The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said it will provide legal assistance to a photographer arrested while taking pictures of Richmond police as they removed the Occupy Richmond encampment from the Kanawha Plaza downtown.
Ian Graham, one of nine people arrested early Monday at the site of the Occupy Richmond demonstration, said he was taking pictures for RVA Magazine when he was taken into custody.
According to a statement released Friday by the ACLU, Graham was told by police that he must confine his picture-taking to an area designated for the media. Graham went to the area but left because it restricted his view of the unfolding events, the ACLU said. After he questioned the police's authority for making him stay there, he was arrested in a crosswalk on a public street, the ACLU said.
"From what we can tell, there was no justification whatsoever for this arrest," said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis. "Not only was this a member of press operating under the protection of the First Amendment, but we still can't fathom how anyone could be arrested for trespassing in a public street."
Willis added that the arrest appears to be "nothing more than retaliation for questioning the police officer."
Graham was detained by police for about 30 minutes before he was released with a summons to appear in court, the ACLU said. He has a hearing set for Nov. 18 in Richmond General District Court.
Graham was one of nine people charged with trespassing after police descended on the public plaza at about 1 a.m. Monday and told the protesters who had been camping there since Oct. 15 that they had to leave or face arrest.
Of the nine charged with trespassing, six also were charged with being in the park after hours.
Occupy Richmond is an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York. Participants are protesting a wide range of issues, including what they view as corporate greed.
Graham, 29, is a co-owner of RVA Magazine, which he said is distributed free of charge at about 30 locations and covers issues such as art, music and culture.
"The freedom of the press is not constrained to a box or a zone that the police tell you to inhabit," Graham said Friday night. "We as the press have the right and responsibility to cover the police doing whatever they are doing on public property."
An effort Friday night to get comment from a Richmond police spokesman was unsuccessful.
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