Let me make a suggestion to anyone who thinks they might get harassed in this way:
Carry a small tape recorder with you. Start recording the first moment you're confronted by anyone. Keep it concealed, of course. If you can get the officer's (or whoever's) badge number and last name, and record the officer reciting a whopper such as "I don't care about the law (referring to my explanation of it). I'm telling you NO PICTURES." or an overt threat such as "if you're not gone in 10 minutes you are going to have a big problem." that'll make the news for sure.
Just make sure you don't get arrested, or you'll never see the tape again. Plus the Fatherland Security Nazis will give you yet another hard time over that.
It's probably also highly illegal to do this, but (a) you'd only publicize the tape if it contained a real whopper, and (b) if you can get a publicity shitstorm started, you'd have at least partial protection against prosecution from that.
Are there any lawyers out there who can shed light on the legality (and possible consequences) of surreptitiously recording an exchange with a police officer or other official?
All I can say is it's a damn good thing I wasn't there because I would have told that son of a bitch to stick it where the sun don't shine, and spent the night at Riker's.