped. During all of this, I was hearing a car horn of a local guy that stopped to give me a place to run to. I didn't run, you can if you want. I did appreciate the lift back to the hotel.

 

Last year I was drinking beer in a shack on the beach in Lagos, Nigeria. The folks there asked why I wasn't afraid of being attacked and robbed there. I said no, you just have to be aware of where you are. When they asked what I meant, I reached behind me and in one motion stood, grabbed a short handled shovel (not a spade:) and in one giant arc took a 10 inch slice out of the post holding up the roof of the shack, (the shovel edges were extremely sharp from burying garbage in the sand) and explained that if somebody wanted to rob me, they just had a serious problem occur. The Nigerians all laughed, but it did really scare the shit out of them as it was not expected. Also, I carried a 14 inch Bowie knife stuffed down my pants, it was not visible with my shirt untucked. My Nigerian friends agreed that it was a good idea, an Embassy RSO that I met said I was asking for trouble, said I was crazy, irresponsible, didn't know what I was doing blah blah blah. It was his citizens that were kidnapped, I traveled Lagos at 3AM on a moto taxi and had a "Plan B". One hundred Naira to the corrupt traffic police, and a Bowie for anyone else.

 

So to the people that think that it's better to surrender then to be injured, well, to each his own. I would rather die defending myself then live with a white flag over my head and a yellow streak down my back. I'll be in better company then you in the end, which will come for both of us. (I do like the idea of slandering the thugs with fake posters on every street corner "This man raped my daughter", or "This man is a pedophile". Leave the number to the police station, maybe you can ruin their day.