Lindsay Lohan don't take no shit from no one (even if that "no one" happens to be inanimate object)!!!

LiLo got into an altercation with a photographer outside the Bowery Hotel in New York City last night (the same hotel where JLo and Marc Anthony where partying) that resulted in the police being called to the seen.

According to TMZ, Lindsay tripped over a metal barricade that had been set up as she was going in.  According to their guy on the scene, Lindsay must have thought one of the paps tripped her -- because she turned around and punched a photog in the nose!

She was on the phone at the time and, after the punch, told whoever she was talking to, "Oh my God, I just hit a paparazzi."

So the cops showed up but no charges were pressed and Miss Lohan got off scot-free, although...isn't she still on some kind of probation?!