Photographers (USA), know your rights

NY photographer held for hours by police over flag photo

Thomas Hawk says,

Having been the subject of unwarranted police background checks and being detained when shooting in the streets of Oakland myself, I was dismayed to read about this guy, Ben Hider, who was detained by police for two hours, searched, forced to empty his pockets and frisked. His crime? Taking photos of the flags out in front of the courthouse. Although he was issued an apology this is just unacceptable behavior on the part of the police. Photography is not a crime. Link to ABC News story from White Plains, NY.

Here is Ben Hider's MySpace page. Looks like this is the photograph that got him in trouble.

Reader comment: Ryan says,

In response to the man who was hassled by police taking pictures of the (public!) courthouse ... this link is to an attorney's page whic has a nice PDF that states a photographer's rights. I keep a reduced one in my wallet in the case I am ever confronted, which seems like it may be sooner than later these days. Here's the PDF link.

Posted by Xeni Jardin tech culture journalist and co-editor of the award-winning weblog Boing Boing. Sent to me by Chris Keeley.

Tagged: usa, civil+rights, liberty, photography