Banning cameras from events and businesses: the double standard!

I want to hit this right on the head here. There's a trend where people get kicked out events or businesses for having a camera in their possession. In reality trying to ban photography is about as productive as prohibition these days.

I've seen video of infamous events like the 1992 Riverport riot touched off by Axl Rose and recently Queen's of the Stone age's Josh Homme kicking a female photographer in the head. I myself have had some bad interactions very few thank god. But those few make you realize how a camera can make you a target.

But the big problem now days is Cellphones. One would think that if they ban the use of DSLR and bridge cameras that they would also ban cellphones to. This is the double standard I am speaking of. Cellphones cause many problems for this rule.

First of all they are easy to conceal, and anybody really wanting to do something real malice like up-skirt would likely use one. Second of all, you never really can tell the intentions, I've had some instances where I was being videoed and didn't find out until months later. That event was not malice or upset me but the same thing can happen.

Now provided some establishments do actually ban cellphone photography to, but not every establishment that wants to ban photography has caught on to modern times yet and realized the issue.

So, I've had a few of these events.

I attended a Goo Goo Dolls concert in 2010 at First Tee in Augusta. Nothing bad really happened and I had a good time, the problem is this, they tell you straight up my camera is not allowed on grounds they don't want recordings of the event. I respected their wishes and most my friends were disappointed when I came in without my camera. I look in the crowd and see cellphones raised, check on Youtube and Facebook and what do I see? The exact thing That the staff of the event said they were trying to prevent. So while I was not allowed to use my camera for the reason they didn't want any recordings, seemed like everybody else did the exact thing and got away with it.

Another story I want to tell you comes from the Augusta Mall and the Rent-a-cops. So I'm sitting in the food court with my Nikon D3000 and eating my sub, when I see a bird flying around the complex. I wanted a photo of the critter and I got one. I'm immediately confronted by a mall cop he approached me like Barney Fife, I could swear I could hear the dramatic music used in the Andy Griffith Show episode "citizen's arrest" playing. He tells me this is private property and I need to cease and desist. The people seated near my table saw it and thought he was being a jerk just like I did. I bet he won't tell this to all the cellphone selfie people to. I reckon he was just bored because there was not fight or shoplifter. I'm glad he is not a real cop, with his attitude he just might have been one of the minority of cops you hear about in horror stories. If that really is a rule there, they are only hurting themselves.

I even once had the muscles of authority flexed on me at my own high school Alma-matta in 2013, where ironically in 2009 I won awards for my work as yearbook photographer. It was a new assistant principal who told me photography was not allowed unless you have a media pass. Seemed she was the one who made this rule, as nobody else had a problem, and still a good bit of the staff there knew me from my days as a student and knew about my work behind the camera. After getting the embarrassing sendoff I log onto Facebook and see hundreds of Cellphone photos from the same game. Still do see them til this day as well. Did all those people with cellphones have media passes to? Where is their embarrassing send off? I probably should have filed a formal complaint, but on a somber note my mom's cancer battle that she would eventually lose was determined to be terminal and at the time pushing back and winning a personal battle was not as important as my mom's health.

I also often try to avoid all hangouts that enforce this double-standard rule. It's probably best to boycott any business or event that enforces the double standard, because even if you do not have your gear strapped to you if you're known as a photographer just your title can cause you problems in extreme cases. Bottom line is, if my camera is not allowed cellphones better also not be allowed.

Quarterbacks are both important and overrated.

Every time I turn around I see media sources often treating Quarterbacks like they are the only payer on the team. Yes they are team leaders, and yes they are offensive drivers. However, not including special teams there are 21 other guys on the field starting as well.

I was recently in the locker room at my local Gold's Gym in North Augusta between workouts. Colin Cowherd was on the TV. He was talking about how he's never consider certain position players for MVP in basketball and football. He took a stab at centers in the NBA, pretty much saying no center can be a MVP versus a forward. I'm guessing Mr. Cowherd does not believe in defense on the Basketball court. Then he compared NFL defensive ends in the same light. Mr. Cowheard has a history of making dumb remarks like this though.

My first thought was James Harrison. The huge defensive end for the Steelers. Remember Superbowl XLIII anyone? MVP was wide receiver Santonio Holmes. However let's not forget the true turning point. If this play had not happened. The Steelers would have lost the Super Bowl. They eventually won 27-23, that's a 4 point margin. The situation was like this, 1st and goal the half time clock was winding down. Steelers up 10-7. I still question why they did not run the ball instead. Maybe the coaches thought it would have been too predictable. We saw the Same thing happen to the Seahawks against the Patriots in 2015.

 The play in question was extremely rare. Not only did the Heavyweight, Harrison intercept a pass, but he hauled it all the way down the field. Keep in mind he is a heavyweight so he is far from the fastest person on the team. He made use of the stiff arm, juke, and hurdled a few people in this 100 yard run. Something you would never expect from a defensive end. Now let's imagine this didn't happen. Whether or not the Cardinals scored the halftime clock would expire with the score still being 10-7 or 10-13 or even 10-14 if they went for a two pointer it would be 10-15. Imagining all the other drives in the game still occurred as they did the closest the Steelers would have got to victory would have been a 4 point deficit. The James Harrison interception really made the difference for the Steelers. I think he was the real MVP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEIyUBf0X8E

As somebody who can't stand the Patriots, Superbowl XLII is my favorite. The MVP was Eli Manning, he did put up a good game, but defense anyone... For those who don't remember the 2008 Patriots were threatening the first perfect season since the 72 Dolphins. Tom Brady had a stalwart offense with many weapons that benefited his pocket passer style. To defeat the Patriots the offense needs to be shut down. The final score was 17-14, of special note is these two teams met before the playoffs that year and both teams scored in the 30s with the Patriots only winning by a field goal. Both defenses stepped up their game. However, Tom Brady was sacked several times by a strong blitz by defensive players like Michael Strahan and a forced fumble did not help matters for the Patriots. Most people look at the helmet catch as the most important moment and let's not take away from it, but let's not forget that the strong defense shut the Patriots down. Eli Manning and Tom Brady's QB stats nearly mirrored each other. It came down to which defense gave their quarterback a better situation. By smothering Brady the Giant's defense limited him from his true potential of 30+ points against them down to 14. In essence I think just about any defensive player deserves MVP before Eli Manning did.

Now to also play devil's advocate, and say what if. The offensive line is important. So what if there was a game where the backs were totally untouchable because the line let nobody by? Most successful Quarterbacks, like your Bradys, Mannings, Rodgers, Rothelsbergers, and many more are not known as duel threat quarterbacks but pocket pocket passers. Because their lack of hustle and scrambling ability, escaping the sack is tough, so it's very important to have a great offensive line. Many of these star quarterbacks are on the list of active leaders in the times sacked category. I want to stress they are smart passers but they often have more than enough time to stand in the pocket and scan the field for an open receiver. However when the line collapses they are most often sitting ducks. A strong blitz can smother a pocket passer much easier than a duel threat quarterback. John Elway and Brett Farve, both greats in many categories but both are the top two sacked Quarterbacks of all time. Their least successful games were games where they were sacked multiple times. Let's remember that when a quarterback is sacked it is not usually his fault, that is a failure of the offensive line.

Need anymore proof that a quarterback cannot win it all. Look no further than the Browns. They have been through nearly 30 QBs in a span of 17 years. Some could have very well blossomed into stars, however unlike Brady, Manning, Farve, Elway etc, these poor QBs had no team around them. Their front office pretty much looked at obtaining a QB as the holy grail and a turning point. At times they were not even smart in choosing their QB like when they got Johnny Football or when they drafted then 28 year old Brandon Weeden, a QB with only maybe 4 years shelf life at the most. Instead they could have drafted now 28 year old Russell Wilson. Good results not guaranteed of course because Wilson has a team with the Seahawks. The Browns put together such awful teams that I'm not convinced they could win if they cloned Bart Starr and made him their QB, looking at what he would have to work with.

I urge readers to think outside the pocket when considering a game MVP.

The Accident: December 2007

Later this year a notorious accident I had on bicycle will be 10 years old. The hit was so hard I can still feel it today.

December 4th, 2007 started like almost any typical Tuesday, except I left home early that morning, because I had some extra duty as yearbook photographer to perform. For those of you who don't know at the time I was a junior at Midland Valley High School at the time. I didn't own a vehicle or hold a driver's license. Therefore, in order for me to get where I needed to be on time, I was my own transportation. My morning and afternoon commute normally consisted of a 2.7 mile trek that would almost always place me on Anthony Drive, Duncan Road, and Mustang Drive. I very rarely deviated from this route.

I remember waking up before 5AM. I had hit the shower hand cleaned up ate breakfast before 6AM. I was on the road by about 5:50. The morning was a cold one with temps in the upper 20s to lower 30s. I had a coat on with a hood. The weakness of this was the hood was on so tight that my neck could not swivel like usual, it created a bit of a blind spot. Riding in the cold was nothing new to me and riding like this was also nothing new. I eventually swapped to a ski mask following this accident. I also had a camper's back pack that had about 15 pounds of text books, good for about half my full text book load. If it hadn't have been for lockers and I had my full 30 pound load I would have been hurting even worse. The book bag was fastened to me by a harness with two cross straps. One around my waist, and one around my chest to prevent load shift. Strapped under these cross straps was my camera satchel. My Fujifilm Finepix S5200 survived this and many accidents in my padded camera satchel and I still own it today, just don't use it a lot.

After stopping at a convenience store on SC. hwy 421 commonly referred to by locals as the depot, I cruised down Anthony Drive to head for the school. After crossing the railroad tracks near Railroad Street Anthony Drive drops off down hill. It's not the steepest grade in the valley but on a bicycle you can pick up some speed. I was capable of good speed on a bicycle even then. My flat ground speed with no load was around 38mph. I had blazed fully loaded past the school resource officer who clocked me at 20, which was impressive for the fact my book bag was loaded. So, to give you an idea of what y impact speed would have been around 38-40mph. I was aggressively pedaling as I started to descend the hill, and even with a 15lbs load, I could easily make that speed on a down hill grade with my 21 speed mongoose mountain bike. 

The route includes a bridge that crosses Horse Creek. I was running wide open as I approached the bridge at this point an unknown vehicle approached my blind side. I was aware of was behind me and moved over to give him room to pass. The incident happened so fast. As he passed somebody in the vehicle threw what I think was a half filled 1 liter Mountain Dew bottle out the window. The bottle hit me in the back of the head, knocking my coat hood over my face. Instantly after impact I was frantically trying to brake, but not even probably a hundredth of a second after impact, my bike hit the front of the guard rail. The guard rails are designed to collapse when hit by a 2 ton vehicle, however a 20 pound mountain bike with a 150 pound rider slamming it at the speed I was going was sure to make me hurt. 

After hitting the guard rail, I was thrown from my bike airborne, for a brief second I remember seeing the tail lights of the perp's vehicle but couldn't make out anything else. I landed on the side of the guard rail opposite to the road. My bike landed not too far from me. I ended up in the mud. Because I was on the opposite of the guard rail nobody passing by could see me injured or knew of my presence. I layed on the ground for 10-15 minutes, pretty much shouting nothing but cusswords. The accident was about 6:30AM Eastern daylight time. I had just suffered the singled hardest hit I had ever taken.

I had been injured much worse than this in other accidents, but one thing that was key, was during this accident I was much more limber, due to the fact that I didn't see the hit with the guard rail coming. So, I didn't tense up like when I sprained my ankle in 2012 or contusioned my elbows in 2014. Had I saw it coming and panicked I likely would have been seriously injured if not killed. The amount of Gs I took in the incident were probably pretty impressive. The bottle strike was not what injured me, it was the collision with the guard rail. 

Eventually rage would take over and I would pull myself up. I knew I had pulled several abdominal, arm and neck muscles. I knew the rational decision would be to turn around and go home. But after getting hit this hard, knocks the sense out of people, and I still wanted to go after this guy regardless of the odds of actually finding him. I had had an accident that was totally uncalled for and totally unnecessary. Don't get me wrong I never was somebody to get in fights, but this time was one time I was really wanting to find whoever did this and hurt him, good thing I didn't because I was in no shape to be fighting anybody. I highly doubted it was anybody who went to school with me, but I limped up there anyway to see if anybody knew anything and instantly regretted it on arrival. I had aggravated my pulled muscle injuries, and pretty much walked into the school looking like a drunk. My friends were trying to find out who was responsible for the incident but nobody ever found out. It all happened too fast for me to even get a description of the vehicle making filing a police report pretty much impossible. I had a suspect who didn't go to school with me, and had a run in with him before but never had proof he was the perp.

I lasted until 4th period English class before my mom picked me up. I spent the remainder of the day in bed and missed the next day of school. I would be off the bicycle for only 4 days. Though knowing what I know now I actually had no business riding bicycle for a month. I didn't know until a few years later I had suffered a grade 1 concussion. I was suffering from intermittent headaches for weeks following. It was nothing that made me nonfunctional, but having another accident would have definitely not been good for me. Worth noting is my head never took any direct hit other than the bottle strike, and the bottle strike was not hard enough to cause the concussion. The concussion was a result of impact force with the guard rail.

I wouldn't let this accident scare me from riding. People suggested I retire, but I knew I couldn't allow this one incident to terrorize me into giving up something I like.