Harassing reporters with bogus charges to chill First Amendment freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
Just when you thought the St. Louis County Prosecutor couldn’t stoop any lower. Little bully boy. With close personal ties to the police and many conflicts-of-interest.
The Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery and the Huffington Post’s Ryan J. Reilly are both being charged by the St Louis County prosecutor for trespassing and interfering with officer while covering last year’s protests.
Both news outlets responded with statements standing behind their journalists who were arrested while reporting inside the local McDonald’s on West Florissant in Ferguson, Missouri.
…
“Reporters have every right to do their jobs, pursue the truth and publish it,” she said in a statement. The release maintained that the organization “encourages local officials to drop the charges filed against Lowery so journalists can operate without fear that doing their jobs will lead to them being jailed.”
I remember reading the accounts as it happened. Reporters said cops came in, physically roughed them up, refused to give the reporters their names, took them to jail, held them, then let them leave without charges. Old-school tried-and-true harassment and intimidation. What a disgrace the uniform. Lame, pathetic, sorry-ass punks.
The reporters exposed them and messed up their little scheme of policing for profit against people of color in Ferguson. Humiliated by the Department of Justice report for all of history to see forever. Now they want revenge.