Cops in Ferguson Thumb Noses at Court Order, Arrest Credentialed Journalist

[99th_Monkey]

Last edited Sun Nov 23, 2014, 08:34 PM - Edit history (2)

I think it's high time for Federal Marshals to take over this mess, to guarantee Ferguson citizens' rights to freedom of speech and assembly, and to not be arrested. beat-up and/or killed for peacefully protesting police violence.

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St. Louis County Police Violate Court Order By Arresting Journalist Standing on Sidewalk
And nobody seems to be in charge as grand jury decision looms
Aaron Malin * reason.com * November 23, 2014

A credentialed member of the media was arrested in Ferguson around 11:40 pm Saturday night. The arrest appeared to violate a court order issued Friday prohibiting the police from arresting law-abiding journalists.

Lieutenant Jerry Lohr of the Saint Louis County Police Department later told myself and other members of the media that the journalist was arrested for "failure to disperse" from a street, despite the fact that I, as well as approximately one hundred other protesters and media clearly witnessed the arrest take place on the sidewalk.

Saint Louis County police then tweeted from their official account that Trey Yingst, a reporter from D.C., had been arrested for failure to disperse because he "was asked to leave street by the commander and refused." The tweet was met with a backlash of dozens of contradicting reports, photos, and videos from individuals on the scene who saw what I saw: a reporter being arrested for taking photos on a public sidewalk.

http://reason.com/archives/2014/11/23/journalist-arrested-ferguson-st-louis

[gordianot]

1. Ferguson MO and county law enforcement seems to revel in being lawless.

They operated on a level comparable to third world war lords only thing missing are actual death squads. According to some they may have their own version aka "the ghoul squad". I really think at some time Ferguson Police will have to be disarmed.

[heaven05]

15. when the lack of indictment

Last edited Mon Nov 24, 2014, 09:03 AM - Edit history (1)

comes down from the fair and balanced grand white jury, you will see their death squads and they will be police, national guard and governor sanctioned brownshirts called the kkk.

[gordianot]

17. What I find fascinating are reports the Grand Jury has NOT made a decision.

There are some fascinating rumors with circumstantial evidence circulating and it appears there is still testimony in front of the Grand Jury. The timing of Darren Wilson's resignation is most peculiar. As to the dull bulb Jay Nixon he knows very well that Democrats in Missouri cannot be elected without the African American vote.

[vlyons]

20. I'm surprised that Gov Jay Nixon hasn't thrown Darren Wilson under the bus.

Wouldn't that be the easiest out for DINO Nixon? It's not like he's loaded up with an abundance of integrity. Not only would an indictment of Wilson be the correct thing to do, it would also be the most expedient from a political viewpoint. Then Nixon could do a presser and say "the people have spokem," or some such BS.

[gordianot]

26. Nixon is about to hit term limits in 2016 he would like to be a Senator so would McCullough.

Odds of beating Roy Blunt are small so that is at best a long shot. My theory is the Grand Jury is a private war between two Democrats who hate each other. There are several possibilities:

1. The leaks are a trial balloon to see which way the wind is blowing to stir up African American voters then at the last minute shock everyone with an indictment. The burden would then be on McCullough for a conviction and it would even make Nixon look good. McCullough has everything to gain and might be able to repair his reputation with a voting block he has a terrible record and low expectations.

2. Nixon and McCullough could compete for who is the better law and order candidate in a massive state of emergency with no indictment as demonstrations turn into riots.

3. Grand Jury members are genuinely alarmed at impending chaos and want to pass this on to a jury.

Meanwhile an 18 year old was killed and for really no good reason. This is the mess of the century.

[ollie4]

31. such cynicism.....

have you no concept that perhaps....maybe....Nixon should not listen to people who seem to talk about the expedient thing?

I'm not sure whether the indictment would be the correct thing to do, but in any case it is batshit crazy to think the Governor of a state gets to make that call! Duh...the Grand Jury.....makes the call.

I hope the grand jury has more integrity than to worry about what would be politically expedient.....

I imagine they will do what they think is right.....sometimes the best out is not the "easiest out"

[DLnyc]

49. I have been on a grand jury

It is very hard for a grand jury to indict if the District Attorney does not really want an indictment. And it is very hard for a grand jury to not indict if the DA does want an indictment. In my experience, the grand jury was not presented with two sides, as you would get in a normal courtroom, but rather the DA presented his cases and then that's it, time to vote!

This is why cases involving police misconduct should not be handled by the local DA, since DA's typically work hand in glove, year in and year out, with the local police department and thus have a serious conflict of interest in any such case.

[PatrickforO]

52. Several of them are probably Klan. And the rest

likely fear retaliation by those who are.

So, sadly, what we will likely see is a refusal to indict the officer; clearly an injustice, and riots to protest the ruling afterward.

Then, Ferguson police will overreact and go in spewing gas and rubber bullets on innocent people. People will get hurt, perhaps even be killed. This tragedy will be met by more rioting, which will be put down even more brutally.

Finally, because of worldwide attention due to twitter, a new civil rights movement will be born.

Remember what Frederick Douglas said:

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.

I'm thinking there is a LOT of pent up 'demand' in the United States. The oligarchs and their pet media and politicians are building a house of cards.

[gordianot]

55. Let us hope a new Civil Rights movement.

A Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Nelson Mandella only come around so often they develop and are not born ito the role. A monstrosity is stirring in St. Louis law enforcement.

[heaven05]

56. I opt for

Mandela style gaining of civil/voting rights, in this country, once again.

[workinclasszero]

66. " Ferguson MO and county law enforcement seems to revel in being lawless."

Probably because no one is stopping them.

The democratic governor of Missouri? Nope

The federal government? Nope

The out of control cops just kicked the judicial system in the nads, lets see if anything comes from that.

I'm guessing..NOPE

[rhett o rick]

2. Can't the DoJ do anything? nm

[jtuck004]

10. Only if they can figure out how to profit from it politically, or

not be hurt as much as the people who are there.

Heck, if those folks in Ferguson had donated what the banksters have donated to buy their politicians, there would be a DOJ agent on every doorstep, bringing them cookies.

[woo me with science]

50. They are busy intimidating other journalists and whistleblowers.

Mission Creep: When Everything is Terrorism
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023279560

US Uses Espionage Act To Convict Manning Using Words Added In 1990: "with a computer"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023375845

Fed Court: Just changed interpretation of Espionage Act to cover leaks that are NOT Harmful To USA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023365713

NY Times: White House Uses Espionage Act to Silence Employees, Press
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101616764

Obama Has Charged More Under Espionage Act Than All Other Presidents Combined
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023080388

Corporate politicians seek to decide who is a journalist and who isn't (AKA, How to pretend to establish "protections" for whistleblowers, when you actually seek to exclude from protection those you don't want to protect)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023708417
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4976955
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4976082
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4976955

Petition Calls On Obama to Stop Intimidation Of Journalists And Whistleblowers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025509395

Why Is President Obama Keeping a Journalist in Prison in Yemen?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023300531

James Clapper Calls Journalists "Criminal Accomplices" -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017174990

Reporters without Borders: 'Security interests threaten press freedom'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11333723

US Plummets In Press Freedom Rankings
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024487392

Obama's escalating war on Freedom of the Press
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023314296

Risen Case: War on Journalism coming to a head
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101699216

Government Surveillance Is Crippling Press Freedoms, Report Shows
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023902153

The Obama administration/DOJ war on whistleblowers, federal unions
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5586389

President's 'rat out your co-worker' plan unlikely to work, experts say
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023214675

Daniel Ellsburg: Snowden would not get a fair trial today, was right to flee US
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11784497
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023198130

Bradley Manning: top US legal scholars voice outrage at torture
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x871563

Bradley Birkenfeld, UBS Whistleblower, Finds Himself in Federal Prison
http://www.cnbc.com//id/41257962

Stopping police militarization: Once again, the solution requires confronting corporate politicians.
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10025416709

Federal grants drive the militarization of police departments in America.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025383806

[MADem]

53. That picture was taken in Portland Oregon, right?

At this bank?

[George II]

64. Same light poles, same sign on the right pole!

[heaven05]

57. perfect photo

depicting what this country prizes the most, not the people, not the dwindling resources, only the icons of the uber rich.

[Demeter]

68. You mean....Eric Holder?

[rhett o rick]

70. Glad you got a laugh. I don't mind being the straight man.

[smiley]

3. Why should the police care?

Even if they are found to have violated the court order. It's the citizens who end up paying the fine with their tax dollars.

[99th_Monkey]

7. If the citizens are lucky

they only pay with their tax dollars.

If not so lucky, they pay with their lives.

[Louisiana1976]

4. I agree--federal marshalls should take over. Obviously the police aren't going to obey the law.

[ollie4]

33. obviously?

[socialist_n_TN]

40. Well considering the above article.......

I would say, yes, obviously.

[Gman]

5. Ferguson wants war

I think they're going to get it. It won't be pretty. Perhaps it can be the shot heard around the country and people will finally stand up to this right wing facist country.

[KingCharlemagne]

6. President Obama should, at a minimum, federalize the MO National Guard immediately

and use it to disarm the local constabulary and send in the Federal Marshalls to take their place.

Time to take local law enforcement out of the hands of the local yokels and Mayberry Machiavellis.

What does Obama have to lose now? The racists and Republicans (who largely overlap) won't be able to do anything worse to him than they have done with their yapping about the Executive Order he announced.

[Gman]

28. Excellent recommendation

[Rex]

9. Seems like the state is willing to go along with it.

Remember the last time a governor called a state of emergency, before there was one? All the resupplying of military weapons, continued arrests of reporters in Ferguson. The general harassment of the population. War indeed and the cops are going to start it.

This has the makings for something horrible.

[ollie4]

34. stand up to fascism by rioting against due process of law and the courts?

Seems to me that the more fascist way would be to ignore the courts

[heaven05]

59. if "due process of law"

and the courts is corrupted and biased as it has been against black unarmed murder victims of white police authority and their idea of due process(aka darren wilson) for generations, what is the recourse?

[Rex]

8. And still people will defend this PD to the end. Enough is enough.

Come to terms with your wrongness, some PDs are corrupt and there needs to be a process in place to handle that type of situation. Otherwise what good are laws if the cops have no respect for their jobs? Who can you go to if the entire PD is corrupt including the local courts?

My question is how long has Ferguson been living under draconian enforcement? How many more Fergusons are there in America?

[99th_Monkey]

11. I totally agree.

It would seem to be the purview of the DoJ, wouldn't it? But there does need to be something in place to send a message to all local police forces, "Clean up your act, or else DoJ will disarm you and dismantle your entire department" with Federal Marshals and/or nationalized national guard.

I know there is something along these lines already, but it is pretty much limited in scope and power to merely "investigating" and then producing a report or "scorecard" of sorts, pin-pointing exactly what changes need to be made to come into compliance with acceptable police behavior.

I know this because Portland (where i live) Police Bureau has come under fire recently for shooting citizens under highly dubious circumstances.

It wouldn't be a huge step to simply add more teeth to this process, up to and including completely disarming and dismantling police departments that are beyond all redemption, which seems to be the case in Ferguson. At least in Portland, when the Feds show up, the cops tone down their antics and at lease put on a show of "reforming" themselves.

[Vattel]

30. The federal government could use the threat of withdrawing funding

to establish new standards for police conduct.

[99th_Monkey]

32. Ferguson is rotten to the KKKore. Haven't you heard?

Fersuson goes way beyond needing "new standards".. but yes they can do the
standards thing, but it's like taking a pea-shooter to a gun fight, rather literally.

[Vattel]

35. I see your point.

[negoldie]

67. I'm not

so sure. Haven't the puke's defunded everything including ......oh never mind, the puke's wouldn't cut funding for their (not our) police departments. They consider the police as their private protectors from those blah people. Racist fuckers.

[ReRe]

12. There's gazillions of them...

... in the mid-west.

[Ash_F]

63. Always is the answer. They just haven't changed since the 60's /nt

[onecaliberal]

13. What the hell is justice doing about this?

We ALL have a constitutional right to peaceful assembly -Is the constitution just a god damned piece of paper? Is democracy only for white people? What is the skin color of the journalist who was arrested?

[99th_Monkey]

41. I totally hear you

Which is why I'm calling for Federal Marshals ... I'm old enough to remember how Kennedy had to send FMs to insure blacks basic civil rights in the deep South, which is exactly what is at stake now in Ferguson, roughly 50 years later.

[onecaliberal]

43. It is all so unbelievable.

[heaven05]

14. get ready

[ReRe]

16. K&R

100% agree with your solution to this GD mess. This particular event (arresting the media in contradiction of the court order) tells the world that they abide by no law but their own.

[hollysmom]

18. how was voting in this area?

there are enough people to take over local government. I know there was a voter registration drive.

[99th_Monkey]

21. "Last-Minute" Problems At The Polls In Ferguson

"Several issues have come up at Ferguson polling locations during the evening rush tonight. One voter alleges that only 1 in 4 voting machines is up and running, a claim Election Protection is currently verifying. Nearby locations ran out of paper ballots, causing long lines. Officials requested additional ballots at 1:45pm, according to Denise Lieberman, the lead attorney at Election Protection’s command center. Fifty additional ballots were sent at 5:00pm"
http://thinkprogress.org/lbupdate/3589050/last-minute-problems-at-the-polls-in-ferguson/

Just Voted in St Louis County, Ferguson 005. They ran out of paper ballots at 4:20 this afternoon and had hours long lines for 3 electronic voting machines. The poll workers said paper ballots were running out at other polling precincts.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10923

[Blue_Tires]

19. Has anyone ever heard of this "Trey Yingst?"

Because his news site is pretty thin...

The only reason I ask is because while his arrest is unlawful in any circumstance, there had been a couple unknown small-time blogger minnows in the summer damn near provoking the cops to arrest them so they could "make a name" for themselves...

I'm not saying that's what happened here, but it is weird for him to get arrested while none of the other journos there were...

[James48]

23. "independant-journalist "

= can't find a real job so tries to igure out how to make a buck on his own.

here ishis website- not much there.

http://treyyingst.com/

[Live and Learn]

25. How very elitist of you. nt

[99th_Monkey]

27. "credentialed member of the media" I believe is what the article says. nt

[mimi85]

29. It's beside the point...

as always, it's the principle of the thing. Whether he's Richard Engel or a small town column dude is irrelevant.

[99th_Monkey]

39. +100 Exactly

So what if it wasn't Brian Williams, or Rachel Maddow, who was arrested.

What is apparently being suggested is that if the journalist doesn't have a million
dollar contract with a M$M network, then they aren't "real journalists".

Never mind that the M$M IS a BIG part of the problem.

[Ilsa]

58. I like the fact that there are independent journalists

covering this or any news. They aren't owned by FUX or GE presenting only what the 1% wants us to know.

Good for him that he has the initiative to strike out on his own and build his own business.

[Blue_Tires]

72. The only problem with that is a few of the small-time independents

have being going out to Ferguson and making the story all about THEM and their little rinky-dink websites...Although, if anyone can point me in the direction of a true independent who has been doing real, honest to god work out there, I'd love to read them...

And I know this rankles people, but I still have to say that as someone who once worked in the industry, having an iPad and a blog doesn't automatically make anyone a "journalist" anymore than having a toolbelt makes them a plumber...

[Live and Learn]

24. Here you go:

https://twitter.com/TreyYingst

http://news2share.com/start/

And by the way, the arrest would have been illegal even if he wasn't a member of the media.

[Quasimodem]

37. Yingst was charged with "Unlawful Assembly"

... a legal term which describes three or more people meeting with the mutual intent of deliberately disturbing the peace.

Trey Yingst appears to be a photojournalist who was photographing people who were (possibly) breaking that law. By that logic we should conclude, should Yingst's next assignment take him to photograph a NASCAR race, that will make him a NASCAR driver.

[Live and Learn]

42. I fail to the logic in your post or your point. nt

[Quasimodem]

71. That's perfectly alright.

I fail to the logic in your grammar.

[Blue_Tires]

47. Yes, I've already seen his twitter feed and news site

my question was had anyone heard of him?

and I wasn't disputing the illegality of the arrest, I'm asking why he was singled out of an entire group of witness and other journalists

[blackspade]

22. And so it begins....

The cops are a law unto themselves. Court orders be damned.

[TNNurse]

36. How does one person "disperse"??????

[99th_Monkey]

38. Interesting choice of words, since disperse is the opposite of assemble.

Which ironically points directly to the US Constitution's guaranteed "right to freedom of speech & assembly",
a right that was being aggressively violated and denied, against a direct court order.

[TNNurse]

45. Since only one person was arrested,

One person cannot assemble, so therefore cannot disperse.

[Demeter]

69. It's a rather messy process

and usually takes outside force

[JEB]

44. The cops are the law breakers.

I hope the lawsuit is being written right now.

[woo me with science]

46. K&R

[blkmusclmachine]

48. The Police State cometh...

[PatrickforO]

51. In the past, police have been able to conveniently get around these

pesky brutality and false arrest allegation by simply...

Lying through their teeth.

Now, though, we have digital media and instantaneous worldwide communication via the net. It's kind of funny watching them try these old techniques - ones that worked well for them for SO long. Because they ain't working now!

[99th_Monkey]

54. Exactly, the mask has been ripped off

which is why they get so pissed at journalists and citizens with cameras.

[Enthusiast]

60. Kicked and recommended! Criminal cops. They will not obey the law.

[Ash_F]

61. Let's see DUers continue to defend these lying crooks.

That entire town needs a leadership shake-up.

[WinkyDink]

62. Oughtn't violators of court orders be ARRESTED??

[woo me with science]

65. kick