A freelance videographer has filed a police report accusing a San Diego firefighter of battery while trying to stop him from aiming his camera and a spotlight on a patient in the Gaslamp Quarter during Comic-Con.

In this photo taken March 5, 2013, Photojournalist James "J.C." Playford poses with his mini video camera in Encinitas, Calif. Playford has sued San Diego city and county officials for being denied access, alleging violations of constitutional rights to a free press and against illegal search and seizure. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi) Lenny Ignelzi

The cameraman, James “J.C.” Playford of Ramona, estimates he’s had hundreds of run-ins with law enforcement, but seldom with fire department personnel.

Playford has a reputation of being confrontational with authorities, pushing the limits of where he is allowed to go at crime scenes and asking pointed but off-topic questions at news conferences. He defends his actions as falling under a First Amendment right to record what he sees and hears in public.

“I’ve stood on street corners with my camera and had cops come up to me,” Playford said in an interview. “I’ve had my cameras stolen from me, my video deleted, I’ve been stripped naked and put in a white room in handcuffs... These are the tactics your government uses.”

His latest video, posted on YouTube at News Now San Diego, has sparked a variety of reactions from professionals. The city fire chief called it “a training moment,” while a First Amendment advocate faulted Playford for not being sensitive to the patient’s distress. But an attorney for a national press photographer’s organization said the firefighter who appeared to have interfered with Playford was out of line.

Playford, a 52-year-old former painting contractor, has no formal training in journalism but sold a couple of videos to local news stations about eight years ago and began cruising the county for action. He has worked for American News and Information Services, owned by Ed Peruta of Connecticut and San Diego, for five to six years.

Playford has been arrested at news scenes four times and has had cameras seized several times, according to a 2012 federal lawsuit he and Peruta filed against San Diego County sheriff’s deputies, San Diego police and district attorney’s officials. The case has not been resolved. In a separate case, Playford was found guilty in 2012 of a charge of obstructing a peace officer in Vista.

His latest difficulty occurred after midnight on July 9 in the Gaslamp Quarter. He said he was there because of Comic-Con, and overheard a security guard’s radio broadcast that “talent” from “Game of Thrones” TV show was on the eighth floor of a nearby building, having breathing difficulty. He said he walked around the building to be where paramedics might show up, and an ambulance was there.

He said he began video recording an interview with a Comic-Con fan, then saw medics wheeling a young woman out on a gurney, so he aimed his camera that way and walked toward them. On the video, a paramedic can be heard telling him he couldn’t take the patient’s picture because she is a minor, and Playford responds that he can video because she was in public.

He trained a small spotlight on her as she covered her face with her hands and the medics rolled the gurney into the street toward the ambulance. Then the video jostles around. Playford is heard using expletives while he tells someone not to ever touch him like that again. The picture focuses on a San Diego firefighter in front of Playford’s camera lens.

They exchange harsh words, with the firefighter telling Playford to go away, until a fire captain steps between them. He leads the first firefighter a few yards away.

Videographer's confrontation with firefighter WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS PROFANITY (Video title written by NewsNowSanDiego, not the Union-Tribune)

Asked about it this week, Playford said he never saw the firefighter approach, but his hands bumped Playford, causing the camera to sway out of focus.

“I popped a well-placed knee to the groin,” Playford said, describing his first reaction.

Playford later called police to file a battery case against the firefighter. Playford said an officer took a report, then two detectives met with Playford on Wednesday to get further information.

Fire Chief Javier Mainar, head of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said he was surprised by what he saw in the recording.

“We see enough in the tape to question whether we behaved appropriately in this case,” Mainar said in an interview. “Any time something like this happens, it’s a ‘training moment.’”

When fire engineers are promoted to captain, they get some academy training in media rights, department spokesman Lee Swanson said. For firefighters, he said, “We have relied upon hand-me-down knowledge at the field level.”

Mainar, added, “I don’t recall an incident like this” in his 36 years in the fire service. “We have had disputes with media over access (to an incident scene). This looks like things could have been done better.”

Before the confrontation, Mainar said, a Fire Department unit had started creating a training video on how personnel should interact with the media. The video specifies media legal rights and limits, and shows fire crews behaving correctly and incorrectly, the chief said.

He said his firefighter’s conduct will be investigated by the Fire Department’s professional standards unit, either after or concurrently with the police investigation. Fire department managers would then decide whether any discipline is appropriate.

A District Attorney’s Office spokesman said in the nine years he has worked there, he couldn’t recall another case of a photographer filing a crime report against fire personnel for battery.

A bill sitting on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk for signing, after being passed by the state Senate and Assembly, specifies that the fact a person is photographing or recording an officer in public “does not constitute, in and of itself, a violation” of the law against obstructing officers.

Managers at several local television news stations declined to discuss how their crews interact with authorities, or Playford’s tactics. At San Diego 6 News, station manager Chuck Dunning said he wouldn’t tolerate in his employees the kind of foul language Playford uses in the video. His news director, Don Shafer, said their photographers and reporters are expected to “obey the lawful orders from first responders, be they law enforcement officials or fire department officials.”

Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, who spent 40 years as a photojournalist viewed Playford’s video. Afterward, he said, “I didn’t speak like that, but I never had a firefighter put his hands on me.”

“It’s a real problem around the country,” Osterreicher said. “First responders feel it’s their duty to protect people from photographers. That’s not their job.”

He said courts are becoming more protective of people’s right to take pictures, and he knew of a case in which a police officer was fired for violating a photographer’s civil rights.

“Citizens, mainstream media, freelance journalists – people have the right to record what they can see in a public place,” he said. “There is no charge of ‘illegal photography.’”

Peter Scheer, an attorney, journalist and executive director of the First Amendment Coalition in San Rafael, said it appeared on Playford’s video that the firefighter overreacted. But, Scheer added, he didn’t approve of Playford’s methods.

“To run up to (the patient)... shining a bright light in her face despite the fact she’s clearly distressed, is, in my view, extremely provocative,” Scheer said in an interview. “I would hope professional videographers wouldn’t behave that way. It’s pretty clear to me that crosses the line.”

What do you think? Were the firefighter or the videographer out of line? Share your thoughts in the comments below.