Papers please!

Via COP BLOCK

One Sunday afternoon, a group of five friends visited *Kiryas Joel, New York. Within an hour, two of us were in handcuffs, and according to a New York State Police officer, under arrest for "obstructing government administration" after declining to provide identification when stopped for the "suspicious activity" of taking photographs (mind you, never of people, only a few snaps of the land and buildings).

*Kiryas Joel, New York
Kiryas Joel (also known as Kiryas Yo'el or KJ) (Hebrew: קרית יואל, "Town of Joel") is a village within the town of Monroe in Orange County, New York, United States. The great majority of its residents are Hasidic Jews who strictly observe the Torah and its commandments, and belong to the worldwide Satmar Hasidic dynasty.

Most of the village's residents speak Yiddish as their first language. The village has the youngest median age (15.0) of any population center of over 5,000 residents in the United States.^[1] Residents of Kiryas Joel, like those of other Haredi Jewish communities, typically have large families. Kiryas Joel is the place in the United States with the highest percentage of people who reported Hungarian ancestry, as 18.9% of the population reported Hungarian ancestry in 2000.^[2]

Kiryas Joel is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

According to 2008 census figures, the village has the highest poverty rate in the nation. More than two-thirds of residents live below the federal poverty line and 40% receive food stamps.^[3]