Update: Momoko Sudo was able to retrieve the photo. Check it out here.
After taking a photo of a police motorcycle, Momoko Sudo said a Coral Gables police officer stormed up to her, demanded her camera and deleted all the images from her memory card.
Officer “Rodriguez” then removed the memory card and slammed it to the ground, according to Sudo.
The officer then returned the camera and yelled at her to “leave now!”, she said.
The incident occurred on June 10th as Sudo, an artist, was walking around her neighborhood taking photos of plants that were still wet from rainfall.
She asked the officer not to delete any of the other photos, saying he could delete the one of the motorcycle if he wanted. The officer who apparently is named “Rodriguez” responded by deleting all the images.
Now let’s get this straight. No officer has any right to order you to delete any images.
Rodriguez should be fired and made to attend Anger Management classes (the same ones I was ordered to attend because I not only had the audacity to photograph cops against their wishes, I went as far as blogging about it).
Sudo, a Japanese native who lives in Miami, believes the officer first targeted her because of how she was dressed that day. He then seem bothered that her camera settings were in Japanese and not English.
In retrospect, the problem started the very moment the officer saw my outfit. But the more apparent problem started when he saw me taking a picture of the police motorcycle. Immediately I was treated like a terrorist/criminal/illegal/lunatic, with a series of interrogations. My camera was taken, just to be discovered that all display on my camera was in the Japanese language. This offended the police officer, not being able to read a thing, in a great deal, fueling to his xenophobia. He had me help change the language setting to English, and after that he would not let me see what he was doing with my camera. He actually didn’t even allow me to move.
Sudo, whose story is being discussed on www.artblog.com, vowed to continue talking about this abuse of power.
I will not be quiet about this. Abuse of power by law enforcement officers is an ongoing national problem. I don’t care how small and trivial my problem is. I refuse to accept police abuse of any scale and any content.
Sound familiar?
