Ferguson police are now arresting journalists; I disagree with Warren; and this is our future

This post comes to you in three parts.

Part I: Ferguson police are arresting journalists

Don’t get me wrong the murder of a black man was bad enough, but now, one has to ask. What the fuck are the Ferguson police doing where they feel compelled to arrest journalists? At least two reporters were arrested and then released without charge: Wesley Lowery from the Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly from the Huffington Post. I’m guessing that the mass response to social media posts about journalists being arrested might have something to do with this.

Swat teams were called in to deal with the protesters, and they entered McDonalds where the two reporters were working. The reporters went offline at 5pm, which is when other journalists started tweeting that two journalists had been arrested. LA Times reporter than began investigating the arrests. After 45 minutes Lowery and Reilly came back online. You can read Lowery’s version of events here.

There is something truly horrifying that the police can arrest journalists and meet with no consequences.

Part II: I disagree with Senator Warren

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">This is America, not a war zone. The people of href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ferguson?src=hash">#Ferguson

just want answers. We all want answers.&mdash; Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) href="https://twitter.com/elizabethforma/statuses/499904279961149440">August 14, 2014</blockquote>

Perhaps I’m a cynic, but America is a war zone. We’re just not used to seeing it on television because the war on drugs and the war on terror don’t really look like anything different than the status quo which is the brutalization of people of color and the low income. A lot of people on Twitter are drawing comparisons between Ferguson and the 1960s, specifically the Civil Rights Movement in the south. But this didn’t happen overnight. Slowly with the stripping of voters rights, the limitations on women’s rights, drug policy, racial profiling, we’ve slipped further and further back. We live in a militarized police state, when the police have access to tanks, then we live in a war zone. You can access a list of people killed by the police via Wikipedia, which is obviously a flawed source, but with news coming out that New Orleans’ police covered up a police shooting, coupled with the murders in Ohio, California, and Missouri, it is better than nothing.

Part III: This is our future or how did we get here

In case you’re confused the Ferguson Police have tanks because of the war on drugs and the war on terror. Sen. Warren, want to tell me again about how we’re not at war? See the local police forces got extra money to combat drugs and then terror. They put it to use by providing local police with better armor than the military. In Ferguson specifically, the military gave them military grade weapons.

We’re watching the police’s unreasonable response to lawful protests. This is what protesting looks like now, we got a glimpse of it during Occupy. Notably, the protesters unlawfully arrested at Occupy in New York sued, and they have been winning. While clearly, I’m opposed to the tactics being used against protesters, seeing some of these photos makes me wonder what civilians abroad must be thinking. I know survivors in Gaza have been sending tips to the Ferguson protesters on how to deal with the tear gas.

We’re here because for a long time society said it was ok to kill unarmed black people. Maybe this is the first step in issuing consequences for the senseless kill of people of color. However, the cynic in me doubts it. I think we’re revert right back to the way things were after this. I think the racists will be in full fear mode, and people of color will be even more disenfranchised. I know the Governor has decided to remove local police, but I’m not sure if that is going to be an improvement or if even better armed law enforcers will be deployed.

Publisher's First Amendment Rights Supersede Reporters

I stalk labor journalists on twitter, and I’m not ashamed. I’m harmless really, but following them usually incites rage so there is that…

According to Sam Hananel of the Associated Press a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday with the publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press in a labor dispute between the newspaper and reporters who were fired after they complained over editorial practices.

The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the publisher of the newspaper was protected by the First Amendment after it dismissed eight reporters and disciplined others who claimed the owner was interfering with coverage. However, the reporters claim they were wrongfully terminated for union activity and legitimate complaints about their terms of employment. This began in 2006 between Ampersand Publishing LLC and employees. Almost all the top editors at the paper quit because of the owner Wendy McCaw’s perceived meddling. Afterward, the newsroom employees voted in a union, and they have been fighting the paper ever since over bargaining rights.

Eight of the reporters were fired, six of them had hung a sign from a freeway pedestrian bridge in 2006 to protest encouraging people to cancel their subscriptions. Employees held a series of rallies and demonstrations.

Judge Stephen Williams, on behalf of a three judge panel, said: “The First Amendment affords a publisher—not a reporter—absolute authority to shape a newspaper’s content.

"The First Amendment affords a publisher—not a reporter—absolute authority to shape a newspaper's content," Judge Stephen Williams wrote for a three-judge panel.

Shenanigans!

The court’s ruling overturns a decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which found the workers had been wrongfully terminated. However, the decision is consistent with a 2010 ruling from the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, which felt that forcing Ampersand to rehire employees a violation of the publisher’s First Amendment rights.

This is kind of dangerous for reporters moving forward. Essentially, publishers can meddle in reporting and perhaps shift focus for or against a subject. Additionally, the fact the NLRB found in favor of the union also says volumes. Owners shouldn’t be able to meddle in the news; this is one of the many things wrong with media now. No one hold people, the government specifically, accountable because everyone has an agenda.