So if the police charge up to you right now - literally right at the moment you finish reading this sentence - and arrest you, you were therefore doing something illegal?
No, if you’re posting in a public place, the police order you to leave, and you refuse, claiming you’re a journalist but refusing to show your ID, then you are obstructing the police, which is illegal.
Just to make your analogy actually fit.
What the hell is wrong with you? Do the police have the right to order you to “disperse” from any situation? Sitting in McDonald’s having a snack and typing on your laptop? This is America dammit.
Just noticed this.
Of course, I never said this or anything like it.
If the story as told by the cop is true, nothing was done wrong, as he was being attacked by Brown.
If the story as told by Brown’s friend is true, then a terrible crime was committed and of course it wasn’t Brown’s fault he died.
But it does seem that in the second case Brown could have avoided his fate by simply complying with the officer when told to stop. That’s not blaming the victim, it’s pointing out that it was avoidable.
Can you cite a law whereby citizens must show IDs to police on demand? Are we supposed to carry papers with us like in Nazi Germany?
That is America. You didn’t know?
It’s a McDonald’s where there has been a riot every night this week.
Serious question: What would those of you who think the cops are out of control have them do? Should they let the crowd throw Molotov cocktails until their arms get tired every night?
Cite? The article I read had the reporter working at the McDonalds.
…there is video tape right up to the point of them getting arrested that shows them complying with the police.
Would you right wingers make up your fucking minds about the police? You were all for Cliven Bundy in his standoff with police because, well because he had guns and therefore must be right. So you’re okay with armed citizens keeping law enforcement officials from collecting legally seized cattle but you’re also for police aiming sniper rifles and lobbing tear gas at unarmed citizens. If the people in Ferguson packed heat would that make you take their side? Is it whatever side brings the most weaponry that makes them right in your book?
I don’t know why you think a reporter would work at McDonald’s.
The McDonald’s is right where the rioting was. The reporters were using it to charge their cell phones and equipment.
I also note from that same article that the police only seem to be aggressive towards people rioting, not people protesting.
Rioting:
Protesting:
So it’s not like people in this thread seem to be claiming. The cops aren’t shooting tear gas at anyone who gathers or protests. It’s when the Molotov cocktails start flying that the tear gas comes out.
If you want to claim an exception to the police telling you to move based on you being a journalist, yes you show your fucking papers.
And it doesn’t matter whether the police have the right to tell you to do something, or to arrest you. You go along with it - if you don’t you’re still breaking the law. Then, you challenge it later.
Jesus. Do you really still wonder why the police sometimes overreact, when you and others are here exhorting people to ignore or resist them?
No one has an answer for this?
The posters adamantly claiming that the police have no right to instate a curfew were just voicing an opinion? Or was this based on some actual law?
Stop trying to confuse people with facts, you’ll only upset the poor dears.
I couldn’t find the article I read. I assumed he was working part-time as a journalist; only getting paid when an article gets published. In retrospect, I think it was just bad writing. When they said he was working there, they must have meant as a journalist, and not as a McDonald’s employee.
Bundy is white.
:smack:
…one mans riot is another mans protest. That McDonalds looked pretty good if there had been a riot in there every day.
I don’t see any molotov cocktails here. I don’t think that these reportersthrew any molotov cocktails. Not seeing any here either. Don’t see any getting thrown here. Nearly everyone has a cellphone camera. Nearly every use of tear gas has been put online. Haven’t seen a single molotov cocktail. I will concede the possibility molotov cocktails may have been thrown at the police. But I find your claim that tear gas only comes out when the Molotov cocktails start flying hard to believe: and so please provide a cite.
…if you think that what he said was “fact”, then perhaps you could provide a cite for Debaser’s assertion.