On November 15 when a few activists chained themselves in Zuccotti Park and let the air out of cops' tires as the police cracked down on the camp, some people told Pool not to film but he did anyway, organizer Patrick Bruner said. "Ever since then there’s been questions about whether he’s an ally, standing in solidarity with the movement. Many individuals don’t want to be filmed by him, including me," Bruner said. "The larger issue is the ethics of filming someone without their permission." Another occupy organizer, Jason Ahmadi, said the fact that Pool had never been arrested made people suspicious of him. "I think that the growing sentiment among people is that Tim, specifically, is putting people in danger and is serving as a tool for the police, whether he’s aware of it or not." Ahmadi made the point that by filming people in real time, rather than the delay that usually comes with print, television, or even online reporting, Pool's stream was an especially strong tool for police. Both organizers, however, said the attack on Pool was inappropriate and out of keeping with Occupy's values of non-violence.

For the record, it's fine to film people doing newsworthy things like protesting, especially when they're on a public street. Television news crews know all about this kind of thing. They have teams of lawyers dedicated to it. You're basically allowed to film anybody doing whatever could reasonably be considered newsworthy in public, said NY1 spokeswoman Nikia Redhead. "Our policy is, if something happens in a public place we the right to capture and report it but that doesn’t necessarily mean we will report it," Redhead said.

One irony about this whole thing is that Occupy protesters don't tend to object to mainstream news cameras covering them nearly as much as they do to someone who seems like one of their own. "They’re not going up to NBC and smacking the satellite cameras out of their hands," Pool said. "They're smacking cell phones out of people's hands."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.