CNN reporter arrested live on air while covering Minneapolis protests [video]

[TeaDrunk]

Note that Minneapolis state police have claimed that the reporters were released from jail the following morning after confirming themselves as media, which CNN responded by saying they had identified themselves before their arrest and it was only through the Goverers interference that their reporters were released the following morning.

[myrion]

I mean, it happened live on air, they were clearly identified as CNN and willing to comply with police orders - making the police's claim laughable.

I wonder what those officers were thinking, arresting a reporter on live camera.

[hharlequin]

I'm not sure where the report of the following morning is coming from. They were released after about an hour and back on the air. That doesn't excuse anything, as they clearly identified themselves and were live on the air, but this is an exaggeration of what happened.

[apta]

Do those crewmen have an arrest record now? How can it affect their future employment or other conducts?

[maskedinvader]

Isn't this situational irony ? reporters covering the events that were a result of unreasonable police actions themselves were subject to the unreasonable actions of the police.

[brianwawok]

I think that falls in the wrong use of irony department. The police did bad things in the past. So it is not surprising they did another wrong thing.

[_bxg1]

Honestly as a piece of reporting I don't think it could have possibly gone better.

[Ididntdothis]

Irony would be if the police had been arrested. This is just a continuation of bad behavior.

[spoiledtechie]

I wouldn't call it unreasonable. They were told to clear the streets. They didn't actually clear the street. They stayed on the street. Reporters not following directions.

[JSavageOne]

How is it legal for a police offer to arrest someone without any warning, without even telling them why they're being arrested, and without probable cause? What are the repercussions for these officers for falsely arresting people? Do they suffer any consequences, or do they suffer no punishment for this injustice?

This is extremely disturbing, and further evidence that the U.S. is a police state. I've never felt more ashamed of my country.

[monocasa]

> How is it legal for a police offer to arrest someone without any warning, without even telling them why they're being arrested, and without probable cause?

Cops can hold you for some amount of time, generally around 24 hours without cause.

> What are the repercussions for these officers for falsely arresting people?

None

> Do they suffer any consequences, or do they suffer no punishment for this injustice?

No punishment.

[bargl]

Police can break the law too. An officer's actions may or may not be legal and that's determined after the fact in a court of law.

This doesn't happen all the time, but when police do break the law, or don't follow it correctly their actions come under scrutiny, data collected can be discarded from court, and even suffer personal blowback.

What you're asking is how did it happen? That's because it's illegal for a citizen to resist arrest (even unlawful arrest), so in the USA if you are being arrested, SAY you do not willingly submit, but DO whatever the officer tells you.

The thing many people forget is that the law doesn't happen just on the street in the US. It is a slow and flawed process, but police are just the front line of it, not the whole thing.

As someone else said, this will probably cost the police and city in a settlement.

Edit: Cops CANNOT just hold you for 24 hours. They have to have something to charge you with even if it's disorderly conduct. And you can then sue the local police if you have evidence that you were wrongly imprisoned. It is easy for cops to get cause so your chances of this are low, but it does happen. Once detained (with cause) I believe the 24 hour bit is true.

IANAL, this is based on my unprofessional research. I'd suggest you (everyone) do the same.

[coffeefirst]

It isn't legal. There will be a civil suit, and the city will likely settle for a dollar amount covered by their insurance.

[steveharman]

If the apparent penalty for murdering a member of the public is only getting fired, I can't see anyone higher up in authority giving a rat's @rse if an officer just grabs someone and arrests them without warning.

[parliament32]

>repercussions

For police? In the US? Very funny.

[brudgers]

How is it legal

Police carry guns. Legal is not relevant.

[corrupt_measure]

What is far more disturbing than a reporter ignoring police orders and facing the repercussions is that a city is burning from mindless violence, this violence encouraged by a media and other prominent figures that relish in stoking racial tensions by selective reporting and misrepresentation of facts.

[kfrzcode]

Edit: I'm wrong, the video I had seen was slightly abridged.

The video camera turns on while they were (likely) already told they will be arrested. They were perhaps ordered to move and did not move. The National Guard and state troopers in that particular area (< 15 miles from me) started ordering people to disperse or face arrest. I don't believe that press are exempt from this order especially when a state of emergency is declared.

Downvoters: please add comment why, or else this isn't discourse

[tuan]

A follow up video from the reporter who was arrested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gsXevAjNbw

[znpy]

I've spent half an hour watching various videos, this in the link and the video where mr Floyd is murdered. Then I watched some more videos of the kind.

As an european... Jesus f-ing christ, this is absolutely messed up.

[tibbydudeza]

Add reporting while black to suspicious activities.

[stronglikedan]

Then we should also add filming while latino and producing while white.

[blunte]

Why was this post flagged?

[ApolloFortyNine]

Because it's not on topic. It is almost definitely crime or politics. From FAQ:

What to Submit On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

[buboard]

While this is terrible, the special protections that journalists enjoy should apply to all citizens. If these weren't journalists but some poor random persons we wouldnt even know. Everyone can be a reporter nowadays thanks to technology, and there shouldn't be a class of officially recognized, untouchable arbiters of facts

[nine_zeros]

China's installing surveillance to spy on citizens. We need surveillance to spy on the government because without it, we are dead ducks.

[101404]

That would be a pretty good idea. Just need to come up with some way to limit access to only the own citizens for sensitive information. Maybe if only certain trusted people had access, and they would do it as their job, and then they would report their findings, and investigate wrongdoings they found, and then we would give them money to be able to read those reports about government wrongdoings... hm, how could we call those people?

[strooper]

Gradual militarisation of US police is one significant development since 9/11.

[th0ma5]

So you have multiple crews, and bring out each one as they each get arrested?

[elil17]

Actually they did have multiple crews. The other CNN crew was positioned in a similar way didn’t have any Black people in it and the police didn’t arrest them.

[systemshutdown]

American police showing their true colors on live National TV.

[curiousgeorgio]

Context is huge in cases like this, and I still haven't seen a video showing the beginning of the reporters' confrontation[1]. Does anyone have a link to a video that shows what happened prior to the videos that are being widely publicized?

[1] This one shows a bit more at the beginning, making it look like the crew had already been asked at least a few times to move: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvbXWAHad-4

[couchand]

You're right, context is huge. The area had already been cleared of protesters. There was no imminent threat of any kind. The crew of a national news organization showed their valid credentials.

There is absolutely no excuse for this.

[_yt0l]

Based on the language in the video, especially in the few extra seconds from the one you linked, it does seem like they were asked to clear the area that they were in. It is impossible to know for sure without the minute or so of footage that was clipped off prior to this incident. Completely agree that that additional context would be critical for making an accurate judgment of the situation.

[philipov]

Why is this flagged?

[ativzzz]

From the posting guidelines:

"What to Submit

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. "

[andarleen]

No, this is not Russia, North Korea, China. This is the US, 2020.

[koheripbal]

Have you ever had an encounter with the police in China, North Korea, or Russia as a black person?

way way worse.

[MaxBarraclough]

> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email us and we'll look at the data.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html