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

543 points by void_nill 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
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TeaDrunk 6y ago
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 6y ago
  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.
  - chance_state 6y ago
    "We got away with murdering a man in broad daylight, who cares about arresting a couple journalists?", would be my guess.
  - Hamuko 6y ago
    >arresting a reporter on live camera. It's possible that they didn't know it was a live broadcast.
    - kmonsen 6y ago
      He was telling them they were live, I think he was reporting while being black.
      - Hamuko 6y ago
        There's a difference between being told something and knowing something.
        take_a_breath 6y ago
        Kinda like when someone says "I can't breathe" and you can't really know until they die.
    - chance_state 6y ago
      Did you watch the video? He very clearly tells them "we are live on air".
    - fiblye 6y ago
      I'm not sure what your point is. Is it that it's okay to arrest them if they're not live? (Not attacking you--just hard to understand intention through text) It really seems like their intention was to cook up charges, then realized they screwed the pooch and pretended it's all okay because now they're free. It's not. The intimidation has lasting effects and they know it.
      - throwaway894345 6y ago
        > I'm not sure what your point is. Is it that it's okay to arrest them if they're not live? The point is that it's not even in the officers' own self-interest.
        take_a_breath 6y ago
        Neither is pushing your knee so hard into someone's neck that they choke to death. It still happened.
        throwaway894345 6y ago
        Why are you responding to me like I expressed some opinion that you disagree with? I was just providing clarifying context.
  - kmonsen 6y ago
    The arrested reporter was black, there was another White CB reporter standing nearby that was not arrested. Perhaps it’s all coincidence. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/minneapolis-cnn-crew-arrested/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/minneapolis-cnn-crew-arres...
    - chooseaname 6y ago
      > Perhaps it’s all coincidence. That's being extremely charitable.
      - iso1631 6y ago
        Or sarcastic
    - dmix 6y ago
      The whole CNN team of four was arrested including the white producer and a latino cameraman.
      - monocasa 6y ago
        Racists view brown as the new black, and those working with people of color who don't know their place as race traitors. Also, there was an all white CNN crew a block away who didn't get arrested. Just because they arrested some white people who were obviously working with people of color, isn't evidence at all that the arrests weren't racially motivated.
      - Infinitesimus 6y ago
        How it played out was interesting though. Arrested reporter first and only after some time came back and arrested the others. If the intent was to arrest them all, they would have said "you're all under arrest". This smells like they arrested the guy, went "oh shit lets arrest the others too so people don't say we're racist"
        kaitai 6y ago
  - snazz 6y ago
    (I'm a resident of the Minneapolis suburbs) At this point, from some of my friends in the city, it sounds like there just isn't much oversight at all---they've now been caught on video taking guns from people with valid licenses and now arresting the press. I don't think that we can effectively apply logic when the police system seems so disorganized.
    - throwaway894345 6y ago
      These seem like flagrant violations of constitutional rights; I would be interested to hear from a lawyer what kind of legal liability the police (as a department and as individual bad-apple officers) are opening themselves up to by behaving this way. Hopefully justice is served and constitutional rights are protected.
      - _bxg1 6y ago
        It's become clear time and again that they never open themselves up to actual liability. But it would be interesting to hear how wide the gap is between law and reality in this case.
        throwaway894345 6y ago
        > It's become clear time and again that they never open themselves up to actual liability. I understand that the criminal justice system is very often lenient on police officers, and I'm strongly in favor of increased police accountability; however, there are still many cases of police officers going to prison and departments/municipalities being sued for police misconduct, so to say that there is no actual liability is hyperbole.
        _bxg1 6y ago
        We've seen multiple murders by police happen on camera in the past couple years, with little to no action taken. The present one is the first case I know of where anyone from inside the government actually called for an investigation, and it was probably because they were afraid of the very riot situation we now find ourselves in. When they can kill someone who isn't a threat, on camera, and face no consequences, why would we expect them to face consequences for something like a frivolous arrest?
  - Frost1x 6y ago
    It took quite awhile before they decided to arrest the reporter (Omar Jimenez). I suspect the decision came from higher up given the time delay (due to communication). I was watching this particular reporter late last night / early this morning and his coverage was, IMO, excellent to give some context and feel for the ongoing situation. It was pretty surreal to watch, for me, and notice absolutely no actions from law enforcement, fire departments, or the national guard on site obviously strategically chosen by some upper leadership (governor?), likely to minimize the situation from escalating. The reporter pointed this out multiple times. It was probably the right call IMHO. I suspect when law enforcement finally did move in afterwards, it was also strategic to minimize that escalating the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if the arrest was strategic just to minimize on-the ground coverage. I tip my hat to Omar Jimenez and crew for the coverage they provided.
    - _bxg1 6y ago
      And let the Streisand Effect begin.
    - relativitypro 6y ago
      Cannot be the right call. The tax payers lose in the coverage and they lose in the lawsuit. Having police officers paid so little that you put up with 18 violations, or willfully ignore them out of comraderie is fundamentally a system that is not sustainable or worth having pride over.
      - bruceb 6y ago
        I don't know about MN but police officers are not paid a low salary in a number of jurisdictions. Seattle starts at $65k+ and the avg is $100k.
      - mywittyname 6y ago
        Police officers make bank. In many places their salaries are public record. Plus, they get overtime and contract work as well. So their salary might be $80,000 per year, but they get overtime at like $60/hr, and they get work doing private security for movie theaters, events, etc. Probably at a similar rate. Then you factor in top tier healthcare and a very generous pension program, and their total compensation balloons. That's not even getting into collusion by the department to defraud tax payers. Quite a few departments have gotten in trouble from auditors for paying overtime to officers who didn't work the OT, which went on for years before being discovered. Then you have retirement benefits which are based on the last few years salaries, so people close to retirement get a bump in salary and OT in order to pad their retirements. That's no illegal, but I think it's unethical.
  - epistasis 6y ago
    I think the level of impunity of "I am the law" instead of laws being laws, has taken over far too many in the police department. The level of police misconduct that's been captured in camera in the last few days is disturbing. There's always one police officer that rushes into a peaceful situation, from behind, and starts violence. This sort of assault on humans is taken to be their responsibility, apparently, and all the rest of the police stand idly by as one of those in their uniforms commits acts of violence against peaceful people. I would not be shocked if a majority of the property crime was also police instigated. If they are willing to do this to people, it's far easier to knock out some windows.
    - take_a_breath 6y ago
      ==I think the level of impunity of "I am the law" instead of laws being laws, has taken over far too many in the police department.== Never heard it put quite this way. Well said!
      - Jenz 6y ago
        Being a punctuation mark enthusiast, I’m very interested where you got that ⟨==xxx==⟩ notation from
        lrdd 6y ago
        It is also the header syntax for Vimwiki[0] [0]: https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki
        take_a_breath 6y ago
        I like the way it highlights a quote without having to deal with a bunch of actual quotation marks. If something you want to quote includes quotation marks it can be confusing to read (especially on mobile). It also reminds me of commenting out things when programming.
        mixmastamyk 6y ago
        Looks like one of the wiki dialects.
  - onemoresoop 6y ago
    Who gave the order is responsible for this reasonless arrest. I grew up under a dictature only to emigrate to ‘the free-est’ country in the world and see it turn into a dictature is a sad thing. And what’s to come is even worse and more dangerous.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - eyelidlessness 6y ago
    > I wonder what those officers were thinking, arresting a reporter on live camera. Speaking as someone who's been to a lot of protests, ranging from "peaceful as a baby" to "as street medics we treated 1/3-1/2 of the protestors"... the same thing cops are always thinking. As an institution, they don't like the press, oversight, or public scrutiny of their actions. They react the same way to people with press credentials for less prominent organizations, and to regular humans with phone cameras who have just as much a right to record video, the same way all the time.
    - jdashg 6y ago
      Since there clearly aren't penalties for corruption (even corruption-lite like this), it's no surprise that it persists. While we can understand why they do it, that does not make it acceptable, and there have to start being consequences. I can't help but feel that strong independent oversight is necessary, as the status quo is clearly insufficient.
      - DocSavage 6y ago
        The police unions and particularly this administration have been actively undermining strong independent oversight.
  - M2Ys4U 6y ago
    >I wonder what those officers were thinking, arresting a reporter on live camera. "This man is Black, therefore he is the enemy", probably.
  - josephorjoe 6y ago
    > I wonder what those officers were thinking, arresting a reporter on live camera. I'm guessing: "we do not want our actions in the next few minutes to be broadcast on live television"
  - specialist 6y ago
    My first hunch is the arresting officers were scrubs, brought in from other jurisdictions to staff up in response to the riots. In the after math of the 1999 WTO riots, many of the worst abuses were committed by LEOs brought in from the outlying areas. Scrubs who didn't have the same training as the locals (and state patrol). Nor have any kind of personal regard for the city and its people. Even so, at the time, I was really struck by the comparison between our SPD and DC Metro. DC has more crowds, riots, protests, disturbances, etc. DC Metro has a lot more experience, training, professionalism. And it shows. From my personal experiences in Seattle, there's no way I'd risk protesting in and around the Twin Cities, and risk some noobs shooting me. (I'd like to believe I'd never riot.)
    - kaitai 6y ago
      You are more or less correct. The arresting officers were State Patrol; they're from all over but they're not from the community. I have protested in St. Paul and Minneapolis many times and in general SPPD have been decent at protests, and MPD has made an effort at protests. There has been a real effort to improve community relations but there are some notable bad apples (as long as Bob Kroll is speaking for MPD employees, we are going to have trouble -- listen to any interview with him to see why.) They have experience with the Super Bowl, many Black Lives Matters protests (Philando Castile was killed in 2016), and the RNC a while ago in St Paul. I was at the RNC protests and the interaction with the police was like a dance -- a relatively polite interaction with horses and concussion grenades, in which I honestly was not that worried about bodily harm -- until the Hennepin County law enforcement came in. Whenever you bring in suburban law enforcement to the city, things get dicey. Everyday policing has been quite different than behavior at protests. And things are different now.
      - specialist 6y ago
        Thank you for your misc replies, based on your firsthand experience and being onsite. Stay safe. "Whenever you bring in suburban law enforcement to the city, things get dicey." Exactly. That's what I was trying to say, thank you.
    - thejynxed 6y ago
  - mnm1 6y ago
    What was the officer who murdered Floyd on live camera thinking, fully aware that Floyd was dying? Probably the same thing as these assholes. That they will get off without any punishment because of qualified immunity. The same thing every police officer in America thinks when they are about to murder or hurt another person. It's hardly a secret.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- apta 6y ago
  Do those crewmen have an arrest record now? How can it affect their future employment or other conducts?
  - jjeaff 6y ago
    With a short explanation of what you were doing where, this arrest record probably couldn't hurt.
- hharlequin 6y ago
  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.
newacct583 6y ago
Not an argument for this site I guess. But this is what happens when you have political leaders picking sides in violence. Trump literally tweeted "when the looting starts the shooting starts" (not before this event, of course -- it's an example). You think rhetoric like that doesn't have the effect of empowering police to abuse their power against people they don't like?
- spoiledtechie 6y ago
  Police abuse their power when leaders pick sides? And what about the Mayor? Has he not chosen sides? He lambasted the riots, but has allowed it to continue. Actions and words.
  - snazz 6y ago
    Frey's actual power over the police and the Hennepin County Attorney is relatively limited.
  - blunte 6y ago
    The mayor doesn't have authority over the police.
    - creaghpatr 6y ago
      Who does?
      - blunte 6y ago
        It will depend on the type of police force. In the case of a state police, it would be a combination of the state legislature and state judiciary. The real answer is surely lengthy and complicated, but suffice to say the mayor (thankfully) does not control the police... just as thankfully the president does not control the military.
        thejynxed 6y ago
maskedinvader 6y ago
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.
- spoiledtechie 6y ago
  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.
  - papercrane 6y ago
    According to CNN's timeline the police asked them to move at 5:09 AM, the reporter asked where they wanted them, at 5:11 AM the police arrested them. The reporter was not given the chance to follow directions. https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protest-updates-05-28-20/h_4d1cff5a7a7797c0dcf2ed4bd184552a https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protest-update...
    - zdragnar 6y ago
      This is a pragmatic point of view, not necessarily what I believe is "right": Generally speaking, you don't stand around and try to have a conversation with the police. In a tough situation, the very last priority of the police is helping CNN get a nice camera shot. Had they moved immediately upon being given the order to clear the street, then attempted to have the conversation, they likely would not have faced arrest.
      - danesparza 6y ago
        "Helping CNN get a nice camera shot" is something you read into this. Asking where to move to is a reasonable question to ask the police. Arrest is not a reasonable response.
      - frogpelt 6y ago
        It's possible the police were saying things that couldn't be heard on television because the mic was not in front of their mouths and they were wearing huge masks.
ponsin 6y ago
from the description of the YouTube video > Black correspondent Omar Jimenez had just shown a protester being arrested when about half a dozen white police officers surrounded him. Is there any reason to assume racism? it looks like two other people in the camera crew got arrested and they don't look black. It looks to me like CNN is trying to play the race card to stir controversy when there are millions of other more likely explanations
- blunte 6y ago
  Get to know some black people and talk to them about their experiences. The chances that race were a factor in this arrest are better than 50%.
  - meragrin_ 6y ago
    If it were only the reporter arrested, I could believe it was racism. Since the other two were arrested, not so much. It also helps that they seemed to have been the only camera in the area. I have been unable to find any other video of the arrest.
  - mindslight 6y ago
    A Black reporter is more likely to be filming people similar to himself peacefully protesting, rather than focusing on the damages caused by agents provocateurs (there is video of the windows of Autozone being smashed by a dude who is definitely not a protestor). Heck at this point the police probably have facial recognition cameras that identify a reporter and assign them a score based on how friendly their past coverage has been.
- onemoresoop 6y ago
  Maybe. CNN is no angel of appeasing, but regardless of skin colors, these people were reporters doing their job.
  - throwaway829 6y ago
    > doing there job We have zero context for why they were being detained. We can assume they did nothing wrong, but it's just an assumption. It would be great if CNN released the video that preceded the detainment.
blunte 6y ago
Why was this post flagged?
- ApolloFortyNine 6y ago
  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.
  - blunte 6y ago
    Got it. Thanks for the clarification.
  - moosey 6y ago
    Hackers should be interested in this. It's clear that social media has a hand in the current state of society, however you feel about it. I have a sense that people that don't want violence are going to win politically, and soon. When they do, there will be repercussions for all social media and commenting style systems. HN won't escape this. If people who want violence win the next set of elections, then that should also be of concern to hackers of websites. Take a look at the actions of the US president, after being called to task for breaking TOS. With the geopolitical changes that will come about due to the coronavirus and upheaval that is beginning in the United States, it seems that social/web technology is central to geopolitics. It really stuns me that our conscientiousness to society, or lack thereof, isn't discussed far more often.
  - soraminazuki 6y ago
    > unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon When's the last time you saw an American reporter being arrested on live camera?
  - _bxg1 6y ago
void_nill 6y ago
Since this entry was flagged without justification, which shows me that censorship is taking place, I will not use HN in the future or support it in any other way. I will discuss with my lawyer how I can enforce the deletion of my account according to European guidelines.
- hjek 6y ago
  Thanks for posting this. Much appreciated. Sad that it's being flagged.
  - meragrin_ 6y ago
    Why is it sad it is flagged? There's nothing really to discuss. The video just shows some arrests with very little other context. I don't care whether they call themselves journalists. People are rioting in the area. For all I know, they could have been taking actions to harass the cops for no good reason prior to the part they posted. "Journalists" are quite known for removing important context from video/audio to tell a story they want the viewers to believe. Now I'm not saying that is what they did, but it is just as believable as the racism story being pushed.
- dsomers 6y ago
  I agree, I’ll also be sending a GDRP request.
- snazz 6y ago
  The flagging was done by users. HN doesn't want political arguments, which this is turning into. It's well within Y Combinator's rights to create a user-controlled off-topic flagging system. The moderators can restore this if they want to and cancel the flags.
- zenexer 6y ago
  That flag indicates users flagged it--it doesn't mean any action has been taken by HN staff. It's essentially been reported to moderators by users, but unless you see the "[dead]" tag, it remains public and alive on HN. User-flagged content can be pushed down on the rankings (comparable to a downvote), but if enough people upvote, it shouldn't make much difference.
philipov 6y ago
Why is this flagged?
- ativzzz 6y ago
  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. "
  - rglover 6y ago
    This is worthy of discussion here, though. This is a confusing and excessive use of authority—the implications of which are significant and alarming. To that point, how does this situation get fixed? Personally, this seems like a total failure of local governments. This should have been a relatively easy situation to mitigate (arrest the officer involved with the murder, even if just for show to calm folks down). Now that it's spiraled, we're seeing signs of a police state which is very ominous. The question, though, is how calculated is this? My rational mind tells me that this level of force isn't something planned or trained for; just a reaction to the current events. But it does set a precedent and as a country, we should be absolutely on guard and discussing this.
deleted 6y ago
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xxs 6y ago
so many new accounts on hacker news, lately
- cecja 6y ago
  yup, 4chan is leaking.
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  > 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
andarleen 6y ago
No, this is not Russia, North Korea, China. This is the US, 2020.
- koheripbal 6y ago
  Have you ever had an encounter with the police in China, North Korea, or Russia as a black person? way way worse.
  - boruto 6y ago
    Why should US even be compared to those countries. It is a functional and mature democracy. Going through the thread I find it shocking that police brutality and unaccountablity is a common thing in USA.
deleted 6y ago
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JSavageOne 6y ago
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 6y ago
  > 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.
  - JSavageOne 6y ago
    That's horrifying. Why don't we change the law?
    - camgunz 6y ago
      Courts are normally extremely deferential to law enforcement. Coupled with the fact that increasing oversight or increasing restrictions on law enforcement leads to a barrage of "soft on crime" political attack ads, and you get what we have today.
      - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
        The "soft on crime thing" was a lot more effective in the 90s when there was a lot more actual crime and so people were more afraid of it. At this point I'm basically waiting for a politician to adopt "soft on crime" as a campaign slogan and rebrand it as a rehabilitation program where you turn drug dealers into docile flower shop owners as opposed to opponents who "make crime tough" by sending people to "crime school" prisons and turning them into hardened career criminals with switchblades and facial tattoos. The real problem is the same as it is in general -- special interest groups (in this case police and prison guard unions and private prison companies) are the ones who spend the most effort lobbying on the issue. It also doesn't help at all when we disenfranchise "convicts" because we're then disenfranchising the victims of the system whenever it makes a mistake (which is often).
deleted 6y ago
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4cidix 6y ago
this looks like how manufactured consent is created
tinyhouse 6y ago
What happened to Floyd is horrible and police abuse is a real thing. I never understood why police officers in the US have no common sense. I recall many incidents where they shoot and kill people trying to escape (so no threat to them). I'm happy the public is doing something about it. However, I'm also annoyed by the stupidity of many people who blindly yell racism. Not so long ago there was a naked black male (Harvard student) walking down the streets of Cambridge, MA. Police came and arrested him. He refused arrest so they have to use force, but it was reasonable force required to arrest someone who is refusing arrest. People filmed the incident and next day many accused the police for racism. WTF!? I watched the film and there was nothing out of the ordinary. We should support good police officers and not assume all are bad and racist. They risk their life to defend us and our communities (white and black and everyone else).
- tom_ 6y ago
  The more usual term for an adult human male is a "man".
- 0xddd 6y ago
  Yes, what a heroic display we're commenting on here. What exactly is your point and how is it relevant to this unsettling video? Just the platitude that not every interaction is necessarily racist?
- Miner49er 6y ago
  Police don't defend normal people or communities, that's not their job. Their job is to enforce the law, no matter how unjust the law is. > We should support good police officers and not assume all are bad and racist. There is no such thing as a non-racist or good police officer. The police system as a whole is racist. Anybody who chooses to participate in and support that system everyday of their lives is racist.
  - tinyhouse 6y ago
    What drugs are you on? What's the alternative you're suggesting then? Are you saying we don't need police and everyone can just own a gun and defend themselves when they need to?
sasasassy 6y ago
I don't have an issue with this. Both the police and the reporters were calm and polite. The police told them they had to clear the street and instead of obeying the order they asked to let them know when they were going to actually walk down the street. Since they refused to obey the order they were detained and escorted out of the way. Being a reporter does not give you a free pass to disobey orders, specially during situations like that. Being a police offer also does not give you the right to mistreat people of course, but in this video everyone actually behaved very well.
- bittercynic 6y ago
  On some level the people involved here were civil, but it seems like a pretty dire problem when the police want to get rid of journalists. It would be great if the police could figure out how to serve the public in a way where they could be proud of their work and want the journalists to help the world see the good work they're doing.
  - sasasassy 6y ago
    Of course I agree, but it reminds me of a situation many years back where I live. There was a big protest and people started throwing rocks at the police, and the media were in the middle of the police at that moment. It actually made the police's response much slower and dangerous because they first protected the media and escorted them out from the protesters range, before charging and arresting people. I'm sure they have trained some protocol to how to control mobs, and throwing innocent civilians in the mix wrecks the whole thing.
- fzeroracer 6y ago
  So you're saying if a police officer walks up to you and tells you do to something and you ask 'Why', that's grounds for them arresting you? Police officers don't have carte blanche to issue orders and force people to comply. We're a nation of laws (supposedly). They were asked to move and they understandably wanted to know where they should move. Then they were arrested.
  - 6y ago
systemshutdown 6y ago
American police showing their true colors on live National TV.
nine_zeros 6y ago
China's installing surveillance to spy on citizens. We need surveillance to spy on the government because without it, we are dead ducks.
- 101404 6y ago
  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?
  - colejohnson66 6y ago
    Internal Affairs? While I’d like to believe the IA exists to stop the police from doing wrong, it’s more like an HR for the police.
    - 101404 6y ago
      I was going for "Journalists". Interesting that people don't even seem to remember that those once existed
th0ma5 6y ago
So you have multiple crews, and bring out each one as they each get arrested?
- elil17 6y ago
  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.
tibbydudeza 6y ago
Add reporting while black to suspicious activities.
- stronglikedan 6y ago
  Then we should also add filming while latino and producing while white.
  - monocasa 6y ago
    I really don't understand this argument of "they arrested a latino man, and white coworkers of the black man (last), so it can't have been racially motivated"
  - ianleeclark 6y ago
    The most insightful part of the video is where the start handing all the shit to the non-black film crew, then realize how bad it'll look if they only arrest the black guy. You can attempt to whitewash it but we all saw what happened. Sorry, but you can't will away racism
opwieurposiu 6y ago
Technological solution: Attach a laser to a gimbal camera. use YOLOv3 or similar to target the eyes of cops or armed persons within 100foot radius. Set up a few gimbal with mutually reinforcing fields of fire. If they can't see, they can't shoot. Everyone is safe with no killing.
- e12e 6y ago
  If they can't see, and do shoot, no one is safe.
tuan 6y ago
A follow up video from the reporter who was arrested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gsXevAjNbw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gsXevAjNbw
cryptica 6y ago
CNN staged it obviously. There was a riot, the police came in as they should have. CNN team intentionally disregarded orders to vacate the area to cause a stir. Then they were arrested as they knew they would be. CNN team basically setup and staged their own arrests on camera with the intent of deceiving the American people into thinking they were hapless victims. This is exactly why people vote for Trump. This behavior encapsulates exactly the kind of phony rhetoric which has split the US into two. On one had you have people who totally buy all that rhetoric (tears and all) and on the other hand you have those who see right through it and only feel disgust. These media companies soiled their own reputation by being politically biased to get extra eyeballs. They yielded to corporate and political pressure and created the current political climate so I have no sympathy for them. All US media companies deserve to go out of business IMO. They set the stage for their own demise. As much as I hate to say it, they've just handed the crown directly to Facebook. Even Facebook knows not to pick sides.
- kevstev 6y ago
  Do you have any proof to support your "obvious" claim? They were arrested live on air- early in the morning- I saw the 2 minutes or so leading up to their arrest, but not anything before.
  - cryptica 6y ago
    Do you actually believe that the police force would send 50 heavily armed and shielded police officers to an area for the sole purpose of arresting 5 CNN reporters? Clearly, they were not actually sent to arrest 5 CNN reporters. The CNN reporters were arrested for interfering with the work of police officers on the site of a violent riot. If there was fire and broken stuff all around and a small army of police officers arrived at the scene and told me to leave, I would leave the area immediately and I wouldn't feel that this is impeding my freedom in any way. Given the extreme situation, CNN people had no right to interfere with the work of police officers. What if there was a bomb in the area which had to be diffused urgently?
    - kevstev 6y ago
strooper 6y ago
Gradual militarisation of US police is one significant development since 9/11.
lurquer 6y ago
So, state police -- on a loudspeaker -- are "ordering" people to "leave the street immediately." The reporter admits he was told "to clear the area." The loudspeaker -- again -- explicitly states to "go back in the direction you came from." The reporter admits on air that they were "requested to move back." The cameraman also admits on air that "We were just out here reporting the CLOSURE OF THE STREETS." The dumbasses -- despite all this -- refused to get off the street, instead saying things like "we COULD move back to where you'd like..." Being a reporter does not give you special permission to violate a direct order by state police in the middle of a riot (with a burning building in the background.) If you're told to get off the street, get off the street... IMMEDIATELY. If you don't, you'll get arrested.
- monocasa 6y ago
  He was released 30 minutes later with the governor admitting it was a bad arrest.
  - lurquer 6y ago
    Whether they are charged with a crime is up to the governor, ultimately. But, the state police -- if they order a street closed -- are well within their rights to CLEAR the street. If the person won't budge, they can forcibly remove them. Which they did. That is being 'arrested.' There are no exceptions for reporters.
    - monocasa 6y ago
      The reporter was complying; he was asking which direction they should go when he was arrested.
      - lurquer 6y ago
        How much time should the police give him to decide whether to walk 10 feet to the left, or 10 feet to the right? Three minutes? Five minutes? An hour? The cameraman was literally STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET while stating that they were there to report on the CLOSURE OF THE STREET.
curiousgeorgio 6y ago
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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvbXWAHad-4
- couchand 6y ago
  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.
  - curiousgeorgio 6y ago
    > You're right, context is huge. The area had already been cleared of protesters. There was no imminent threat of any kind. I'm asking if you or anyone else has video proof of that. Are national news organizations exempt from an order like this to move (I know in some cases they are, but again, the lack of contextual proof here makes me question what they were told prior to what we've seen).
    - curiousgeorgio 6y ago
      I know this is meta, but... seriously people, what's with all the downvotes? How could more information/context around a current event be a bad thing? I've been watching what happens, at they always come almost exactly 2 minutes after I post something - on this and another account I use. It's pretty clear that there's some downvote bot activity going on (in addition to the usual "haters").
      - crakhamster01 6y ago
        I get that more context is always better, but the notion of "context" is infinitely expandable. What were these reporters doing in the hour prior to the arrest? Oh, nothing? Well, where were they at the start of the riots? Just getting to the scene? Hmm well, what's the police officer's story; has he had bad experiences with the press in the past? And so on... Most people have seen enough coverage of police officers doing unreasonable things in order to make a judgement call based off the provided context here. By asking for even more context, it comes across as though you're trying to cast doubt on this situation and undermine what's honestly a national issue at this point - hence the downvotes.
buboard 6y ago
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
znpy 6y ago
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.

543 points by void_nill 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

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 6y ago
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.
- chance_state 6y ago
  "We got away with murdering a man in broad daylight, who cares about arresting a couple journalists?", would be my guess.
- Hamuko 6y ago
  >arresting a reporter on live camera. It's possible that they didn't know it was a live broadcast.
  - kmonsen 6y ago
    He was telling them they were live, I think he was reporting while being black.
    - Hamuko 6y ago
      There's a difference between being told something and knowing something.
      - take_a_breath 6y ago
        Kinda like when someone says "I can't breathe" and you can't really know until they die.
  - chance_state 6y ago
    Did you watch the video? He very clearly tells them "we are live on air".
  - fiblye 6y ago
    I'm not sure what your point is. Is it that it's okay to arrest them if they're not live? (Not attacking you--just hard to understand intention through text) It really seems like their intention was to cook up charges, then realized they screwed the pooch and pretended it's all okay because now they're free. It's not. The intimidation has lasting effects and they know it.
    - throwaway894345 6y ago
      > I'm not sure what your point is. Is it that it's okay to arrest them if they're not live? The point is that it's not even in the officers' own self-interest.
      - take_a_breath 6y ago
        Neither is pushing your knee so hard into someone's neck that they choke to death. It still happened.
        throwaway894345 6y ago
        Why are you responding to me like I expressed some opinion that you disagree with? I was just providing clarifying context.
- kmonsen 6y ago
  The arrested reporter was black, there was another White CB reporter standing nearby that was not arrested. Perhaps it’s all coincidence. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/minneapolis-cnn-crew-arrested/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/minneapolis-cnn-crew-arres...
  - chooseaname 6y ago
    > Perhaps it’s all coincidence. That's being extremely charitable.
    - iso1631 6y ago
      Or sarcastic
  - dmix 6y ago
    The whole CNN team of four was arrested including the white producer and a latino cameraman.
    - monocasa 6y ago
      Racists view brown as the new black, and those working with people of color who don't know their place as race traitors. Also, there was an all white CNN crew a block away who didn't get arrested. Just because they arrested some white people who were obviously working with people of color, isn't evidence at all that the arrests weren't racially motivated.
    - Infinitesimus 6y ago
      How it played out was interesting though. Arrested reporter first and only after some time came back and arrested the others. If the intent was to arrest them all, they would have said "you're all under arrest". This smells like they arrested the guy, went "oh shit lets arrest the others too so people don't say we're racist"
      - kaitai 6y ago
- snazz 6y ago
  (I'm a resident of the Minneapolis suburbs) At this point, from some of my friends in the city, it sounds like there just isn't much oversight at all---they've now been caught on video taking guns from people with valid licenses and now arresting the press. I don't think that we can effectively apply logic when the police system seems so disorganized.
  - throwaway894345 6y ago
    These seem like flagrant violations of constitutional rights; I would be interested to hear from a lawyer what kind of legal liability the police (as a department and as individual bad-apple officers) are opening themselves up to by behaving this way. Hopefully justice is served and constitutional rights are protected.
    - _bxg1 6y ago
      It's become clear time and again that they never open themselves up to actual liability. But it would be interesting to hear how wide the gap is between law and reality in this case.
      - throwaway894345 6y ago
        > It's become clear time and again that they never open themselves up to actual liability. I understand that the criminal justice system is very often lenient on police officers, and I'm strongly in favor of increased police accountability; however, there are still many cases of police officers going to prison and departments/municipalities being sued for police misconduct, so to say that there is no actual liability is hyperbole.
        _bxg1 6y ago
        We've seen multiple murders by police happen on camera in the past couple years, with little to no action taken. The present one is the first case I know of where anyone from inside the government actually called for an investigation, and it was probably because they were afraid of the very riot situation we now find ourselves in. When they can kill someone who isn't a threat, on camera, and face no consequences, why would we expect them to face consequences for something like a frivolous arrest?
- Frost1x 6y ago
  It took quite awhile before they decided to arrest the reporter (Omar Jimenez). I suspect the decision came from higher up given the time delay (due to communication). I was watching this particular reporter late last night / early this morning and his coverage was, IMO, excellent to give some context and feel for the ongoing situation. It was pretty surreal to watch, for me, and notice absolutely no actions from law enforcement, fire departments, or the national guard on site obviously strategically chosen by some upper leadership (governor?), likely to minimize the situation from escalating. The reporter pointed this out multiple times. It was probably the right call IMHO. I suspect when law enforcement finally did move in afterwards, it was also strategic to minimize that escalating the situation. I wouldn't be surprised if the arrest was strategic just to minimize on-the ground coverage. I tip my hat to Omar Jimenez and crew for the coverage they provided.
  - _bxg1 6y ago
    And let the Streisand Effect begin.
  - relativitypro 6y ago
    Cannot be the right call. The tax payers lose in the coverage and they lose in the lawsuit. Having police officers paid so little that you put up with 18 violations, or willfully ignore them out of comraderie is fundamentally a system that is not sustainable or worth having pride over.
    - bruceb 6y ago
      I don't know about MN but police officers are not paid a low salary in a number of jurisdictions. Seattle starts at $65k+ and the avg is $100k.
    - mywittyname 6y ago
      Police officers make bank. In many places their salaries are public record. Plus, they get overtime and contract work as well. So their salary might be $80,000 per year, but they get overtime at like $60/hr, and they get work doing private security for movie theaters, events, etc. Probably at a similar rate. Then you factor in top tier healthcare and a very generous pension program, and their total compensation balloons. That's not even getting into collusion by the department to defraud tax payers. Quite a few departments have gotten in trouble from auditors for paying overtime to officers who didn't work the OT, which went on for years before being discovered. Then you have retirement benefits which are based on the last few years salaries, so people close to retirement get a bump in salary and OT in order to pad their retirements. That's no illegal, but I think it's unethical.
- epistasis 6y ago
  I think the level of impunity of "I am the law" instead of laws being laws, has taken over far too many in the police department. The level of police misconduct that's been captured in camera in the last few days is disturbing. There's always one police officer that rushes into a peaceful situation, from behind, and starts violence. This sort of assault on humans is taken to be their responsibility, apparently, and all the rest of the police stand idly by as one of those in their uniforms commits acts of violence against peaceful people. I would not be shocked if a majority of the property crime was also police instigated. If they are willing to do this to people, it's far easier to knock out some windows.
  - take_a_breath 6y ago
    ==I think the level of impunity of "I am the law" instead of laws being laws, has taken over far too many in the police department.== Never heard it put quite this way. Well said!
    - Jenz 6y ago
      Being a punctuation mark enthusiast, I’m very interested where you got that ⟨==xxx==⟩ notation from
      - lrdd 6y ago
        It is also the header syntax for Vimwiki[0] [0]: https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki
      - take_a_breath 6y ago
        I like the way it highlights a quote without having to deal with a bunch of actual quotation marks. If something you want to quote includes quotation marks it can be confusing to read (especially on mobile). It also reminds me of commenting out things when programming.
      - mixmastamyk 6y ago
        Looks like one of the wiki dialects.
- onemoresoop 6y ago
  Who gave the order is responsible for this reasonless arrest. I grew up under a dictature only to emigrate to ‘the free-est’ country in the world and see it turn into a dictature is a sad thing. And what’s to come is even worse and more dangerous.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- eyelidlessness 6y ago
  > I wonder what those officers were thinking, arresting a reporter on live camera. Speaking as someone who's been to a lot of protests, ranging from "peaceful as a baby" to "as street medics we treated 1/3-1/2 of the protestors"... the same thing cops are always thinking. As an institution, they don't like the press, oversight, or public scrutiny of their actions. They react the same way to people with press credentials for less prominent organizations, and to regular humans with phone cameras who have just as much a right to record video, the same way all the time.
  - jdashg 6y ago
    Since there clearly aren't penalties for corruption (even corruption-lite like this), it's no surprise that it persists. While we can understand why they do it, that does not make it acceptable, and there have to start being consequences. I can't help but feel that strong independent oversight is necessary, as the status quo is clearly insufficient.
    - DocSavage 6y ago
      The police unions and particularly this administration have been actively undermining strong independent oversight.
- M2Ys4U 6y ago
  >I wonder what those officers were thinking, arresting a reporter on live camera. "This man is Black, therefore he is the enemy", probably.
- josephorjoe 6y ago
  > I wonder what those officers were thinking, arresting a reporter on live camera. I'm guessing: "we do not want our actions in the next few minutes to be broadcast on live television"
- specialist 6y ago
  My first hunch is the arresting officers were scrubs, brought in from other jurisdictions to staff up in response to the riots. In the after math of the 1999 WTO riots, many of the worst abuses were committed by LEOs brought in from the outlying areas. Scrubs who didn't have the same training as the locals (and state patrol). Nor have any kind of personal regard for the city and its people. Even so, at the time, I was really struck by the comparison between our SPD and DC Metro. DC has more crowds, riots, protests, disturbances, etc. DC Metro has a lot more experience, training, professionalism. And it shows. From my personal experiences in Seattle, there's no way I'd risk protesting in and around the Twin Cities, and risk some noobs shooting me. (I'd like to believe I'd never riot.)
  - kaitai 6y ago
    You are more or less correct. The arresting officers were State Patrol; they're from all over but they're not from the community. I have protested in St. Paul and Minneapolis many times and in general SPPD have been decent at protests, and MPD has made an effort at protests. There has been a real effort to improve community relations but there are some notable bad apples (as long as Bob Kroll is speaking for MPD employees, we are going to have trouble -- listen to any interview with him to see why.) They have experience with the Super Bowl, many Black Lives Matters protests (Philando Castile was killed in 2016), and the RNC a while ago in St Paul. I was at the RNC protests and the interaction with the police was like a dance -- a relatively polite interaction with horses and concussion grenades, in which I honestly was not that worried about bodily harm -- until the Hennepin County law enforcement came in. Whenever you bring in suburban law enforcement to the city, things get dicey. Everyday policing has been quite different than behavior at protests. And things are different now.
    - specialist 6y ago
      Thank you for your misc replies, based on your firsthand experience and being onsite. Stay safe. "Whenever you bring in suburban law enforcement to the city, things get dicey." Exactly. That's what I was trying to say, thank you.
  - thejynxed 6y ago
- mnm1 6y ago
  What was the officer who murdered Floyd on live camera thinking, fully aware that Floyd was dying? Probably the same thing as these assholes. That they will get off without any punishment because of qualified immunity. The same thing every police officer in America thinks when they are about to murder or hurt another person. It's hardly a secret.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
apta 6y ago
Do those crewmen have an arrest record now? How can it affect their future employment or other conducts?
- jjeaff 6y ago
  With a short explanation of what you were doing where, this arrest record probably couldn't hurt.
hharlequin 6y ago
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.

newacct583 6y ago

Not an argument for this site I guess. But this is what happens when you have political leaders picking sides in violence. Trump literally tweeted "when the looting starts the shooting starts" (not before this event, of course -- it's an example). You think rhetoric like that doesn't have the effect of empowering police to abuse their power against people they don't like?

spoiledtechie 6y ago
Police abuse their power when leaders pick sides? And what about the Mayor? Has he not chosen sides? He lambasted the riots, but has allowed it to continue. Actions and words.
- snazz 6y ago
  Frey's actual power over the police and the Hennepin County Attorney is relatively limited.
- blunte 6y ago
  The mayor doesn't have authority over the police.
  - creaghpatr 6y ago
    Who does?
    - blunte 6y ago
      It will depend on the type of police force. In the case of a state police, it would be a combination of the state legislature and state judiciary. The real answer is surely lengthy and complicated, but suffice to say the mayor (thankfully) does not control the police... just as thankfully the president does not control the military.
      - thejynxed 6y ago

maskedinvader 6y ago

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.

spoiledtechie 6y ago
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.
- papercrane 6y ago
  According to CNN's timeline the police asked them to move at 5:09 AM, the reporter asked where they wanted them, at 5:11 AM the police arrested them. The reporter was not given the chance to follow directions. https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protest-updates-05-28-20/h_4d1cff5a7a7797c0dcf2ed4bd184552a https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protest-update...
  - zdragnar 6y ago
    This is a pragmatic point of view, not necessarily what I believe is "right": Generally speaking, you don't stand around and try to have a conversation with the police. In a tough situation, the very last priority of the police is helping CNN get a nice camera shot. Had they moved immediately upon being given the order to clear the street, then attempted to have the conversation, they likely would not have faced arrest.
    - danesparza 6y ago
      "Helping CNN get a nice camera shot" is something you read into this. Asking where to move to is a reasonable question to ask the police. Arrest is not a reasonable response.
    - frogpelt 6y ago
      It's possible the police were saying things that couldn't be heard on television because the mic was not in front of their mouths and they were wearing huge masks.

ponsin 6y ago

from the description of the YouTube video > Black correspondent Omar Jimenez had just shown a protester being arrested when about half a dozen white police officers surrounded him. Is there any reason to assume racism? it looks like two other people in the camera crew got arrested and they don't look black. It looks to me like CNN is trying to play the race card to stir controversy when there are millions of other more likely explanations

blunte 6y ago
Get to know some black people and talk to them about their experiences. The chances that race were a factor in this arrest are better than 50%.
- meragrin_ 6y ago
  If it were only the reporter arrested, I could believe it was racism. Since the other two were arrested, not so much. It also helps that they seemed to have been the only camera in the area. I have been unable to find any other video of the arrest.
- mindslight 6y ago
  A Black reporter is more likely to be filming people similar to himself peacefully protesting, rather than focusing on the damages caused by agents provocateurs (there is video of the windows of Autozone being smashed by a dude who is definitely not a protestor). Heck at this point the police probably have facial recognition cameras that identify a reporter and assign them a score based on how friendly their past coverage has been.
onemoresoop 6y ago
Maybe. CNN is no angel of appeasing, but regardless of skin colors, these people were reporters doing their job.
- throwaway829 6y ago
  > doing there job We have zero context for why they were being detained. We can assume they did nothing wrong, but it's just an assumption. It would be great if CNN released the video that preceded the detainment.

blunte 6y ago

Why was this post flagged?

ApolloFortyNine 6y ago
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.
- blunte 6y ago
  Got it. Thanks for the clarification.
- moosey 6y ago
  Hackers should be interested in this. It's clear that social media has a hand in the current state of society, however you feel about it. I have a sense that people that don't want violence are going to win politically, and soon. When they do, there will be repercussions for all social media and commenting style systems. HN won't escape this. If people who want violence win the next set of elections, then that should also be of concern to hackers of websites. Take a look at the actions of the US president, after being called to task for breaking TOS. With the geopolitical changes that will come about due to the coronavirus and upheaval that is beginning in the United States, it seems that social/web technology is central to geopolitics. It really stuns me that our conscientiousness to society, or lack thereof, isn't discussed far more often.
- soraminazuki 6y ago
  > unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon When's the last time you saw an American reporter being arrested on live camera?
- _bxg1 6y ago

void_nill 6y ago

Since this entry was flagged without justification, which shows me that censorship is taking place, I will not use HN in the future or support it in any other way. I will discuss with my lawyer how I can enforce the deletion of my account according to European guidelines.

hjek 6y ago
Thanks for posting this. Much appreciated. Sad that it's being flagged.
- meragrin_ 6y ago
  Why is it sad it is flagged? There's nothing really to discuss. The video just shows some arrests with very little other context. I don't care whether they call themselves journalists. People are rioting in the area. For all I know, they could have been taking actions to harass the cops for no good reason prior to the part they posted. "Journalists" are quite known for removing important context from video/audio to tell a story they want the viewers to believe. Now I'm not saying that is what they did, but it is just as believable as the racism story being pushed.
dsomers 6y ago
I agree, I’ll also be sending a GDRP request.
snazz 6y ago
The flagging was done by users. HN doesn't want political arguments, which this is turning into. It's well within Y Combinator's rights to create a user-controlled off-topic flagging system. The moderators can restore this if they want to and cancel the flags.
zenexer 6y ago
That flag indicates users flagged it--it doesn't mean any action has been taken by HN staff. It's essentially been reported to moderators by users, but unless you see the "[dead]" tag, it remains public and alive on HN. User-flagged content can be pushed down on the rankings (comparable to a downvote), but if enough people upvote, it shouldn't make much difference.

philipov 6y ago

Why is this flagged?

ativzzz 6y ago
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. "
- rglover 6y ago
  This is worthy of discussion here, though. This is a confusing and excessive use of authority—the implications of which are significant and alarming. To that point, how does this situation get fixed? Personally, this seems like a total failure of local governments. This should have been a relatively easy situation to mitigate (arrest the officer involved with the murder, even if just for show to calm folks down). Now that it's spiraled, we're seeing signs of a police state which is very ominous. The question, though, is how calculated is this? My rational mind tells me that this level of force isn't something planned or trained for; just a reaction to the current events. But it does set a precedent and as a country, we should be absolutely on guard and discussing this.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

xxs 6y ago

so many new accounts on hacker news, lately

cecja 6y ago
yup, 4chan is leaking.
MaxBarraclough 6y ago
> 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 https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

andarleen 6y ago

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

koheripbal 6y ago
Have you ever had an encounter with the police in China, North Korea, or Russia as a black person? way way worse.
- boruto 6y ago
  Why should US even be compared to those countries. It is a functional and mature democracy. Going through the thread I find it shocking that police brutality and unaccountablity is a common thing in USA.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

JSavageOne 6y ago

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 6y ago
> 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.
- JSavageOne 6y ago
  That's horrifying. Why don't we change the law?
  - camgunz 6y ago
    Courts are normally extremely deferential to law enforcement. Coupled with the fact that increasing oversight or increasing restrictions on law enforcement leads to a barrage of "soft on crime" political attack ads, and you get what we have today.
    - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
      The "soft on crime thing" was a lot more effective in the 90s when there was a lot more actual crime and so people were more afraid of it. At this point I'm basically waiting for a politician to adopt "soft on crime" as a campaign slogan and rebrand it as a rehabilitation program where you turn drug dealers into docile flower shop owners as opposed to opponents who "make crime tough" by sending people to "crime school" prisons and turning them into hardened career criminals with switchblades and facial tattoos. The real problem is the same as it is in general -- special interest groups (in this case police and prison guard unions and private prison companies) are the ones who spend the most effort lobbying on the issue. It also doesn't help at all when we disenfranchise "convicts" because we're then disenfranchising the victims of the system whenever it makes a mistake (which is often).

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

4cidix 6y ago

this looks like how manufactured consent is created

tinyhouse 6y ago

What happened to Floyd is horrible and police abuse is a real thing. I never understood why police officers in the US have no common sense. I recall many incidents where they shoot and kill people trying to escape (so no threat to them). I'm happy the public is doing something about it. However, I'm also annoyed by the stupidity of many people who blindly yell racism. Not so long ago there was a naked black male (Harvard student) walking down the streets of Cambridge, MA. Police came and arrested him. He refused arrest so they have to use force, but it was reasonable force required to arrest someone who is refusing arrest. People filmed the incident and next day many accused the police for racism. WTF!? I watched the film and there was nothing out of the ordinary. We should support good police officers and not assume all are bad and racist. They risk their life to defend us and our communities (white and black and everyone else).

tom_ 6y ago
The more usual term for an adult human male is a "man".
0xddd 6y ago
Yes, what a heroic display we're commenting on here. What exactly is your point and how is it relevant to this unsettling video? Just the platitude that not every interaction is necessarily racist?
Miner49er 6y ago
Police don't defend normal people or communities, that's not their job. Their job is to enforce the law, no matter how unjust the law is. > We should support good police officers and not assume all are bad and racist. There is no such thing as a non-racist or good police officer. The police system as a whole is racist. Anybody who chooses to participate in and support that system everyday of their lives is racist.
- tinyhouse 6y ago
  What drugs are you on? What's the alternative you're suggesting then? Are you saying we don't need police and everyone can just own a gun and defend themselves when they need to?

sasasassy 6y ago

I don't have an issue with this. Both the police and the reporters were calm and polite. The police told them they had to clear the street and instead of obeying the order they asked to let them know when they were going to actually walk down the street. Since they refused to obey the order they were detained and escorted out of the way. Being a reporter does not give you a free pass to disobey orders, specially during situations like that. Being a police offer also does not give you the right to mistreat people of course, but in this video everyone actually behaved very well.

bittercynic 6y ago
On some level the people involved here were civil, but it seems like a pretty dire problem when the police want to get rid of journalists. It would be great if the police could figure out how to serve the public in a way where they could be proud of their work and want the journalists to help the world see the good work they're doing.
- sasasassy 6y ago
  Of course I agree, but it reminds me of a situation many years back where I live. There was a big protest and people started throwing rocks at the police, and the media were in the middle of the police at that moment. It actually made the police's response much slower and dangerous because they first protected the media and escorted them out from the protesters range, before charging and arresting people. I'm sure they have trained some protocol to how to control mobs, and throwing innocent civilians in the mix wrecks the whole thing.
fzeroracer 6y ago
So you're saying if a police officer walks up to you and tells you do to something and you ask 'Why', that's grounds for them arresting you? Police officers don't have carte blanche to issue orders and force people to comply. We're a nation of laws (supposedly). They were asked to move and they understandably wanted to know where they should move. Then they were arrested.
- 6y ago

systemshutdown 6y ago

American police showing their true colors on live National TV.

nine_zeros 6y ago

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

101404 6y ago
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?
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  Internal Affairs? While I’d like to believe the IA exists to stop the police from doing wrong, it’s more like an HR for the police.
  - 101404 6y ago
    I was going for "Journalists". Interesting that people don't even seem to remember that those once existed

th0ma5 6y ago

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

elil17 6y ago
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.

tibbydudeza 6y ago

Add reporting while black to suspicious activities.

stronglikedan 6y ago
Then we should also add filming while latino and producing while white.
- monocasa 6y ago
  I really don't understand this argument of "they arrested a latino man, and white coworkers of the black man (last), so it can't have been racially motivated"
- ianleeclark 6y ago
  The most insightful part of the video is where the start handing all the shit to the non-black film crew, then realize how bad it'll look if they only arrest the black guy. You can attempt to whitewash it but we all saw what happened. Sorry, but you can't will away racism

opwieurposiu 6y ago

Technological solution: Attach a laser to a gimbal camera. use YOLOv3 or similar to target the eyes of cops or armed persons within 100foot radius. Set up a few gimbal with mutually reinforcing fields of fire. If they can't see, they can't shoot. Everyone is safe with no killing.

e12e 6y ago
If they can't see, and do shoot, no one is safe.

tuan 6y ago

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

cryptica 6y ago

CNN staged it obviously. There was a riot, the police came in as they should have. CNN team intentionally disregarded orders to vacate the area to cause a stir. Then they were arrested as they knew they would be. CNN team basically setup and staged their own arrests on camera with the intent of deceiving the American people into thinking they were hapless victims. This is exactly why people vote for Trump. This behavior encapsulates exactly the kind of phony rhetoric which has split the US into two. On one had you have people who totally buy all that rhetoric (tears and all) and on the other hand you have those who see right through it and only feel disgust. These media companies soiled their own reputation by being politically biased to get extra eyeballs. They yielded to corporate and political pressure and created the current political climate so I have no sympathy for them. All US media companies deserve to go out of business IMO. They set the stage for their own demise. As much as I hate to say it, they've just handed the crown directly to Facebook. Even Facebook knows not to pick sides.

kevstev 6y ago
Do you have any proof to support your "obvious" claim? They were arrested live on air- early in the morning- I saw the 2 minutes or so leading up to their arrest, but not anything before.
- cryptica 6y ago
  Do you actually believe that the police force would send 50 heavily armed and shielded police officers to an area for the sole purpose of arresting 5 CNN reporters? Clearly, they were not actually sent to arrest 5 CNN reporters. The CNN reporters were arrested for interfering with the work of police officers on the site of a violent riot. If there was fire and broken stuff all around and a small army of police officers arrived at the scene and told me to leave, I would leave the area immediately and I wouldn't feel that this is impeding my freedom in any way. Given the extreme situation, CNN people had no right to interfere with the work of police officers. What if there was a bomb in the area which had to be diffused urgently?
  - kevstev 6y ago

strooper 6y ago

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

lurquer 6y ago

So, state police -- on a loudspeaker -- are "ordering" people to "leave the street immediately." The reporter admits he was told "to clear the area." The loudspeaker -- again -- explicitly states to "go back in the direction you came from." The reporter admits on air that they were "requested to move back." The cameraman also admits on air that "We were just out here reporting the CLOSURE OF THE STREETS." The dumbasses -- despite all this -- refused to get off the street, instead saying things like "we COULD move back to where you'd like..." Being a reporter does not give you special permission to violate a direct order by state police in the middle of a riot (with a burning building in the background.) If you're told to get off the street, get off the street... IMMEDIATELY. If you don't, you'll get arrested.

monocasa 6y ago
He was released 30 minutes later with the governor admitting it was a bad arrest.
- lurquer 6y ago
  Whether they are charged with a crime is up to the governor, ultimately. But, the state police -- if they order a street closed -- are well within their rights to CLEAR the street. If the person won't budge, they can forcibly remove them. Which they did. That is being 'arrested.' There are no exceptions for reporters.
  - monocasa 6y ago
    The reporter was complying; he was asking which direction they should go when he was arrested.
    - lurquer 6y ago
      How much time should the police give him to decide whether to walk 10 feet to the left, or 10 feet to the right? Three minutes? Five minutes? An hour? The cameraman was literally STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET while stating that they were there to report on the CLOSURE OF THE STREET.

curiousgeorgio 6y ago

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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvbXWAHad-4

couchand 6y ago
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.
- curiousgeorgio 6y ago
  > You're right, context is huge. The area had already been cleared of protesters. There was no imminent threat of any kind. I'm asking if you or anyone else has video proof of that. Are national news organizations exempt from an order like this to move (I know in some cases they are, but again, the lack of contextual proof here makes me question what they were told prior to what we've seen).
  - curiousgeorgio 6y ago
    I know this is meta, but... seriously people, what's with all the downvotes? How could more information/context around a current event be a bad thing? I've been watching what happens, at they always come almost exactly 2 minutes after I post something - on this and another account I use. It's pretty clear that there's some downvote bot activity going on (in addition to the usual "haters").
    - crakhamster01 6y ago
      I get that more context is always better, but the notion of "context" is infinitely expandable. What were these reporters doing in the hour prior to the arrest? Oh, nothing? Well, where were they at the start of the riots? Just getting to the scene? Hmm well, what's the police officer's story; has he had bad experiences with the press in the past? And so on... Most people have seen enough coverage of police officers doing unreasonable things in order to make a judgement call based off the provided context here. By asking for even more context, it comes across as though you're trying to cast doubt on this situation and undermine what's honestly a national issue at this point - hence the downvotes.

buboard 6y ago

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

znpy 6y ago

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.