Tempers flared, rights were infringed, and violence ensued. Videographer Shawn Thomas exchanged heated words with NYPD Officer Efrain Rojas resulting in a unwarranted beatdown and arrest. The 10 minute clip depicts how quickly the controversy escalated over a simple camera phone, which apparently cost Thomas a bloodied lip from the police officer.
Clearly, there is a lot of content to unpack from this clip. But among other things, what are the implications for street photographers. Officer Rojas acted rashly and unprofessionally. Obviously, debates can emerge from a variety of circles about what went wrong, but let’s consider what this means for those of us wielding cameras.
Watch the clip and see the extent to which Thomas knows his rights. Similarly, look at his Youtube channel and see all his content that he has posted; he isn't arbitrarily antagonizing police officers for some reaction he can capture on tape. He is shooting with a purpose and I believe that is what the NYPD strongly dislikes.
Consider the level of tourism that floods NYC streets on a daily basis. Collectively, those tourists have a purpose or aim in their photography, yet no one feels strongly enough to hit them. Simply put, Thomas is capturing content that the NYPD does not want to be shared. Why doesn't the NYPD want that type of publicity? Well, it’s certainly portraying the underbelly of the department’s management, policy, and above all else, abuse of authority.
I presume that many citizens are surprised to what lengths the NYPD will go in order to subdue the revealment of those intra-organizational issues. But from a photographer’s standpoint, if anything is worth noting, it’s the power of an image that one can create. Photographing with a purpose has its consequences. It’s just appalling to see how negative those can be, particularly in the Land of the Free.
Again Shawn, the subway system is NOT public property. It is private property owned and operated by the MTA.
One other thing your lack of logic did not allow you to see: The cop never asked anything. He just approached and began his acts of harassment.
He did walk up and say, ask, or request anything. Did you notice that Jorgie?
There is a legal difference between the two. The laws define the two so, no, we do not have to correct our thinking.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Point to that law, point to any case law. You folks repeat what you've heard, but you know nothing about the law. I actually do.
which city added chest camera and saw a HUGE decrease in complaints and physical intervention... Can't remember it...
NYC should do the same....
Mesa, Arizona was reported last year as having them on around 50 of their officers. Many more are looking at adopting it. It protects the officers from false claims and the citizens from bad cops.
Who could have believed that transparency would have improved things!!!! -_-
Here's how it could've played out and shows that all of you "well he was looking for trouble" that you're wrong.
Cops continue to ignore the guy filming
Concentrate on their task at hand
Do that job properly
No problem everyone walks away
Instead they choose to be obtuse and antagonise the filmer, provoking the reaction. Not the best reaction in the world but remember the police officer provoked it - the filmer was well within his right be filming, he wasn't interfering and was being offencive.
If the officer had real issue with the guy filming surely being polite, curteous and friendly is better. He would probably have ignored the cops but at least it shows the police officer attempting to be civil - instead the cop goes in with an attitude.
This really could've been avoided. And for all you why was he filming? Maybe they were friends, acquaintances or colleges and he was making sure they didn't treat him unfairly.
That's a disgusting violation of the photographers rights. I hope the Officer is disciplined, or at the very least, educated.
You have no reasonable expectation of privacy while doing your job in public. We can film you. We can take pictures.
Some good people join the police to catch bad people and stop them from doing bad stuff. Some bad people join the police because it lets them exercise their bullying sadistic tendencies.
This officer is (or at least is acting like) a thug with a badge. It's as simple as that.
Is there video footage of a beating? Maybe I missed that part?
I bet you would like that. Racist.
You're a tool. I think your Mom is calling you up for dinner.
Ok. Thanks man. At least I am not racist like you though. So I got that going for me.
Hispanic and Asian cops arrest and African American and the white guy is racist? Ya ok bud. Like I said go up for dinner and take your meds while you are at it. It's your right you know.
You asked to see video. You even asked if you missed that part. As if you the popcorn ready. Pretty sad.
Whats sad is that you loosely throw out the term racist. Whats sad is that your comments on this thread and others are always negative and you also have a "me against the world" attitude. Whats sad is that you hide behind your computer screen like a little lonely sole feeling sorry for himself. I pity people like you.
You are a racist AND a stalker. Good job dude. I'm not hiding. I'm the one using my real name here not some lame made up bs. It's probably better that we never meet in person anyways.
LOL it is better believe me.
Dude wants to "beat me up" a racist stalker with a temper.
Reading the arguments here, its clear the majority is quite happy with a police state. We deserve what we will get. Cya in the fema camps..
As has been mentioned several times, it is not illegal to take a picture or record a video of any location from a public space. Any area not specifically demeed private property is a public space. If a private citizen ask you to stop filming them or photographing them, you should, just as a matter of respect.
But, if in the course of performing their duty, an officer of the law is photographed or filmed, it is legal. They CANNOT confiscate Just last year, the Department of Justice weighted in on the Mannie Garcia v. Montgomery County, Md casse that is was not illegal. You can read the statement of intrest that the Department of Justice filed here at the National Press Photographers Associations website - https://nppa.org/sites/default/files/Garcia_DOJ_SOI_03-04-13.pdf
Additionally, I read this article on www.photographyisnotacrime.com and they reported that the offending officer had taken the memory card and deleted the footage and the photographer was held 24 hours in jail. After being released he was able to recover the footage, which is now being used to show that the offending officer falsified his report of the matter, which can get him fire.
The point is, whether you consider the photographer being "disobedient" or not, his civil rights were violated. The only time a police officer or law enforcement is able to justify seizing camera or video equipment is when there is possible evidence of a crime on it and the evidence is in danger of being erased.
It should not matter if you shoot street photography or exclusivly in a studio, everyone shold know their basic rights as it pertains to your chosen profession.
in a world full of color... people will always paint it black & white.
Here is an interesting video: "A photographer's guide to the 1st amendment (and what to do if you get arrested)" http://vimeo.com/87121992
Can't embed, must follow link...
Mr. Thomas has an agenda which seems to be, to aggresvely provoke cops. Look at his tube page for further evidence. He is not an innocent victim, he was acting aggressively and threatening and he used poor judgement. More importantly, he is not acting as an advocate for photographer's rights. he is actually making things worse for all other photographers.
Yeah, it might be that he has an agenda but then again, he is not doing anything ilegal, he is just playing within the boundries of the law to flush out the true character of these bad officers. There's no doubt that violent people is not suited for police work, look at the other officer, didn't complaint at all. I think his hobby just shows wich police officers should not be working.
He was not arrested for using his camera, one thing lead to another, the outcome of which all has to do with Mr. Thomas' inability to use good judgement motivated by his agenda and his belligerent attitude. What Mr. Thomas is doing is not only stupid it is dangerous.
In a law abiding society it wouldn't be dangerous at all.
Mr. Thomas is a trouble maker and in the simplest terms was looking for fight and he got one, and he lost. The danger I am referring to is the danger he is creating for himself. He instigated this problem and rightfully got what he deserved. It wasn't his video recording that got him arrested it was his mouth.
Mr. Thomas may well be a trouble maker but he wasn't doing anything illegal that I saw. The officer on the other hand was aggressively looking for a confrontation and he got one. I hope Mr. Thomas gets a healthy settlement and the officer gets disciplined.
There is no good reason for Mr. Thomas to be pointing his camera and filming the first officer for a period of almost 5 minutes. This an abnormal, aggressive and a threatening form of behavior and generally makes people feel uncomfortable. So, why is he doing this?
Mr. Thomas knows that if he continues doing what he is doing eventually he will be approached by the police. He is actively trying to provoke a a beat down and this is a very dumb idea. Police have the right to arrest you if you are acting in a hostile, aggressive and threatening manner which is exactly what he was doing. His plan did not work and his 15 minutes of fame are over.
Go and look at his other videos and you will see that he has a script that he follows and repeats for example; he won't answer any questions, he gets loud and disrespectful and he always asks the officer, "do you own a house?" Mr. Thomas' attempt to fight law will be lost and there will be no payday for Mr. Thomas. He will be convicted by his very own videos because they will show that his motive is to start a fight play the race card and get paid.
You've got to get a grip Glenn. There was nothing he did that was 'threatening' in any way. One thing the police should be able to deal with is citizens acting in a legal manner, even if it annoys them. This officer was the one trying to physically intimidate Mr. Thomas who was doing nothing to interfere or disrupt what was being done by the police.
And quite frankly Glenn, it's folks like you that allow our rights to be slowly eroded. You don't seem to have the slightest grasp of what these freedoms cost and how important it is to keep them. And the best way to keep them is to use them. All of them. If we have to weed out some bad cops along the way it's even better for the citizens.
Your buddy proved only one thing which is if you go out of your way to act like an asshole eventually someone is going to punch your lights out, Mission accomplished.
And by someone who is supposed to UPHOLD the law of the land. That should give you more than a bit of a pause.
You don't know how many times he pulled this stunt and failed to get beat down which is what he was trying to do. If he didn't want to get his lip busted he should have quit while he was ahead. He got what he wanted. Both parties here over stepped their bounds. Mr. Thomas is a bad guy who fucked with a bad cop which is what he was looking for. What is your point.
And so you condone a beat down by a man with a badge and a gun to back it up. That's street justice. The police are supposed to treat that as a crime.
You folks in NYC will get exactly what you deserve if that is the attitude you take on this.
You talking about this like mr.thomas was an innocent victim and you have chose to disregard his history as if it is irrelevant and it is not because it clearly shows his motives. You are on the wrong side of justice on this.
Might be, but if justice is not accompanied by the law it's not justice.
You say that his "attitude" is what causes the problem, I wonder if every police officer in the world had that character of judging the "Attitude" of every person, we all would be arrested or beaten. That's why there are laws, to avoid this kind of "Judgments" done by OBVIOUSLY violent police officers that have phisological issues, they want to feel they are gods and everyone has to obey them but that's not true at all, that's why they act like this, abusing their authority, geerally people like this have had rough childhood.
Mr. Thomas may be a jerk, but he was a jerk doing nothing illegal. If you differ please tell me the laws he infringed.
Clearly we disagree with each other. You see an innocent victim. I see an anarchist with no other purpose except to find some temporary recognition with the hope of getting a paycheck. The real crime here is that he is making relationships between real photographers and the police more tenuous then it needs to be.
You have not said one word that is legally or factually correct. Your assumptions shows your motives.
what an arrogant asshole...no i dont mean the officer
Shocked? No.. not in today's day and age of things.
To the people saying this fellow provoked this encounter.. You are wrong. The space provided in the environment that was in use here, the photographer was well past any situational issues the officers may have had. The initiating police officer took it upon himself to get ready his personal recording device, activate the same, and approach the victim. Not stating a direct concern that was lawful, but merely parroting the photographer, not only in actions, but with words.
Once he knew he had crossed the line between doing his job (which in this case was nothing) he provoked a further response by violating this photographers civil right by physical contact, and arrest for no reason other than he felt he could.
If you as a photographer.... a member of the public can SEE IT. IT CAN BE PHOTOGRAPHED. Period. The ACLU should grab on to this with both hands and wring it out for all it's worth. This is wrong on so many levels..
I am on both sides of this fence. I have been recorded countless times while working job A. I have been called to many scenes only to have to explain to my own people that the person recording them is within their rights to do so, and to just do their jobs. It is my responsibility to uphold and defend the constitution of the US, the state and city of NY and the policies and procedures of job A. Yet i clock out, go freelancing, have a press pass, and then get accosted til I show my other ID and then all of a sudden everyone backs off. When people break the rules that often, it becomes a defacto policy, and the new guys never learn that its wrong. It self perpetuates. I have also fought and bled for these rights far, far away. Exercise your rights people,...or you will most certainly lose them. Once lost they are almost impossible to reattain
And I have been cursed at, and all of that, but I also have a pension to worry about. At the end of the day my feelings are not as important as my pension
I live in Mexico where cops behave 10 times worse than this
This guy had it coming, specially when you insult a pig. He started taunting the cop by giving him crap about his rights and bla bla bla
It's like taunting a dog that you know bites and then acting outraged when bitten, then playing the race card on some boards was just screaming for attention (guy's black and the cop looks hispanic so wtf)
Cop was like "move along, nothing to see here" (you read it in officer's Barbrady's voice)
The videographer looks like a pretty smart guy talking about his rights and the distance and whatnot but what surprises me he wasn't smart enough to know how cops behave.
That doesn't mean the cop was right and that this should continue to happen. I'm from México aswell and even when I know it's smart not to harras in any way someone with power or authority (even if you are right) that doesn't mean it's right! USA it's way better than México in this regard. In México if you tell a corrupt cop about his bad behavior or record him you would most likely be killed or at least hit, in USA this should not happen (in México neither but What the hell, we are doomed) The videographer was right, even if he got beaten.
How hard is it to stop filming when the police ask? What purpose would
the video serve? These police officers seem to be doing their job and
whoever was filming clearly was looking to display his knowledge of
police procedure to the police officers.
Why did this video even
end up on fstoppers? I appreciate everything fstoppers have to
offer great advice, tips and knowledge regarding stills and video. This
video offers nothing other than when the police ask you to stop
recording do as they say, their job is hard enough they don't need us to
make it worse.
At what point in the video did the cop say that he wished for the recording to stop?