Reporter Arrested While Covering News Conference in Ohio

[Mr. X]

Reporter Arrested While Covering News Conference in Ohio - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

 

[goalmouth]

Oh look, no responses.

Pearlman was right about the board.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

Oh look, no responses.

Pearlman was right about the board.

I apologize on behalf of the rest of the board for not posting on your timeline.

I guess you didn't respond because you were too busy on your next post wishing for the death of Republican politicians.

 

[Azrael]

Pretty bad.

So I expect nothing to be done about it. Because it happens all the time.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/06/w...ce-attacks-on-journalists-across-the-country/

A Wall Street Journal reporter was handcuffed by police while standing outside a Chase Bank. The newspaper is demanding answers | CNN Business

https://www.voanews.com/a/press-fre...rested-covering-us-protests-year/6199578.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...erguson-arrest-and-threaten-more-journalists/

https://slate.com/news-and-politics...olice-injure-arrest-journalists-protests.html

Journalist Alan Weisman arrested, strip-searched while covering anti-pipeline protest in Minnesota - Committee to Protect Journalists

I was there the night this happened:

https://pen.org/press-clip/officials-journalists-among-those-arrested-during-zuccotti-park/

Spent the weekend on the phone with Walz's office and the Department of Public Safety while this was happening:

Minnesota Governor Calls Alleged ashaults on Journalists 'Chilling' (Published 2021)

Minnesota governor expresses regret for mistreatment of journalists during Daunte Wright demonstrations | CNN

CNN crew released from police custody after they were arrested live on air in Minneapolis | CNN

Journalists Settle Suit Over Mistreatment Covering Protests Following Killings Of George Floyd, Daunte Wright

Things might be a little worse since Trump's 'enemy of the people' campaign. But government violence and wrongful arrest of the press goes back to the founding

https://www.rcfp.org/espionage-act-used-directly-against-press/

Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)

 

[DanOregon]

I honestly wonder if the press has enough juice these days, or would have enough will to defend a Penatgon Papers typle legal challenge. Something like this should require the officers to take (or re-take) a six-hour course on civil liberties. And pash a test before returning to the streets.

 

[goalmouth]

I apologize on behalf of the rest of the board for not posting on your timeline.

I guess you didn't respond because you were too busy on your next post wishing for the death of Republican politicians.

They'll die when they die, but I haven't posted as such since the mods said not to. Pay attention.

 

[playthrough]

Oh look, no responses.

Pearlman was right about the board.

Things change. You're gonna see less activity on a "Journalism Topics" board when there are fewer journalists. Wasn't exactly intentional.

 

[jr/shotglass]

I would have been more outraged if the governor had not said it appeared to be poorly handled. To me, that was at least something.

 

[Azrael]

When they're not cracking you over the head with a nightstick . . .

DeSantis, Aiming at a Favorite Foil, Wants to Roll Back Press Freedom

 

[The Big Ragu]

When they're not cracking you over the head with a nightstick . . .

DeSantis, Aiming at a Favorite Foil, Wants to Roll Back Press Freedom

In this case, it read like this was some idiot police officers, not something that Mike DeWine sanctioned or knew was happening.

But there's no way to know for sure if that is what was really happening.

What bothers me about this. ... is that I collect instances of police officers violating people's civil rights, often it is one of those "first amendment auditors," some of whom are actually kind of decks trying to provoke the cops. The way it has played out often is wiht the police and the town or city getting sued. They then usually refuse to admit what they did was wrong. But when it gets close to a trial, they suddenly settle and pay the person -- sometimes it is in the tens of thousnads or hundreds of thousands of dollars. In many cases, the person insists that they publicly acknowledge that what they did was wrong and make a show of putting policies in place to "educate" their police officers.

Every time it happens that way, I am sitting here saying, "Well the voters in that place should see all the money this cost them, and vote for changes." But most people pay absolutely no attention and don't give a ship. ... and things never change.

I feel like we always reap what we are sowing.

 

[Azrael]

I would have been more outraged if the governor had not said it appeared to be poorly handled. To me, that was at least something.

In this case, it read like this was some idiot police officers, not something that Mike DeWine sanctioned or knew was happening.

But there's no way to know for sure if that is what was really happening.

What bothers me about this. ... is that I collect instances of police officers violating people's civil rights, often it is one of those "first amendment auditors," some of whom are actually kind of decks trying to provoke the cops. The way it has played out often is wiht the police and the town or city getting sued. They then usually refuse to admit what they did was wrong. But when it gets close to a trial, they suddenly settle and pay the person -- sometimes it is in the tens of thousnads or hundreds of thousands of dollars. In many cases, the person insists that they publicly acknowledge that what they did was wrong and make a show of putting policies in place to "educate" their police officers.

Every time it happens that way, I am sitting here saying, "Well the voters in that place should see all the money this cost them, and vote for changes." But most people pay absolutely no attention and don't give a ship. ... and things never change.

I feel like we always reap what we are sowing.

Not a lot of constitutional scholars on the Scorpion Team or the governor's protective detail.

It's always easy to offer the apology after the heads have been cracked. And as brother Ragu points out, ashuage the loud few - other journalists mostly, rarely ever the public - with a cash settlement.

A lot of us at the Committee to Protect Journalists and PEN and other free press orgs were on the phone with the Minnesota governor's office and the state police in real time while journalists were being ashaulted and arrested in Brooklyn Center. Told them what we were seeing and hearing and to get their cops in line.

Got a contrite public apology from the governor after the fact instead - but by then every head had been cracked. Meaningless.

After which, thanks to the ACLU, the payout.

Same thing will happen again next time.

And again.

And again.

 

[Mr. X]