Ok here is the story behind this elevator. This happened during my February 2011 Meetup in STL. This is actually on the day I was leaving to fly home to Roanoke. I stopped by St. Johns hospital on the way to the airport to meet with with a friend of mine who works at the hospital before I left town. he wanted to show me some of the elevators. Before this elevator, He showed me a service elevator and then what you see in this video is what sparked what happened. Apparantely one of the employees you hear in this elevator called security. KEEP IN MIND, I am being escorted around by an EMPLOYEE of the facility so I FIGURED I was ok to film.
About 10 minutes after filming this me and my friend who was showing me around were walking across the hospital and got on an elevator when a hand opened the door, the hand was one of a "public safety officer" asking me if I had been taking photos or video on the property.
I told him yes and apologized if it was a problem. He said that it definitely was a problem and I was "coming with him" (now 3-4 more guards show up and surround me) They ask for ID which i did not give them. I asked to say bye to my friend at this point they said No, you are being trespassed. They forcively escorted me out the front door and demanded I wait with them while the police were called. A female Creve Couer police officer showed up and asked the security what the problem was and they told them that they wanted me trespassed for using a camera in the building. (the ONLY reason I cooperated with these morons is because I did not want my friend to land in hot water) The cop asked me what i was photographing and I told her I was interested in the old elevators. She then asks security if they have any old elevators and they said they guessed they did. The cop then asked for my ID and ran it and of course it came back clean. Then the security asks for my ID which i did not want them to have and the cop gave it from them!!! I asked them what they wanted it for and they said they had to record my info so if I ever came back I would be prosecuted for criminal trespassing. They also asked me to delete my photos I took, I acted like I did but did not as you can clearly see :) The cop was quite friendly and just politely told me if I am taking photos on private property to ask permission, then she proceeded to ask me if I knew the date and where I was. After I answered those questions, I was told I was free to go. Security then boomed at me "if you are ever seen on this property and are not visiting a patient or receiving services, you will be arrested for criminal trespassing" I just walked to my rental car and then left.
At this point I was pretty pissed off. I called the hospital to complain. And guess who i was transfered to. None other than the head of security who said he remembered me lol. He told me I was lucky I did not go to jail cause I broke the law. I said what law did I break. he said "the 9/11 law!!" and I said what is that, there is no such thing! He said oh yeah there is! It makes it illegal to take photos in hospitals train stations, and airports!" he then said, "if I remember correctly you are flying home today! you better not film any elevators at the airport or you can end up in federal prison!" He also told me he looked at my website and saw alot of elevators. after some small talk he told me to call back in a month and he would see about lifting the trespassing order. I have since left several messages with security at the hospital and never had my calls returned. CLEARLY this security force is very uneducated about the laws governing photography. THE FIRST AMENDMENT!!! PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT A CRIME!!! WHILE THE HOSPITAL HAS EVERY RIGHT to prohibit photography, THIS is NOT how you deal with photographers! Facebook: / dieselducy
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Facebook: / dieselducy
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Twitter: / dieselducy
DieselDucy Elevator Shirts and stuff! www.cafepress.com/elevator
Help support elevaTOURS!
/ dieselducy
#Elevator
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12 апр 2012
