Reporters for the Washington Post and the Huffington Post said they were arrested for trespassing Wednesday night in a McDonald’s near the site of ongoing protests against Ferguson, Mo. police over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager.
The Washington Post later published video that reporter Wesley Lowery took of the moments before he was detained.
On the video, an officer tells Lowery to stop videotaping and harries him to get out of the restaurant. At one point, Lowery tries to ask him if the street outside the McDonald’s is closed and if he can move his car. The officer says “we don’t have time to ask questions” before responding.
Multiple officers then grabbed Lowery as he stopped to gather his bag, according to his written account of the arrest:
“My hands are behind my back,” I said. “I’m not resisting. I’m not resisting.” At which point one officer said: “You’re resisting. Stop resisting.”
That was when I was most afraid — more afraid than of the tear gas and rubber bullets.
As they took me into custody, the officers slammed me into a soda machine, at one point setting off the Coke dispenser. They put plastic cuffs on me, then they led me out the door.
Watch below:
“Protect and Serve” my ass.
The police chief freaked. I think that was the first time it dawned on him that his boys aren’t under his control. They were several blocks away from where the protests were happening and were arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest. The resist was when his backpack slipped off his shoulder and he asked for a minute to straighten it back up. The cop said, thats it, take him and put him in plastic cuffs.
Trespassing for sitting in a McDonald’s several blocks from the protests…during daylight. smh
Apparently it was a call from a LA Times reporter to the police chief that got them sprung. As soon as heard, not only that his boys had arrested two national reporters…but that rest of the press corp knew…that he started to freak out.
And as predicted, suddenly the national press is on this.
fuck the police.
Stupidity and brutality are apparently the bywords of the Ferguson, MO police. Is there not one responsible person in the state government of Missouri that can put a stop to this?