please empty your brain below

Thought I recognised it when I saw an open Sun in Waitrose the other day!
Knowing (as you must now) that the tabloids will find and expose/exploit this racist mug, would you make the same decisions again?

I do not seek to judge, but I am curious.
People like this must be confronted.

Tolerating the intolerance will do nothing to improve things - it'll just give the racists free reign to step up their hatred.
This is your 15 minutes of 'fame'.

It may well be that someone who travels around doing London reports about things, will be more likely to encounter a news story, the internet made it easy to distribute the image widely, then the domino effect took over, as more people, in turn informed more people.

Considering your reflective mood about a photo you took in Romford, I doubt you'll throw your hat into the ring for either the Tory or Labour leadership elections!
Your photo was used by two papers and one news programs here in the Netherlands.
"Thought I recognised it when I saw an open Sun in Waitrose the other day"

:-)

Open newspapers in Waitrose are such a useful way to find out what the other classes are up to.
I learnt my lesson when my reply to your "Theobalds Grove" wrong spelling tweet was picked up by the Standard. I didn't want my name in the paper so got it removed. I certainly wouldn't wish to be in the position you've found yourself with the Romford photo.
You did - I think - the right thing at each stage.
This reminded me of Greg Stekelman's experience with his "Gandalf & Magneto" T-shirt pic https://themanwhofellasleep.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/im-not-gandalf-or-magneto/

Not making any point, it was just a memory you triggered.
My major reaction is a sense of how hypocritical the Sun is. I have seen so many Sun stories designed to encourage exactly this kind of T shirt to appear - heard reactions from Sun readers to stories designed to elicit racist responses, and then the Sun turns on a man who is, no doubt, a reader. To me Fascists are not little people with knee-jerk reactions, but rich, powerful people who exploit and encourage that little man to indulge his indiscretions for their own political purposes, and then turn on him sanctimoniously. Just don't buy the Sun folks!
And if he is tracked down and himself his flat attacked - what then? Who shares responsibility? Him, for wearing an offensive garment? The Sun for narrowing down the search such that with a little more research his address must be easily find-able? Or DG for tweeting the picture?
DG did absolutely the right thing at every stage.
No question you did the right thing DG.
We seem to have been thrown into a Britain where there seem to be no unequivocally good choices left, just more or less worse ones.
Pretending this isn't happening would be far, far worse.
If not you it would have been someone else sooner or later!
A guy with that shirt and that hair will surely attract attention, so I wouldn't feel guilty for being the one to expose him.

If he didn't want people to know his feelings he wouldn't have worn that message spread across his front, at a public event!
fascinating saga, DG, which I think you've handled very well

what bothers me most is that obviously this guy purchased the T-shirt ready printed, I doubt very much he had it custom-printed ... so rather than (or maybe as well as) tracking down the wearer of the T-shirt, why isn't the Sun et al tracking down the manufacturer(s)
Same photo (no attribute)on the Daily Mail site this morning, with links to the Sun article.
Well done DG - I agree with other posters that you've done a great service allowing your photo to be distributed widely as it has been.

I'm surprised at the Guardian not attributing it properly. They do make a point of apologising for errors and have an errors and corrections column.

Now this man has been identified, I wonder if the police have visited to have a word?
A friend recently tweeted a photo of a plane being struck by lightning on its way to Heathrow - and after her phone blew up with Twitter notifications, ended up licensing it via a photo agency.

I wonder if you could retrospectively bill the papers for image use (and then put the proceeds towards a kitten-themed party for your readers)?
Thank you so much DG for doing this. We are entering a time of terrible risk and this sort of stupid thuggery needs to be confronted.
The picture even made an online Icelandic newspaper which I came across by chance when having a look at their coverage of another recent event concerning that country(!). Not that I understand Icelandic, but pictures and even headlines speak a thousand words.

@Brian - I think you've put that across very well echoing my sentiments concerning that "newspaper."

DG - Yes I think you're correct the way you've done it, but you could possibly have omitted the link to the Sun article in today's blog?
I agree with Brian about the Sun's hypocrisy. I had a look at the Saturday edition of the rag. Page after page of xenophobic hate.
Right thing - no question. Pity it was The Sun (in some respects) but this is only the beginning. If 'new' or 'uncovered' racism is not managed-down now, it will grip and we will end up with a nasty (or similar sounding word) shouty little man with no previous mandate telling us what to do and who to do it to.
Yes I wonder where he got the t-shirt and who is selling it.

I think most of us understand exactly what "send them back" is supposed to mean, yet it doesn't make sense at all, but this man wouldn't understand or care even if you tried to explain it to him.
I think it was important to include the link to the article from the Sun as it adds context to their discussion.

If you are worried about the google juice you might give a website when you link something you can always add rel=nofollow to the link
Wow Diamond Geezer this photo has been seen more the Theobalds grove one.
Pshaw, so unimportant compared with BOW ROUNDABOUT- I demand an update.

dg writes: Tomorrow Theo, tomorrow.
There should never be a problem with pictures of people and things taken in public, particularly at a public event. If anyone seeing the picture had been standing in that street at that time, that's exactly what they would have seen.
A photographer (but not my day job) who also works in the publishing industry writes.

The photo moved on the AP wire at 16:30 on the 27th. It was described (AP's words) as a "handout".

From that point on, any media group that subscribes to the AP wire (the Sun and most other papers do) can use it for free without restriction.

So this from DG is irrelevant: "It's an uncomfortable feeling to have taken a photo that's led to the t-shirt wearer being identified ". Because he gave away all control over the picture at that point (assuming that's what he agreed to).
There would, by the by, have been nothing to stop him telling AP that picture was not to be made available to the Sun or (insert hated newspaper of choice).

And Martin's question: "I wonder if you could retrospectively bill the papers for image use" is answered by the above point. Providing that the publication sourced it from AP, or anyone AP sub-licensed it to. And if you waived all rights on the photo you can't stop it being sub-licensed.

The interesting question is where the Guardian got it from and when?

The Guardian shafted freelance photographers a long time ago. So it might be worth a shot across their bows.

It's faintly ironic that the Sun (pantomime boo hiss) probably used the picture legally while the Graun (upholder of all things decent, yadda yadda) might not have done.
But what dpes "moved on the AP wire" mean? Where did AP get it from?

The lesson, as always, is that whatever the legal position, in practice once you share information you no longer have full control over how it is used.

And, of course, don't shoot the messenger.
You could have reminded him that the EU has always benefited us by providing two-way traffic and that it could be concluded, with tongue in cheek perhaps, that his t-shirt suggests that Spain and France should now send back the many thousands of UK citizens, including pensioners, that choose to live or retire in those countries.
Hmm. I wonder if his Tee shirt was made in Britain?
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