Journalists vs. Police in El Paso

[snydersnapshots]

I just saw a story on Fox news with footage of a news reporter in El Paso being arrested for covering a vehicle accident story. I've been reading the "Neighbor's House Fire" thread here with interest and this story plays along similar lines, though the situation involve a TV reporter and photographer as opposed to a still photogrpaher.

I haven't had time to research the story beyond what I saw on Fox news, but it sounds like the police officer involved has harassed reporters and/or photographers before. Sorry I haven't had a chance to do more research--I'll try to post some links when I have a chance.

[robert t]

They were parked on the roadway and standing at the center median fence in this case when they were told to move they should have gone and parked safely on the feeder shoulder and stayed out of the way. If you asked you can normally get all the sound bites you need. Talking to the witnesses once they are done with the police interview is best or at least ask them to walk off the scene to the safe area.

Not saying it was handled correctly but if you are standing or parked along the roadway and it is not an emergency or there is no designated area for parking, walking or standing(state law defines roadway the area from property line to property line, everything in the easement is roadway) you can be removed.

If they were investigating a crash and wanted all the wittinesses isolated and contained then it could be considered interference in the investigation.

The main thing is not knowing the actually facts. The story will be biased from the stations point of view.

[doctahjones]

i'm not saying the cop handled it -properly-, but i feel the reporter was not in a 'safe' place and was ultimately in the wrong. unless there were other emergancy vehicles running interference with traffic for him and his truck (which i didn't see in the video), they should have been at least on the outside shoulder of the road, not on the inside. the reporter said "well there are other cars parked along here too", which is bs. the reporter doesn't know if they were witnesses or what. and try using "but the other cars were speeding too" next time you get pulled over and see how that works for you.

also, it looked like it was an interstate, so where were the osha mandated high visibility jackets?

[snydersnapshots]

Originally Posted by doctahjones

also, it looked like it was an interstate, so where were the osha mandated high visibility jackets?

I did notice that... Maybe the the orange vest conspiracy is trying to make an example of this obvious offender...

[LSCSN.com]

There is actually a pretty cool website that is pretty much dedicated to run-ins with photographers and law enforcement. http://carlosmiller.com/ Some interesting reading. I'm glad I don't live in Arizona that's for sure!

[jgrindal]

Originally Posted by LSCSN.com

There is actually a pretty cool website that is pretty much dedicated to run-ins with photographers and law enforcement. http://carlosmiller.com/ Some interesting reading. I'm glad I don't live in Arizona that's for sure!

Yeah, Carlos is a good guy, I was featured on his site a few months back with my run-in with HPD.

In this case, the journalist was breaking the rules. The cops could have handled it better, but I believe were within their rights as the journalist was endangering himself and possibly others.