Last Saturday afternoon photographer, Shawn Randall Thomas was arrested for photographing a police station in Bushwick. Thomas was allegedly taking photos of the station for over an hour prior to his encounter with the frustrated police officer seen in the video below. Thomas says that he was unlawfully arrested and has filed a formal complaint against the police regarding the incident. While it may not be entirely clear why Thomas was taking so many photos of the building, who cares — it’s not illegal.
“I was surprised at the manner that it happened,” Thomas said, describing his experience. “I think at this point all cops know it’s legal to take pictures.”
However, this continues to be an ongoing problem seeing as the NYPD has been discouraging against photographers for quite some time. In other words, cops are always fucking with photographers.
