Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28 • Hacker News Board

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#51

Post by lurkmurk » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:27 PM UTC

"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." HN Guidelines

But this is probably just my lurker observation. Not against all news but there should be at least some spark of insight of novelty. Feel free to flag now.

Edit: To expand a bit. What I like about HN is not that it's tech but it has plethora of very interesting topics and comments are almost always insightful (unlike this one). This headline is basically the whole article. The comments are therefore not guided by idea, but news. This topic is important but nothing comes out of these threads. This rant is contributing to bad quality of comments, one thing I always try to avoid.

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#52

Post by jonlucc » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:27 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #22

Since this is happening simultaneously in many different cities around the country, I have to wonder if there are private Facebook or WhatsApp or Signal groups where police members are talking about this trend. I'd very much like to see those conversations.

It's possible, but also, there's precedent from 2014 in Ferguson. Several members of credentialed media were arrested and assaulted to various degrees. Pretty much nothing happened by way of punishment other than a settlement from the DoJ saying they couldn't kettle people anymore, enforced by what is now Barr's department.

Any officer paying attention would know you won't be punished unless you act particularly egregiously like the one officer in Louisville reassigned to desk duty (big whoop). Add on the amount of animosity stoked by the president toward media for the past 4-5 years, and it really doesn't take a simultaneously coordinated effort to have this outcome.

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#53

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:27 PM UTC

selectodude wrote: post #43

Press2forEN wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I can't imagine, after months of wall-to-wall COVID-19 coverage, how you can still believe that the US press is anything other than outlets of biased and profit-driven crisis porn. That doesn't justify attacks on reporters, but today's journalists aren't just part of the problem, arguably they are the problem.

"Press 2 for English" is not biased at all.

[deleted]

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#54

Post by Jtsummers » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:27 PM UTC

lostmsu wrote: post #33

sillysaurusx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were though. The videos out of twitter are completely horrifying. An endless wave of cops hearing "Reporter! Here's my badge! I am a reporter!" and just ... not caring. Bash their face, mace them, just follow orders. I saw a video where an officer smashed their video camera. A big one, the style a professional reporter uses. It's our democracy. And we want to hope for the best. But damn if this isn't worrisome.…

> just ... not caring. Bash their face, mace them, just follow orders. That's how law generally works. It does not matter who violates it. If you see a problem with the law - change the law. Do not bash police officers for enforcing it.

But they aren't enforcing the law with many of these actions. See the first major publicized incident with the CNN crew. No laws were broken, the crew was compliant, they asked if they should move, explained they were in that spot because other police had told them to be there.

The police have gone beyond the law in these cases, and their handling of protesters (not to mention the cases which precipitated this present set of protests). The law doesn't need to be changed, the way police behave does.

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#55

Post by staticassertion » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:28 PM UTC

lostmsu wrote: post #6

I think it would show more nuanced sentiment to say, that on 110 occasions journalists ended up caught in aggressive police action since May 28. Current wording would have an implication for many people, that journalists were deliberately chosen as targets.

In at least some of the videos the journalists are not actually near any protesters, there's no way they just got caught up due proximity.

Multiple reporters have been shot at directly. The cops have shot into the cameras themselves to break them.

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#56

Post by chooseaname » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:28 PM UTC

evan_ wrote: post #18

linsomniac wrote: post #2

I can imagine animosity from the leadership, for example classifying most journalists as "fake news", contributing to violence from the front line against them.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/11142215334617907... > The press is doing everything within their power to fight the magnificence of the phrase, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! They can’t stand the fact that this Administration has done more than virtually any other Administration in its first 2yrs. They are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!

> ...this Administration has done more than virtually any other Administration in its first 2yrs.

Mr President, that's going to need some fact checking.

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#57

Post by watwut » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

hrishid wrote: post #38

starpilot wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming most cops support Trump?

Given how certain kinds of rhetoric from the political left demonizes police offers, it seems likely that many of them have found a home on the right.

Then again, if being cop attracts far right, then left is bound to notice, comment on it and hate them.

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#58

Post by duxup » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

linsomniac wrote: post #2

I can imagine animosity from the leadership, for example classifying most journalists as "fake news", contributing to violence from the front line against them.

Leadership, but individuals too and they spread it themselves.

Bias is now barely defined as "I didn't hear my opinion read back to me." and just about any event is used to discredit entire news organizations, reporters, etc. Write some less than positive articles about a company "they have an agenda" and so forth. We get it on HN here too.

A buddy of mine was a camera man. Not far from the station was a lake where they heard there was some sort of boating accident. He got there first as the station was across the street, emergency services hadn't showed up yet and the crowd that gathered got quite upset and accused them of exploiting the situation somehow as soon as they got out of their van.

It seems people assume poor intentions, not just on the media but in most cases now.

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#59

Post by aphit » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

imperio59 wrote: post #44

chadlavi wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That, and the journalists are literally there to record evidence of their abuse. Police don't like it too much when you record evidence of them, say, beating a peaceful protester, or forcing a weapon into the hands of someone already pinned to the ground.

Where have you seen cops forcing weapons into the hands of someone on the ground? I haven't seen that. Definitely seen excessive use of force against seemingly peaceful protesters, but context is everything, and a 10 second snippet does not tell the full story of the interactions between that protester and that cop for the 45 minutes leading up to those 10 seconds. I tend to reserve my judgement on those types of vid…

See here: https://v.redd.it/m62sz14qmc251

Re: Police attacks against journalists across the U.S. since May 28

#60

Post by Jtsummers » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #47

lostmsu wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just ... not caring. Bash their face, mace them, just follow orders. That's how law generally works. It does not matter who violates it. If you see a problem with the law - change the law. Do not bash police officers for enforcing it.

Wait. Are you saying the law allows for police to physically attack peaceful bystanders? Am I reading you correctly?

A few days ago I had that exact discussion with someone here who didn't understand that there's a distinction between legal and illegal orders (wrt the military, in that context). That it is in fact illegal to obey an illegal order, and the right of members of the military to disobey such orders (assuming knowledge that it is illegal). The other person thought that I was advocating for anarchy...