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So there I am, riding down Washington on my way to work. There has been a lot of construction on Washington avenue for a couple of months now, and it's a real mess. I usually ride in the street because the sidewalks are really narrow now. I get to about 14th street (I think... I can't really remember.) and the traffic is stopped. There were maybe 5 or 6 cars stopped behind one of the electric buses. I decided to take the sidewalk just because there was so much commotion. At first I thought that they were all stopped at a red light, but then I noticed that the bus was stopped in the middle of the block, so I figured maybe it had broke down/lost its charge/something. Then I saw a cop car pulling up and I could hear 2 or 3 more sirens in the distance. I was like, OH, COOL! Must be a drug bust or something!! I stopped and got my camera out. Some people were stopping and looking at the bus. I'm looking at the bus too and waiting for something to happen. And then I see someone walk over to the rear of the bus and I see a fucking guy laying there all bloody and stuff.
I was like... HOLY SHIT I SHOULD DO SOMETHING!! and I didn't mean take pictures of the injured guy. I was thinking that I should go help the guy up or something and I'm wondering why nobody is doing anything. I didn't even realize that the guy was UNDER the bus' tires until someone said "Yo, dawg... We got a big loader coming to lift it off of him." Some people grabbed some plywood that was laying around to create some shade for the guy, but that meant I couldn't see him/take more pics.
Then the ambulance shows up.
And you know you're fucked up when the rescue guy has to do this!! (actually, not really. I think they do that even if you just have a bloody nose.)
And then the loader shows up...
...and of course they make the black guy that drove the loader from who knows where give up the controls to the white guy, because we can't have a black guy be the hero. And then a big ladder truck pulled up and parked between the sidewalk and the guy under the bus. No more pictures of the rescue, I guess. what else is going on??
CSI:MIAMI! I guess Speedle didn't really die when he got shot?? Oh, wait... no, I guess that's Delko. All I wanted to do was see Calleigh! She can "test my ballistics" any day!!
There were a bunch of people standing around. There were a lot more on the other side of the street.
The guy on the left was like... "MY NECK! MY BACK! MY NECK AND MY BACK!!" (not really, but maybe.)
...and then this cop was talking to the bus driver and he gave me a "Boy, I'm gonna fuck you up if you keep taking pictures like that" look so I got scared and left...
And I rode away wondering what she must be thinking...
77 (horribly overexposed) pictures from my ride to work.
FYI:
July 18 2005, 21:31:55 UTC 6 years ago
July 18 2005, 21:35:01 UTC 6 years ago
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne
July 18 2005, 21:43:12 UTC 6 years ago
I saw a motorcyclist go under the wheels of a double decker bus back in my home town of Nottingham in England when I was 5. Only the bus ran over his head and the helemt didn't really help keep his brains inside his skull. You could see them seeping out from the helmet. I was 6 at the time... Never forget things like that. I still ride motorcycles....
July 18 2005, 21:44:21 UTC 6 years ago
July 18 2005, 22:53:42 UTC 6 years ago
July 18 2005, 23:22:09 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 01:06:49 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 02:48:37 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 02:37:31 UTC 6 years ago
it's way too late now but you should have tried to sell your shots to a newspaper... big money in something like that.
your shots are good... they would run in any paper or magazine. if you already have a career in mind... you might want to rethink it and go into journalism.
:-)
July 19 2005, 03:05:46 UTC 6 years ago
I wasn't worried about getting sick or anything like that. I was just concerned about the ethics of it all. I know that if I were the person under the bus, I wouldn't mind pictures being taken. In fact, I hope that when my time comes to leave the living, pictures of my death end up on ogrish.com... but a lot of people were giving me "how dare you!" looks, and I didn't know what to think of it all.
July 19 2005, 07:28:05 UTC 6 years ago
most of the time, it's just sensational gore... but sometimes we need people like that to take those pictures to show us things and explain things to us. like war-journalists... etc.
if this incident happened today (july 18) then i'd try and sell your pics to a newspaper tomorrow... if there was something more to it than this man just slipping under the wheels of a bus... if something larger happened to cause him to be there... then those pictures are valuble.
July 19 2005, 03:37:57 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 07:19:50 UTC 6 years ago
sorry... went to school for 4 years for this - i know what's legal and what isn't. my job depends on it.
i'm not saying that i could have taken those pictures and lived with myself... i probably couldn't have. i would have probably gone back to my editors and said my camera broke or something... but the fact that this person did take the pictures... well... she/he... has a career in photojournalism... not many of us could have. she/he has the instinct... as perverse as it might be. (and i don't pretend that the job of a journalist isn't perverse sometimes... but hey - it's a job... and a newspaper would have paid 300 bucks each for those shots.)
Besides... what if the bus driver was speeding... what if the man was high on cocaine... what stories can be told from those photos. maybe those photos tell the story of a system that needs to be changed. maybe after seeing those photos other bus drivers slow down or a coke addict gives up the habit. (and those are just arbitrary comparisons off the top of my head...)
anyway - that's probably more than you were asking for. don't feel you have to respond... i wasn't trying to engage in anything.
July 19 2005, 03:34:27 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 03:46:40 UTC 6 years ago
No?
Shut up.
July 19 2005, 03:49:47 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 03:54:35 UTC 6 years ago
It is not illegal.
I don't even have NYPD press credentials which just means the police can chase me away easily -- and actually, even with credentials they can chase you away...just makes it easier to get under the yellow tape.
I find photos like this touching and poignant, and instead of just looking at EW ICKY POOR MAN please look at the photos of the construction worker helping out, the concerned people, how the police come together to do their job, and so on. It tells a story -- who would have thought of the construction worker doing something like that? Imagine if they waited for ESU to arrive, did these actions save his life? These are ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and ordinary people reacting in different ways with different emotions.
It's part of life and someone recording it, especially as a story instead of a gawker gross out photo, is a gift to anyone interested in the human condition.
July 19 2005, 03:59:47 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 04:13:16 UTC 6 years ago
it's a fine line, between what's "newsworthy", and what's an invasion of privacy. the legal standpoint is that when the public interest outweighs the individual's right to be left alone, it's newsworthy. but as i've said, there have been many, many successful invasion of privacy lawsuits brought by accident victims and their families who have sued newspapers, and particularly television stations for airing and publishing footage of the accident without permission.
i'm glad that you find photos like this 'touching and poignant'...but in the end, it doesn't matter what YOU think about the photos...it's what the VICTIMS think about them.
sorry, but i do THIS for a living (counsel on informational privacy).
July 19 2005, 04:22:31 UTC 6 years ago
I would have to see more information on the actual lawsuits and what grounds the television stations and the like were sued on, and how the ruling was actually worded.
I have taken accident photos, and had them published, and considered for publication as well, and not once did anyone question the legality of the photos.
My stock agency will take them but will only sell them for editorial use, not commercial use, if there is no model release attached.
I cannot afford to get sued and took steps to make sure I was protected and understood the law, and got the appropriate releases and was counselled when they would be necessary.
July 19 2005, 04:25:34 UTC 6 years ago
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July 19 2005, 07:30:27 UTC 6 years ago
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July 19 2005, 04:43:40 UTC 6 years ago
Illegal? It is not illegal as A) no one is profiting from these images, B) It was a reporting of events and qualifies as news and is legal, C) it was in a public place were there is no assumption of privacy.
I suppose you would rather the world have not seen these pictures and that mans suffering. YOu would have liked it swept under the rug so you could see the world as a happy shiny place. I'm sorry these pictures do not fit with your fantasy world, but the pictures tell a true story. A story that lets the world know a man was hurt and that hopefully the police, firemen, and EMTs were able to save him and punish the people at fault, and hopefully educate others and make something like this that much less likely in the future.
I for one commend
July 19 2005, 18:06:53 UTC 6 years ago
I find it interesting that people are so focused on ONE out of a number of pictures, which is the ONLY ONE that shows the victim. The rest are a celebration of the rescue crew, and a commemmeration of their efforts. The first simply explains what it is their focus is on.
July 19 2005, 20:08:46 UTC 6 years ago