The Life in My Years

“Renowned Bay Area wildlife photographer robbed of camera at gunpoint outside of Oakland park.”

That was the headline of a story in the June 5th edition of The San Francisco Chronicle.

I was initially made aware of this story while watching the local television news (link here). Stories of photographers getting relieved of their prized, and very expensive equipment, while still relatively rare, are becoming more and more prevalent, and each new story gives me more pause.

This most recent story has left me shaken. Maybe it’s because of the fact that the photographer is in his early seventies and I’m right on the cusp of seventy. It wasn’t so many years ago that I felt less vulnerable. Now, in my older age, I’ve begun to appreciate the feeling of vulnerability that can dog those of us who are getting up there. In retrospect, whatever fearlessness that I might have felt during my younger days was grounded in a large measure of foolishness. Regardless of age, we’re all potential victims, especially when we’re packing around thousands of dollars worth of photographic equipment. Or maybe it’s just that, over the years, trying to go about a normal life has become more and more dangerous.

Maybe it’s the location of the incident that’s left me rattled. Joaquin Miller Park is high in the hills above Oakland’s urban center, part of a chain of forested regional parks where I used to go running. That I’ve always considered the regional parks to be crime free havens is another example of misplaced assurance (just ask any female jogger who carries pepper spray or has as her running partner a large dog with a large set of teeth).

There are few things that I enjoy as much as going out on a photo excursion, but, as I hear more and more stories of photographers being mugged, the enjoyment wanes as trepidation increases.

Rules
Over the years I’ve felt the need to establish some rules, which include:

Stay away from the peaks. There is no better city panorama to be found in San Francisco than the view from Twin Peaks. That said, I wouldn’t go to Twin Peaks with or without my camera, ever since the story broke a few years ago about a television news crew that was robbed of their equipment at gunpoint. Once a romantic overlook, Twin Peaks has become known more for muggings than for the view.
No photo art at the Fine Arts. I stopped going to the Palace of Fine Arts when word got out among muggers and smash and grab thieves that the area is a target rich environment. The Palace of Fine Arts has long been a favorite background for wedding photos, but, in recent years, photographers have increasingly declined to accept jobs to shoot at the Palace of Fine Arts.
Travel light. While filming a course at San Francisco’s Crissy Field, an instructor for the photo website Kelby One, set up his camera on a tripod, walked a short distance away and then watched helplessly as a car stopped and a passenger jumped from the car and stole the gear. Recognizing that the more I carry, the more vulnerable and profitable I appear, I assiduously consider what equipment I need and what I can do without. Am I really going to use that tripod? Do I need a macro today?
Know when to say no. When I feel like the environment might be a bit iffy, I’ll shoot from my car or just blow off the shot and the location completely.
Stop, look and listen. Wherever I am, I always keep my head on a swivel, not an easy or a pleasant thing to have to do when trying to engage in photography.
NOakland. Oakland has long been 100 percent out of the question. Part of the reason for that is that I’m more acquainted with San Francisco than I am with Oakland. Most of the reason is that Oakland is, plain and simple, more dangerous
Strip down (the car). Whether I’m going out for a photo op or just visiting San Francisco, or Oakland, or San Jose, I empty my car COMPLETELY (I mean COMPLETELY. No spare dimes in the cup holder) and I make sure that I’ve left the storage area in my hatchback uncovered. If it’s too warm for the jacket I brought, I stuff the jacket in a bag and shove the bag in the spare tire compartment.

Quitin’ time?
Maybe it’s time to just give up on San Francisco. In researching for this post, I came across an article in the website PetaPixel documenting incidents which illustrate that you aren’t even safe once you’re in your car and driving home. Thieves will follow you to your car and then follow you home or, as in one instance noted in the article, thieves are brazen enough to break into your car as you’re in the car, stuck in traffic. If I want a hobby with the potential of getting myself killed I can take up base jumping or wingsuit flying. Unless you’re a correspondent in a war zone, photography should be safe and benign.

Vox pop
But, back to the story about Mr. Roach, the wildlife photographer. Mr. Roach was gratified to find that, in the end, some of his faith in the goodness of people was restored. His post on the website Nextdoor, relating his experience, was met with a wave of community support, along with a GoFundMe campaign started by a total stranger. As of this writing, the GoFundMe raised over $13,723 before being paused. That’s the good news.

The discouraging news comes via Twitter, the sociopath Elon Musk’s personal manure pile (No, I do not have a Twitter account. I do lurk though, whenever I feel the urge to go dumpster diving). The comments are a sad commentary.

Not at all unexpected were suggestions that Mr. Roach wouldn’t have been robbed if had he been carrying his own gun. Of course, this is America where a gun is often viewed as the universal elixir for societal inconveniences. Certainly, Mr. Roach could’ve carried a gun but what good would it have done given that he was surprised by the assailants who were themselves armed? The fact that the assailants were gun toting teens (that were likely stolen from “law abiding” and, apparently, careless citizens) is just more proof of how serious America’s gun problem has become; a problem that won’t be solved by putting more guns in circulation.

Other commenters suggested that it’s all the fault of the “liberal left,” and its “soft on crime,” policies. It is true, that property crimes are lower on the lists of both police and prosecutors.

Maybe Mr. Roach came closest to getting it right when he said, “They were young kids, clearly somebody’s telling them to do what they’re doing and teaching them what to do. They’re as much victims as I am, if you ask me.”

So, whatta ya gonna do about it?
As I took my walk this morning (sans camera and with my large dog) I considered the problem and possible solutions.

Walk around strapped? A civilized society that relies on the arming of its citizens in order to secure civility has stopped being civilized. What does it say about a society in which people almost feel compelled to arm themselves in order to feel some sense of security?

More police presence, more investigative work, more arrests and more prosecutions? Sure. But we’d better be ready to spend more on police, on prosecutors and on prisons. We’ll have to accept the idea that prisons may sprout up near our neighborhoods. And don’t start whining about the cost of incarceration. Want to avoid recidivism? Stop allowing prisons to be warehouses and be willing to spend more money on rehabilitation and job training.

Mark Twain put it succinctly, “Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It’s like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won’t fatten the dog.”

Maybe we should spend more money and more energy on the front end and improve schools, value teachers and pay them accordingly while generally increasing opportunity. Maybe we should stop and consider the repercussions of our growing income inequality.

In the meantime, I guess I’ll just limit my photo excursions even more and keep hoping that I won’t end up as the subject of a news story about a photographer being mugged.

To my readers (And the questions don’t necessarily have to relate specifically to photography):
Do you feel vulnerable when you’re out shooting?
Has that sense of vulnerability increased over the years?
What precautions, if any, do you take?
Have you eliminated places and sites that you once thought safe that you now consider too risky?
What do you think are some solutions?