Paul Detrick: Harassed for Taking Photos
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In October 2009 Shawn Nee, an award-winning photographer, was stopped by officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) while taking pictures of turnstiles in the L.A. subway. According to the officers, Nee was engaged in "suspicious terrorist activity." This sort of encounter, says Paul Detrick, in which local cops harass ordinary citizens engaged in constitutionally protected behavior, has become disturbingly frequent in cities nationwide, largely because federal anti-terrorism funding has made local law enforcement agencies major participants in the War on Terror.