Cool post BP. I've always wondered the same thing. Another funny thing I've heard of anecdotally is that if you set up a tripod, you're suddenly a professional.

I've heard that too, eeks... also that SLRs will get you hassled much more than point-and-shoots. Anecdotal evidence among my local friends supports both of these statements.

There is a corollary to this observation -- people put up with being slammed to the ground and cuffed without being charged or read their rights because they've been watching it on "Cops" for 20 years....

Our local news recently had a story about cops being investigated for beating some dude down for no good reason. It was, of course, captured on video. And, to their credit, having watched the video, I don't think they used excessive force -- the guy was drunk, huge, and resisting arrest. But you can sure see the cops LOOKING AROUND for a video camera before they started kicking the guy.

The best protection citizens have against police brutality and malfeasance is to document it in photo and video.

No wonder the cops want everyone with a camera off the street -- it makes it so much harder for them to break the law.

A support worker and two people with disabilities I work with were recently detained, as in stopped and searched, by coppers for taking photos of flowers in a suburban park in west London. Not Downing Street, not the HoP at Westminster, but flowers in a park in fucking Hanwell. It was an SLR camera.

Ugh. This is ridiculous.

See, this stuff worries me because the stuff I like to take photos of includes: train tracks, factories, bridges, construction sites, etc etc. Infrastructure type stuff.

Of course, I take pics of flowers in parks, too, so that'll probably be my downfall. :)

BoringPostcards - I bet you also take pictures of the primary targets: Monuments. Get close to a monument like Lady Liberty or the White House, and you see a lot of people taking pictures. All terrorists, every single one.

When terrorists learn to search flickr instead of taking their own photos, we're DOOMED.

Also, I'd like to add that if you're walking around with an SLR hanging around your neck without the lens cap on, you're obviously a pervert covertly taking voyeur pictures of people's butts as soon as they turn their backs to you.