Cameraman Attacked at Occupy Rally…By Police?
- Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:12pm by
Mytheos Holt
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Occupy rallies are frequently accused of facilitating violence, especially between the protestors themselves. Occupiers, of course, frequently complain of police brutality as a form of moral equivalence.
In the case of this video by an unknown videographer at Occupy Minneapolis, they may have a point:
The video shows a police officer no attacking no less an eminence than a videographer for Minneapolis’ KSTP 5 Eyewitness News. In other words, this wasn’t just some random video blogger getting hit for refusing to comply with police orders – it was a professional news reporter. In fact, you can watch coverage of the protests by KSTP right here:
Mediabistro reports that the Minneapolis Police Department plans to look into the incident:
In a written statement to KSTP, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said that his department is currently reviewing the incident.
“The Minneapolis Police Department will not support unjustified uses of force,” Dolan stated.
Radford says that KSTP will consider taking legal action after evaluating the full extent of the damage to the camera.
Police brutality against anyone is a serious matter, and hopefully this will be solved quickly. Ironically enough, Occupy Minneapolis itself has disavowed the sort of violence practiced at Occupy Oakland. To all appearances, this really was a peaceful protest.
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Comments (58)
ChevalierdeJohnstone
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 9:34pmFirst reaction:
Whoa, Timothy Dolan is a cardinal AND a cop?
Ah, the Irish. We love ya.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on April 10, 2012 at 5:01amI’m not sure when the News Media turned Leftist (Socialist)… it was before my time, so before the 40:s,,, and the public never noticed that it’s News Presenting Idols were editing the News in such a way as to condemn Conservatives, while promoting Progressives. But, News People were never given Santurary from the Police… as they were just workers alike everyone else. So, it took a fairly Brave person to be a Reporter or Cameraman… not like today!
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:57pmThese people out there would not work and help their own parents or families and they want to “save the world?” They need to save and preserve what they have before taking up phoney causes. They are looking foolish.
Report Post »EndTheFedNOW
Posted on April 10, 2012 at 12:23amWhat about those idiot cops violating the first amendment?
Report Post »mdeputy7
Posted on April 10, 2012 at 9:28amLet me ask you….how were they violating the first amendment? Have you even read the first amendment? No……occupiers are working hand in hand with progressives and it is leading to the destruction of our country. Many would say ‘good,‘ but what they don’t understand is that when we fall, so much of the world falls with us. Not only that, but when the opportunity shows itself, I can guarantee that some other country will take that opportunity to conquer us. Then we will be under some OTHER totalitarian rule.
Don’t try to change the country. Change yourself, and the country will follow.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:50pmIf it was not for the police no one would have a safe nights sleep. We have to have enforcement by the police or those who are trying to down the police would wonder into homes and take. Likely they would be shot and killed, but who wants to go through all that? You who are on the streets should be glad the police are there protecting you because there at people out there who are not stable and would gun you down like dogs. The police are there for everyones protection.
Report Post »TreeTrimmerJim
Posted on April 10, 2012 at 12:54pmSafety in the home starts in the home with us as parents. We must insure our children learn ethics, morality and their history. Occupy what ever Minnesota is a repeat of the 1930s in political Minnesota.
Take local control of the schools. Teach ethics, morality, history and science with the purpose of growing that local area. Create pride in the accomplishments of the local community. Teach our children to grow where they are planted. Educated people have no need for someone to take care of them. Educated people are self reliant and proud of it. We the people need to take our communities back, one educated child at a time.
Only parents are responsible for the survival of their young. Its Nature’s Law. Stand for something or fall for anything. Most of the pilgrim adults gave their lives that first winter so their children could worship as they believed. If your a parent are willing to be a pilgrim?
Report Post »StatismIsImmoral
Posted on April 10, 2012 at 1:10pmAre you freaking kidding me? We wouldn’t be safe at night? Jesus Christ you’ve lost your mind. Just see who the cops side with when it hits the fan. The local cops will be with the Feds, believe me. What you saw there was a complete violation of the 1st amendment and it IS legal to video police officers whether a member of the the press or not. YOU ARE A STATIST AND YOU ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY.
Report Post »Minnaloushe
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:08pmThe article could do without the sneering remark about “random video bloggers”. Or are we now all lib-happy LeftyLoons believing freedom of the press only applies to “experts” and “professionals”?
Report Post »cassandra
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:58pmI don‘t blame the police everybody screaming don’t hurt thay punk, he SHOULD be hand cuffed , these punks need hugh finds and jail time
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:55pmYou got that.
Report Post »KidCharlemagne
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:55pmI saw a similar one that’s whole lot better than this one last week….
An off-duty ‘public servant’ is working a 2nd job doing security at a Walmart in Houston, TX…he sees two guys horsing around in the parking lot in front of the entrance, but then goes bezerk and immediately pulls out the taser when he thinks these two guys are recording him with a video camera:
“Houston Cop goes CRAZY (Original RAW Footage)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwGlbWKKbD4
I‘m sorta’ surprised that this one didn’t even get mentioned on The Blaze last week (at least not that I’ve seen).
Report Post »DasAmerican
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:43pmThat is the thing about the rodney king video! If the cameraman was in the middle of it he would have been beat as well!
If there is an arrest going on you don’t go shoving the camera into the cops face, as a supposed professional he should have know to stand back, this is why these OWS dillholes do what they do because they know they can go on to get jobs in the media holding cameras in cops faces, or they can become preachers or reverends, or tenured professors like old SDS members, or maybe even be president!
If you are going to protest capitalism then go clime up a tree an give up all your money and possessions, or maybe climb into a hole in Russia!
I don’t blame that cop one bit, I am sure he is frustrated by all these Aholes trying to get a rise out of them and then you have this guy filming right in the middle of it.
Now they are going to use this as a reason to go against cops, and then the sheep cops will allow themselves to be used as Progressive enforcement units! And they will start to go after American citizens!
Report Post »THXll38
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:41pmPolice hate cameras. Unless it is there own, or those lame arse photo traffic light cameras, or those damn photo radar vans, or those damn dashboard cameras. Its all about the revenue generating. The old “To Protect and Serve” is a thing of the past. The only thing they like to serve these days are tickets and warrants.
Report Post »Justagrunt
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:32pmTough call, I didn’t see any real violence, a one armed push to get someone away from the back of a fellow officer? The outrage I’m reading here makes it sound like the cameraman was beaten half to death. There were plenty of cameras a respectful distance away who were not interfered with, so I‘m guessing the issue isn’t freedom of the press as much as it is “Get away from my partner”. Let the cop do his job.
Report Post »Wolf
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:07pmAnd how hard would a cop have to strong arm you to get a reaction?
Report Post »As a former news shooter, I can agree with KSTP and the photog: sue them to death: You touch my gear, you’re touching me and my means of earning a living, you’re gonna get burned fast as I can get it done.
OlefromMN
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:23pmCould the officer have handled it better? Sure. SHOULD the camera operator have been back more from the arrest taking place? You bet! The camera operator (can’t say cameraman any more) was a potential threat to the officer making the arrest. Just because he/she had a camera in hand does not mean he/she couldn’t interfere with the arrest. A competing station to the one in the video was shown to be very friendly with this group last fall. I can see both sides to this situation. The “news” want their scoop and the officers know some of those in the “news” are not worried about helping these occupods.
Chalk it up to lesson learned.
Report Post »KidCharlemagne
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:16pmThis happens all the time now in America:
————-
“Overreaching law enforcement puts privacy rights at risk.
A. Barton Hinkle | May 25, 2011
In 1991, George Holliday filmed the LAPD’s arrest and beating of Rodney King. The videotape provoked national controversy. If a similar incident happened today, it might provoke something else: the arrest of George Holliday.
Cell phones and cameras with video-recording capability have become ubiquitous. This has led to an increase in the filming of police officers, which has led to a backlash: Cops have begun arresting those who film them, on charges such as interfering with an investigation—even when the filmer is not interfering and the officer is not investigating.
In one now-famous example, motorcyclist Anthony Graber’s helmet cam was rolling when Graber was pulled over last March by a Maryland State Trooper. The Trooper came out of an unmarked car in plain clothes, yelling, with his gun drawn. Graber didn’t like that—and posted the video on YouTube. In short order he was arrested and charged with felony wiretapping. A judge eventually threw the charges out—six months later.”
http://reason.com/archives/2011/05/25/big-brother-is-watching-you
“The Government’s War on Cameras!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY0MUARqisM
The police view you as a greater threat if you video them and upload it to YouTube than if you were waving a gun.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:27pmVery good info kid but the folks who think cops walk on water disagree with you,until they’re getting their heads cracked for standing on a sidewalk. When a reporter is assaulted like this by police we’re in dangerous waters here folks.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:29pmSome people do not like to be second guessed. Respect it. There are cameras the police use too, to protect themselves from liars. Keeping a good distance when arrests are going down might mean someone does not get injured or someone is not hiding weapons disguised as cameras. Go to work, it is safer than playing a stooge for the leftists who are in a power grab in this country. Mind your own business and quit playing at a game when you have no game pieces.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:14pmNow the cameraman has to go to the ER and get his camera removed from his butt.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:32pmHe should have been working a legitimate news story instead of waiting for one to happen in a volitile group who hams it up for them.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:37pmSounds like he needed to have kept it there if that is the best he had to do with his time.
Report Post »LouC57
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:12pmThere was a time when the law enforcement were called Police Men (prior to women becoming police officers.) At some point the lexicon changed to Police Officer, it took the human equation out of law enforcement. Previously Police Man/Men we trusted, we told our kids to “run to the nearest Police Officer” if need be. Now there’s a visceral distrust of the cops in general. Everything is now upside down, and it didn’t start with BO, I’m not sure when this happened exactly, but BO sure isn’t helping matters much.
Report Post »strats
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:35pmPeople should never go to the police unless their lives are in danger.
Report Post »Too many speed traps have to be maintained. It’s true. Funding.
PIGSWILLNEVERFLY
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:53pmOriginally they were called Peace Officers. I haven’t been to downtown Minneapolis and seen these useful idiots in action, but i’m sure in the chaos of it all the officers made a mistake. All the local news people here are extremely left and probably even look like (and sympathize) with the rest of the idiots.
Report Post »possom
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:01pmWhy was the cameraman in the middle of it, even some of the hippie’s were smarter than that.
Report Post »JediPatriot
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:21pm@ possom – Maybe, because it’s his job? I‘m sure he didn’t have to be RIGHT there, in the midst of the whole story, but there is such thing as freedom of the press, and freedom to travel… etc… If you rely on the police for your protection, then you deserve what you get, when you get it. And it’s coming.
Report Post »Peace
muggl3z
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:27pmThat’s his job.
You shouldn’t be asking why was he there; you should be asking: why were his rights violated? The answer is simple. Police have been cracking down on filming in public even in places where it’s legal. It’s part of a over-arching scheme coming down from the Feds in Washington to erode our liberty.
Report Post »vtech61
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:55pmCareful what you Y’all support.
Report Post »Stay FROSTY my friends.
barber2
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:52pmI remember the Occupier Theater of the Absurd Players last Fall with their open mouths, looks of pain, etc. The Left seems to be trying to cause a police over-reaction , a class war with the anti-Wall Street / fat cat rhetoric, and a race war over the Trayvon Martin case. The fact that the Occupies are planned AGAIN is just another assault on the taxpayer and the police. I am surprised the police haven’t had more incidents dealing with these smart -aleck Anarchists which are the core of these anti-capitalist Occupiers…They are like a bad burp from the 1960′s radicals…Bill Ayers still trying to destroy capitalism !
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:36pmI agree. That piece of human excretia should have had the death sentence for what he pulled in D.C.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:50pmKeep your nasty nosey azzes out of the faces of the police and let them do their jobs, morons. You will not have any problems.
Report Post »JediPatriot
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:23pm@ blackyb – I‘m sure that’s what the supporters of the Nazis said too. Have fun in your police state.
Report Post »Peace
blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:18pmWhat is offered is less than palatable on other side. I know that some like to reap the benefits of chaos and are trained to get reactions from the police. Some of those cameramen are downright obnoxious. They have no idea what the cops go through.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:23pmPeace my fuzzy bucket. People want to say “peaceful” and rip and tear at the fabric of society with every chance they get. Most who are out there need to get a freaking job and get their sorry azzes to work and help their parents or their own families. Then they would not have time to do their stupid routines they do for the leftists.
Report Post »TreeTrimmerJim
Posted on April 10, 2012 at 1:26pmFirst they came for the communists, and I did not speak out–
Report Post »because I was not a communist; (red shirts)
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–
because I was not a socialist; (brown shirts… night of the long knives)
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me–
and there was no one left to speak out for me. –Martin Niemöller, WWII era German
freedomnetworker
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:29pmMakes me sick to my stomach.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:34pmInteresting. Police are reacting, with judicial support, the same way I felt like reacting when I became a target of “establishment” surveillance.
Only I haven’t got ANY judicial support, whatsoever. After all, I’m only a citizen.
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:28pmI’ll take the side of the Police here. When Law Enforcement is in the middle of performing their duties to uphold and protect (especially in a crowd of OWS jackwagons)… you might just be pushed out of the way if you get to close to the action… camera man/professional news or not.
Granted, some Police overreact or don’t use the greatest judgement sometimes, but move the heck away from them and you probably won’t become a casualty (or your camera). Police could give a rats behind about your evening news story… they have a job to do. Get out of the way.
Report Post »Dishevel
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:26pmPolice do not want what they do to be known.
Report Post »This is a bad thing.
barber2
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:54pmNeither do the Far Lefties behind Obama
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:45pmIt is what some are setting up that they DO want known or to be seen or played as something it is not is where the truth lies. The players are tools, trying to tool the police and society. All of this has been tried before some of you were born, so don’t try to play this game on people who have seen it all before. Those who have seen it have passed the stories and lessons of training on. Not too many are fooled by these phoney displays of being “armstronged” by the cops.
Report Post »Margaret Thatcher
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:25pmThe cameraman looks awfully close to an arrest in progress. I wonder if the police were telling/told him to move back. Minneapolis used to be such a pretty city. Too bad they have ruined it.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:20pmAnd so it goes…It is going to be black vs white…media vs police atate…communists, socialist, marxists vs capatilists. In the end we will only survive if we turn back to the Constitution…
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:32pmYeah. And the only guy that can save us his who? Lol.
Report Post »chazmo
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:39pmJesus of course.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:22pmiT AINT A WELFARE RECIPIENT LIKE YOU tIME TO END. gET OUTTA YOUR MOMMA BASEMENT AND FIGHT WHY DONT YOU???….oops caps lock…well it fits for an ***** like you
Report Post »RightUnite
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:20pmWhat a bunch of panzy azzes.
Report Post »RightUnite
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:19pmWhat a bunch of panzy azzes!
Report Post »SpeckledPup
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:18pmGod bless the Police, who can take only so much BS out of these filthy obama-anarchists, because obama’s occupymorons promises to the police at every step that the POLICE are their new enemy. [just as GB predicted]
by Summer we will see policemen being slaughtered in the streets.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:31pmDid you not understand that the police were impeding freedom of the press?
Report Post »Dishevel
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 6:31pmYou need to be careful here.
Report Post »The police have been showing that they want to make sure that what they do can not be recorded by the public. Accountability is extremely important. Giving a gun and a badge to people and then not wathcing them will always result in fascism. God bless the police when they do their duty and protect our rights.
Not when they trample on them..
barber2
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 7:06pmCATB: we no longer have freedom of the press in America . We have the Lefty Lap Dog media which is like the campaign organ for the Obama Administration and the Labour Party in Britain ..
Report Post »barber2
Posted on April 9, 2012 at 8:31pmI am much more fed up by the tax- busting actions of these anti-capitalist anarchist Occupiers than I am with the police . I am sick of unions, mob marches, presidents who threaten, a political party which pits people against their evil “rich ” fellow Americans. I am sick of people who try to stir up civil unrest. I have a dream : that all of these social misfits move to another country so that the rest of us law abiding citizens can live in peace , civility and with a balanced budget.
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