Cops Deliberately Targeting Press AKA “Enemies of the People”
OK, this is one of the real warning signs of impending autocracy; when the regime starts targeting journalists with violence, arrests, beatings & intimidation for daring to contradict the Dear Leader.
The ACLU is suing to stop the attacks. Watch the video below:
Throughout the George Floyd protests, there have been numerous, well-documented instances of deliberate abuse against journalists by law enforcement officers. A Minnesota State Patrol officer arrested CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his crew during a live broadcast, despite the journalists repeatedly having offered to comply with police and asking where they could move. Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske and photographer Carolyn Cole were chased by Minnesota State Patrol officers, tear-gassed, and shot at with rubber bullets, even though both were wearing their press credentials and they identified themselves as journalists. And police officers pepper-sprayed a group of visibly credentialed journalists, including KTSP reporter Ryan Raiche and his producer, as they were pinned against a wall.
And these are examples from Minnesota alone. The Reporters Committee for the Freedom the Press and the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker have identified numerous other instances of official abuse against journalists in cities across the country
The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press also has a rundown:
Omar Jimenez, a CNN correspondent, and two other CNN journalists were
arrested on camera after calmly and repeatedly identifying themselves as
journalists and offering to comply with any police request to move;
• Numerous local journalists were also arrested, pepper sprayed, and shot with
rubber bullets after identifying themselves as journalists, including KTSP
reporter Ryan Raiche (tear gassed and pepper sprayed), Minnesota Star
Tribune reporters Chris Serres (tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and
forced to the ground at gunpoint), and Tribune colleague Ryan Faircloth (car
shot by rubber bullets, shattering the window and causing lacerations);
• Linda Tirado, a freelance photojournalist, lost an eye to a rubber bullet as she
was clearly in the act of photographing police (“I was aiming my next shot,
put my camera down for a second, and then my face exploded,” Tirado told
the New York Times);
• Julio-Cesar Chavez, a Reuters journalist, and Rodney Seward, a Reuters
security adviser (wearing a “press”-labeled flak jacket) were targeted and shot
with rubber bullets;
• Michael George and a CBS news crew, standing 500 feet away from any
protesters, were fired on with rubber bullets, after clearly identifying
themselves as journalists and displaying credentials;
• Molly Hennessy-Fiske, a Los Angeles Times reporter, and Carolyn Cole, a
Los Angeles Times photographer (also with a “press” flak jacket), had to
escape over a wall after being gassed and shot with rubber bullets at point
blank range.
This is how autocracy operates. When the Dear Leader feels his position slipping, and the press starts actually doing its job and telling the truth about his fecklessness, stupidity and criminality, he sends in the thugs to beat & intimidate journalists.
Next, they start disappearing. Or “jumping out of windows.” Or having heart attacks, or car accidents, or all the other litany of targeted assassinations from the Putin Playbook.