Korean-American Student Photographer Beaten And Arrested For Disorderly Conduct by 7 Deputies For Taking Photograph Of Monroe County Police Car

Among them was Paul Estabrook. However, Paul was arrested for much more than that - disorderly conduct, harrassment and resisting arrest. But why? What was Paul doing that got him into so much trouble? There was a police car parked on Paul's town house lawn. Paul recalled his photography professor telling him only a few days before never to miss a photo opporutunity. Further Paul was interested in photos of people. He decided to set up his tripod and take a few pictures. A police officer told him to "go home" and then in only a few seconds Paul was beaten to the ground by seven officers. His hand was hit repeatedly with Mag lights, so much that he had to go to the emergency room. His shirt and necklace was ripped off. An officer even jumped on him.

How do we know what really happened? Fortunately, one of the other students caught Paul's arrest on video tape. The following pictures were taken from the video tape.So why was Paul arrested if he was doing some thing very legal? First of all, the officers obviously didn't want anyone taking pictures; both Paul and another photographer's films were "misplaced" or are "unknown" by the sheriff's office while the cameras were in police possesion.

Getting arrested wasn't all that happened to him. After he was arrested, Paul was told to move out of his town house with literally fifteen minutes to pack . He was told that if he went back into his town house or attended classes, he would be arrested for trespassing. Paul wasn't able to finish one of his classes. In that class, he recieved a C while in all his other classes, he recieved A's. In addition to all of these things, Paul was suspended from RIT for two years.

One can see the stress put not only on Paul, but his whole family. His parents lose sleep every night thinking about the case. They now must hire expensive lawyers if they even hope to stand up against the police. His trial is scheduled for April 1999 in Henrietta, Monroe County, New York

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