To think people should be prosecuted for filming scenes of serious accidents?

[TrueBlu]

I've just been reading about a pregnant woman who was stabbed today, apparently lots of people stood around afterwards filming and taking pictures.

Now I'm in two minds about this, if it's being filmed I order to help police with their enquiries then fine. But if, as I suspect, it's some voyeuristic thing, then I think it should be an offence.

I'm sorry if I came across shirky. The last person I debated with really hit a raw and painful nerve with something they said so I probably went a bit on the defensive. I do usually enjoy them but may not be in the right place at the moment iyswim?

I suppose for me, each and every case would be treated individually which is probably impractical. Someone who uploaded something, for example police behaving badly, I'd have as 'good' and 'evidence'. Whereas the example i count as 'bad' and 'not evidence' was someone who, and I saw this linked on facebook so it flashed up on my feed, put up photos of a robber who'd tried to jump a fence and end up speared through pointed fencing in a painful and ultimately fatal way.

I suppose the biggest difference was the loling from the photographer and the vile abuse and jeering comments. The guy was a criminal but for his family and friends to see that combined with the comments was so inhumane.

A couple of years ago I saw a mother let her 10(ish) year old son take a video of a particularly horrific car crash aftermath. I wish I had said something to her about how dreadful his behaviour was and ask why she allowed it.

That doesn't make your case stronger though tealover, playing the emotive card is the exact definition of slippery slope.

With your example many people across the political/social spectrum would class that as some form of karma/amusing so although it's emotional to close family and friends the extreme alternative is that the police speared him with a spike.

We are in a unique situation where we have a medium that governments etc don't have control of the narrative, in order to accept this narrative we have to accept the darker side (however fuzzy) should have some leeway and not aske for government intervention

/adjusts tinfoil hat

So would you want your newspaper and TV news to be just words and no pictures?

There was a nasty car accident on a road near my house many years ago and the road was closed by the police. My art student brother (probably about 19 at the time) actually went and asked the police if he could photograph the accident for his coursework. They rightly told him to bugger off. Even worse my mother saw nothing wrong with his actions (she thinks the sun shines out of his backside). We later heard the driver had had a fatal heart attack and his car had hit a tree at speed.

YABU this would end press photography. It's hugely important to be able to document events.

You do realise even reputable press don't publish everything? (Ex journalist)

PP mentions Hillsborough. Had camera phones been around then I suspect the whole day would have unfolded very differently and the 'official narrative ' ie pack of lies would never have been believed.
I wouldn't be too quick to hand over all footage to the authorities either, I'm sure the press photographers at Hillsborough that day never thought their pictures would be used in evidence the way they have. What if SYP had had the negatives?

I agree that filming people in distress for the sole purpose of rubbernecking and sticking it on YouTube is heinous and if you are in the way of medics/firefighters you need a slap, but filming/photographing a significant incident isn't necessarily something to be frowned upon, it can be really useful to investigations.

Are you talking to me Monster? I'm currently in the industry (not a journalist). I don't understand your point? Are you saying that the press self censure? I agree they do but don't see how that's to do with the thread. Sorry, may be completely missing your point.

Unless there is going to be a new criminal offence called Being Nasty In Public I don't see any remedy.

Yanbu I think it's disgusting behaviour, I can't understand how people's first reaction to an accident is no longer 999 but let's film this for Facebook likes.
Recently, in a town close to me, a small tot was knocked down and killed and a FB friend of mine put a status updating the tragedy as it unfolded and as it became evident the poor little soul hadn't made it he said he wouldn't put up the pics he'd taken as it wasn't right now that he'd actually died no shit Sherlock, it wasn't right you fucking took pics in the first place!

I can't understand how people's first reaction to an accident is no longer 999 but let's film this for Facebook likes.

Is it? What everyone's? I've seen three nasty accidents in the past 10 years. My first thought was to call 999 only to realise that many other people had beaten me to it.

I wonder how the emergency services cope with multiple calls to the same incident, now nearly everyone has a mobile. I wonder if it's more or less inconvenient than bystanders rubbernecking, but not interfering.

Unless someone is filming while no one is helping, I'm in yabu camp.
Of all the awful things people might do to each other, this just doesn't tick my box for being awful enough to ban.

is interesting.

It's a news report on a young black man in Texas who went out with his camera to see what he could see.

What he saw were police who pretended he had no right to film in public (wrong) and arrested him for failing to give his ID (also wrong).

He set up a dash cam in his car which appears to show officers breaking into it.

When a middle aged white man did the same thing, he was left alone.

They are from a movement called Photography Is Not A Crime. Being a young black man in Texas, or elsewhere, just might be though.

That's one reason for filming in public and another for not handing footage over to the police for evidence - at least without a back up.

I once stopped to help a motorcyclist who'd come off his bike. I'm laid on the floor in a puddle stabilising his neck whilst paramedics give him the once over when some idiot member of the public leans over to take photos. I told him in no uncertain terms where to go and called one of the police officers over to deal with him.
Can't abide rubberneckers. Either stop and help if you are able, or keep moving and keep the area clear.

Well done you Libitina.

By leaning over, his actions sound distracting. Why didn't the police notice him interfering with you and the paramedics until you told him off and called them over? That sounds very remiss of them.

When you say he was a member of the public, are you not a member of the public too?

IME paramedics thank members of the public for giving first aid, but then tell them in no uncertain terms to leave it to them.

Like the police officers, the paramedics sound remarkably remiss. I do hope the motorcyclist was okay. With such an amateurish emergency team it sounds like someone filming it for YouTube was the least of his problems.

Yes, as Limited says I'm much more shocked that paramedics allowed you to continue to stabilise his neck than I am that they allowed someone to film it.