bus spotter branded a terrorist/paedophile

[poppy34]

this made me laugh but suppose people have to be vigilant

link

Gosh - sorry aitch.
i thought I was on a thread with several people where the converstaion had moved on a bit.

I'm sorry my concerns about my son appear to have annoyed you.

I shall feck off...

Reporting people. The new British hobby.

your concerns about your son seem to be the only sane thing on here, tbh pagwatch. i was never referring to you, i've been speaking to rubberduck. but the bit about the GBE is utter bollocks.

not in my experience. Yes the most famous and extreme were rich (you can't get REALLY outrageous without a lot of money after all). That doesn't negate the fact that history has often delighted in the oddballs.

I've also read a ton of autobiographies reminiscing about the quirks of "great aunt so-and-so" who very often wasn't rich. Think of all the "I was dirt poor and this is how my life changed" biogs on the shelf. Quirky families are pretty much a major genre in their own right in British literature.

Not sure why that makes it all "bollocks", tbh.

i was dirt poor and look how my life changed isn't eccentric, it's entrepreneurial. how is it eccentric to not want to be poor?

"if you're innocent, then you've nothing to hide"

ah the soothing cry of the gestapo

oh good, someone's mentioned the nazis... the thread is over.

.....this is no laughing matter.

I for one would rather be branded "terrorist" or "paedophile" than (dare I say it) "bus spotter".

Imagine the humiliation for my family.....

Aitch:I bet you are a criminal. I bet you have broken the speed limit, or driven your car when you had a milliliater or two more alcohol in your bloodstream than you should have. I bet you once taped your friend's album, (or downloaded it by Napster), or took your li rary books back one day late. Ibet you might have had a wee in an alley. Or lit a fag on and outdoor tube latform. or had sex on a bus once. Or once walked about at night, wearing something other than a burka (a mate of mine was once nicked for being a blonede woman, out after bedtime: she must be a prostitute..)

nothing that'll be picked up by cctv, madamez.

aitch, have you ever been on a demo? hAVE YOU EVER BEE N IN (pardon me sticky fingers) Have you ever been in a london taxi?

course i have. not doing anything illegal, though. look, as i said i do get the civil liberties argument, i just couldn't give a fuck about it really. 42 days, yes, bus-spotters being asked wtf they're doing twice a year, no.

Aitch, if you don't see how much it matters then you are NO LONGER MY MATE.

lol. noted. i am deeply prejudiced against spotters. and morris dancers.

My DH is a bus spotter also.
And he is the proud owner of a Bristol RE coach.
I think it's quite a harmless hobby and not as bad as having a DP/DH who is mad about football or something .
Sometimes it does get annoying as if we are going cross country it can take much longer as he will drive into city centers JUST to get photos of buses at the bus station.
But sometimes i do wonder that some people on the buses might find it strange someone is taking photos of them and if anyone on there has "issues" then they might feel threatened.
But he's never had any problems with that.
Got to show him this thread and say that he better be carefull from now on.

Just to add, of all the photos by DH has, not sure how many but it took 4 months to copy them from slide to computer disk! (12hrs a day).
In hardly any of the photos you can't see the people on the buses anyway, due to the reflection of the glass and bus spotters only want the front of the bus to get the number plate, livery and destination.
It's a waste of a picture taking a side shot.

I'm 100% with Rubberduck on this one.

This is really frightening and not an isolated case - photographers are being harrassed all over the country on some bizarre pretext that they might be up to no good. More worryingly, some police are showing complete ignorance of the law when it comes to photography in public places.

Incidentally, I don't think there's any evidence that any of the recent terrorist attacks were researched by someone taking photos so any paranoia regarding photographers is completely unjustified.

Seems like soon the only cameras that will be allowed will be CCTV ones.

The iron curtain didn't come down, it just moved to the UK. We all need to fear what is happening to our civil liberties.

www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/23/police_photographer_stops/