Author Archive

TAMPA – Hillsborough County deputies are investigating a single car crash.

It happened at approximately 3:33 Monday morning on Country Lake Drive & Fox Hunt Drive. It appears a single sedan went off the residential street, struck two mailboxes, and collided with a tree.

First responders arrived and performed CPR on the victim per scanner reports. The victim was transported to a bay area hospital, where his condition us unknown.

Deputies think a medical condition may have played a factor in the accident. No official statement has been released.

CLEARWATER – A pirate ship ran aground in shallow waters in Clearwater New Year’s Eve.

The ship “Captain Nemo”  had left the Clearwater marina, when it became stuck in shallow waters just before the causeway.

A rescue boat also was stuck. Passengers were brought to shore in groups via boats from Clearwater Fire Rescue, Police, and the US Coast Guard.

No injuries were reported. Clearwater Fire Rescue reported at least 88 people were taken to shore. Foggy weather may have also played a factor in the incident.

PLANT CITY – Hillsborough County firefighters made a gruesome discovery while fighting a house fire in Plant City.

The fire broke out on Horton Road, just north of State Road 60. Crews arrived to a heavily involved house fire.

After the flames were extinguished, crews located a body inside.

No further information has been released.

SEMINOLE – An off duty Pinellas firefighter was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident Sunday night in Seminole.

It happened in the 9600 block of Bay Pines Boulevard around 10pm. Deputies say firefighter James Fehl pulled out of a parking lot shortly work, and was struck by a red sedan.

Bystanders conducted CPR on Fehl and he was transported to Bayfront Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

Westbound Bay Pines Boulevard was closed for several hours. The investigation into the crash continues.

I received a rather interesting E-Mail a few days ago from someone regarding my incidents with the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office and the Tampa Police Department, and I thought I’d share it with everyone.

“How dare you disobey the police!? They are sworn to protect you and your family and you are out there to make them look bad. I read where it said you worked for a police department, you should know how it is yet you continue to harrass them like many of the cop hater thugs who kill cops every day in America. Having a camera is completely different than not having one in public these days and you need to catch up to current times. I’m sure the police are happy you stopped your wanna be reporter self, now they don’t have to look over their shoulder any more.”

First off, I am willing to follow any lawful order made by a police officer. People need to understand what is lawful and what is not. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of research to get this information, and it takes a lawyer to read through the legalese. I’m not a lawyer, but I have spoke to some and I can save you the trouble this much…

• Anything in a public place is subject to recording, including people, crime scenes, buildings, and the police.
• A citizen is not required to follow an unlawful order from the police, including an order to turn a camera off.
• A citizen with a camera, media or not, is no different than a citizen without a camera, and cannot be singled out to leave an area solely based on possession of a camera.

I am not out to make the police look bad and I don’t harass them. My job consisted of shooting news related stories and a few bad apples decided to make themselves look bad by screwing with me. Best advice I can give is let me do my job and you won’t become apart of the story and video of you violating civil rights won’t be forever available on the internet.

I am a former employee of a local police and I loved the  job. I am a huge supporter of the police, but… I don’t stick up for a screw up just because I worked in the same industry as them. I have cop friends, and I have cop enemies just like I have civilian friends and civilian enemies. It’s all about the person.

I hardly consider myself similar to a cop killer. I hate cop killers. And a cop who does their job and lets me do mine will have no reason to be afraid of me. All I want to do is shoot news, not cops.

As I already stated, having a camera does not mean the person has limited rights. Any officer who singles out a person solely on the basis of having a camera is abusing the authority they don’t have on the matter. This is my most common problem, and I always ask “what about those people over there?”

I’m not sure what “these days” are. I do know almost everything is referenced to the “Patriot Act” or “Homeland Security” or any other blanket directive that has nothing to do with photography. Things have not changed, although because of over paranoia of terrorism, the explosion of the amount of people with cameras recording spot news, and the “it’s all about what I want” attitude has contributed to resentment of cameras by police and civilians.

In fact, I also blame the media, the ones who should be upholding photography rights. Local 10 aired a live shot about a report of a “suspicious” person taking photographs of children at a soccer game. It make make one feel uncomfortable, but photographing children is not illegal. I found it funny they did their live shot from the same park and it had b-roll of children playing, someone should have called on them.

A station in another part of the county aired a similar story, in which they didn’t get all the facts first. A lady said she confronted a man taking pictures at a park and he ran off. Turns out it was a man taking photos of his grandson and he said she was being aggressive. Surely their mistake didn’t get as much attention. So now thanks to these stories, more people are going to call in on photographers.

Don’t get me started on the fools at TSA that put up posters with a photographer, taking photos of planes, urging to call authorities so “our planes don’t fall into the wrong hands.” Like the terrorists don”t know what an aircraft looks like and don’t know how to use images.google.com. After an outcry from photography activists, it was removed.

One of the reasons I was given during my Diaz incident to way I had to turn off my camera is because the residents didn’t want their homes to be recorded. They should sue Google, because a couple seconds will render a aerial photo and a photo from the street of their house. That was all lies too, because not one of them approached me directly and asked. But my response to that would have been “get lost.” I had one lady at crash ask me not to videotape her building, which was the scene of an accident. Thank God the deputy knew his stuff and he told her to go back inside and leave me alone. Makes you wonder why a Lieutenant is less knowledgeable on his job than a bottom rank deputy. I guess intelligence doesn’t go up with pay grade…

And for the record, there is a difference between a reporter and photographer. I never claimed to be a reporter, but I am a photographer and I will do what it takes to do my job and stand up for myself when necessary.

And stand by for an update regarding the Lt. Diaz situation. It’s going to get rather interesting I’m predicting.

Forgive me for any spelling or grammar errors I may have made. It’s 5:50am and I’m agitated and remember, I’m not a reporter. Even reporters have copy editors.