That's your guy.

The call on the police scanner in my car about an attempt to locate a car involved in a robbery was just background noise until the dispatcher mentioned that the car was headed for the street I was driving on Tuesday.

Then, bingo!, the brown Buick Regal turned the corner and was coming my way. It seemed to swerve a bit, so I pulled over to the curb, unsure of what the driver was going to do next. He pulled over to the curb across from me, about 30 feet away, and one of the occupants got out.

The Regal then turned another corner, and two marked police cars quickly followed, pulling it over. The man who had gotten out of the car walked into an adjacent parking lot which crests a hill above the river bank, and crouched on the hill, trying to hide from the police. I was still pulled over across the street from the parking lot, and I watched and waited, reaching for my cell phone to call the police.

The radio call had said there might be a gun in the car, so I thought this might be the person with the gun. I had finally gotten through to the police when the man, furtively looking around, got out of his hiding place, and started walking back in the direction the Regal had come from. Another car appeared, and he flagged it down and hopped into the back seat.

I followed the car...I was literally right behind it...giving the police a description of the car and keeping them posted on our travels through downtown. The man kept glancing back at me. A few blocks later, after a few more turns, the car pulled over, and the man got out. Again, he looked furtively around, and started walking. I got out of my car, and spotted a plainclothed police officer. I yelled at him, "That's your guy, that's the second guy from the Regal on Water Street." [an error occurred while processing this directive]

The man was detained and searched. The alleged robbery victim was driven up in an unmarked car to make a tentative identification. The alleged victim and the suspect traded insults. The man was arrested. I was told that he had a stash of drugs on him, and that this was about an apparent robbery during a drug deal.

Usually I have a camera out when I am dealing with the police. This time I was using only a cell phone. There are some people in our profession who would say that our only job is to record events, and not to take sides. This wasn't about a crime we would cover in the paper. No shots had been fired. No one was hurt. I had no doubt that my role should be that of a citizen, stepping out of my journalist's role for a few minutes.

When the man was in custody I went back to being a journalist. The alleged robbery attempt didn't even make the paper. I felt I'd made the right choice.

Read James Keivom's companion journal

Mark Hertzberg
< hertz@wi.net >
Director of Photography
Journal Times
Racine, Wisconsin
Other journals by Mark Hertzberg
363 May 2000 Three short topics
361 April 27, 2000 It's a moment frozen forever
359 April 18, 2000 I'm glad I wasn't working
346 February 18, 2000 Fatal Fire
343 January 28, 2000 Suicide By Cop
340 December 28, 1999 Four Minute Justice
338 December 11, 1999 In 1/125th of a second
336 December 4, 1999 Day in Court
332 Is Photojournalism Dead?Mark Hertzberg On the flip side, though, many newspapers that have made a 180-degree change have changed for the better rather than for the worse
325 October 10, 1999 Oh, the people you meet
324 September 29, 1999 It was an innocent question from a high school clerk
309 July 23, 1999 I didn't mind Jerome Vine spit at me twice
307 July 21, 1999 "What have you done? What have you dragged us into?"
303 July 17, 1999 If your mother says she loves you, check it out
292 June 23, 1999 You Never Know
283 May 17, 1999 Epilogue to May 4, 1999
276 May 4, 1999 David Raymond Segura, Sr. walked out of the Racine County Jail to the cheers and hugs of his family
272 April 25, 1999 Littleton. Burlington.
265 April 18, 1999 "I can't believe I'm being paid to have fun. "
261 April 15, 1999 It was the first time...
257 March 26, 1999 The Supreme Court isn't sure I should have been able to shoot one of the most dramatic pictures I've ever taken.
248 March 13, 1999 I got nauseous on the job today...
247 March 12, 1999 The prosecution's case
246 March 12, 1999

Sidebar: One of the most difficult issues for us to consider

239 March 1, 1999 That's your guy.
222 February 11, 1999 It's a lie to say that pictures never lie, as our readers and viewers know all too well.
215 February 4, 1999 Remember report cards?
213 February 1, 1999 I saw something horrifying and shocking this week
198 January 8, 1999 Damn, it's hard to cover news stories when you know the people involved in them, and when you have to put aside personal feelings to get the story.
192 December, 1998 This journal is a tribute to you, the reader
180 November 29, 1998 Abortion. That's the only word you have to mention in any conversation, and emotions are aroused , so imagine what it's like trying to make newsroom decisions about how to cover the issue. That's where we found ourselves Thursday morning at the Racine Journal Times.
178 November 22, 1998 We Interrupt This Broadcast
176 November 18, 1998 Our big story last week, indeed perhaps our biggest of the year, was a story about something that DIDN'T happen.
175 November 16, 1998 Did We Overact?
174 November 8, 1998 Wednesday was the day the yellow smiley face from that big chain of stores from Arkansas frowned at me.
171 November 3, 1998 Monday Morning, Post Gore
170 November 2, 1998 I'm so excited, I won't be able to sleep tonight
158 October 12, 1998 It was one of those days when an assignment was as much fun as opening birthday presents.
157 October 10, 1998 He's a cop...
150 September 21, 1998 A friend of mine calls it the ultimate form of channel surfing. .
146 September 11, 1998 ...sometimes we can have a positive effect on people's lives even when some readers think we are raking them over the coals. .
138 August 28, 1998 Sometimes the last thing a photographer wants to see is a camera.
120 July 25, 1998 They say that in England you are innocent until proven guilty; in France you are guilty until proven innocent; and in America you are innocent until the next edition of the newspaper flies off the presses or the evening news comes on.
111 July 12, 1998 We joke that today's newspaper is tomorrow's fish wrap. But for many people, our work lives on beyond just that day's paper.
109 July 7, 1998 Delgado, who sat in his orange county jail jumpsuit, had tears streaming down his face as he listened to the charges being read the day after his nine-month old son died on a hot summer day, strapped in his car seat, in the backseat of Delgado's broiling Dodge Omni
101 June 23, 1998 We've never shown the readers this sunset view of the city before...if all goes well, it'll stretch across Wednesday morning's front page. Today is Monday, though, and they first have to get through Tuesday's newspaper.
100 June 22, 1998 Last week I had the tables turned on me
87 June 4, 1998 ..none of those pictures would have been published without his help.
82 May 29, 1998 Today was one of those days in which you hit the lows and the highs.
78 May 26, 1998 You never know where a pair of dirty socks will take you
73 May 17, 1998 I no longer have to hide under semi-trailer trucks to shoot news pictures of major industries..
67 April 24, 1998 Stop the Presses
63 April 19, 1998 Sign of Discontent
43 March 24, 1998 Humphrey Bogart, move over.
42 March 23, 1998 In the end, only one photo was important...
32 February 27, 1998 My work has now been published in a new media...on a picket sign
28 February 24, 1998

Journalists usually love a good juicy story. I'm in the middle of covering one I hate. Part 3

February 23, 1998 Journalists usually love a good juicy story. I'm in the middle of covering one I hate. Part 2

 

22 February 20, 1998 Journalists usually love a good juicy story. I'm in the middle of covering one I hate. Part 1
13 February 4, 1998 (9:24 AM) It was a situation where one has to shoot pictures first, and ask questions later Update: To Mark's February 4 posting
7 January 27, 1998 The viewfinder in our cameras is dark for the split second we shoot our photos...
5 January 23, 1998 Just what is news?
3 January 19, 1998 An 83-year-old reader called me this morning, in tears. .
 
Contributor since 1998
 
   


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