There is no law that says you can’t take pictures of buildings owned by the government. Does that sound like the kind of common sense that shouldn’t require a federal court’s affirmation? You’re damn right it does. But as the Weekly learned last June, some things bear repeating.It was then that attorney Larry Hildes and a Weekly photographer got into a verbal skirmish with security guards outside of the FBI’s downtown field office. Hildes was posing for a cover shoot when a guard asked the photographer not to include the building in his pictures.When Hildes balked, as was his right, the guard called in for reinforcements in the form of a camo-shirted agent. No arrests were made. No punches thrown. But as a recent court ruling in New York proves, it was the kind of low-level verbal harassment familiar to many a photog trying to snap a shot of a government building.In that case, the state’s ACLU argued on behalf of a man arrested for filming a protester outside of a Manhattan courthouse last November. The government just settled the case and relented that, yes, its got no right to prevent anyone — whether they be a pro with a Canon or an amateur with a crappy point-and-shoot — from popping off a picture of an edifice built with their tax dollars.Happy shooting.
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