I'm of two minds here because I do think that many people get unduly uptight about public photography, with some rather odd ideas about what should and shouldn't be permitted, especially in a pedestrian-only section of town, where there are a fair number of buskers and street performers at times, as well as loiterers, homeless people, tourists, and just plain interesting cross sections of humanity. For those unfamiliar with the locale, it's a section of downtown Burlington, VT. which is closed to traffic. Not likely strange to Europeans, but rather unusual in an American city. There used to be a nice camera store there, with a killer bargain section. I bought a well worn but working plain prism black bodied Nikon F there once for $5.00.
On the other hand, I do think the photographer in this case was unduly confrontational, and having both still and video going makes it a somewhat different operation from simple street photography, and it looks as if he was inviting controversy.
