Just a month after a Columbia grad student was hassled by the NYPD for photographing subways for a school project, another young man armed with camera has been taken down by the long arm of the law.

The NY Post is reporting that "a Brooklyn teen says he was busted and beaten for taking a picture of a uniformed cop while he was asleep." Tyshawn McDonald, 18, took this photo in a laundromat on New Year's Day, and really, who isn't a little sleepy that day? This all went down in Brownsville, and the teen, after refusing to give up his camera, was handcuffed and attacked, resulting in a broken nose. The accuracy of that story is being questioned, however.

In one corner there's community activist Paul Washington saying the act was a "civic duty," because not only was the cop catching some z's on the job, but his gun was also dangling unattended. In the other corner is the NYPD, claiming it's all lies! They claim the arrest was made after McDonald (who has a prior arrest record) taunted the officer...who then fell asleep? When more cops came to the scene, they claim McDonald punched one of them, which resulted in this whole ordeal. The incident is being investigated, and yesterday protesters rallied for the teen.