It’s the lesson that people in authority never seem to learn–or perhaps just prefer to forget: yes, we really can shoot video in public places. But Gothamist reports a reporter from Time Warner Cable’s NY1 captured video of an NYPD school safety officer demanding that she not be put on camera, and when NY1’s Lindsey Christ questioned that, the officer broke the lens hood off the camera. NY1 describes what happened:
Here’s what the law says: you’re allowed to take pictures and shoot video on city streets or sidewalks, and you’re always allowed to take video of NYPD officers.
On Tuesday in Park Slope, a school safety officer approached us as we were trying to interview a student across the street.
AdvertisementSafety officer: Let’s go. Let’s go. Got to go. Let’s go. That means you got to go. Let’s go.
Christ: Wait. Why do they have to go?
Safety officer: You got to get that off my face. Not on me. On them. Not on me.
Christ: You’re allowed to shoot the NYPD at any point.With that, she broke the lens guards off our camera. When we got the camera back on, she put her hat over the lens.