British Photographer Arrested for "antisocial behaviour".

[F8&Bthere]

Others may disagree, but I think this kind of thing could happen anywhere, including USA and Canada. Which is why it makes me laugh when people talk about our land of freedom and democracy.

What I see in this video is an abuse of authority that boils down to petty emotions of an idiot police officer that felt like her authority was being challenged, and should have used some discretion and just walked away.

Marko mentions imagine if he was of colour. But in fact I think that would have helped him actually since the white officer would have been more aware of the potential racism/harassment issue. This is afterall, the world of extreme political correctness.

Just imagine a little old lady with a point'n'shoot doing the exact same things as this fellow did (deemed to be antisocial). Wouldn't have even been noticed. I think the fact he was male, with a male friend, and probably looked like more than just the average tourist as a result of that and having (I'm assuming) a big DLSR, he attracted attention and it only became "anti-social" when he refused to give the officer his name and address.

Pisses me right off.

P.S. The reason I think gender can play some role in situations like this is when one tries to think of all the things that can be immoral, illegal, or insidious about taking pictures (terrorism, espionage, perversion, etc) I think more of them would normally lead to suspicion of men over women.