This is almost too incredible to believe. An East St. Louis man, Fletcher Parker, was standing by his truck watching the local police arrest a man when he decided to take a few snap shots. What happened next you have to read to believe.

After taking several snapshots and without talking to the police, Parker said he left. After driving three blocks, he realized he was being followed by six squad cars.

Six cars; they must have been really busy with the arrest.

"I thought they were all just trying to pass me, so I pulled over. They come running out of their cars at me," he said.

Parker said the officers asked him if he was a reporter and when he said no, asked why he was taking photos. They then seized the disc from the digital camera, he said.

So only reporters are allowed to have cameras.

After accusing him of obstructing an investigation and warning him he was lucky not to be given a traffic ticket for failing to keep his auto insurance card in the vehicle, they let him go.

I guess the investigation was hampered by the loss of the six patrol cars it took to pull over a single rogue photographer.

An angry Parker said he went an hour later to the police department and spoke with Police Chief Ron Matthews, and asked for the return of his camera disc. He said Matthews refused.

"The chief told me if they (the officers) had been doing their job they would have arrested me at the scene and then we wouldn't be having this problem," Parker said.

What problem? The problem of Parker complaining about his property being unlawfully seized by the government? That problem?

But when he was contacted by telephone about five minutes after Parker left his office, Matthews said, "We are looking into his complaint now. We're going to find out what officers were out there."

Laimutis Nargelenas, a former superintendent of the Illinois State Police and a spokesman for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said ordinary citizens generally have a legal right to photograph police in action, as do news cameramen.

But if a police officer orders someone to stop taking pictures, they must cease even if the officer has no legal basis for such an order, Nargelenas said.

Ever hear of the word Gestapo?

"Generally, we tell our police to keep in mind that the citizens have cameras, like in the Rodney King situation, and to always do the right thing because they are a lot of cameras and video cameras out there," he said.

Parker said he contacted the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Unit to lodge a complaint, but was told by Master Sgt. Tyrone Jordan that it was illegal to take photographs.

Contacted by a reporter, Jordan said Parker did have a right to take photographs as long as he did not interfere with police, "although I would advise against it."

Translation: You have every right to take photos, but if you know what's good for you, you won't.