I get hassled probably a little under half of the times I go shooting in the daytime. Two weeks ago, week and a half... I was shooting on a public street facing the water in Brooklyn, two older Polish men and one younger Hispanic guy were just sitting at the end of the street enjoying a nice evening talking. Cops show up, lights on, got there and called in for backup, who arrived with similar fanfare. We were all charged with something teh cops wouldn't really describe. I argued with them for 15 minutes or so about how they can't charge me and not describe what I'm being charged of and why; the three other guys didn't have enough control of English to really fight the cops. Ultimately it was told to us that it was criminal trespassing because there was a sign, in an adjacent lot which was completely fenced in, that said "no trespassing." Nevermind we weren't on that lot, we were on the public street adjacent to it. Finally they told me they were letting me off, but told me to pretend I'd been given a summons so the others didn't likewise realize the charge was BS. The other three were all charged and had to go to criminal court in Manhattan. Ridiculous - they let me off because I could speak English well enough to disprove the legitimacy of the charges they were putting on us, and expected me to pretend along with them?
Absolutely NO WAY this bill is not going to affect us if it's so vague as to be left to individual police interpretation. There are tons of great cops, but also enough jerkoffs like these dudes to ensure that photographers of all stripes are going to get bent over sooner or later by this law. I myself have been hassled with frequency enough (and I look about as white-bread American as they come, by the way) to think that this is a pretty bad thing for us should it go through.
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