Lawyer Details How 9/11 Led To A War On Taking Pictures In Public
By Michael Kelly, Business Insider
On Aug. 4 Robert Stolarik, a freelance photographer for The New York Times, was arrested and charged with obstructing government administration and with resisting arrest while photographing the arrest of a teenage girl.
Journalists experienced similar treatment during the NYPD’s early morning raid of Zuccotti Park, at the NATO summit in Chicago in May and at Occupy protests across the country.
Mickey H. Osterreicher, a former press photographer and the lawyer for the National Press Photographers Association, spoke with Times writer James Estrin Tuesday about the criminalization of photography.
Osterreicher, who has also been a reserve deputy in Erie county sheriff’s department since 1976, said that since 9/11 there has been a sharp increase in photographers being hassled or arrested for simply recording video or taking pictures in public.
He says that “every citizen should be concerned.”
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/press-photographer-police-photos-public-2012-8#ixzz23qSqWk8L