They arrested him?! On what grounds?

I love that our tax dollars are being spent on manhunts for artists committing the heinous crime of exercising free speech. The police are undermanned when it comes to hunting murderers, rapists, serial rapists and killers, and finding missing people, but they sure have plenty of men when it comes to arresting nonviolent drug offenders and artists.

The police wonder why they have such a bad relationship with the community these days. Protect and serve! Right? Man, we live in such a fucked up society...

@Mack - You're right. It is a boys club and they hate nothing so much as people who question them. I've known a few videographers who have either been arrested or threatened by cops for the act of taping police actions.

According to the article, Essam Attia was arrested for "criminal possession of a forged instrument, grand larceny possession of stolen property and weapons possession."

I think the art is really good, quite aside from its content.

Since when is it illegal to own a .22 rifle, or is that a NYC thing? And what the hell is "criminal possession of a forged instrument"? And what stolen property did he possess? And what does all that have to do with these posters? Talk about trumped up charges! I think they're trying to make an example of him.

Sorry about the barrage of questions, but this really pisses me off.

Oh, and what grounds do the police have to arrest people for videotaping them? If there is a law against filming police actions, then that is very telling in and of itself. Either way, it speaks volumes that police threaten and arrest people for videotaping them.

A common phrase police use when justifying video and other forms of surveillance is "Why do you mind if you're doing nothing wrong?" (they use this when trying to get consent to search people as well). So I ask them, if you're doing nothing wrong, then why are you so averse to being filmed in action?

@Mack - You know how it works. They always pile on loads of charges they can't prove hoping to intimidate. "We'll drop the murder charge if you'll plead guilty to j-walking."

A friend told me that yesterday he saw his neighbor arrested for a DUI. The guy was back home within two hours. He figured it was a communication problem--the guy doesn't speak English. But even still, this false arrest will cost the guy about $400 because his car was impounded.

Justice!