In 2022, photojournalist Benjamin Hendren filmed police officers arresting a group of protesters. Despite Hendren not interfering with the police operation and allowing the officers to speak to an editor, the officers arrested him. In addition, the officers encouraged employees at the construction site targeted by the protests to fabricate statements about Hendren.
Hendren is now Litigation He argued to the arresting officers that he was being punished for exercising his First Amendment rights.
On July 29, 2022, Hendren heard over his police radio that police had arrived on the scene of a protest at the construction site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known as “Cop City.” Hendren said: Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionHe was hired specifically to cover Cop City and the protests surrounding it.
When Hendren arrived at the scene, he began taking photos from a public sidewalk across from where Georgia State University police officers had arrested a group of protesters for allegedly trespassing on a construction site.
“At no time did Hendren commit any crime, nor did he engage in any conduct that any officer would mistakenly believe to be a crime,” the lawsuit states. “Furthermore, Hendren did not interfere in any way with the conduct of the traffic stop.”
Instead, police stopped Hendren and handcuffed him, and the lawsuit says the officers “forcefully photographed Hendren while he was handcuffed and seated on the curb. They “grabbed him by his hair and pulled his head up to photograph him against his will.”
But the officers did more than just unlawfully detain Hendren. The lawsuit alleges that the officers also encouraged two employees of Brasfield & Gorrie, a construction company in Cop City, to make false statements about Hendren, ultimately leading them to claim that Hendren “committed crimes at the construction site.” Brasfield & Gorrie employees are also named as defendants in Hendren’s lawsuit.
An officer even wrote a report afterward stating that Hendren was handcuffed because employees “identified him as a protester on the construction site,” but the lawsuit says Hendren was detained before the employees even saw him. Hendren was ultimately released after being held for more than seven hours.
Hendren’s lawsuit alleges that the officers clearly and egregiously violated his First Amendment rights, and courts have consistently ruled that individuals have the right to film police activities as long as they do not directly interfere with those activities.
“Plaintiff had a First Amendment right to photograph and videotape police officers performing their official duties in a public place without police interference,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff’s interference with his photography and arrest were occasioned by and were in retaliation for Plaintiff’s protected conduct of photographing police activity in a public place, and therefore violated the First Amendment.”
