I'm surprised at the nonchalant dismissal.

Everybody gets in a dizzy when some bill may or may not infringe on the 2nd amendment, but the same response is noticeably absent when it comes to photographers' rights.

Even though photographers are legally allowed to photograph a government building from public property, why the dismissal when the government is in contempt of her own laws?

The steady erosion of personal rights and laissez faire attitude towards government behavior is what lead to the PRISM situation to begin with.

More info:

http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/you-have-every-right-photogr...

It kind of is, considering modern times. The concept of a "secret" government facility is not an unknown thing anymore. Everybody in the area, and possibly anyone interested in such things, knows the building is a government building. People may not know what goes on in there but it's a known government building. Shooing people away from taking pictures of the entrance doesn't really do anything other than annoy people. Unless they are chasing down every person who might have taken a picture and seizing the film then it is a pointless exercise. Chances are you can get all the info you need from Google Maps, especially if the street view was done to the area.

It's like the humorous attempts of the government to keep Groom Lake a secret. I lived in Vegas for a time and it seemed obvious that everyone knew for years something government was going on out there. From the unmarked white planes that left the airport, the special gate at the airport that only certain people could use that had guards that refused to answer any questions, the spot overlooking Groom Lake itself that was open to the public for years that allowed you to see everything, the photographs of nuclear mushroom clouds in the distance with the Strip in the foreground (people even had parties based around the bombing schedules!), and the modern method of using Google Maps to look at the area to see the runways and bomb craters.

My favorite example is the old movies where characters believed you were a spy if you happened to know that the CIA was headquartered in Langley, VA. Come on, everybody knows that.

Shooing people away from taking pictures of a nondescript entrance to a nondescript building is just a show of force and authority.

It is news when actually they are allowed to and their own government is lying to them about the law.

I can see concern of people being photographed entering and leaving the building, but even then it's silly. If someone wants to know something of these people then just follow them from work. If the person's identity and involvement of what's going on inside needs to be secret then they shouldn't be seen at all entering or leaving the facility.

Also, it isn't that photography "is" a crime but that it "can" be a crime.

What's with the weird arrangement of what appears to be traffic cones in the old parking lot to the east of the building? Plus, why did they build a fence that cuts the east parking lot in half?