I guess what sets people off was that he was being super in-your-face and creepy. I did street photography for a while and a lot of it was about approaching pe

I guess what sets people off was that he was being super in-your-face and creepy. I did street photography for a while and a lot of it was about approaching people nicely and asking, or surreptitiously taking photos. I try to observe photography laws and made sure any photos of private buildings were taken from a public street, although I did get asked by the security guard at a mall to please move to the public sidewalk one time when I walked onto a parking lot to get the shot I wanted. As I understand the laws in California at the time, photos taken from public property do not need releases from the property owners nor from people unless you intend to use the photos commercially, although I did not explicitly research the laws myself.