Most of these protestors travel from City to city staging these protest and often destroy
public property when doing so . I for one don't think my taxes should go towards replacing
these assets. Too bad these protest don't stay peaceful . How much sense does demonstating against war in a violent manner make. These are not your average peaceful citizens but typically some far left group who are against everything and normally don't hold down a job
These protesters threw bleach on a 78 year old Connecticut delegate and then took his credentals badge. The swat team moved in to protect him and the rest of the delagation and recover his credentals. Peace marchers??
Ray
I saw some footage of the "protesters" breaking out store windows and vandalizing cars. I see nothing wrong with protesting and having your voice heard, but if they are going to cross the line I see nothing wrong with subduing this type of criminal behaviour.
I'm going to go out an a limb and share my 2 cents.
I live in the Twin Cities area and I could care less about the RNC. What I do care about is the protesters and various groups that have taken up residence in the Twin Cities for the last few months planning their routes, wasting the courts time with their petty claims of injustice when they don't get their way, how they are going to disrupt the RNC and in general create absolute and utter havoc for those that make the Twin Cities our home. Then, when they break windows, cause damage and purposely cause potential harm to innocent people, they take the cowardly route when arrested and say they are part of the "Doe" family. I agree with jcw - I have nothing against speaking up for a cause, but do it without the violence and harm to innocent bystanders.
The Twin Cities is a wonderful place to live and I don't appreciate these activists making a bad name for my home or taking away from our valuable resources.
jimo1015 wrote:
Most of these protestors travel from City to city staging these protest and often destroy public property when doing so
"Most"?
I think that "most" of these protestors are peaceful protesters merely exercising their right to free speech. A right that is getting trampled all over.
I think that "most" of these protestors are peaceful protesters merely exercising their right to free speech. A right that is getting trampled all over.
If they would just use their right to free speech, no one would be complaining.
Unfortunately, they want to be disruptive and commit mayhem.
Sure, many are peaceful, but one bad apple...............
I agree the people who are doing vandalism should be arrested, and thrown in prison. thats not the issue. The police are arresting legetimate journalists and preemptively arresting people because they think they might do something.
and if you watch any of the videos of the protests it's not MOST, it's 1 in 500 maybe. There were 10000 protesters, most of who were peacful.
But again, you don't arrest journalists and photographers trying to cover the story.
photonanax2 wrote:
The Twin Cities is a wonderful place to live and I don't appreciate these activists making a bad name for my home or taking away from our valuable resources.
Photonana
Then you are really gonna hate what happens next. New York has had to pay out millions in damages for arresting journalists, and there are quite an army of lawyers who are donating their time to handle the law suits against the police for this one. This is going to be a pretty expensive mistake.
tomhh wrote:
If they would just use their right to free speech, no one would be complaining.
Unfortunately, they want to be disruptive and commit mayhem.
Sure, many are peaceful, but one bad apple...............
... don't spoil the whole bunch tom.
Sorry, couldn't help thinking of the Jackson 5 song at that point.
It would be a great shame if people came to view photographers in a similar way
"Sure, many want to take innocent pictures, but one bad apple ... We'll just have to stop all of them, to be on the safe side"
Unfortunately the world seems to be increasingly in the habit of tarring groups of people with the same brush for the sake of a few individuals.
I don't see how anyone watching what that photographer did in the video can think anything other than she was wrong and she pushed past the line. As a person that has press creds (albeit local, also a long time NPPA member), to not arrest this woman would have been as foolish on the part of the police as she was...but far more danergous for everyone in that crowd. She was warned (as if someone needs warning) and ignored it, and the police simply took her to the back behind the control line for the arrest. She got in the way of police activity controlling the crowd, anyone behaving as she did would have been arrested. This is a saftey and crowd contol issue...it has nothing to do with being press or not. Having been in crowd situations like this, it is no fun and the police are doing a good job...as evidenced by many news clips all over network news. This in no way infringes on my rights as a press photographer.
MSC wrote:
I don't see how anyone watching what that photographer did in the video can think anything other than she was wrong and she pushed past the line. As a person that has press creds (albeit local, also a long time NPPA member), to not arrest this woman would have been as foolish on the part of the police as she was...but far more danergous for everyone in that crowd. She was warned (as if someone needs warning) and ignored it, and the police simply took her to the back behind the control line for the arrest. She got in the way of police activity controlling the crowd, anyone behaving as she did would have been arrested. This is a saftey and crowd contol issue...it has nothing to do with being press or not. Having been in crowd situations like this, it is no fun and the police are doing a good job...as evidenced by many news clips all over network news. This in no way infringes on my rights as a press photographer....Show more →
The back story is that her producer and camerra operator got arrested while trying to film another incident. The cops surrounded them with some demonstrators, and the producer and the camera person tried to get back as the cops requested but were slammed to the ground and cuffed. The lady in the video was inside interviewing a delagate when this happened. the video, she approached the police asking to speak with the person in charge in order to get her people released and instead was arrested herself.
The AP photographer was simply in the crowd shooting photos and was rounded up with the rest of the of the crowd.
The back story is that her producer and camerra operator got arrested while trying to film another incident. The cops surrounded them with some demonstrators, and the producer and the camera person tried to get back as the cops requested but were slammed to the ground and cuffed. The lady in the video was inside interviewing a delagate when this happened. the video, she approached the police asking to speak with the person in charge in order to get her people released and instead was arrested herself.
The AP photographer was simply in the crowd shooting photos and was rounded up with the rest of the of the crowd. ...Show more →
It is a distinction without a difference. If they did nothing wrong, they will get off. I've been in these crowds when they get out of control...it is a very ugly side of humanity. 9 times out of 10 the cops are well within the boundries of thier training.
I saw what she did in the video and she was stupid. Her boss is not going to be happy with her behavior, which was foolish and made matters worse...and more expensive. And the only people that will be sympathic are those that find police an evil presence or those people that think having press creds means you can do what ever you want. The rest will see this with more clarity...yet another black mark on journalists.
What really gets me is foolish behavior like this trying to get a story or a better photo will make it HARDER for me to do my job next time out...not easier. These over-zelous jouranlists are hurting our reputation and give us a bad name. And in the future, it makes matters worse for the profession...although hard to see what is professional about this kind of behavior.
MSC wrote:
It is a distinction without a difference. If they did nothing wrong, they will get off. I've been in these crowds when they get out of control...it is a very ugly side of humanity. 9 times out of 10 the cops are well within the boundries of thier training.
I saw what she did in the video and she was stupid. Her boss is not going to be happy with her behavior, which was foolish and made matters worse...and more expensive. And the only people that will be sympathic are those that find police an evil presence or those people that think having press creds means you can do what ever you want. The rest will see this with more clarity...yet another black mark on journalists.
What really gets me is foolish behavior like this trying to get a story or a better photo will make it HARDER for me to do my job next time out...not easier. These over-zelous jouranlists are hurting our reputation and give us a bad name. And in the future, it makes matters worse for the profession...although hard to see what is professional about this kind of behavior. ...Show more →
Well, I disagree. The journalists on her team were slammed to the ground, thei'r noses bloodied, and locked up. They have been released, but you cant undo the physical assault. her asking to speak to the person in charge did not warrant her arrest.
I'm sympathetic and I don't see the police as an evil presence, nor do I think that having a press card means you can do whatever you want. I think most of the time the police do a fine job but in this case they were out of control...not just what was on the video, but all the weekend preemptive raids and the arrests of other journalists.
I think a press card should let the cops know that your not one of the demonstrators and that they should leave you alone while you do your job as long as you don't interfere. By all accounts her crew and the AP photog were not interfering and were just there filming.
watkinssr wrote:
Well, I disagree. The journalists on her team were slammed to the ground, thei'r noses bloodied, and locked up. They have been released, but you cant undo the physical assault. her asking to speak to the person in charge did not warrant her arrest.
I'm sympathetic and I don't see the police as an evil presence, nor do I think that having a press card means you can do whatever you want. I think most of the time the police do a fine job but in this case they were out of control...not just what was on the video, but all the weekend preemptive raids and the arrests of other journalists.
I think a press card should let the cops know that your not one of the demonstrators and that they should leave you alone while you do your job as long as you don't interfere. By all accounts her crew and the AP photog were not interfering and were just there filming. ...Show more →
They were slammed into the ground and thier noses bloodied? Wow...of course they ere just standing there, and a bunch of cops rushed up to hurt them. Get real.
This is the kind of response the hurts journalism and shows a severe lack of real-life-in-the-trenches understanding and these actions affect my JOB, and the next guy's JOB, and all of us suffer. The police were hardly out of control as you say...just watch the video. What part of common sense are the armchair quarterbacks lacking...get out in the real world and then your opinion will have some bearing on what working press, and the morons among them, do.
MSC wrote:
They were slammed into the ground and thier noses bloodied? Wow...of course they ere just standing there, and a bunch of cops rushed up to hurt them. Get real.
Well, from what people who have seen the videos say, that is "real". They were filming a demonstration, the cops surrounded the demonstration, and as they were trying to ask the cops which way to go (they were completely surrounded at this point) they were slammed to the ground with the demonstrators and handcuffed. I'm sure the demonstrators were probably out of control, but someone wearing a press badge and holding a camera is pretty obviously not one of them. I'm sure the video will come out in the lawsuit...
I'm glad to see journalists being more aggressive for once. It's like our media has been in a coma for a while. Things like this need to brought to light. Anyway, the ACLU is on it, so I'm sure we will be hearing more info as this progresses.
