"Photographer" between for videoing police in NYC

[fretlessdavis]

Anyone else see this yet?

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/...y-and-tries-to-get-youtube-to-pull-the-video/

Pretty disturbing. As long as it's in public, and you're not impeding the police, you have every right to photograph and video police.

I have a friend that's a Law Enforcement officer for the NPS who doesn't mind being recorded or photographed, and basically from his interactions, has determined that any police officer that hates being recorded doesn't want to be held accountable, or is knowingly breaking policy and/or violating rights.

Thoughts?

 

[gone]

Your friend may be all right, but I don't like the cops and it's because of things like this. Many of them abuse their power. Having said that, hasn't anyone ever heard of telephoto lenses? Why would I get close and take photos of the cops unless they were way out of line, in which case how do I think they would react? Better to take a few snaps as you're quickly walking away and call 911 and tell them what's going on, and that way it's recorded (hopefully).

Along w/ wanna be cops, my other pet peeve is wanna be press photographers. I have enough experience to stay away from armed police that are already stressed out. Being "a New York photographer" means nothing. To me, that's a stupid person butting in where he doesn't belong and asking for trouble. Like I said, if there's police abuse, there are ways to record that safely and have it reported. You have to use common sense. Or at least be smarter than the cops. Anyone that isn't deserves everything that comes their way.

 

[fretlessdavis]

Yeah, same here. If something is going on that's not right, I'd willing take a few snaps, get the hell out of there, and report it to police. If I wasn't satisfied with the answer, I might go to a news source. Personally standing there videoing a cop is probably not the smartest thing, but it's sad to see police acting like this...

 

[snapguy]

cop shop

I have generally gotten along very well with law enforcement officers ever since I was a beginning reporter for a major metro newspaper 50 years ago. A police chief in small town where I was the editor of a local newspaper invited me to join him on the board of directors of the local Boys and Girls Club. On the other hand, one of New York's less-than-Finest slugged me with a police baton in 1970 for taking a photo he thought would make his fellow Boys In Blue look bad. The irony was that the photo made his cop pals look hard working while using a ton of restraint under pressure. The cop was a lousy stick man. He hit the top of my electronic flash and the baton just grazed my head. In good old El Lay a film company was usurping a public area and so I took some photos of the "stars." I was harassed by the crew and the director (a former celeb photog!) and then one of the "stars" of Starsky and Wretch threatened to beat me up. None of that worked so they got one of their hired dogs to harass me. In Holyweird local cops are allowed to pimp themselves out on their days off to be security guards for film and tv locations. They wear the official uniform, badge and gun but they are working for some sleazeball film or tv company, not for the public who pays them there real salary. I told the officer he was a Rent-A-Cop and had no authority or right to harass me. He left, too. By the way, I also told the director, who I knew personally, that this kind of Nazi-style denial of civil and personal rights was the reason he was a refugee from the anti-Communist Hungarian Revolution.
The problem is that the police are organized and will often overlook crimes in their own ranks. And photographers are not organized.
We need to see more bad guys getting sued and more pro-civil rights legislation for photographers.
Thomas Jefferson said "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." When is the last time you paid your dues?

 

[Prof_Pixel]

We had a couple of local cases like this. One of the problems with such 'photographers' is they NEVER capture the bad behavior on the part of the people that initiate the police response. I don't mean to support bad behavior on the part of the police, but I also don't support bad behavior from the 'mob'.

There is also the Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle effect that (loosely) says the process of measuring something distorts it. The mere presence of a camera being used in such a situation can lead to increased bad behavior on the part of the mob.