Police Handcuff NBC Chicago Photojournalist, "Your First Amendment rights can be terminated"

[Liberal_in_LA]

Police Handcuff NBC Chicago Photojournalist
Police release media members after about 10 minutes

Chicago police took two members of the media into custody Saturday, including an NBC Chicago photographer.

Photographer Donte Williams and WGN Reporter Dan Ponce were detained as they attempted to cover the story of a 6-year-old girl who was shot and killed. Crews were standing on a sidewalk outside Mt. Sinai Hospital, where the girl had been taken.

The hospital apparently called police, complaining of trespassers. The news crews, at the request of police officers, said they had already moved from a public sidewalk directly in front of the hospital, to a median halfway across the street.

-----------------------------

Police held Williams and Ponce for about 10 minutes. The officer who handcuffed them is recorded on camera warning members of the media that their First Amendment rights could be terminated.

"Your First Amendment rights can be terminated if you're creating a scene or whatever," the officer said.

When asked how they were creating a scene, the officer said, "Your presence is creating a scene."

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Chicago-Police-Take-NBC-Chicago-Photojournalist-Into-Custody-Warn-1st-Amendment-Rights-Can-Be-Terminated-143105086.html#ixzz1psCIKquu

[tk2kewl]

1. Brilliant

"Your First Amendment rights can be terminated if you're creating a scene or whatever," the officer said.

When asked how they were creating a scene, the officer said, "Your presence is creating a scene."

Presence=Scene=No Rights

So if you don't exist you have rights but if you do actually exist you don't have rights.

Have I got that straight?

[KansDem]

4. It's worse than that

Presence = Whatever = No Rights.

I know what a "scene" is...I'd like to know what "whatever" is...

[arthritisR_US]

14. That's a very subjective criterion the

police are applying and I sure as hell don't trust them to apply it judiciously

[indepat]

18. By jove, I think you've got it!

[tclambert]

28. In other words, "The law is what the cops say it is."

[Ikonoklast]

37. And this is why taxpayers lose millions to lawsuits, cops that invent the law.

Cops know nothing of what is actually legal, allowed, or constitutional.

[tsuki]

35. I think it is worst than that. It sounds like a veiled threat to me. You can be terminated. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Ah the new Amerika where rights are conditional

Hooray!!!!!

I hope the pd is sued.

[Salviati]

9. Conditional on us not acutally using them.

In order to protect our "rights" and our "freedoms" we've got to give them up so they can be put in this box where they can be kept nice and safe...

[hifiguy]

15. Indeed. Just like the constitution of the USSR.

Your rights are guaranteed until you try to exercise them, in which case off to the gulag.

[Brickbat]

5. "Or whatever."

[gopiscrap]

6. Typical fucking pigs

low information, steroid pumped, arrogant, Napoleon wanna be's...almost every cop now a days is a worthless Nazi like scum....something needs to be done...part of the problem is the glorification of these authorative butt wipes on shows like COPS and the piss ant attention span of the American public.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. FYI most pd's hate cops.

And it hasn't been made in a few.

[gopiscrap]

13. Sorry but what does abbreviation mean?

pd's do you mean police departments?

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Yes police departments

Most did not play along, local story exemplifies why.

Local sherrifs decided to play along, and they almost got sued. Star officer got stupid before the cameras. The rest said, no thank you.

[backscatter712]

20. Careful, you'll get DU's pearl-clutchers riled up.

They had one of my posts hidden for calling the police "pigs".

They truly don't have enough to do.

But I certainly share your sentiment. I'm sick of these roid-raging authoritarian un-Americans wiping their asses with our civil liberties.

[spanone]

7. an ignorant, uninformed police officer.

[malthaussen]

47. Ever notice how close "uninformed" is to "uniformed?"

n/t

[RC]

10. The Photojournalist should have shown the cops their Corporation papers.

Non people persons still have lots of rights.

[gratuitous]

11. And people will profess shock at this

Golly, where did we ever develop the idea that judge, jury and jailer could be rolled up into one person??? Aren't we supposed to have a system of checks and balances so that one person doesn't wield too much power? Well, unless the person being detained or blown sky high is really, really bad.

[WilliamPitt]

12. "...if you're creating a scene or whatever."

"Or whatever."

Exactly.

[The Wielding Truth]

36. Yes,just like the Constitution."Freedom of the Press or whatever."

[Rex]

43. Yeeeeppp.

Curious indeed.

[frylock]

16. fuck tha police

[quakerboy]

41. In facist America

tha police fuck you.

[frylock]

45. good one!

[Rex]

19. Is it a police state yet or we still playing pretend?

nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Play pretend, exercise them rights

Until we tell you no.

[Rex]

22. Rights? We don't need no stinkin rights!!!

Evidently you can be in trouble with the law for just...'whatever', stop asking questions! Questions lead to extended jailtime!

[xchrom]

23. OOOPS! The truth slips out. Nt

[jwirr]

24. This makes me sick and nothing points up the need to reelect President Obama and a progressive

congress more than this. We need to get the SCOTUS back into the hands of people who actually believe in the Constitution so we can get this stuff into courts.

[JDPriestly]

27. But Chicago is the homeland of Obama's sidekick, Rahm Emmanuel.

Remember?

[grasswire]

25. if it can be capriciously revoked, IT IS NOT A RIGHT

True conservatives ought to be howling about this attack on the Constitution.

[FiveGoodMen]

30. Absolutely!

Rights are the things they CAN'T take away.

(But we're awfully busy giving them away)

[appal_jack]

31. +1!, k&r, n/t

[JDPriestly]

26. Wow!!!

[dorksied]

29. When rights can be taken away, they cease to be rights, and become priveledges...

[quakerboy]

42. Privilege is all we have left

Last edited Fri Mar 23, 2012, 12:59 PM - Edit history (1)

And many of us do not even have that. And the scary thing is its worse in many other places.

[bvar22]

50. "Priveledge" is ONLY for "The Priveledged"...

.... as in the Top 1%.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[tblue37]

51. I wasn't going to say anything, but when three posts in a row misspelled

"privilege," I felt I had to do something about the relentless spread of that misspelling.

[Tatiana]

32. Yeah. Welcome to Rahmbo's Chicago.

What an embarrassment.

[dixiegrrrrl]

44. Chicago has not changed much since 1968, methinks.

[Blue_Tires]

33. I smell a winner of a lawsuit

[Aerows]

34. "Your rights

are what we say they are, unless we think you might sue us. In that case, we'll keep your rights in mind, but it probably won't make us change anything unless we get the piss sued out of us a few times by someone with a better lawyer than you have."

[sakabatou]

38. Now that is scary.

[solarman350]

39. DOX the cop Who Handcuffed the Journalist

Film the arrest and DOX the cop. Just remember, when you sue Chicago, you're taking money away from its operating budget. Better to also sue the arresting officer into oblivion.

DOX:
http://partyvan.info/wiki/Dox

[Mopar151]

40. Dumb and needlessly confrontational

Good cops are diplomats, social workers, first responders and investigators - Not instigators and portable supreme courts.

One of our local idiots was really special "He could turn a parking ticket into a riot faster than anyone we've ever seen!" opined one of the 5 police chiefs to fire him. Once shot a hole in the roof of a cruiser.......

[Initech]

46. Welcome to the post BFEE America.

[DLC_GOPLite]

48. I sure do love the post 9/11 FASCIST America!

This was the change that I voted for!


(Sarcasm)

[Quantess]

49. Freedom is disappearing.

Hear that, FReepers? We aren't the freest country in the world anymore.

That, described in the OP is a freedom that is being robbed from the American people, and has been diminishing since 9/11.