Posted on 12/23/2011 9:27:04 AM PST by JerseyHighlander
Edited on 12/23/2011 9:59:57 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
My arrest, or, more accurately, my assault was personal.
I was taking photographs of the police arresting Occupy Wall Street demonstrators at the December 12 Winter Garden flash mob, which had been organized in solidarity with the port shutdowns on the west coast, when I found myself targeted. "That one," I heard a voice say in a brutal "New Yawk" accent, realizing that a senior police official was pointing me out over a row of people, "he goes. He goes."
All at once I felt like a high school quarterback getting blitzed by the 1970s Oakland Raiders. Five police officers, all much larger than my 5'11" and 190 pounds, crashed through a line of protesters, photographers, and Rude Mechanical Orchestra band members and slammed me to the marble floor of the Winter Garden. ... I also realized that they went out of their way to interpret my reflexive movements to protect my camera equipment as resisting arrest. "Stop resisting," one police officer screamed at me as I lay pinned to the floor under 1700 pounds of New York City's finest, "stop resisting." "Metal cuffs," I heard one of them scream. "Metal cuffs. Put the metal cuffs on this ******* guy." Recovering from the initial shock, I realized that I was handcuffed to a chair with a row of 17 other people, 10 men and 7 women, under arrest for "criminal trespassing" and "resisting arrest." Almost all of us were members of the Occupy Wall Street media team or independent photojournalists known by the police to be sympathetic to the Occupy movement.
The next 36 hours and 55 minutes would be aggressively impersonal, an attempt to use the tediously bureaucratic day-to-day operation of the criminal justice system to give legitimacy to a snatch and grab operation by Michael Bloomberg's "personal army..."
NYPD systematically with malice abrogates First Amendment Rights in NYC to the point that no journalist is permitted to stand foot on City owned property during a press event if the NYPD doesn't specifically approve of the bias reporting of the individual journalist. If the NYPD disapproves of a journalist's reporting, the NYPD will revoke their press credential and immediately arrest and detain the journalist. On top of that, it is now explicit policy of the NYPD brass to physically assault all journalists deemed "unfriendly" toward the NYPD and the Mayor's office.
In my best brutal, New Yawk accent (Brooklyn actually) - you want some cheese with that whiiiiiiiiiiiiiine?
I don’t know which I would rather least be called..
” A Journalist”
or
” Just another Asshole with a Camera”
Go ahead and yuck it up while you can.
NY cops do believe they are the law. Theres no question of doing whats right only of doing what they want.
The constitution.makes no distinction.
For why did you expect anything else?
.” Almost all of us were members of the Occupy Wall Street media team or independent photojournalists known by the police to be sympathetic to the Occupy movement.
That’s not a journalist. It is a propagandist
There is obviously a ‘smarter’ structure in place to deal with propaganda directed against enforcement. But apparently not smart enough...
>> NYPD systematically with malice abrogates First Amendment Rights in NYC
Not true. Consider OWS.
I loathe jackbooted assholes with guns as much as the next anti-Statist, but let’s not forget, NYC IS ground zero for terrorism, and as a consequence a more aggressive process is in place. Nonetheless, citizens must always push back against Statism, because domineering rulers like Bloomberg won’t.
And let’s not forget the father of 4 daughters that was murdered two weeks serving the people of NYC. Yes, this is relevant.
Somewhere in this screed the question of “was he actually, in fact, trespassing?” never got answered.
I am always skeptical of incident reports that are written by or quote solely from one of the parties to the incident, without a response from the other side — that’s a press release, not a report.
The irony, of course, is that even if everything this guy says is true (and that he did nothing to provoke or exacerbate the situation), the thug-like response from the cops is the direct result of runaway government power, which OWS only wants to add to.
Was this guy one of the protesters who was part of the flash-mob or was he off to the side taking pictures and shooting video? It makes a huge difference. If he was part of the protesting group the police would be correct in identifying the leaders and arresting them first. Leaderless groups tend to disorganize and fall apart quickly.
If he truly was standing off to the side taking pictures, not directing, not participating in the denial-of-access protest then he has a valid complaint. But if he was directing or participating in the "occupation" then he got exactly what he deserved.
I'm not buying the argument that they targeted the "Occupy Wall Street media team or independent photojournalists". We now all have cameras, recording devices and have access to the internet to post our media, opinions and eye-witness reports to the world. "OWS media team" = everybody associated with OWS. "Independent photojournalists" = anybody with an opinion, a camera and a blog.
I must’ve missed Bloomberg getting a pass on FR. He blamed the tea party movement for the Times Square bombing and BET that it would be an angry middle aged white dude upset over Obamacare.
And it’s only a flash mob if you are willing to admit that the goal of flash mobs is to rally the troops for agit-prop, they aren’t the silly gatherings of total strangers that we were told they are. It’s just a way to quickly phone bank a mob. MOB. Not a peaceful assembly. Call in the cameras and preen.
He was probably encouraging the problems so he could get some good shots.
Hey slick,your just another wannabe a**hole journalist.You dribble all of the same OWS talking points and propaganda in your archives.I would have ripped your gonads off and shove them down you throat.You miscreant occupiers hide behind lawyers,children,sycophant media and the very cops you hate.I’ll take NYPD word over yours any time.Nobody is above the law but you guys flaunt the liberties we have just like you sh*t on police cars and desecrate the flag.You babies want to be heard than run for office as a socialist party candidate.Your occupy camps are all a failure of society.Anti-statists are not anarchists.Try occupying my town and see what happens.Most Americans have a high tolerance for anti social behavior.Do not take it as a weakness.We believe in the rule of law.Why do we have to pay to clean up your mess?99% of Americans are through with your crap.FUOWS.
Personally I believe the need for press credentials is a 1st amendment violation itself - who decides who is the press??? It’s like who polices the police...
Too true. All too true.
You live in NYC? I do and have for most of my 57 years and i don’t give the the benefit of the doubt because they cut corners and 90% are on the job for the benefits and not because they believe in upholding the law.
You’re confusing 2011 with 1960.
My perspective is Philadelphia.We had a chief named Rizzo.He would not put up with this.OWS confuses the 1960’s with now.You certainly paint with a broad brush.I am not defending police unions and bloated city agencies and departments.This scumbag is an agitator.Most cops protect and serve with honor and are making a living as opposed to the malcontents in the OWS movement.Bad cops are rare and deserve what they get if they are incompetent.I see no redeeming value of any protester in this movement.I have looked and read adnauseam.I will support those in blue as opposed to those running around like anarchist thugs.
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