{"id":2829,"date":"2006-01-11T15:42:29","date_gmt":"2006-01-11T20:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=2829"},"modified":"2006-01-13T12:17:16","modified_gmt":"2006-01-13T17:17:16","slug":"indian_guys_wit_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2006\/01\/11\/indian_guys_wit_1\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian guys with cameras (updated)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Our tipline has been buzzing (thanks “mg” and others) with news that Rakesh Sharma<\/a>, director of the award winning “Final Solution<\/a>” about the Gujarat riots, is suing the City of New York, and that the NYCLU’s<\/a> got his back. Here is why:<\/p>\n\n

Rakesh Sharma was filming cars emerge from under Manhattan’s Metlife building in 2005 when he was stopped, questioned, allegedly shoved, and then detained by the NYPD for shooting footage of the building. The cops were suspicious of Sharma’s motives but, after four hours, the director was released and told that he would need a permit if he wanted to do any further shooting.

When Sharma applied for a permit, however, his application was denied because he lacked the proper insurance. Now, represented by the New York Civil Liberties Union, the director (who has won multiple awards for his documentaries) has filed suit<\/a> against the city’s “police restrictions on taking pictures in public.” Among those named in the suit are the city itself and the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting. [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

Why was Sharma filming cars? Well it will make sense when you know what kind of cars he was filming:<\/p>\n\n

Rakesh Sharma was shooting footage for a film on New York taxi drivers<\/strong> in May 2005 when officers stopped him… <\/p>\n

“It’s a sad day when the police think they can detain and mistreat someone simply for making a film on a public street in New York City,” Mr Sharma said on Tuesday.

“I co-operated with them and answered all their questions, but they treated me like a criminal. It was wrong, and I was scared and humiliated,” he said. [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

A blogger at Mediabistro<\/a> quips:<\/p>\n\n

Honestly, if the cops in New York start arresting Indian guys with cameras, they’re going to have to shut down all of Sixth Avenue. We’re officially scared.<\/blockquote>\n\n

I’m hoping that DNSI’s<\/a> Valarie Kaur<\/a> might leave a comment and shed some light on this for us. She has recently been filming in New York City as well. I wonder if she was similarly hassled.<\/p>\n\n

Update: Both Rakesh Sharma<\/a> and Valarie Kaur<\/a> were kind enough to respond to this post.<\/p>\n\n

You can sign the petition to protest his arrest here<\/a>.<\/strong>\n<\/em>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our tipline has been buzzing (thanks “mg” and others) with news that Rakesh Sharma, director of the award winning “Final Solution” about the Gujarat riots, is suing the City of New York, and that the NYCLU’s got his back. Here … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,34,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}