US Navy apologizes for illegally arresting photographer twice

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The US Navy has admitted that a photographer has been illegally detained twice for taking pictures outside the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Photographers can be very unlucky sometimes. Some of them get arrested for filming the police officer while giving them a ticket and then there is Nic Coury.

us-navy-illegal-arrest-photographer US Navy apologizes for illegally arresting photographer twice Exposure

Photographer Nic Coury has been arrested for taking photos just outside the Naval Postgraduate School. The US Navy apologized for its actions and stated that the officers will be retrained. Credits: Nic Coury / Monterey County Weekly.

US Navy apprehended photographer Nic Coury for taking pictures of the Naval Postgraduate School

The photographer has been arrested two times in three days. However, each time, the police officers of the Department of Defense acted in an unjust manner, as the photographer had all the rights to take photos outside the base.

Nic Coury has been asked by his editor to head over to the Naval Postgraduate School, located in Monterey, California. He went there and started taking photos. He was standing on the sidewalk, which is a public place, but, after 10 minutes, US Navy officers asked him to stop taking pictures and to go with them.

Photographer’s editor thought it was an April Fools’ Day joke

The naval police started asking him questions, since they felt that he tried to gather information about the facility. The officers told him that he was not actually detained, but they also told him that he is not free to leave. When Coury called his editor, Mary Duan believed that everything is an April Fools’ Day prank, since it occurred on April 2.

Eventually, the US Navy allowed the photographer to leave after deleting the photos.

“How to get arrested two times in three days” by photographer Nic Coury

However, Duan sent Coury back to the Naval Postgraduate School on April 4 and asked him to stand his ground, since he is on a public place.

Once again, it did not go according to plan, as naval police officers have arrested the poor lensman for a second time in just three days. They said that people cannot take photos of the NPS without permission.

Coury explained to the US Navy that he was standing in a public place and that the facility can be easily seen from the street. They asked him to delete these photos as well and threatened him with a lawsuit.

The Monterey Police Department sided with the photographer. The police says that the Department of Defense has no jurisdiction outside of its property and that the Navy cannot arrest someone standing on the sidewalk, nor ask a photographer to delete pictures of the NPS.

The photos were recovered, while the US Navy apologized for the actions of its officers

Eventually, the images were retrieved using data recovery software, while the US Navy police explained its actions through its spokesman.

Lt. Cmdr. Bill Clinton confirmed that the behavior of the officers was “not adequate” and that they had no right to arrest civilians standing outside the base. He said that they will receive further training, in order to avoid such mistakes from happening again.

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