Ryan J. Reilly on his arrest tonight

[cal04]

Tonight, along with a reporter from The Washington Post, I was arrested while reporting on the protests in Ferguson.

Our apparent crime? Not packing up our gear quickly enough after a heavily armed SWAT team shut down the McDonald's where we were working. A Saint Louis County police officer in full riot gear, who refused to identify himself despite my repeated requests, purposefully banged my head against the window on the way out and sarcastically apologized.

I'm fine. But if this is the way these officers treat a white reporter working on a laptop who moved a little too slowly for their liking, I can't imagine how horribly they treat others.

And if anyone thinks that the militarization of our police force isn't a huge issue in this country, I've got a story to tell you.

(Also thanks to everyone for the well-wishes, sorry I haven't had time to reply individually.)

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=973486019263&id=21202821&set=a.503493942153.2017867.21202821&source=57

[randys1]

1. All police forces in America need to be disarmed tonight, instantly

and taken over by community patrols...period

[hollysmom]

2. I think that is an over reaction -

all the police in Fergusen need to be relieved from duty immediately.

[randys1]

4. OK, yes that first, then over time, short time we must change all police forces

they are all military now

[hollysmom]

5. MY town seems OK (it is small and mixed), but we need to work on attitudes and group think

I have not seen an heavy arms here, it is pretty small, there are like 24 police men and mostly they drive around looking for parking problems. They will arrest an out of towner for mouthing off, I watched from my front porch when they stopped a guy for having an unregistered truck and then found he had no license so they told him he had to get someone else to drive his truck home and to leave it there, and the guy got pretty rude and mouthy about driving his own car - he didn't have a license!!, so they arrested him quietly when he finally stopped yelling, he was white. If he had just agreed to let someone else drive his truck and would leave the neighborhood, he could have just had a ticket. I think the police were afraid to leave him on the street with his dark mood. I certainly was. If you roll through a stop sign and you live in town they will warn you but if you are from out of town, they will give you a ticket. But when a crazy guy from across the country flew in a few towns away and rented a car and started shooting people out of his car window and came into our town, the police did have a shoot out with him after he crashed his car and ran into a park and hid under a bridge shooting. he was white. That was an aberration and I can't imagine what they were thinking since most of our crimes are burglary or car accidents or loose dog or something very simple. Heck they have returned my runaway dog, When I was sick and did not go out for a few days my neighbor called the police and they came to check on me. So not them, they are very very nice.

However - I think the group think where there is a lot of crime or imagined crime. That can grow and get group think and evil.

[rhett o rick]

3. I think we've gone beyond the tipping point. Once we've allowed our police forces to abuse

citizens, it won't be easy to get them under control.

[randys1]

6. What I dont like is the bundy idiots that pointed at Feds,they think they are on our side