War on photography and its face

The Knoxville News-Sentinel's Michael Silence reports what happened to Nashvillian BillHobbs when Bill went down to cover an Occupy Nashville protest and Legislative Plaza, which as you might expect from the name, is public property. Here's Bill's video:



Needless to say, as Michael pointed out, photographing in public is legal. At the Youtube page there are some comments, including these two.

I want to add my voice as someone from the Occupy Nashville group that this is absolutely NOT in the spirit of the OCcupy group. I would like to add my invitation for you to return and take all the pictures and videos you want. this incident was discussed last night in committee meetings and the general assembly, and there was unanimous agreement that this sort of behavior is not representative of the group and that you should be invited back.

Bufflo55

To which Bill replied,

Thank you to those from OccupyNashville who said I'm welcome to be there, and that you have taken the issue up with "Mr. Goon." By the way, he has been identified - police provided me his name, Steve Reiter. He has previously been arrested and charged with simple assault in a similar situation involving a downtown resident who was photographing homeless people. Mr. Reiter is a "homeless advocate." He was acquitted at trial. His attorney happens to be Patrick Frogge, also OccupyNashville's atty.

I've known Bill practically since I started blogging in 2002, though I have not spoken with him in quite some time. Glad he came through this all right!