Arkansas State Police arrest reporter covering a fire

[Newsjock]

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/12/11/news/121207lrreporterarrest1st.txt

Editor's Note: This is a first-person account of Bill Lawson's arrest by a state trooper while attempting to take pictures at a house fire in Maumelle on Monday evening.

MAUMELLE -- Having lived 59 years, battled cancer, worn the country's uniform for 26 years and proudly worked as a journalist -- a profession I always admired -- I thought I'd seen it all. That is until Monday night, when I was arrested and charged with a criminal offense just for trying to do my job and take photos of a residential fire in Maumelle.

Being arrested, searched, having my camera, reporter's notebook and billfold confiscated, humiliated in front of friends and people I write about every week was a difficult way to be arrested for the first time in my life. The only other time I wore a pair of handcuffs was 10 years ago during a training class at the Law Enforcement Training Academy in Camden.

... Although I was arrested and handcuffed, not once was I read my rights. In fact, the State Police trooper told me I was being charged with obstructing governmental operations and one other offense. I can't remember what the second one was. It was such an incredulous feeling to be stopped from doing my job, much less to be arrested, that it was difficult to consider what was really happening.

... I didn't think the trooper in Maumelle had seen the press credential on my windshield and I approached him as she suggested to let him know who I was and why I was there. That's when he said he was going to arrest me for approaching him. He told me that he saw the press sign on my windshield and the ID around my neck but that it didn't mean anything to him.

... After being handcuffed and forced to stand still for more than 30 minutes beside his Arkansas State Police vehicle with unit number A-54 on it, I couldn't move a muscle. When I squirmed, the trooper was yelling at me to stop resisting. Standing with my arms behind me was difficult and painful to the point of being unbearable. I know what resisting is and I did nothing that could be considered that. The too-tight handcuffs hurt my wrists and I have scratches from them on my right arm where the trooper hit it while slapping the handcuffs on me. All of that and the pain of standing still for so long was unbearable, but I knew better than to complain or suffer the trooper's wrath.

[Drum]

1. Thugs with badges...

they're everywhere, and pretty damned scary. :scared:

[Lucinda]

2. I know we are only seeing one side of this but

I think he should have filed a complaint. If the cop is that bad, he's in the wrong line of work.

[Squatch]

5. He has "so much respect for the law" that he doesn't care if it's composed

of bad officers.

[atreides1]

7. Maybe he's being a realist

He would file the complaint, and wait. There would be an "investigation" with a lot of wink, wink, nudge, nudge, after which the officer would either be exonerated or given a slap on the wrist for his actions.

While this is going on the gentleman would probably be harrassed by other officers, who would make sure that they were abiding by the law so as not to get into trouble themselves

And after the investigation was over, well who knows what else could happen?

[Lucinda]

10. It's just my opinion, but it feels more like he's afraid of what the guy

would do if he filed a complaint. He's gone public enough to get a little safety insurance, and then backing down enough to hope the cop will leave him alone. I wouldn't do it, but I can understand how it might be playing out.

[izquierdista]

8. Many American cops are in the wrong line of work

The worst experiences I have ever had with law enforcement types have all been in the USA. I would much rather deal with Mexican Federales or the Russian Militsia. Once an American cop gets a bee in his bonnet that he is going to arrest you, there is no reasoning with them, no set of facts that will change their mind, no override to their on-the-spot authority. The mistake here was in even approaching a cop, as they react like a territorial male during the rutting season.

There needs to be a return of civilian control to the increasingly militarized police in the United States. Individual cops must be made to answer, not to their superiors on the police force, but to a citizen review board, a board that can exercise remedies for bad behavior, including termination and referral for criminal prosecution.

Psychological testing to weed out the Blackwater types in the first place might not be a bad idea either.

[Lucinda]

13. Yep...My fella and I talk about this a lot. He thinks there are tooo many

people in the job just for the power trip. I prefer to think that guys like the one in the article are not the norm.

I understand the stress that occurs when you're in a job and have to worry about your safety, but if this guy usually responds this way, he needs to go. Soon.

More screening seems like a good idea to me.

[LakeSamish706]

3. Welcome to Police State America... n/t

[sam sarrha]

6. they should be required to wear their arm bands on the outside of their shirts

[formercia]

9. Many learned their trade in Iraq

now they let them loose on us.

[marylanddem]

4. This is a compelling story but

the guy loses me when he tries to sound high-minded about not filing a complaint against the cop.
As one of the readers of the newspaper story emailed, it's his responsibility to file a complaint
because this kind of treatment, or worse, could happen to others.

[NashVegas]

11. Journalists and Cops

Often have to work together.

Reading his account, though, it reminds me of the way a woman might describe being date-raped. The guy seems like he's still in shock.

The cop's a piece of work. When he found out his target was known and respected by his peers, and he'd (the cop) been witnessed fucking up, he put down a cover story:

As I was handcuffed, he tried to tell me that I'd stuck the camera "up in my face, inches from my nose, snapping it over and over attempting to blind me." I tried to explain that the camera had been set on motor drive in order to capture the firefighters in action and that I had actually only snapped it once. He wanted to argue and said that I held it down for 10 seconds or longer, telling me that he knew all about cameras.

Maybe the episode will teach the cop to be less of a prick in the future. Writing about the incident certainly ought to. If the trooper - whose car # is named in the piece - wants to challenge the account, he'll bring further disgrace to himself when his name is published.

[AspenRose]

12. I'm surprised the journalist wasn't tased.

eom