St Louis reporter on Chris Hayes' All In just now: Police attacked Al Jazeera News crew

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32. In Chicago in 1968, there was a police policy of deliberately

attacking reporters, especially cameramen. This is an excerpt from "Rights in Conflict:
The violent confrontation of demonstrators and police in the parks and streets of Chicago during the week of the Democratic National Convention of 1968. A report submitted by Daniel Walker, [font color = "red"]director of the Chicago Study Team, to the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence."[/font]

http://chicago68.com/ricsumm.html

It was on these nights that the police violence against media representatives reached its peak. Much of it was plainly deliberate. A newsman was pulled aside Monday by a detective acquaintance of his who said: "The word is being passed to get newsmen." Individual newsmen were warned, "You take my picture tonight and I'm going to get you." Cries of "get the camera" preceded individual attacks on photographers.

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A network cameraman reports that on the same night:
I just saw this guy coming at me with his nightstick and I had the camera up. The tip of his stick hit me right in the mouth, then I put my tongue up and noticed my tooth was gone. I turned around then to try to leave and then this cop came up behind me with his stick and jabbed me in the back.

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And before anything else happened to me, I saw a man holding a Bell & Howell camera with big, wide letters on it, saying, 'CBS.' He apparently had been hit by a cop. And cops were standing around and there was blood streaming down his face. Another policeman was running after me and saying, "Get the fuck out of here." And I heard another guy scream, "Get their fucking cameras." And the next thing I know I was being hit on the head, and I think on the back, and I was just forced down on the ground at the corner of Division and Wells. If the intent was to discourage coverage, it was successful in at least one case. A photographer from a news magazine says that finally, "I just stopped shooting, because every time you push the flash, they look at you and they are screaming about, 'Get the fucking photographers and get the film.' "

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Out of the 300 newsmen assigned to cover the parks and streets of Chicago during convention week, more than 60 (about 20%) were involved in incidents resulting in injury to themselves, damage to their equipment, or to their arrest. Sixty-three newsmen were physically attacked by police: in 13 of these instances, photographic or recording equipment was intentionally damaged.

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They know "the whole world is watching," but they are hopped up on adrenaline, hatred, racism, and in perhaps too many cases, steroids. And of course, there is no guidance or control from the top to restrain them, nor is there any fear of consequences for their behavior. Why should they care if the whole world is watching if they are quite certain that it isn't going to matter?