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I occasionally have a good moan here on my blog. Rarely does it reach a rant status.
Buckle up.
Tonight there were... fireworks. Each year Roundhay Park in Leeds (famous for being a public park and also a venue for open-air rock concerts and the like) holds a big bonfire and firework display. Whizzz! Bang! Flash! Etc. It's free and attracts a few thousand people into its vast expanse. It's a good enough venue that there's not tight crowding but merely people standing around and watching everything from a safe distance. Hence my friends Simon, Sheryl, her son Jake and I decided we'd head up there again this year and perhaps meet up with another old friend, Karen.
Finding a clear area we took up a postion where we could overlook the park and proceedings and Simon put his camera on a tripod he'd brought with him. Ten minutes later we were approached by a council official who said tripods were banned. We politely scoffed as the website makes no mention of that, it was hardly in anyone's way but they insisted it was on health-and-safety grounds. We indicated there were no issues as there was no-one around us, we could surround the tripod and no-one could possibly trip over it any more than they could over the no-problem backpacks we were carrying. Simon said, quite rightly, that he wasn't sure this rule was actually real and asked the officials to bring across someone further up the food-chain to explain the precise rule and give him details before he put it away.
They left and a few minutes later slightly higher-ranking securty officials came across and told us to put the tripod away. Again, Simon and I politely but firmly questioned the logic - after all, for a shot of fireworks you're best finding a way to keep the camera still to avoid basic blur (ie: need a tripod!). We'd been there last year with no problem. No rules against tripods had been posted and we'd seen others tonight using them without being harrassed - again, this wasn't a packed stadium or the like. Then, suddenly.... ah, the problem WASN'T the tripod but the fact that... our cameras suddenly have... detachable lenses!!! Apparently we needed... a PERMIT for those. Simon and I looked at each and rolled our eyes. Since when? The security people said as professional photographers we had to get permission to take profssional photos. We pointed out we weren't profssional photographers, we were just normal membrs of the public who just had a certain type of very popular camera - not unlike many other attendees we could see. They pointed that we COULD have used smaller cameras - like on the iPhone - but not cameras with any type of other lenses. Again, Simon asked to see ANY reference to that bizarre rule in formal form. Had things changed since last year? We insisted that none of these rules were posted anywhere for the free, public event and that we weren't creating any problems or breaking any known rules. Then then changed their story AGAIN for the second time in a few minutes... now the new reason we couldn't use our cameras was because "
...there are kids in the park and there are laws that forbid pictures of children..." I quickly pointed out that they'd just said pictures WERE permitted from other types of cameras so their latest generic reason made absolutely no sense - and as a journalist I knew they weren't even quoting the correct law in the correct way and it couldn't be implemented that way in this situation. To which - and I kid you not - one of the security people pointed at me and said to his colleague with a smile...
"He's just admitted he's a journalist - I told you he WAS a professional photographer..."
I explained, incredulously, that a journalist WRITES, not takes photographs and I wasn't here to do either officially, but the security people said it was too late and we were now being banned from the park and they would escort us out. I commented on the distance we'd travelled to be there and that - again - we were just members of the public with basic cameras. I didn't even have time to find Karen before we were literally frog-marched out. When I stopped briefly to dial Karen and leave a message on her phone before we left, I was told to "KEEP WALKING!" Seriously. I kept my temper, but the security people were in no doubt how frustrated we were an I didn't start walking again until I was good and ready.
Once outside the park we talked with the local REAL police who were hugely sympathetic and admitted the way the rules were being enforced was bizarre and arbitrary, but as - technically - this was a private Council event for the public they couldn't interfere on Council property (ie: the actual park).
Sheryl and Jake - sans cameras - still had their evening out spoiled. Simon who'd come all the way from Haworth was rightly livid and I'm... still steaming. And wondering how many other people were literally manhandled out of a public, tax-payer funded event by jobsworth security guys exercising an inaccurate or unfeasible remit. I even heard later that a party of schoolkids/students with cameras were asked to leave as well.
Sometimes I think the word is populated by fuckwits. Formal complaint on its way tomorrow.
*Still managed to take a decent photo (see above). Ha!
