A man was held for five hours after he photographed a cop reversing the wrong way up a one-way street.
PC Aqil Farooq leaped out, hit the camera to the ground, handcuffed Mr Carter and bundled him into the back of the vehicle.
The plumber, 44, was arrested for supposedly being drunk, resisting arrest and assaulting the officer with the camera. He was kept in cells before finally being released on police bail at midnight.
Wrong way ... police van snapped by Mr Carter
Mr Carter, of Bedminster, Bristol, said: “I was nearly knocked down there once so when the police van went the wrong way I sort of said, ‘Hey mate. no entry’. But he just shouted out of the window, ‘F*** off — this is police business’.
“It was very frightening. All I had done was photograph these police officers doing something illegal, but I was the one who ended up being arrested.”
PC Farooq and an unnamed WPC said they were at the fish and chip shop to review CCTV footage of another incident. A week later bachelor Mr Carter spent another five hours at the police station with his solicitor.
He was never charged.