The Briefing Room

General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: mystery-ak on August 16, 2014, 07:43:42 pm

Title: Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
Post by: mystery-ak on August 16, 2014, 07:43:42 pm

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9B95AAB4-1B66-4024-B4DA-A7CA3EF5B0B8 (http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=9B95AAB4-1B66-4024-B4DA-A7CA3EF5B0B8)

 Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
By: Byron Tau
August 16, 2014 12:43 PM EDT

FERGUSON, Missouri — Reporters trying to cover the renewed chaos in this town faced a new threat on Friday: the demonstrators themselves.

Print, video and photo-journalists were all repeatedly and aggressively threatened and harassed when attempting to photograph or videotape any of the looting or property destruction. Many of the demonstrators expressed concern about being identified by police or told reporters that the looting was none of their concern.

Police largely remained on the sidelines on Friday and into the dawn hours of Saturday morning as demonstrators descended on a number of businesses in Ferguson — pulling alcohol, lottery tickets, and merchandise from the vandalized stores.



Reporters were repeatedly and forcefully told to move away, turn around, put down their cameras or simply to leave the area when trying to get close enough to film the scenes of destruction and theft. Most reporters on the scene were simply recording the events as they unfolded — making no effort to interfere or interview participants in the rioting.

Many of the looters carried molotov cocktails and wore bandanas over their faces to conceal their identity. Multiple reporters said demonstrators made repeated threats about being armed or returning with weapons — but no journalist on the scene that POLITICO spoke with reported seeing a weapon.

The Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery reported on Twitter that one looter “just threatened to pull knife” on him and other reporter outside a liquor store that was being cleaned of inventory.



POLITICO tried to approach the same liquor store using an iPhone to record the mayhem when we were physically approached by a man who said: “Get that police s**t out of here. … This ain’t no show.”

In one instance, a masked demonstrator headed towards a beauty salon turned to a reporter for the International Business Times and told her to put the camera down and turn around. She did.

A crowd gathered near where local Fox 2 news reporter Elliott Davis and his news crew were set up — loudly and aggressively chanting “are you black?” over and over to the African-American reporter. When a Huffington Post reporter tried to approach them, she was also turned away.



The experience of being aggressively confronted and sometimes threatened over photographing and video-recording the riots was common enough that most reporters on scene huddled in small groups far away from the actual theft, vandalism and rioting.

Many veteran photographers wore helmets — fearful of being hit by flying objects or rubbery bullets. (Police did not fire rubber bullets, though the Associated Press reported that tear gas was briefly deployed.) Some reporters wore gas masks.

At least one print reporter removed the camera he was carrying from his neck and returned it to his car because of the harassment and intimidation. In other cases, print journalists were forced to repeatedly insist that their iPhones or other smartphones were not recording to demonstrations who confronted them.



It’s a marked change from earlier in the week, when it was police officers who demanded that the media stay out of the area of the protests.

Washington Post’s Lowery and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly were arrested earlier this week after video-recording the police despite orders not to. The official explanation for the arrest was trespassing but both were released without charges.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri won an agreement on Friday with county and state officials that both members of the public and journalists could film and document ongoing protests.

The agreement came just one day after the ACLU filed a lawsuit over the issue.

Title: Re: Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
Post by: truth_seeker on August 16, 2014, 10:40:35 pm

First Amendment for me, but not for Thee. Spoils of war for me, too.

Title: Re: Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
Post by: musiclady on August 16, 2014, 10:49:38 pm

Do these thugs have ANY idea how bad this makes them look to everyone watching, and how much it hurts their 'cause?'

Title: Re: Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
Post by: Oceander on August 16, 2014, 11:24:30 pm

Without any real push-back from law enforcement, this will be coming to more towns pretty soon.

Title: Re: Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
Post by: Carling on August 17, 2014, 12:29:32 am

Quote from: Oceander on August 16, 2014, 11:24:30 pm

Without any real push-back from law enforcement, this will be coming to more towns pretty soon.

Good.  Put it out there for the independents to see what happens to a society when Democrats herd blacks into urban areas and keep them dependent on the government.   Maybe middle-class blacks will actually start to wake up and see how white elite Democrats, and black elite race hustlers, foment chaos and despair intentionally in between busing the herd to the voting booth every 2 years.

Title: Re: Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
Post by: Fishrrman on August 17, 2014, 01:11:12 am

From the article:
[[ Police largely remained on the sidelines on Friday and into the dawn hours of Saturday morning as demonstrators descended on a number of businesses in Ferguson — pulling alcohol, lottery tickets, and merchandise from the vandalized stores. ]]

If this is the case, may I be so bold as to put forth the rhetorical question:
What are the police for?

Seems they don't want to stop bona fide lawbreakers these days, particularly if those lawbreakers are black in color.

On the other hand, they're very good at shooting dogs, dressing up in SWAT outfits to assault the wrong house, and put the thumb on Euro folks for behaving in racis' ways.

You can be sure that if a white or Asian storeowner had shot one or more looters ransacking their stores, the cops would be all over them in the blink of an eye!

Title: Re: Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
Post by: Carling on August 17, 2014, 01:43:00 am

I don't see any reason for police departments to patrol these parts of a city anymore.  Just pull back and let them have at it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwJrG2AMghw

Title: Re: Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
Post by: Charlespg on August 17, 2014, 02:06:25 am

Quote from: Carling on August 17, 2014, 01:43:00 am

I don't see any reason for police departments to patrol these parts of a city anymore.  Just pull back and let them have at it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwJrG2AMghw

wall it off (http://www.instablogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/israel_wall_tower_2_ufnlj_3868_V6mAm_19672.jpg)

Title: Re: Ferguson rioters harass, threaten reporters
Post by: Oceander on August 17, 2014, 02:09:01 am

Quote from: Charlespg on August 17, 2014, 02:06:25 am

wall it off (http://www.instablogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/israel_wall_tower_2_ufnlj_3868_V6mAm_19672.jpg)

Escape from New York:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-LDW7tWwAI