St. Louis County Still Considering Bringing Trespassing Charges Against Journalists Police Arrested In Ferguson
from the that-would-be-a-bad-idea dept
One of the side stories over the Ferguson protests from last summer was the fact that the over-aggressive militarized police went in and arrested journalists who were covering the events in Ferguson. Two of the first journalists arrested were Ryan Reilly of Huffington Post and Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post. At the time, we highlighted how they had tweeted the lead up to their own arrests:SWAT just invade McDonald's where I'm working/recharging. Asked for ID when I took photo. pic.twitter.com/FOIsMnBwHy
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 13, 2014
Police come into McD where me and @ryanjreilly working. Try to kick everyone out.
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 13, 2014
Officers slammed me into a fountain soda machine because I was confused about which door they were asking me to walk out of
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 14, 2014
Detained, booked, given answers to no questions. Then just let out
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 14, 2014
Also Ryan Reilly of Huff Po. Assaulted and arrested
— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 14, 2014
@ryanjreilly and @wesleyLowery have been arrested for "not packing their bags quick enough" at McD's #Ferguson
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 14, 2014
Unfortunately my last Vine featuring the officer who assaulted me was deleted when other my phone died.
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 14, 2014
St. Louis County prosecutors will soon decide whether to bring trespassing charges against two journalists arrested while covering demonstrations last summer in Ferguson, Missouri.I'm trying to envision a scenario where this whole thing doesn't backfire in a ridiculous way for the St. Louis County police and prosecutors, and I'm struggling to find any possible way for them not to come out of this looking absolutely terrible. Both Lowery and Reilly are quick to point out how ridiculous the whole thing is:
The Huffington Post’s Ryan Reilly and The Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery recently learned that there are open investigations related to their Aug. 13, 2014, arrests and that the cases have been referred to the county counselor's office, which primarily handles local ordinance violations. The St. Louis County Police Department filed incident reports in late April of this year describing the reporters as trespassing when they were seized at a McDonald's restaurant.
"Ryan and I have maintained from day one that our detention was unwarranted, unnecessary and illegal," Lowery said in an email. "The idea that the prosecutor’s office would consider bringing formal charges in this incident is ludicrous. Officials in St. Louis County should drop this matter, release the relevant documents and allow us all to move on with our lives and onto more important elements of this story."The article linked above notes that both reporters have continued their investigations into their own arrests, and have faced stonewalling at every turn, including police trying to deny their requests to find out the names of the officers who assaulted and arrested them. Moving forward with actual bogus "trespassing" charges would be not just adding insult to injury, but would, once again, call the world's gaze to St. Louis County and whatever the hell it is they call "justice" down there.
"Wesley and I did nothing wrong in this scenario, which occurred shortly after officers with the St. Louis County Police Department trained sniper rifles at a crowd of peaceful protesters in broad daylight," Reilly said in an email.
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Filed Under: charges, ferguson, missouri, police, reporting, ryan reilly, st. louis county, trespassing, wesley lowery
Companies: huffington post, washington post
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Having formerly lived in St. Louis...
I fully expect the prosecutors and police to pursue this. I fully expect them to look like morons doing it. I fully expect the County to have to pay out taxpayer money to the reporters at the end of it.
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Any chance that this might result in some police reform in Saint Louis County?
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Just let that hubris and prosecutorial stupidity run rampant just a little longer.
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Re:
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Now they're at war with journalists too?
Well, there you go. A clear case of failing to "Respect mah authoritay!" Perhaps Laura Poitras and EFF would be interested in joining these cases of egregious assault on the Fourth Estate.
This century just keeps on getting sillier.
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Re: Now they're at war with journalists too?
Nothing silly, or even amusing about it, it is the word becoming increasingly authoritarian.
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I think it's that they got away with a lot of authoratarianism before.
To borrow a bit from the Magic-unicorn-key Encryption discussion:
Public: This behavior is too authoritarian. Stop it.
Agents: But we are accustomed behaving this way.
Public: Get accustomed to something else.
Agents: You're not the boss of me.
Public: Uh, wait. We are.
Agents: No. Not really.
People who have power tend to like it and then go to all lengths to keep it, including getting bathed in widow's tears and puppy chum by the gentle hands of forsaken children.
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Re: Now they're at war with journalists too?
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Who is pressing charges for trespass?
Presumably they would be charged under Missouri Section 569.140.2, which doesn't clearly apply. Missouri Section 569.150.2, second degree trespass, is more general but changes the wording to simply "enters unlawfully", dropping "knowingly remains".
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Re: Who is pressing charges for trespass?
As you say, there would have to be some determination that "remains unlawfully" was in effect. Since it wasn't posted (2 (2) ), the only excuse that could remain is "communicated to the actor", and they'd have to convince a judge that a law enforcement officer could have that authority.
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Re: Re: Who is pressing charges for trespass?
I would love for them to try that as I didn't see anyone arresting and charging the McD's workers.
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Re: Who is pressing charges for trespass?
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Re: Re: Who is pressing charges for trespass?
How many Amendments did they violate (or try to) when all Hell broke loose because the cops couldn't control themselves? The Bill of Rights is there ESPECIALLY for those situations.
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Re: Re: Re: Who is pressing charges for trespass?
> arguably a, violation of the rarely invoked
> Third Amendment?
No, if anything it would be a 5th Amendment violation-- taking private property for a public purpose without just compensation.
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Criminal trial, discovery
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Spellcheck .. maybe
Against is spelled wrong in your title lol, yw.
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Re:
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Trespassing charges?
Either option sounds equally likely to make sense to a St. Louis County prosecutor. If I remember correctly, it was also here where a reporter on a tree or other elevated point was arrested because of not obeying an order to "disperse", a feat quite difficult to perform for a single person as a court subsequently found.
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/s
Never - of course.
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Discovery
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Former St. Louis resident here too. Missouri is a god forsaken hellhole
Stupid quid-pro-quid thought process: When the company I was working for was being taken over I offered to help do some extra work to ease things and the response was "what do you want in return". Nothing bitch, was just being friendly.
Stupid people walking down the middle of the street all.the.time: Seriously. It is a thing. I got so tired of it.
Stupid vehicle inspections: you know for s-a-f-e-t-y. right.
Stupid City of St. Louis tax: yeah, they taxed your payroll check for having a job within the city limits.
Stupid traffic snarls: If you were not on your way out of the city by 3:30 / 4:00 PM during the week. Game over. You get to waste an hour of your life looking at blinking red lights.
Ladue: nuff said.
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Broad daylight
Would it have been better at night?
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Re: Broad daylight
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Re: Re: Broad daylight
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Trespassing
Case dismissed.
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Re: Trespassing
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Re: Re: Trespassing
> shame if something were to happen to it. You
> know how long emergency service response times
> can be in this area...."
"Snort my taint. I'll hire private security. Now fuck off."
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think
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- U.S. District Judge Murray Gurfein
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