Forget New York City

Digirame said:

I'm sorry to hear that someone assaulted you like that. Yes, it does happen anytime we are around people for almost anything. Some people have mental issues or problems that makes it hard to understand why they are so violent etc.

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Many people should not be out on the street,but in an institution receiving treatment. Many years ago they replaced treatment with medications to save money. This is the result.

Digirame said:

I've found that there's less chance of being assaulted or hassled for taking legal pictures in public, if we are near a lot of other people with cameras (including those people taking pictures with cell phones). It's not a guarantee but again a less chance from my experience. But when we are alone, we can be more of target.

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Maybe, but, I think it has more to with how and who you shoot. 99.9% of the time I know who to stay away from and/or how not to be noticed, but very rarely there is a confrontation.

Digirame said:

What do you or others do, to reduce the chance of being assaulted or hassled for taking legal pictures in public? What ways do you become more unnoticed? It's getting so bad out there, just by what I see on YouTube. One person at Dpreview mentioned he was operating his camera with his cell phone to avoid confrontation. For some reason, I've found people taking pictures with cell phones are not hassled as much as people with cameras and lenses. I don't know why. Has anyone else noticed that too?

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As I said above, it’s having the street smarts in knowing who to avoid, combined with experience in stealth shooting. I’m always aware, but It’s not something I even think about at this point, but I have at least 10 or 15 years experience shooting almost every day and it’s all second nature. I tend to use very small cameras and lenses, and try to blend in.

Of course cell phones are stealthy as there is one in everyone’s hand and hard to know if shooting photos or just reading emails.

Thank you for your reply. It's nice to know your thoughts about this.

Digirame said:

Thank you for your reply. It's nice to know your thoughts about this.

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No problem. I’m taking a group of photographers on a street photography walk next week, so I'm thinking about these issues quite a bit.