content: It was likely a city or federal building.  It could have been a police department, it could have been some portion of the courthouse, it could have even been some prison building. A lot of these guys are flexing their rights to video tape buildings like this simply because there have been waaay too many police who are arresting people for doing so.  They're trying to take back their right to do this. "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile." Police are trying to suppress people from filming them because they know that video tape and viral videos are exposing their bullshit.  They think by taking the cameras away that they can stop it.  Some of them even feel like the videos put officer safety in jeopardy.  They will often claim that you could be a terrorist for video taping public buildings.  They will often claim that the cell phone could be a weapon and that they need to put it down immediately. The bottom line is that these guys have a right to record places like this.  It makes officers uncomfortable so they're trying to stop them from doing so by arresting them.  In the end there becomes more and more case law that supports the rights of the citizens to record the police and public buildings. Remember, there have been times in the past where the police have enacted 'no recording zones'.  They did it during the past race thingy in, I think, Baltimore.