I love the reason they’re doing it this time – an employee from the photo department called the cops on a family that took bath-time photos of their children. Then Arizona Child Protective Services was called to take the kids away. The parents got them back eventually, but still.
The Peoria couple’s attorney said Walmart turned the photos over to police and the Demarees were not allowed to see their children for several days and didn’t regain custody for a month while the state investigated.
Neither parent was charged with sexual abuse and they regained custody of their children — then ages 1 1/2, 4 and 5 — but the Demarees claim the incident inflicted lasting harm.
The couple is seeking undetermined monetary damages from both Walmart and the state and have requested a jury trial.
Richard Treon, the lawyer for the Demarees, said the images of the girls were part of a group of 144 photographs taken mostly during the family’s vacation in San Diego.
Wal-Mart’s under fire for not making their policies more clear about what kind of photos they will and will not process. They are legally within their rights to involve police if they think a photo crosses a line. The trouble comes in when ordinary people start drawing the lines any ole where — get somebody just a little bit prudish or religious prone to over-reacting in charge of the machinery and the most innocuous photographs can raise a red flag.
The other suit names
Arizona, Peoria and the state Attorney General’s Office as defendants, claiming that employees from each defamed them by telling friends, family members and co-workers that they had “sexually abused” their children by taking pornographic pictures of them.
That would qualify as slander, right? The kids would have trauma enough from prolonged separation anxieties. It’s just good they were too young to understand exactly how their parents were getting wrongfully stigmatized.
I don’t get the purpose of bath photos but I know my parents took them. And they didn’t do their own developing so I know at least one stranger got a free look at my naked chest or tushie. Well, no, I guess he or she would have been paid to look at it. Nobody develops for free.
I wish people would think before they act. More than that, I wish fewer people would think the worst first and then act irrationally. Is everyone scared they’ll be shot in the face if they ask people direct questions, or are they just worried they’ll be sued if they say the wrong thing?
Oh. Right…
My suggestion — slap a pre-printed sticker on the photo envelope: “For policy reasons we are unable to process (insert file numbers). Sorry for the inconvenience.” If anyone asks why the fuck not, explain why nudity policies exist for photo developing studios. With luck they’ll just be embarrassed. It probably never occurred to them that anyone would consider soapy play-time bath pictures to be pornography. And if they do get their freak on (as customers denied their “rights” sometimes do) then involve the police, if only to stop the clerk from getting assaulted.
Maybe next time the Demarees should try the instant “Do It Your Damn Self” machines so those hoopy froods snoopy prudes behind the counter lose the opportunity to voice their righteous indignation. Or just foot the bill for a decent home printer and avoid risking a scandal altogether.
