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The Supreme Court isn't sure I should have been able to shoot one of the most dramatic pictures I've ever taken. I'm not sure I should have been able to, either. At issue is whether or not the police can bring journalists with them when they are executing a search warrant or arresting someone at home. The legal question is whether or not this practice violates the 4th Amendment prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures. In simpler terms, it's bad enough having the cops bust into your home without having them decide that you should also have to stare into camera lenses before you even know what hit you. Oral arguments were heard March 24 in the Supreme Court. I took my picture in 1993 during one of the more common scenarios for these journalistic field trips, a concerted effort by local, state, and federal drug agents to arrest dozens of suspected drug offenders one sunny June morning. A reporter and I were each assigned to a different team, and wore bullet-proof vests provided by the police. The unmarked squad car I rode in was awash with cop confidence and adrenalin. We were chasing down people who were on one of a number of lists of targeted suspects. The police had a special booking room set up at the police department to handle the rush of new inmates for the county jail. We got to an apartment in a low-income part of town, and knocked on the door. We were let in. "Is so-and-so home?" He was in the back room, sleeping, we were told. Two cops drew their guns, and one photographer steadied his Nikon, and then all three surrounded a sleepy young man who lay in bed in his underwear. Being rousted from a sound sleep is bad enough, but I can't imagine what it's like to wake up with guns and a camera pointed at your head. I have no recollection of the exact charges against the man. I have no idea what the disposition of this case was (which is why I have electronically blurred the suspect's face). I do know that we were showing only the police side of a contentious issue in society. The woman who answered the door of the apartment wasn't especially keen to see me, but I went into the bedroom with the police anyway, using them as a cover for legitimacy. The justification I've used for years for this photo is that photojournalists are the eyes of the community, and often bring people into places they can't go themselves so they can get a better grasp of many of the issues in their community. We never balance these stories with the "other" side, the one that argues that drug addiction is a medical problem, and that the money we pour into interdiction and new prisons to "control" the drug problem would be better spent on medical care and treatment. The "other" side argues that such an approach might lead to a dramatic decrease in the crimes that occur simply because the drug trade is illegal. The "other" side also argues that we almost certainly never would have been invited along on this kind of raid to the kind of home that has a three-car attached garage, and a lawn care service van parked in front on a regular basis. I presented this photo to the readers not to justify or condemn the drug raids, but to show them what had happened the morning before they opened up that particular issue of the newspaper. That photo had a faster impact on the readers that any story could. It's up to them to read the photo and the stories, and then to ask whatever questions need to be asked, and write letters to the editor about what they read. As a journalist, I can easily justify the photo, but frankly, if I were on the Supreme Court, I'm not sure how I'd vote.
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Mark
Hertzberg
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Contributor
since 1998
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Behind
the Viewfinder - A Year in the Life of Photojournalism |
