And the pathetic, incompetent, judges appear to be complicit in what is obviously a violation of the Photographer’s right to take picture of police. As this story illustrates, last November a photojournalist was arrested after taking pictures of Philadelphia police making arrests. According to the story:

According to the police report, Gress faulted Sasnou because he “remained on location and began to take pictures” after being ordered to leave. On Nov. 23, 2009, a community court judge found him guilty, and ordered that he pay a $148 fine and perform 24 hours of community service.

It is an absolute outrage that this incompetent person who fancies himself a “judge” completely disregarded the Constitution of the United States of America, which clearly permits freedom of the press and news-gathering activities. The article continues:

Civil rights lawyers say that Sasnou’s experience isn’t uncommon. Although there doesn’t seem to be any hard data available, anecdotal evidence suggests that citizens who document police activity with cameras are frequently arrested.

“Philadelphia police often react badly to people photographing or videotaping them,” says Mary Catherine Roper, staff attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “We’ve had a number of complaints of people arrested, held, yelled at and released and so on for taking pictures or videotaping police officers. It’s not unique to Philadelphia at all, but it is a very frequent problem. And it’s a blatant violation of people’s rights.”

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