zlacker

Edit: I'm wrong, the video I had seen was slightly abridged.

The video camera turns on while they were (likely) already told they will be arrested. They were perhaps ordered to move and did not move. The National Guard and state troopers in that particular area (< 15 miles from me) started ordering people to disperse or face arrest. I don't believe that press are exempt from this order especially when a state of emergency is declared.

Downvoters: please add comment why, or else this isn't discourse

>>kfrzco+(OP)
Actually they had been filming continuously, and they had been previously told by police to stand where they were standing, and they had received no new instructions from the police since then, and there was an all-white group of reporters standing in a similar position on the other side of the police who did not get arrested. I understand the desire to come up with an explanation for what happened, I really do, but the fact of the matter is that police arrested these reporters for no reason.

>>kfrzco+(OP)
There were never ordered to move, it's all captured on film in that video. When the reporter asked "why am I being arrested?" the cop refused to even answer.

>>kfrzco+(OP)
Yeah, not to pile on... but you're being downvoted because what you say is simply false.

>>elil17+o3
While it may be tempting to jump to a racial interpretation of the arrest, it appears that the CNN reporters were just standing in the wrong place and in the chaos of the moment were arrested.

>>corrup+fg
> and in the chaos of the moment were arrested

What chaos? The scene shown in the video looks really calm, with one protester, several reporters, and a very large number of police standing around apparently doing nothing more than looking intimidating at that moment.

>>corrup+fg
I hope that anyone seeing this situation and thinking, “I’m not sure how race plays into this,” will go back and learn some more about the history of race in America. I think a good starting place is the podcast “1619” which does a really good job investigating where racial problems in America came from.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/podcasts/1619-podcast.htm...

Perhaps it’s naïve of me to think people will want to learn about what it really means to be Black in America. But I think if you really listen to what history is saying and really listen to what Black people are experiencing right now it will change how you think about events like this.

>>wtalli+Th
Perhaps chaos isn't the best word. Hightened tension is more appropriate.

>>JSavag+H4
Everyone was ordered to move out of the area. They were asking for specific instructions on where to move to and didn't get them because there was no answer to that--the police didn't want them out of the way, they wanted the whole crowd gone.

>>LorenP+zl
The other CNN crew was told that they were fine where they were. The press were absolutely allowed to be there.

>>corrup+fg
You have just scolded the above commenter for jumping to a racial interpretation, and then jumped to an opposite conclusion yourself, on the basis of no evidence.

>>corrup+nj
Heightened tension is not an excuse to arrest someone. Police (in theory) exist to lower tension, not add to it.