Prevention Of Being A Daddy During Your Kid's Childhood Act
I worked with some Scots in New York and found them to be generally sensible people, if incomprehensible when drunk (or sober), but clearly their country is just as nuts and paranoid as ours.
From FoxNews, a dad taking pictures of his little girl eating ice cream is banned from a mall on terrorism concerns:
Chris White, 45, says police were called last week after he took photos of his 4-year-old daughter, Hazel, eating ice cream at Braehead shopping center, and a security guard approached him and asked him to delete the pictures and then banned him from the mall, the Daily Record reports.The security guard allegedly told White that taking photos in the shopping center is "illegal" and that security could confiscate White's camera phone under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
"I explained I had taken two photos of my daughter eating ice cream and that she was the only person in the photo, so I didn't see any problem," White said.
"I also said that I wasn't that willing to delete the photos and there seemed little point as I had actually uploaded them to Facebook."
Police arrived on the scene shortly afterward.
White says one of the police officers was "quite intimidating," but allowed him to keep his camera phone in exchange for offering his full details, including name, place of birth, age, employment status and address.
"Had I not had my daughter with me, and the fact that we are trying to bring our daughter up to respect and trust police officers, I may have exercised my right not to provide those details," White said.
A spokesman for Braehead Shopping Center says security acted in good faith.
"Retail staff at an ice cream stall in Braehead became suspicious after they saw a male shopper taking photographs of a child sitting at their counter. The staff thought the man had also been taking photographs of them and they alerted one of the center's security staff."
Hey, asshats -- if somebody wants to take photos for a terror bid, and he or she isn't a raging dumbass, it'll be done clandestinely, not openly.
UPDATE: Facebook page on this.
via @mpetrie98
Thus we see the consequences of people knowing only as much about their rights as television tells them.
Robert at October 11, 2011 7:13 AM
the Scots are a very primitive people. They probably assumed that he was trying to capture their souls in his magical picture box.
scootch at October 11, 2011 7:19 AM
This is stupid. I love to take photos and often take photos in unusual places. Although, for the record, this is not at all unusual. Kids at that age are often really cute when eating ice cream, especially when they are out with Daddy. People need to relax. I also would never hand over my phone or camera to some mall rent-a-cop.
sheepmommy at October 11, 2011 7:59 AM
This is obviously a fake story, since it was on "Faux News", and everything there is a lie. All right-thinking people know this, and if you disagree, you're a teabagging terrorist.
damaged justice at October 11, 2011 8:01 AM
I have the suspicion that what's happening in many of these incidents is that the risk to children is being used as an excuse to harass and coerce people that certain members of the public find undesirable, due to their race, age, appearance or whatever. Child molestation is the ultimate trump card, and even contesting the claims can be damaging and humiliating.
noam at October 11, 2011 8:34 AM
Call the roller of big cigars! Obviously this guy's trying the kill the emperor of ice cream.
Conan the Grammarian at October 11, 2011 9:16 AM
"Retail staff at an ice cream stall in Braehead became suspicious after they saw a male shopper taking photographs of a child sitting at their counter. "
Emphasis there on the word "male".
Cousin Dave at October 11, 2011 6:09 PM
The staff thought the man had also been taking photographs of them and they alerted one of the center's security staff.
Yes, terrorists would target the staff of a retail ice cream shop because surely without ice cream the whole country would go under.
The Former Banker at October 11, 2011 6:11 PM
> via @mpetrie98
Wutsa guy hafta do for a little 'ttention round here?
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at October 11, 2011 6:46 PM
Cousin Dave - awesome observation
When I actually read the headline, I thought it was yet another instance of a father being suspected of being a paedophile. Either scotland has less anti male hysterical PC than england or things have improved slightly(by about 0.00000000001%) for men in this regard in this part of the world.
Redrajesh at October 12, 2011 3:20 AM
Just thought I'd post the official response by Strathclyde Police here.
It's all looking interesting.
http://www.strathclyde.police.uk/index.asp?locID=1589&docID=8929
Simon Proctor at October 13, 2011 8:13 AM
Simon, thanks for that!
Over the years, a steady percentage of these workaday atrocities are deflated in this way.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at October 13, 2011 11:33 AM
So the offical resopnse is
"Its not about what Mr White said it was about, but we cant tell you what it was really about, but you should just take our word for it for making the finding 'that Mr White lied' public. Hopefully the social media shpere will run with our non informitave counter claim, and those who read it will be too stupid to realise that we didnt acctually do anything counter Mr White's allegations, answer any questions, or provide any information."
"For the avodiance of any doubt we can say the Mr White lied, but we wont give out any info which proves our assertions. Trust us, but never question us - cause we wont give you any answers"
Got to love the no real info information release, right?
lujlp at October 13, 2011 12:22 PM
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