It was a sunny day in Washington DC, but it was no ordinary day. The downtown area was cordoned off by riot police and the place was crawling with cops. The demonstrations against the IMF and the World Bank had begun the day before, but were planned to continue over the weekend. It wasn't a great time to be in Washington.

During the morning, I wandered downtown with my camera and mingled with both the cops and the demonstrators setting up for the action. I quickly realised that I didn't want to be hanging around if things got too active as the cops were heavily armed and looked menacing.

Around midday, I decided to take a relaxing ride on the Metro Red Line to see if I could see any interesting locations to photograph either the suburban trains or the CSX freights that ran through Washington DC. I planned to ride to the end of the line at Glenmont and then back to Union Station.

The journey to Glenmont was very uneventful. On my return trip back to Union Station, I noticed the intermodal interchange facilities at Fort Totten and made an impulsive decision to get off the train and take a look at the bus/rail interchange. This was to be a fateful decision.

I am always on the lookout for good locations to photograph railway action. The set up at Fort Totten was interesting with the interchange of the Red and Green Lines, the bus stops and taxi rank, plus the CSX heavy freight line. I'd seen a park with a small hill behind the bus stop from the train and as I left the station, I looked to see if I could get to a suitable vantage point to take a photo of the interchange. Mindful of security concerns, I selected a spot well away from the station property and some 5-6 metres outside the perimeter fence.

I was about 30-35m away from the station proper, on what looked to be public parkland, so I didn't consider it necessary to seek permission to take a general photograph of the bus/rail interchange. After taking photographs of the interchange with Metro trains and buses, I decided to wait for a while to see if a CSX train might pass by. At 13:47 hrs I photographed a CSX intermodal train headed towards DC - click to view the photograph.

Having got the shot I wanted of big blue locomotives on the noisy end of a freight train, I decided to head back to the Metro station and catch the next Red Line train to Union Station.

And then it all started. As I entered the bus stop at the bottom of the hill, I was rushed by a big Afro-American male in civilian clothes, wearing a baseball cap. He was very excited and screaming at me like a banshee - yelling something about the Police and drop my bags. My first instinct was that I was being mugged and I wasn't going to drop either my camera bag or my small backpack for anyone, certainly not this mean-looking guy.

In a flash, the guy grabbed me and threw me forcibly to the ground, yelling at me to drop my bags and not to move. Boy, was he pumped! His eyes were wide open and the veins in his neck were bulging with the adrenalin rush and he was yelling rapid-fire instructions at me.

I was quickly surrounded by 7or 8 other cops in uniform, some of whom had guns drawn, and some who were clearly very pleased that their mate had "got the guy".

I had no idea that I was being watched by transit cops and I certainly wasn't expecting to be jumped by a plainclothes cop. It later turned out that the thing he was waving at me was his badge! First time I'd ever seen a cop's badge.

The cop later identified himself as Officer Green and claimed that he had to use force because I had ignored his instructions. Funny, even if I had understood what he was saying, he gave me no time to respond before he jumped me and wrestled me to the ground.

The cops forced me to remain pinned down on the wet ground for around 15 mins while they searched both my pockets and my bags. They got very excited when they found my camera and my photographic notebook.

The attack on me was a complete surprise - I hadn't been trespassing and I hadn't committed any crime or misdemeanour. Earlier in the day when I was wandering round downtown DC taking photos of the cops and demonstrators, I wasn't mistaken for an IMF protester or a terrorist by the hundreds of cops on duty. None of the dozens of Metro Transit Police who were on duty in the many Metro Stations I passed through and the trains that I travelled on considered me to be a terrorist, a mugger, pickpocket or graffiti artist.

The officers had obviously been watching me through binoculars for the entire time I was on the hill in the park. They demanded to see my notebook to see what I had been writing after taking the photographs. All he found in relation to Fort Totten was the following: "Fort Totten - interchange, red line, green line, buses & NS/CSX". It also had "13:20 CSX manifest" and "13:47 7305/7347/79? CSX intermodal". There was no record of the times of WMATA trains.

The officer got very excited when he found a long list of train numbers and times - I couldn't get him to understand that they were iron ore trains in the very remote Pilbara region in northwest Australia. The numbers had been recorded during a recent trip, but he had no idea about Australia, let alone the Pilbara.

He got even more excited when he found a reference to Union Station on a previous page. Had he bothered to look at the header on the page it said "Chicago Wed CTA Transit card $3.80". The only reference to Union Station (Chicago) was that I purchased a bottle of coke for $2.80!

Some how all this trivia provided perverse evidence for the officer's conspiracy theory that I was some kind of subversive or terrorist. They must have been feeling left out of the downtown demo action and managed to concoct a fantasy world scenario in which I was some kind of threat.

I had my photograph taken twice, once on a Polaroid camera and then on a 35mm SLR. I watched in amazement as the Field Training Officer attempted to photograph pages of my small Spirax notebook with his Polaroid camera. I offered to help by taking shots with my digital camera, but he persisted - goodness only knows what the shots were like!

During the interrogation, I tried in vain to establish my credentials, but was totally ignored as I was questioned about the notes in my notebook. I mentioned that I knew the CEO of WMATA and had tried to make an appointment to see him on this trip. This was met with derision and was followed by a torrent of further questions about where I was staying, how long had I been in Washington, etc. When I told them I was staying at the Capital Hilton on 16th Street, they accused me of stealing someone's identity - how they wanted to believe their own theory!

While some of the officers seemed to accept that I was indeed who I said I was, the Field Training Officer and a colleague proceeded to search the hillside where I had been standing, further reinforcing the fact that they had been watching me very closely. What on earth did they expect to find left on the hillside by a guy taking photographs and writing a few scribbled lines of notes?

Some-one obviously went and called the hotel as they began to realise that they may have made a serious error of judgement. The officers began apologising and blaming the IMF protesters and the September 11 terrorists for their actions. I asked Officer Green why they had arrested me when it was obvious that I was not trespassing and that I had not committed a crime. He replied that I was behaving in a suspicious manner and that was justification enough for the rough physical treatment I received.

Having taken thousands of photographs all around the world of a range of various subject matter over the past 30 years, I have never been advised that the act of taking photographs and making notes about those photos constituted suspicious behaviour justifying an assault.

In the few occasions when I have been approached by police while taking photographs on or around railway precincts in various parts of the world, the officers generally behave in a calm and professional manner while requesting information about my activities. Once they've been given a reasonable explanation, they mostly let me go about my business. The exception was in the Peoples' Republic of China, were a certain level of paranoia is always anticipated.

Officer Green put his arm around me like we were buddies and jokingly asked if I was going to sue him. He asked if I had any complaint about his behaviour and that if I did, then I should speak to his Supervisor standing next to me. What a comedian! Complaining to the Supervisor would have been a complete waste of time because throughout the interrogation, she seemed to find my discomfort highly amusing. I was utterly terrified by the whole incident and I didn't share her view that the situation was hilariously funny.

And then came the unanswered questions. If my behaviour was suspicious and it constituted a threat warranting the attention of 8 Metro Transit Police, why did they wait until I came down from the hill and entered the bus stop before confronting me? Why didn't they confront me on the hill? The answer I suspect is that while I was on the hill, I was outside their jurisdiction as I wasn't on Metro property, so they waited until I reached the bus stop to confront me.

Where did the three squad cars and the police paddy van suddenly appear from and how long had they been planning the assault on me while I stood waiting on the hill for the CSX train? Did the presence of the Supervisor and the Field Training Officer indicate that this was some kind of training exercise?

Finally I was released after nearly an hour of this rather terrifying and disturbing farce. A couple of bystanders wanted to know what all the fuss was about and what I'd been up to. I told them to ask the cops because I didn't know!

I was still shaking as I boarded the next Red Line train back to Union Station. On arrival, I dutifully went outside and began taking photographs of the station. A bit like falling off a horse really, gotta get back on as soon as possible before you lose your confidence.

What a day out in Washington - probably should have stayed indoors and watched the action on TV. But then I wouldn't have had this photograph and this great dinner story to tell.

© John Kirk - all rights reserved