Watching gear get destroyed is tough.
What’s even harder is watching someone get harassed, violently, for just doing their job. But such are some of the everyday challenges faced by some in the photography field, and sometimes the reasons for the anger are completely irrational and inexplicable.
Life is not easy if you’re a journalist, and especially if you’re holding a camera or standing in front of one. For some reason, people get “triggered” by cameras and that can either result in a mild case display of insanity or a frightening assault.
One WQAD reporter found himself on the receiving end of seemingly random rage as a then-unknown man confront him and his cameraman then proceeded to smash their camera on video. Luckily for them, locals were able to identify the assailant based upon this footage.
You can watch a video of the attack over on YouTube by clicking here.
The attacker, identified by FStoppers as 45-year-old Brett R. Laermans of Rock Island, Illinois, has a court date scheduled for July 13 thanks to his performance on May 1st of this year as seen above.
So far, no word on why this man was upset other than he “didn’t want to be in the shot” according to FStoppers. As we said, things aren’t that safe out there for journalists anyway. We can only imagine what crews in war zones and politically sensitive areas deal with for their jobs.
Have you ever encountered someone upset while you were taking pictures? How did you handle the situation? Let us know your experience in the comments section below.
Don’t forget to check out our other photography news articles here on Light Stalking by clicking this link right here.