By Edwin Kee on 05/04/2014
Will Paybarah, a 24-year old
who has made New York City his home, was riding his bicycle last March 20th
when he was asked to stop by a policeman who was about to give him a ticket for
running a red light. In this day and age when social media is extremely
pervasive, Paybarah took out his iPhone to record a video of the police
officer’s approach only to find out that he was arrested instead for filming
what was about to happen.
One ought to take note that
there is no such law that forbids the filming of giving out a ticket, and the
arrest was made by a certain undercover officer who goes by the name of Rich
from the 10th Precinct. There were other policemen afterwards who showed up and
made jokes that included how they were going to cuff Paybarah’ bicycle to a
tree.
The NYPD Patrol Guide Section
212-49 does mention that the are not supposed to do anything should someone
want to snap a photo, since that could be seen as a form of censorship.
Paybarah, in a handcuff and seated within a patrol car, asked for the reason of
his arrest only to be told that recording a police officer with an iPhone was
illegal because criminals in the city do use iPhone handsets as a gun to fire
bullets via the camera lens, while citing an example that a kid recently fired
at an officer in the very same manner.
What do you think of the
police’s reaction? After all, there are tasers that have been disguised to look
like iPhones…