Seattle man arrested after photographing open ATM

Photo by Shane Becker



A Seattle man was handcuffed and thrown in a jail cell after photographing an open ATM with his cell phone over the weekend.

Shane Becker, a self-described anarchist, said he took the photo while two security guards were refilling the ATM in Rei, a store that specializes in outdoor sporting goods.

He said the security guards closed the machine and then demanded his identification, which he refused to hand over.

We go back and forth about why I took it and don’t see it as a problem versus why they think it’s somehow threatening their personal safety and their property’s safety. They’re trying to convince me to give my ID to the Loomis guys to write their report. I’m trying to convince them to go fuck themselves that I didn’t do anything illegal or otherwise wrong and that Loomis doesn’t have any jurisdiction to compel me to give them my ID. Round and round, over and over. Until…

Seattle Police arrived on the scene and brought up 9/11 as the reason why he should not have photographed the open ATM.

When he questioned whether 9/11 was a justifiable reason to not take photographs, one of the officers handcuffed him.

Meanwhile, another customer in the store photographed him getting arrested but that person was not harassed.

The officers transported him to a precinct where he sat in a cell for 30 minutes.

They released him with the orders that he not return to the store for a year or else be arrested for trespassing.

Becker is now hoping to see the photo that was taken of him during his arrest.

-30-

I am a multimedia journalist who has been fighting a lengthy legal battle after having photographed Miami police against their wishes in Feb. 2007. Please help the fight by donating to my Legal Defense Fund in the top left sidebar, which helps pay for the thousands of dollars I’ve acrued in debt since my arrest. To keep updated on the latest articles, join my networks at Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed.

Photo by Shane Becker



A Seattle man was handcuffed and thrown in a jail cell after photographing an open ATM with his cell phone over the weekend.

Shane Becker, a self-described anarchist, said he took the photo while two security guards were refilling the ATM in Rei, a store that specializes in outdoor sporting goods.

He said the security guards closed the machine and then demanded his identification, which he refused to hand over.

We go back and forth about why I took it and don’t see it as a problem versus why they think it’s somehow threatening their personal safety and their property’s safety. They’re trying to convince me to give my ID to the Loomis guys to write their report. I’m trying to convince them to go fuck themselves that I didn’t do anything illegal or otherwise wrong and that Loomis doesn’t have any jurisdiction to compel me to give them my ID. Round and round, over and over. Until…

Seattle Police arrived on the scene and brought up 9/11 as the reason why he should not have photographed the open ATM.

When he questioned whether 9/11 was a justifiable reason to not take photographs, one of the officers handcuffed him.

Meanwhile, another customer in the store photographed him getting arrested but that person was not harassed.

The officers transported him to a precinct where he sat in a cell for 30 minutes.

They released him with the orders that he not return to the store for a year or else be arrested for trespassing.

Becker is now hoping to see the photo that was taken of him during his arrest.

-30-

I am a multimedia journalist who has been fighting a lengthy legal battle after having photographed Miami police against their wishes in Feb. 2007. Please help the fight by donating to my Legal Defense Fund in the top left sidebar, which helps pay for the thousands of dollars I’ve acrued in debt since my arrest. To keep updated on the latest articles, join my networks at Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed.

Support our Mission

Help us build a database of bad cops

For almost 15 years, PINAC News has remained active despite continuous efforts by the government and Big Tech to shut us down by either arresting us for lawful activity or by restricting access to our readers under the pretense that we write about “social issues.”

Since we are forbidden from discussing social issues on social media, we have created forums on our site to allow us to fulfill our mission with as little restriction as possible. We welcome our readers to join our forums and support our mission by either donating, volunteering or both.

Our plan is to build a national database of bad cops obtained from public records maintained by local prosecutors. The goal is to teach our readers how to obtain these lists to ensure we cover every city, county and state in the country.

After all, the government has made it clear it will not police the police so the role falls upon us.

It will be our most ambitious project yet but it can only be done with your help.

But if we succeed, we will be able to keep innocent people out of prison.

Please make a donation below or click on side tab to learn more about our mission.

Subscribe to PINAC

Bypass Big Tech censorship.

Carlos Miller
Carlos Millerhttps://pinacnews.com
Editor-in-Chief Carlos Miller spent a decade covering the cop beat for various newspapers in the Southwest before returning to his hometown Miami and launching Photography is Not a Crime aka PINAC News in 2007. He also published a book, The Citizen Journalist's Photography Handbook, which is available on Amazon.

Leave a Reply

- Advertisement -

Latest articles