According to 7 ABC news in White Plains:

As a freelance photographer, Ben Hider carries his camera with him just about everywhere, and so it was on Friday, as he was heading to the train station in White Plains he stopped to snap some beauty shots on the flags in front of the court house. That's when his trouble began.

And that's exactly what Ben Hider did. He even showed the court officers the pictures he took and offered to delete them. Moments later they escorted him inside the courthouse for two hours of questioning.

"The right to take photographs is under assault now more than ever. People are being stopped, harassed, and even intimidated into handing over their personal property simply because they were taking photographs of subjects that made other people uncomfortable," says attorney Bert P. Krages II. Becasue of the recent assault on photographers in public, Krages has published "The Photographer's Right" a downloadable PDF file "loosely based on the Bust Card and the Know Your Rights pamphlet that used to available on the ACLU website. It may be downloaded and printed out using Adobe Acrobat Reader. You may make copies and carry them your wallet, pocket, or camera bag to give you quick access to your rights and obligations concerning confrontations over photography."

As a street photographer who enjoys nothing more than candid shots of people and interesting angles of modern buildings, and especially as a Libertarian,I'm really insensed about the sort of crap that we h ave to put up with to take pictures of public spaces. Luckily, I also find that current climate of fear that lead to the police believing we live in an over-zealous police state to be dissipating as more and more people are refusing to take "the war on terror" and "9/11" as valid excuses for invasions of privacy and the continuing assault on our rights.