When Photographs Become Evidence
Khai Le
“The decision to drop charges against Robert Stolarik for interfering with an arrest he had been photographing in the Bronx in 2012 and instead to prosecute an arresting officer came after prosecutors scrutinized the physical evidence: Mr. Stolarik’s digital images.
On Aug. 4, 2012, Mr. Stolarik, a freelance photographer for The New York Times since 2000, was on assignment with reporters, investigating stop-and-frisk tactics in the South Bronx, when he spotted officers arresting a teenage girl at the intersection of McClellan Street and Sheridan Avenue. Identifying himself as a journalist and holding up his press card, he kept taking pictures, even as one officer tried to cover his lens with her hand.
“Throughout the whole thing, I never stopped shooting,” he said.”