State Park Ranger Stops High School Kids From Video Taping

Of all the things we've seen recently, the little scene at Empire Fulton Ferry State Park in Dumbo that we witnessed over the weekend takes a little prize. Some high school students in bizarre costumes were videotaping each other in the park. We'd seen them several times around the neighborhood during the Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival. A Park Ranger approached them and ordered them to stop taping. "You cant' do that here," he said.

"Why?" one of the kids said.

"You need a permit."

"It's a high school project."

"Go over there," he said, motioning toward Brooklyn Bridge Park. "That's a city park. It's different."

At that point several passers by stopped and stared. "What are you doing?" the ranger asked one of them.

"I'm listening to this," he said.

"You can't listen," the Ranger said.

"I can't stand here and listen to you?" he said.

"No you can't," the Ranger said. "I'm talking to them."

The kids didn't put up a fight and left. We shot some video of the tail end of the interaction, but the audio quality is poor, which sucks, because it has some comedic value. All we will say is: We don't believe there actually is any state park rule that prevents highs school students from using the same kind of video camera that thousands of tourists have to shoot video of each other. (There are laws requiring a permit for commercial activity and selective enforced rules that are sometimes interpreted to mean that amateur photographers can't use tripods.) Frankly, we can't believe how nasty this state employee was to some very polite high school students wearing silly costumes working on a class project and how he ordered someone not to listen. (Thank God we were standing behind him or our cameras might have been seized.) It's unfortunate that the state parks in the city can be so unfriendly. At least, the ranger didn't threaten to have the kids arrested, like a ranger in Long Island City suggested a couple of years ago to a bride on her wedding day if the wedding party did not cease committing the offense of photography without a permit.