This should be common knowledge by now, but the police can’t tell you to stop taking photos of them in public. Your right to do so is protected by not one, not two, but three amendments.
The U.S. Department of Justice has just supported a photojournalist Mannie Garcia’s lawsuit against the Montgomery County police after they unlawfully took away his photographing equipment and charged Garcia with disorderly conduct when he refused to stop taking photos of an incident.
Garcia’s attempted documentation was protected by the 1st, 4th and 14th Amendments.
Read the Justice Department’s entire statement here.
(Photo: David Hilowitz/Flickr)
