In 2022, photojournalist Benjamin Hendren captured some images of police arresting a bunch of protesters. Though Hendren didn’t intrude with police exercise—he even supplied to let police converse to his editor—the police arrested him. What’s extra, they even inspired the protested building web site workers to make up remarks about Hendren.
Hendren has now submitted a litigation The police who opposed his arrest argued that he was being punished for exercising his First Modification rights.
On July 29, 2022, Hendren heard over the police radio that police had arrived at a protest on the Atlanta Public Security Coaching Heart building web site, also referred to aspolice city”. Hendren is a contract author for The New York Instances. atlanta structurewas employed particularly to cowl Police Metropolis and associated protests.
When Hendren arrived on the scene, he started taking images on the general public sidewalk throughout the road the place Georgia State College police arrested a bunch of protesters who allegedly broke right into a building web site.
“At no time did Hendren commit any crime or do something that may very well be mistaken for a criminal offense by police,” the lawsuit states. “Moreover, Hendren didn’t intrude in any method with an ongoing visitors cease.”
Nonetheless, officers nonetheless stopped Hendren and handcuffed him. They “pressured themselves to take images of Hendren as he sat handcuffed on the aspect of the street,” the lawsuit states. The police even “grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head up in order that he may very well be photographed in opposition to his will.”
However the police did not simply illegally detain Hendren. The lawsuit alleges that they inspired two workers of Brasfield & Gorrie, a building firm that labored at Police Metropolis, to make false statements about Hendren, who ultimately claimed Hendren “dedicated a prison offense at a building web site.” Hendren’s lawsuit additionally names Brasfield & Gorrie workers as defendants.
One of many officers even wrote a report afterward saying Hendren was handcuffed as a result of workers “recognized him as a protester on the building web site.” However Hendren was detained earlier than workers might see him, the lawsuit says. Hendren was ultimately launched after greater than seven hours in custody.
Hendren’s lawsuit claims the officers clearly and egregiously violated his First Modification rights. The courts have all the time established People have the fitting to movie police exercise so long as they don’t instantly intervene.
“Plaintiff has the fitting beneath the First Modification to {photograph} and videotape cops within the efficiency of their official duties in public locations with out interference from cops,” the lawsuit states. “The interference with Plaintiff’s photographing and arrest was a results of his being a public police officer. Images of an occasion was triggered by protected exercise and was accomplished in retaliation and subsequently violated the First Modification.”
