1st Amendment Cock Punched in MO

Sorry it's taken me a while to comment on this.

Let me preface this by saying that it's not my intention to turn Otakuphotog into some sort of anti-cop blog.

I am sure that you have all heard about the roof collapse in Clinton, Missouri that killed one man and injured nine others. What you might not know is that a Springfield, MO news crew was arrested during their noon live shot.

What appears to have happened is that the Missouri Highway Patrol instructed the news crew, who was outside of the crime scene tape and in an area that there were several civilians and two other journalists, to move to a 'media staging area.' The news crew refused and continued on with their live shot. The photographer, Cliff Erwin was arrested during the live, and reporter Sara Sheffield was arrested immediately following. They were transported and booked for 'failure to obey a reasonable order of a police officer' at the local jail and released.

The problem with this is two fold.

First, the police didn't order the civilians or the other journalists to move, which negates any 'public safety' nonsense the police might use. That shows that they were specifically targeting this news crew - probably because they were obviously a news crew (the story doesn't clarify if the other journalists were print, radio or tv - as tv journalists are a lot easier to spot than print or radio).

Our legal rights give us (the media) to be anywhere civilians are allowed. Rounding up all the news crews and ordering them into one point constitutes prior restraint - by failing to allow parts of the story to be told (for instance, you can't interview witnesses, victims, etc. if you are corralled in a media area). Prior restraint is ILLEGAL.

This news crew disobeyed an illegal order from a police officer. There is nothing illegal about that.

The second thing is that there are actually people in the media DEFENDING the illegal actions of the MHP. Both Medialine and B-Roll have threads on this. And while less so on b-roll (as photographers have to deal with this crap on a daily basis) there are bona fide journalists who feel that the police were within their rights to arrest the news crew. Here are some examples of stupidity in its finest.

Solution to (sic)probem! When law enforcement tells you to get the hell out of the way, get the hell out of the way, period. It doesn't matter if Barbie is about to break her big story for her resume tape. Issues can be taken up with the police administration later. Oh yes, state police supercede locals in all jurisdictions in some states.

all of these questions are valid, but the law is clear: when they tell you move, YOU MOVE.

My favorite is a b-roller who contacted his local MHP Public Information Officer and was told the following:

He said that the crew had been asked to move for a half hour and that the other people who were around were plain clothes officers.

I don't often actually laugh out loud, but I did in this case. Are we to believe that there were two dozen (as the linked to story reported) plain clothes MHP troopers just hanging out?

Nice try, MHP.

I hear so often from media types 'It's not worth going to jail over '. I ask, when are your rights worth going to jail over? When will people say 'enough is enough' and demand that the people we ask to enforce the law actually obey it?

I really am itching for a confrontation tonight. If it happens, I'll be sure to post my mug shot.