Temple
student: Cops pinched me for taking pictures
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Van
Kuyk's professor had armed him with a Nikon D40 digital camera and the
knowledge that he had the legal right to snap photos anywhere within the public
domain.
Van
Kuyk, 24, ended up getting a crash course on what happens when police don't
want to be photographed, he said.
He
and two of his Point Breeze neighbors say a police officer forced Van Kuyk to
the ground, jamming his face into the sidewalk, and handcuffed and arrested him
after he began photographing a March 14 traffic stop on his block.
"I
was within my rights. I wasn't doing anything wrong. The officer began pushing
and shoving me," Van Kuyk told the Daily News. "I told him, 'I'm just
taking a photo. I'm a photojournalism student.' He got angry. And he just
grabbed me and took me to the ground. He kept saying, 'Shut up. Stop
resisting.' "
Police
say Van Kuyk's arrest had nothing to do with his picture-taking. "The
officers are fully aware of the First Amendment right to take
photographs," Lt. Ray Evers said Monday.
The
incident has incited the 7,000-member National Press Photographers Association
and raised questions about whether all Philly cops are adhering to a
memorandum, issued by Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, saying that civilians
have a right to record or photograph cops in a public space.
His
memo followed a Daily News story in September about incidents in which cops
wrongly arrested bystanders for using cellphones to record arrests.
"The
only intent Ian [Van Kuyk] had was to take a picture," said former
photojournalist Mickey Osterreicher, an attorney representing the
photographers' association. "Did this officer miss the memo or
something?"
According
to Van Kuyk and two neighbors, here's what happened about 7:45 p.m. March 14:
Van
Kuyk and his girlfriend, Meghan Feighan, 22, were sitting on their front stoop,
on 17th Street near Dickinson, when two officers stopped a neighbor who had
just parked in front of his house. Van Kuyk grabbed the Nikon and began taking
photos. The cops ordered him out of the street, and he moved to the sidewalk. A
cop pushed him to the ground, prompting a neighbor to call 9-1-1.
Feighan,
fearing that the camera would break, took it from Van Kuyk. Then the cops
arrested her on misdemeanor charges.
Police
confiscated the camera and held Van Kuyk and Feighan in jail overnight,
detaining Van Kuyk for nearly 24 hours. Upon release, Van Kuyk learned he was
charged with hindering apprehension - a felony - and four misdemeanors. The
felony charge later was dropped.
Evers
said police supervisors have trained all officers on the law surrounding photos
and film.
"The
issue was not the student taking pictures," Evers said. "Other things
happened . . . that caused the officers to make an arrest." But Evers
declined to elaborate, citing an open Internal Affairs investigation.
Van
Kuyk has a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 16.