A fully credentialed journalist is immediately arrested when asked why her producers were arrested for documenting an event (ie. doing their jobs as journalists).
Democracy Now! | Amy Goodman Grills St. Paul Police Chief About Her Arrest and Two Democracy Now! ProducersYeah, put those crazed anarchist journalists behind bars where they belong. Our country is so much better than, oh, let's say Nazi Germany or Communist Russia.
I was on the convention floor interviewing the delegation from Minnesota and Alaska. I got a call, the producers are being arrested. I raced down here by foot. I went up to the riot police line. I said, “I would like to talk to a commanding officer.” This is all videotaped. And they took me, handcuffed me immediately, said, “You’re under arrest.” They pushed me to the ground. I said, “You can clearly see I have all the proper credentials.” I have my security clearance for the floor, for example, of the convention. So Secret Service came over, and they pulled it off. “Now you don’t,” they said.
America! Fuck Yeah!
3 comments:
To be fair, she may have been wrongly arrested, if so she'll have her day in court.
It may be she disobeyed general orders for EVERYONE to stay back and was legitimatly arrested. The video is edited suspiciously close to the arrest without much, if any of what led to the arrest.
I watched footage on channel 9 of the protesters "reporters" trying to cross a police line and enter a building while a warrant was being executed. The police said, "You can't enter here." The reporters then said, "We're the press and tried to walk past them." One of the officers then put his hand on one of their shoulders and stopped her. The "reporter said, "Don't push me I'm the press."
These "reporters think that just becuase they're "press" they have carte blance to go anywhere, anytime. Hell, even Geraldo Rivera can't do that!
I've been enjoying many of the anarchist "raw" videos on YouTube, which are edited down from actual complete footage on I've seen of the same events on local news. They try to make it look like the police are causing problems and edit out bottles thrown at cops and multiple orders to move.
I'm not saying the cops are always right, but if you poke a dog you're going to get bit once in a while.
As regular protesters will attest to, quite often the first rock thrown is from the crowd. I'll give you that. The instigator, someone who continually eggs on others and tries to stir things up in the crowd, will often later be seen not getting arrested but hanging with the cops.
We like to think our cops don't do this, but there is far too much documentation to the contrary. Undercover agents pressed Branch Davidians into questionable actions that lead to a deadly raid. Undercover agents have repeatedly pressured small time pot dealers into acquiring and selling more illicit drugs in larger quantities. Undercover agents promote violence among demonstrators to lead to arrests. The defense is that they are merely accelerating the inevitable. Are they?
You are also correct. Sometimes police expectations of trouble lead them to self fulilled prophecy and sometimes protesters provoke the desired response from cops for good video to support their cause.
Nothing is as it seems.
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