Just unbelievable.

They can do anything they want with you, even if you're not breaking the law.

The Agitator » Blog Archive » Lunch Links:

"Man wrongly arrested for taking photos in the New York City subway (it isn’t illegal). Glad they at least dropped the initial charges. But he’s still being charged with disorderly conduct for addressing the officers in “an unreasonable voice.” They were illegally arresting him, and refused to admit they were in error. I think just about any tone of voice under that scenario would be reasonable.

[From the comments]

It’s become the great catch all charge. Cops use it all the time now to give them a reason for a nuisance arrest. What recourse does a person have at that point? You can’t sue the cops. Your automatically out the time, money, and effort to fight it. It’s a disgusting, but effective tactic.

...

Someone needs to take a serious run at challenging these “disorderly conduct” statutes as void for vagueness. I know its probably been tried and failed, but it may be time to try again. Its just ridiculous that you can suffer criminal penalties for failing to maintain a sufficiently obsequious tone of voice and demeanor when interacting with the police. If you threaten the police, physically resist, or attempt to assault an office, that is one thing - But if you don’t do any of those things, then you shouldn’t be charged with a crime."