Photographers at Lennox Hill Hospital This Week — Page 2

what I meant was that paparazzi are just one more step down a dehumanizing road. Ron Galella and Harvey Levin are not Mengele and Eichmann, but they are a symptom of a disease in this society that leads to the dehumanization of man.

Forty years ago, the photo of the Vietnamese Police officer executing the Viet Cong prisoner with a pistol to the head was shocking; nowadays, I see kids wearing T-shirts with the photo silk-screened on them.

Ever hear of Von Dutch? How many of us have work, or know someone who wears Von Dutch label clothes? Did you know Von Dutch was actually Kenneth Howard, an alcoholic racing car pinstriper and gunsmith, who was also a bitter, violent, anti-semetic, racist, homophobic Neo-Nazi? Hit the internets and see for yourself.

The problem is, we let things slip by, we're too busy, we have tickets to the evening performance and we miss the problems surrounding us.

I have friends who suffered a great, horrific tragedy in their lives and within minutes, despite the fact that they led normal, ordinary lives, their faces were on every TV channel, thrust there without their permission because they were "news." The press left when the news went cold several hours later. The ramifications of the press' intrusions lasted for decades.

Liam Neeson just lost his wife in perhaps one of the worst ways possible. He has two kids to raise and his heart has been ripped out. Hundreds of people showed up at th wake to say they cared. The press showed up to say they could care less.

Literally, where's the humanity?

---

April Saul...I think you have a point there. The pendulum always swings back to the other side. Just like the "free love" era brought us AIDS, and other diseases and disgust with blatant casual sex, this might just have to happen for people to realize (AND appreciate) a better way to live and behave.

April Saul, I truly believe we deserve better, but we are being fed scraps and told it's fillet. We have to start asking, no demanding some respect in the world. If you don't see someone as a human being, but as a target, it makes it easier to snap photos at his/her moment of grief as just business. If you do that it makes it easier to accept crime in the streets as the luck of the draw. If you accept that, it makes it easier to accept a gunned down cop was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and when they come for you, we all accept that you must have done something to deserve it and we all turn away as you scream for help as they throw you in a cattle car...

Sure, I am exaggerating, but the paparazzi are just another of the many steps toward a world, believe me, you do not want to consider.

And why didn't someone get in those photographer's faces and tell them to lay off? Again, where is the humanity?

---

In the subject of disrespect, I have a different story regarding Richardson's death. I was looking through pictures of Natasha the other day and my brother said, "Oh is that the lady that died going down the bunny trail? hahaha. She's so stupid." This really hurt because it showed how disrespectful people can be. It just shows how most kids seem to think these days, in a mostly careless manner.

---

Yes, April, but what you are doing is using a sword to vanquish a villain. What these other guys are doing is using that same sword to subjugate the masses (well, you know what I mean.)

I never said all photographers are scum, I said a certain, VERY SMALL subset within are scum. This mentality of trying to get that "crying shot" of Liam Neeson is identical to the guys who photographed Princess Diana in the car wreck - after stalking her like big game and chasing her like a pack of hyenas.

I've seen the mob go after Britany Spears first hand AND Lindsay Lohan and believe me, these guys were swine. The pushed regular citizens out of the way, they chased them on foot, on motorcycles and in SUVs with tinted windows. They pull U-Turns in traffic, they go up on the sidewalk and they race down the streets at 60 in a 20 zone. They stalk these young women, use ladders to peer over their fences, bore holes in the walls in bathrooms, FOLLOW them into the bathroom, into stores, they flash their cameras, utterly blinding all sorts of other traffic and now, they are employing children as young as 13 who are prowling the streets at night with nothing but a camera and a cell phone. They bribe everyone in the service industries and some police and security - security can be a real joke. They have networks of informants who allert them to the locations of the stars, they go through their garbage, use cell phone eavesdrop equipment and they'll rough up anyone who tells them to go away or knock it off.

Many of the agencies import photographers from Russia or Isreal - these guys have the attitude of storm troopers and utterly no respect for the law.

I can't tell you the stories I've heard out here in Los Angeles and someone is going to get killed before this is over (ie before Chief Bratton mans up and does something about this situation.)

I am glad you are a compassionate person who uses a talent to better mankind, but even you must agree that there are those who aim a camera the way others aim a weapon.

---

are you deaf? Listen to the TMZ site videos and see how many foreign accents you hear.

Ie had to stand there and watch these guys at work and I can't tell you how many times they've been discussing stuff in Hebrew or in Russian (and yes, I do know the diference.) Murrdoch used to import Australians to work at his papers. He said they were more "rough-and-tumble. Now, I guess they're importing different specialists.

And I have no fixation with the Holocaust, it was just the subject of conversation here.

Check this out:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/paparazzi-admit-pursuit--of-britney-has-gone-too-far-777190.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/oct/16/local/me-paparazzi16

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/02/11/2008-02-11_paparazzi_fear_britney_spears_shoots.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/23/BAGMSFB5V51.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

---

Updated On: 3/22/09 at 10:20 AM

Okay, Allofmylife, I have to say that I definitely understand your posts more now that I realize you're from L.A. where paparazzi problems are legendary! Having read the articles you linked to--interesting stuff--and seen paparazzi in action a couple of years ago while I was visiting a friend at Malibu, I do have to say that although the experience of Reese Witherspoon sounds horrific, there's other famous people that seem to have a more symbiotic relationship with the photographers. One day during my visit, I watched Paris Hilton do a little dance with the photogs who staked out her beach house...she'd appear and re-appear at regular intervals, and delight in posing this way and that. It drove her Malibu neighbors crazy, but she clearly enjoyed the attention. Too bad it can't be confined to the ones who seem to thrive on it...

I doubt anyone was surprised to learn that the photographers showed up at the funeral and that pictures of Redgrave and Neeson were taken in the cemetery during a very private moment. Anything for a buck.

A family asks for privacy during these painful moments, but it is ignored in the name of celebrity. When the tabloids began to pay big bucks to get that get-it-at-all-costs picture they created a monstrous situation and one which many mercenary photogs were happy to accept. I won't be surprised to see pictures of the autopsy in the tabloids.

---