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I’ve been banned from The Canfield Fair, but not before an ugly, public display.
Those who know me a little bit, know I am a photo-realist, I render paintings from photos I take. That also makes me a photographer. A lot of you know my wife and I are also avid fans of county fairs, and amusement parks. We attend a lot of them, and while we’re there we take thousands of photos of everything. Naturally, we look forward to The Canfield Fair. We attend everyday, and are usually there all day…taking pictures. We take thousands, and post the good ones various places on line, some we’ve entered in the fine arts photography competition at the fair.
So while Nikki was attending the 4-H dog showmanship judging, I found a nice spot on a bench by the rock, and shot a great deal of random crowd shots. There was a very large crowd constantly passing in front of me. I set my camera to shoot continuously, and shot hundreds of random crowd shots without thinking much of it. Most of the shots are garbage, but occasionally there are some gems. After awhile, I got up and was going to check on Nikki’s progress. I walked a few paces, when I felt someone tried to smack the camera out of my hand, hard. I turned around to see what kind out idiot would do something like that. It was two burly dudes with crew-cuts, nobody I knew. I asked the guy closest what his problem was. These guys were super steamed, and not at all reasonable, they looked like they were about to try and beat me down, and I had no idea what was going on. They were calling me a pervert, and trying to snatch my camera, saying that I had taken pictures of their kids, which I’m sure I did, along with a lot of other people. I kept trying to calm them down so we could talk about it, but they weren’t having it. I told them that I wasn’t specifically taking pictures of their kids, rather random crowd shots, and that I’d be happy to delete the pictures of their people if they wanted. I tried to show them what shots I had, so they could tell me what to delete. One guy grabbed my camera, and said too bad, I lost my camera. Now this had been a loud, heated scuffle in a crowd of hundreds, with people watching, filming, etc. I look around and there’s no cops. ??? The guy who grabbed my camera is screaming, threatening to smash my camera, and really looking like he’s going to try to hit me. I said, “let’s just let the police settle this”. Still no cops. I had to stand there and yell at the top of my lungs for the police. A couple of fair cops showed up, the worked up guys said their piece, I explained myself, and asked the cop to get my camera from the guy who snatched it, and to look at the pictures so he could see that I hadn’t done anything, “perverted”. I told him that he could delete the pictures of the angry people. Another couple of cops came up, and the first cops began to explain what was going on. The second cops asked the first ones if we all should just go to the police station. I said, “Let’s go to the station, perhaps cooler heads will prevail”. I wanted to settle it, because I didn’t want to be accosted by maniacs. The second cops, lead me by the arm to the police station. I told the cop that he didn’t have to hold my arm, because I wanted to go and settle this. He told me that he wasn’t hand-cuffing me because, I was co-operating. It was thoroughly embarrassing. They brought me in, and the second set of cops related the story to a third set as best they understood it. I again explained my position, and invited the, “investigator” to peruse the hundreds of pictures I had taken, to see if there was anything, “perverted” in there. After looking at all the pictures, he took the camera to the angry people. I heard him tell them that they were random crowd pictures, and they didn’t appear to target anyone in particular. They complained that they were young girls, and nobody should take their pictures, and they were scared. “These are crowd pictures, 60% of the crowd at the fair is young girls” I heard the cop tell them. The investigator came back, and told me that he had deleted the pictures the angry people wanted deleted, and that I was being evicted from the fair for one year. I was rather unhappy to hear that considering I hadn’t done anything wrong or out of the ordinary, and I told them so. “That’s too bad, that’s the way it is” a deputy sheriff said in a shitty tone. Another cop piped up and said, “Were you here yesterday? you fit the description of the guy that lady called about”. “About what?” I asked. “She complained that someone who looks like you was taking people’s pictures in the parking lot, as they got out of their cars”. It sounded completely absurd to me. “get outta here, you never got a complaint like that!” I said before I could stop myself. That made everyone in the room laugh, except for the guy that made the claim, who replied, “Oh yes I did!” The investigator said, “Look, we’re being nice to you, and cutting you a break. You’d be smart to just move on.” I didn’t see it that way.”I already have a ticket for tomorrow, can I get a refund?” I asked. That got a few more chuckles, and The shitty deputy sheriff told me that I was pushing my luck, and had better shut up.
“Taking unsolicited pictures of fair patrons without their permission causing alarm” is the case they gave me.
Another shining example of our local law enforcement in action and the just, and sensible reasoning of the canfield fair police.
I’ve got a good mind to never go back.
I’ll post some of my highly contoversial canfield fair photos in the future, when I’m a little less pissed.
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