with arrest for “assault” if he doe not delete pictures that were taken LEGALLY from a public sidewalk. According to the photographer who posted his story here:

the police try to lecture me about taking pictures of atms and banks, saying there is a “policy”. He also tries to say that the man was muslim and it was against his religion to take photos of him. I tell the police that I did not know he was muslim, and that was after the fact that I took the photo of the atm, which is on the public street. the most important thing was I was assaulted by one of the men. the police didn’t care, they persisted in this line of reasoning saying that there is a policy against shooting atms and banks, and that the atm guys didn’t know who I was or what I was doing.

office [sic] Pryce of the 7th pct then orders me to take my camera out and delete the photos of the atm tech. I tried to explain again, but office pryce tells me that if I refuse to cooperate that he will arrest me for assault. [assault for what? for taking pictures on a public street of somebody who tells me later that he is muslim?]

Officer Pryce of the New York City Police Department is trying to enforce non-existant law. There is NO LAW against taking pictures of unattended ATM’s from public property. Similarly there are NO LAWS that prohibit the photography of people because of their religion. In fact people do not even have a civil case against the publication of their picture based on religious grounds according to the New York Court ruling in Nussenzweig v. DiCorcia. Officer Pryce is clearly aware of the operations order yet he obviously ignores it while demanding that the photographer delete pictures that were legally taken.

Furthermore the officer threatened to arrest the photographer for assault if he did not delete the pictures. This is absolutely inexcusable and Officer Pryce and the NYPD should be investigated by the NYCLU for violating consent agreements and continuing their war against photography.

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