[Leica] Times Photographer Is Arrested on Assignment in NY

[scleroplex at gmail.com (scleroplex)]

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/08/10/49161.htm

Press Group Condemns Arrest of Times Photog
By ADAM KLASFELD




     (CN) - Reporters Without Borders, a nonprofit that publishes the Press
Freedom Index worldwide rankings, slammed the "brutal arrest" of a New York
Times photographer who captured a teenage girl's arrest in the Bronx.


     As the United States took a nosedive down to 47th place in the group's
rankings earlier this year, leaving it tied with Romania, the group cited
the New York City Police Department's clampdown on journalists during the
Occupy Wall Street protests as the reason.


     Reporters Without Borders saw a continuation of this trend on
Saturday, when the NYPD arrested Robert Stolarik, 43, a decade-long Times
freelancer who regularly chronicled the Occupy movement.


     "Mr. Stolarik said he asked for the officers' badge numbers, and the
officers then took his cameras and dragged him to the ground; he said that
he was kicked in the back and that he received scrapes and bruises to his
arms, legs and face," the Times reported.


     Although the NYPD released a statement claiming Stolarik violently
resisted arrest, another reporter's video showed him to be face down
beneath a pile of six officers, the Times reported.


Stolarik faces criminal charges of obstructing government administration
and resisting arrest.

Reporters Without Borders urged the court to dismiss the resisting and
obstruction charges on Thursday. The group also said that the NYPD should
return Stolarik's press credentials and equipment.