June 3, 2012

"Cop Arrests NBC Reporters, Says Your First Amendment Right Can Be Terminated."

"What’s his name? The police officer’s name should be reported. If I ran a media operation, anytime someone laid hands on one of my reporters, I’d publish his or her name, picture, and disciplinary record. Then I’d file a lawsuit. Every single time."

ADDED: That this police officer would talk like that to news reporters is evidence that he talks like that on such a regular basis that he doesn't even notice how shocking it sounds to people who know what rights are. It's important to push back hard against this kind of policing for the sake of all the people who don't know what their rights are and who can be controlled and oppressed by false information coming from an authority figure.

36 comments:

cubanbob said...

Is it too much to expect law enforcement officials to know the laws they are enforcing and what things are against the law? These outrages out to be reason enough to eliminate qualified immunity from public officials.

Tom Spaulding said...

Chicago, Chicago, that tyrannical town
Chicago, Chicago, they'll shove you around
Bet your bottom dollar you'll lose the news in Chicago
Chicago, the town that Tiny Dancer could not shut down

On Hate Street, that great street
I just want to say
They do things that they don't do in old Pyongyang, say

They have the time, to mess with your life
I saw a man, being booked by a Fife
In Chicago, my home town

They have the time, and pensions life
I saw a man, being booked by a Fife
In Chicago
In Chicago
In Chicago

edutcher said...

They're taking their lead from Dictator Zero and his AG, "my people".

Ann Althouse said...

If I ran a media operation, anytime someone laid hands on one of my reporters, I’d publish his or her name, picture, and disciplinary record. Then I’d file a lawsuit. Every single time.

You'd have been fun at the '68 Democrat Convention - Sherman, MacArthur, and Old Hickory rolled into one.

Ann Althouse said...

Remember the cop here in Madison who told my son he could be arrested for getting between me and a man who was attacking me?

BTW, I respect the role of police in controlling crowds and protecting people, and I have seen it handled well.

ndspinelli said...

For Chrissake, a reporter should know the quick/expedient solution to this problem. It's Chicago..give the cops $20! Problem solved.

Chip S. said...

Maybe the cop went to high school in Salisbury, NC, where kids are taught that they can be arrested for politically incorrect speech.

The Drill SGT said...

Officer Ward
Badge 13603
Chicago PD
10th District

madAsHell said...

The other cops appeared dumb-founded, and maybe a little embarrassed.

Tom Spaulding said...

What happens to the missing news reporters?

"Cabrini-Green is people! It's peeeeepuuuuuul!!" - Zombie Charlton Heston

Ann Althouse said...

I think the cop in that video seems like he's just overloaded with the task at hand and is resorting to the limited array of things he can think of to say. He sounds overwhelmed.

I would stress that the city of Chicago bears the responsibility for putting this man in that position. Not that he isn't responsible too, but I blame the city.

KCFleming said...

What a shit-hole Chicago has become.

I have to give a talk there in a coupla weeks. I'm spending as little time and dough as possible and leaving as fast as I can.

Why contribute one cent to the Detroit Part II?
It's on life support; pull the plug.

Phil 314 said...

racist

Tom Spaulding said...

I think the cop in that video seems like he's just overloaded with the task at hand and is resorting to the limited array of things he can think of to say.

I think it's great that armed men in authority arrest journalists...'cause they can't think of any thing to say.

It's the America we were always promised. Finally!

Chip S. said...

In other news, noted blogger Ann Althouse became the first recorded case of Stockholm-syndrome-by-proxy today at 10:03 AM Central time.

Brian Brown said...

cubanbob said...
Is it too much to expect law enforcement officials to know the laws they are enforcing and what things are against the law? These outrages out to be reason enough to eliminate qualified immunity from public officials.


When "diversity" and unionization take over the police forces as they have, the answer to your question becomes self evident.

Have you ever noticed how state AG's have to spell out in 4th grade instruction what CC reciprocity means on state Web sites? The police have no problem hassling citizens in that area, at all...

Anonymous said...

That is the voice and authority of a man with a better pension than yours.

Brian Brown said...

That guy wasn't an affirmative action hire or anything.

I mean, he was so articulate and knowledgeable!

David said...

Of course it can, and there are a lot of people-most of whom are not police-who would love to do it. Thing Russ Feingold and John McCain.

His name is officer Ward. But obviously (from the tape) he called someone higher up in the chain of command to get authorization to make the arrest. Who was that?

Ross said...

I sent an email this morning to the commander of District 010 Ogden in Chicago to complain about it.

Icepick said...

Y'all need to get with the program. The Republic is dead, and the Constitution for said Republic no longer applies. Our notional leaders have said repeatedly in recent years that they just don't give a fuck about the Constitution. There's no reason to think they don't mean what they say. Quit looking to the Constitution as your guiding document. Look to the spirit expressed in the Declaration of Independence for guidance now.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Chip S. said...

@Ross--I hope you've got solid documentation for all your income-tax deductions.

rhhardin said...

Expect the goober wall of silence defense.

John Enright said...

Here is NBC's own reporting on the incident. The reporters were released 10 minutes later.
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Chicago-Police-Take-NBC-Chicago-Photojournalist-Into-Custody-Warn-1st-Amendment-Rights-Can-Be-Terminated-143105086.html

John Enright said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignorance is Bliss said...

Does anyone know what the law is about standing on the median? If that is illegal, would it not be a lawful order to tell the reporter to move to the sidewalk? Would failure to obey that order be an arrestable offense?

In any case, the officer is an idiot for the terminated rights comment.

Does anyone know what the reporters were trying to cover?

smarty said...

The direct result of affirmative action. Stupid people in positions that they have no right to be in, and peers afraid to turn them in for being stupid for fear of being called racist, and superiors afraid to demote or discipline for fear of being called discriminatory.

Robert Cook said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Robert Cook said...

Icepick has it right: the Republic is dead.

In a time where the President can mount an illegal war without basis and institute a torture regime (Bush) and the public approves; and where the President can act on a self-declared unilateral authority to order anyone in the world, including Americans, kidnapped and imprisoned or assassinated, and acts on that claim, (Obama) and the public approves... the Republic is dead, and with our active enouragement or passive acquiescence.

damikesc said...

Our First Amendment deserves much better protection than the media will provide.

What a shit-hole Chicago has become.

That happened decades ago.

I'll remind you --- the horrific Perfect Strangers was set in Chicago.

Why?

Because no other city in the world is quite as shitty. Even NYC, which is really terrible, is less shitty.

Brian Brown said...

Robert Cook said...


In a time where the President can mount an illegal war without basis


Hysterical.

Yes, "illegal"! kookie!

Which law was broken again?

Trochilus said...

Ann,

To me, the following was a far more compelling arrest from a constitutional perspective.

As noted in the NBC story itself, the reporters were released almost immediately without having been formally charged, but the protester at the Clinton rally for Barrett, whose name is Dave Willoughby and who later made a statement, was actually thrown in the clink.

John Enright said...

Ignorance Is Bliss, the reporters were trying to cover a "story of a 6-year-old girl who was shot and killed." The crew was outside a hospital. Security guards reportedly complained to police that the news people had attempted to come inside the hospital, but the news people said this was false.

Paul said...

Ann,

These cops are the STANDING ARMY that Thomas Jefferson warned us about.

Yes cops. They have tanks, machineguns, UAVs, helicopters, full armor, etc...

"Your papers please".

gerry said...

The rights described by the Bill of Rights are not granted by the Bill of Rights. Those rights are inborn and cannot be revoked or suspended licitly.

Sheesh.

Known Unknown said...

The only thing worse than an overzealous reporter is an overzealous cop.

Amartel said...

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/06/04/pj-exclusive-marine-vet-arrested-at-wisconsin-labor-rally-speaks-out/

This is the guy who was detained in Milwaukee while Bill Clinton was speaking for holding a sign in a threatening manner. And, no, the greedy rubes who mob-rushed him were not "flanking him for his protection."