News organizations from around the world have gathered in Minneapolis to cover the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. What I keep thinking is that… I’m sure there would have always been protests and vigils and people agitating for change. But so much of what’s happening right now with the fires and rioting could have been avoided if the killer cops were immediately arrested. They have not been arrested. So the city burns. And the media covers that. CNN has several units on the ground in Minneapolis and late last night, the police… arrested the CNN people, reporter Omar Jimenez and his team. The cops absolutely knew that they were arresting journalists. Of course there’s video. Video from the CNN cameraman:
Here's the full video of @CNN's crew being detained and arrested by the Minnesota State Patrol, live on @NewDay.pic.twitter.com/rmq1nutOiR
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 29, 2020
The CNN people were doing their jobs and they clearly identified themselves to cops – and even if they hadn’t, all they were doing was peacefully filming and reporting, so what’s the f–king charge?
A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves – a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. The authorities in Minnesota, incl. the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) May 29, 2020
Maybe the charge is “reporting while black”?
How incredibly stupid do you have to be to arrest a black reporter on live television while he is reporting on racially charged violence…in a city in flames because the white cop who killed an unarmed black man hasn’t been arrested. It boggles the mind.
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) May 29, 2020
Soon after, CNN reported that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz contacted CNN president Jeff Zucker. The governor “apologized” to Zucker and said that “He is working to get them released. Walz said he takes full responsibility for what happened.” And then Omar and his team were released. What was the f–king point besides white supremacy and First Amendment violations.
Always a pro. @OmarJimenez and his team have been released from police custody. pic.twitter.com/08eqkj23Ou
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) May 29, 2020
They arrested a CNN reporter before the killers of #GeorgeFloyd
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) May 29, 2020
.@Bakari_Sellers: “Law enforcement in Minneapolis had the audacity…to arrest a reporter of color while doing his job and following command, but the…officer who put his knee in the back of the neck of a man and choked him for 8 minutes is still free to walk around." pic.twitter.com/KUm4lEbnUy
— New Day (@NewDay) May 29, 2020
Photos courtesy of Getty.
How much more of trump/republican America can we take?
I don’t know. I really don’t. I feel sick to my stomach.
Trump can whine all he likes about Twitter, but this is actual censorship.
HE IS OUT THIS NOVEMBER!!I’m so sick of this country being so crazy under his demented and reactive madness! I’m not religious, but God help America ever since the day this cancer entered the White House
I hope you are right!! But whatching from far away (Europe), I can’t see Joe Biden winning against this DT-moron 🙁
He can win if we all vote. He CAN win. As can all the Dems running to take back the senate. If we all vote, they CAN win. (Let’s all say it together!)
Trump out will help, but the white supremacists won’t diminish, they’ll feel justified to mobilize and even more angrier. Trump in power strengthened their numbers and they aren’t going away.
Thing is, Hillary WON the popular vote by over 3 MILLION VOTES. It’s the crooked, corrupted electoral college process that GAVE it to #Twitler. The EC MUST be dismantled.
One of the reasons for it was that if the great unwashed populace voted IN an authoritative fascist, then the EC would “protect” the country and not give the office. However, as we’ve seen, the EC can be bought and paid for, as well as just the existence of it negates the idea of a TRUE democracy: One Person, One Vote.
There was a white CNN reporter a few hundred feet down the street also reporting and he was allowed to do his job without being arrested.
Why does this not surprise me.
A friend lives right on the edge of the neighborhood in MN & a police officer grabbed her & her boyfriend this morning while they were walking to work. (He is CA Asian) & started asking him about his immigration status. She said she very calmly stated, repeatedly, they were both born in CA & are recent PH.D grads from Uminnesota & the cop actually said to her “shut up you race mixing whore”. After about 30 mins of them detaining them until they could verify Jeremy(yes a purely CA dude name) they let them go. she just left the courthouse after filing a suit accusing the police officers of being white supremacists. She is asking for 5 million or the termination of the 2 cops. It will be interesting how long (if any at all) the legs of the suit will be. She filmed it & caught the racist comment.
I know it’s somewhat irrational but I blame Trump for all of this. His racist bigotry has fueled this behavior.
This is all on Trump and the white supremacists who support him. I’m pretty close to throwing up.
I don’t think it is somewhat irrational at all. Trump is the “Leader” …
@Snappyfish…WTF??? Your friends need to contact the media with their story! That is so terrifying!
This is what happens when you cross a hate mongering racist fool who happens to be President, with the militarization of the police force. Watching this guy get arrested- you could almost feel the hate emanating from these cops. You want change- get out and vote these craven Republicans out of office with their Fuhrer.
Oh wow!! Your friend should put the video online!!!
It’s not irrational to blame Trump. He didn’t create racism, and he certainly didn’t invite police violence, but he made it socially acceptable and all but promises lack of consequences for racist actions. Never forget he basically put a hit on El Paso.
Omg, that’s awful
@Ang…I don’t think it was a coincidence at all that they chose to arrest the reporter of color. Omar says that the arresting officer told him he was “just following orders” . Orders from who?? The police chief? The President? It’s very bizarre.
Worst Year Ever (podcast) has a great breakdown of the people using these rallies as an excuse to get violent. The episode is called ‘What You Need to Know About Minneapolis.’ One of the hosts is a war veteran & he has a nuanced approach to the danger of gun violence.
“Just following orders.” Hmmmmm. Where have we heard that before????
They need to arrest the murderers TODAY. This is all so wrong.
I feel like they are purposefully NOT arresting them so they can get white America to turn against prosecution. Because of these protests. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if cops dressed as protesters have been instigating violence. They know what they’re doing. It’s all purposeful.
Alleged under cover cops where seen initially smashing up Target.
I absolutely believe that. It has happened before.
There is a video of white people dressed all in black and wearing gas masks smashing the windows of the auto parts store and stacking pallets against carts to start the fire at Target.
They have white undercover cops on film and identified torching the AutoZone and the police station.
One of them’s fiance identified him.
I grew up in Kent, Ohio and it has long been rumored that the police, not the protesters, burned down the ROTC building which led to the National Guard shooting (and killing 4) innocent college kids on May 4th, 1970 at Kent State. Cops pull this shit all the time to sway public opinion to the side of the corrupt police.
Exactly what I said. The police continuing to put killer cops on paid leave and doing absolutely nothing about the insane murders of unarmed and lots of times already subdued POC is what’s causing all them out of control riots. There’s no reason why the officers were not arrested and charged right away, just firing them is not gonna cut it. If it had been a lay person that murdered someone on camera or off, that person would be arrested right away questions asked later. Why are these murderous police officers being treated differently?
On what planet do these idiots live?
The planet where they can be so assured of the racist system they live in that they can do things like this and know there won’t be any consequences. The planet where the president is encouraging and supporting them.
Planet Dump.
Planet ‘Trump’! 18 previous complaints against the killer cop and he was still on active duty! Still hasn’t been arrested! Yet, a law-abiding, black, polite reporter who kept identifying himself as a reporter and telling the cops to just move him to wherever they wanted him to report from if they had issues with the spot he was in, was arrested! The cops even confiscated the camera but it looks like they didn’t know it was still rolling and the arrest was being broadcast on air, as they arrested the cameraman too! What will it take to arrest a killer cop? What?
On this one. America. It’s always been like this.
Please….vote blue regardless who is the VP choice or Biden’s flaws. Change will be slow but possible. If that man remains in charge..the only change is for the worse…as a minority this hurts. They will blame the violence on black people. I’m not even black nor American and this hurts.
It really really hurts…#VoteBlue
Burn it all down!
Honestly what is wrong with these cops, WHAT goes on in their training, they seem souless,what are they being brainwashed with on the inside. Someone mentioned on twitter that police departments get certain ‘targets’ that they must fulfil as if police men are a sales team. So they deliberately target POC ,trump up their charges,escalate a tense climate during arrests. This is dispicable ,they truly seem under a spell. SMH
They don’t get much training, that is part of the problem. They have military grade weapons but not enough training. If they received a longer training then supervisors and testing might acutally have a chance of sorting out the wrong candidates.
It would be a good idea if those protesters demanded a better educated / sorted out police.
Training is not enough. The police system (which is basically a gang with legal access to guns, money and drugs) was built to maintain white supremacy. We need a new police system!!
Not enough training, not enough psychological evaluation PRIOR to being accepted into the academy, not enough mandatory psychological evaluation during their careers. Just not enough oversight in general.
It is a career that appeals to a type of personality that should never be given that kind of power, authority, and weapons, and there definitely needs to be a better system in place to weed those people out.
I agree with psych evals prior to hiring, and ongoing throughout a career. We’re
fortunate in having a few good one’s, retired, who keep it real, another who leads our Neighborhood Watch group on safety.
The issue really lies with the judicial system, which gives qualified immunity (QI) to law enforcement officers, as long as they can show they had probable cause. In many ways, this is necessary for police to do their REAL jobs, but QI has turned into such a joke that almost anything can qualify and the courts have applied the rule very broadly, including the use of lethal force. Arrested for drunk driving even though you never had a drop of liquor? “I thought I smelled liquor on his breath.”
Another example – officer pulls over a black man in broad daylight – they tell him he was driving 15 miles above the speed limit. Ask to see license and registration. The black man reaches towards his glovebox because that’s where the documents are; police immediately assume the guy is going for a gun before the glovebox was ever opened. They drag him out and arrest him using excessive force, charge him for resisting arrest. Turns out there was nothing in the glovebox, the man struggled because he was dragged out of the car and slammed to the ground. But are the officers held accountable? No, because of QI. They THOUGHT there MIGHT have been a gun in the glovebox, so they have probable cause. Officers will also often retroactively make up a bullshit story which would protect them under QI.
The officers are basically never held accountable for their actions before a court of law because of QI. Combine QI with “power to enforce the law,” racism, and violence, and this is what you get.
No lies told, Lara.
@Christina
I don’t understand what your comment is meant to convey.
Also, for clarification, I have changed my handle to LaraW” to avoid confusion, as there is another Lara who posts on CB.
I read an article on Slate about this yesterday and it does seem like a lot of this comes back to the Supreme Court and how they’ve made QI apply to every situation on earth. It makes me sick to my stomach. Especially given that the decision(s) were handed down BEFORE Trump was elected, so now what’s going to happen? Every time I don’t think it’s possible for things to get worse, there’s another video and another dead POC and no accountability and somehow the circumstances are even more horrible than the last.
Lara, Christina is using a common phrase to express that she totally agrees with you. As do I.
Thanks Juls for clarifying!
it continues. burn it all down.
It’s also on tape that the reporter and crew said they would move and asked for direction on where they should go from the officers.
The whole exchange is embarrassing. And they left the white reporter. The whole police force needs to be replaced. How the hell do these people get hired in the first place?! Is there no vetting system?!
What the hell is going on America
Same white supremacy that’s been going on for centuries, pandemic edition.
I hope you’ll be all safe and November will bring some sort of relief for you. I’m vary between sadness and anger. I don’t know how I can be an ally in this, as a French white woman, if there’s anything let me know.
The rise of fascism in the Western world, opposite side of the Atlantic edition.
Same sh*t. Different decade.
A friend of mine’s brother started police academy in October and passed his test a week ago. In two weeks he will be a police officer. THAT is a HUGE part of the issue. This is a man who frequently says the n word and has the temperament and patience of a child. He went from taking online algebra courses to carrying a badge in less than a year. And the communities he will be servicing have a large racial divide already. What kind of adequate training can you give someone to police a community in that amount of time?? The worst thing is this is a police issue, this is their fault and thus their problem to solve and yet they are doing nothing. Instead they keep doubling down and protecting muderers. The system needs a huge overhaul.
Thanks for sharing the story.
It’s clear that the police system is itself the problem, starting with recruitment. The powers that be don’t see a militarized police force as a problem, they see it as the solution against the persistently fabricated “threat” of a black uprising, an internal insurrection. The police support the power structure and the power structure is racist.
Another morning for me to be begin my day with anger. My mother labored for so many years for civil rights and women’s rights and we live with this? These police officers need to be off the streets, stripped of uniforms and badges.
Just read on twitter that he’s been released. Every day I wake up I read something so frustrating I want to scream. This is utterly sad. I hope to hear his statement soon.
I hope the descent into chaos and destruction was a worthwhile price for protecting those scum bags. My news channel played the whole video unedited. Literally, one of the most cold-blooded, sociopathic things I’ve ever witnessed on live television. My mother was crying by the end, just watching the rising horror of the onlookers as they beg for them to stop, while those pigs stood around smugly and calmly and literally murdered a man in broad daylight. And that’s exactly what it was because nobody was under any delusion that man was a threat to them.
It should be said that it’s not just about Floyd, though he suffered the worst cost – that was an act of emotional terrorism and violence against that entire community, against the black community, against all of those people watching. People who knew they would be potentially shot and killed if they intervened themselves. I feel no sympathy for any officer or official in that city who allowed somebody with eighteen complaints of police brutality fulfill his sadistic appetites on their population. When the law can’t be trusted, people take it into their own hands.
And some of y’all wonder why they’re burning everything down. The people in power don’t respond to peace and won’t arrest the actual murderer, so the city will continue to burn.
Don’t burn down your own neighborhood, it took YEARS for South Central to coax business back- Black owned businesses!
This happens all the time. Seriously. We only hear about it when it’s a major news source like CNN but this happens, in the US, to smaller publisher journalists on a regular basis.
It’s disgusting, and I’m glad this called attention to it.
I hope the Minneapolis PD is sued into oblivion.
Yes. And fire these cops too.
No, what I really hope is that they are investigated by the FBI, arrested, let out on bail, taken down by bounty hunters, tried, found guilty with a life sentence and no parole, then sent to jail with all the other they wrongfully arrested.
The FBI is investigating Breonna Taylor’s murder now, the emergency medical worker who was shot and killed in her Louisville home by police in March. Let’s hope the same happens in Minneapolis. This is going to catch fire all over the country, it’ll be Watts, Detroit, Chicago and LA all over again.
Officers dressed in riot gear surrounding a news crew. Sounds like some straight up KGB/Putin shit if ever I heard any. It not just black people that need to be wary of these “authorities “ all citizens need to take note of this.
Yah, this is the thing. Human beings like us, who are blogging about how ‘unjust” this is (and it is). We could in some strange world be arrested and jailed. Right? If you disagree with the powers that be? Even if those powers are wholly unethical and immoral.
All citizens need to take note … this is the smartest thing written on this blog today. It is not a democracy when armed yahoos are allowed to storm City buildings but reporters, calm reporters are arrested?????????? What universe is this????? Calm, subdued humans, not dangerous to anyone are murdered in broad daylight?
This is disgusting.
This was a signal to Donald Trump and his ilk – no more, no less. Seeing that black CNN reporter dragged away and handcuffed on camera was a Trump wet dream. There will be no repercussions and that is all this is.
That reporter was so calm. It’s incredible.
So I may sound crazy here, but I think everything from the murder on forward (arson, violent disruption, and, yes, the CNN arrests) was planned in advance and Is being staged for maximum social disruption to support Trump’s election. I don’t think the CNN crew themselves knew they would be arrested, but Jeff Zucker is a close friend of Trump, and publicity showing “the country set on fire by black people” is what Trump needs on TV front and center to keep white voters steeped in racist narratives. And to terrify and engage the rest of us, so we lose focus. I fully believe that Trump killed George Floyd by proxy and is working with violent provocateurs who have infiltrated peaceful protests to manipulate the outcome of the election. Don’t forget that the evil Karl Rove joined Trump’s campaign last week, and of course the anarchist Steve Cannon still advises Trump from a distance.
adastraperaspera … at this point, nothing sounds crazy.
I completely believe this could be true. When Facebook uses false political advertising to throw elections … this ‘theory’ is unfortunately highly plausible.
Trump and his team have been using hired rally supporters and mercenaries to stage and incite violence pretty much since he took office. His whole senior team are dyed-in-the-wool racists and master puppeteers who know how to seed and grow white supremacy groups all across the US. Divide and conquer is what it’s all about.
That doesn’t sound deranged. That sounds like the truth.
This is Nazi-Germany-level censorship. Beyond sinister. Trump’s little antics on Twitter and his Executive Order seems to have emboldened a lot of racists. They’re not even hiding in plain sight, they’re deliberately challenging Americans’ right to a free press.
It’s really ironic that the country which brought a stable democracy to Germany after WWII is getting destroyed by its own Nazis and white supremacists 75 years later.
Don’t worry about the Executive Order. It is complete bullshit in terms of law, and would, if actually implemented, backfire on Trump majorly. The EO was political theatre. Here’s a great quote:
“If I’m reading this correctly, the EO claims tech platforms are doing something they’re not, in violation of an incorrect interpretation of law, and tasks agencies it can’t task to look into the things that aren’t being done that wouldn’t be wrong.”
– Tiffany Li, Boston University School of Law professor
Okay, but here’s the thing though–that’s not actually good. You don’t use EO’s as a means of political theatre. That’s what batshit dictators and asshole politicians in places with less political freedom than the US do. It strikes a horrible tone.
A, when has anything this man has done ever been a good idea? This is not the first time he’s used an EO to win political points with his fucked up white supremacist base, and we are far past the point of being able to do anything about his tone as president of the US. For this particular EO, there’s been a lot of media attention without strict scrutiny of the text and prior case law, which has led to a lot of panic.
My comment was to put out there that this EO is legally meaningless. The real fight is in Congress, which actually does have the power to change the law regarding liability with respect to social media platforms. Tech companies are in full gear consulting with their lobbyists and getting ready to talk to key congresspeople.
Wow. Just….wow. I would say this is unbelievable but unfortunately it isn’t. I wonder if Trump will comment on this, and what that comment would be given his feelings about CNN (they’re “fake news” after all). smh
He pissed off the wrong millionaire because Jack/Twitter has been telling his employees to slap a violation tag on his posts. He can comment all he wants and Twitter will tag it.
Footage of a man in all black and an umbrella breaking the windows of the autozone looked suspicious, why the umbrella? Well his exwife on twitter said hes a cop. Take that as you will but the footage alone really looked suspicious
SO – an African American CNN reporter is arrested by Minneapolis police (and video clearly shows he identified himself and was nothing but cooperative), YET white men, fully armed with guns and military gear, can storm a Capital building, get in the face of police officers, scream and be f**king belligerent in order to protest the stay at home restrictions based on Covid-19 – AND NOTHING HAPPENS TO THEM!
THINK ABOUT THAT! People want to cry out for due process or let the judicial system handle things! Are you kidding me? Our judicial system is flawed! Our police force is flawed/and filled with racist cops! I am a privileged white woman and I can see this CLEARLY and it simply breaks my heart. That video of George Floyd was probably one of the worst things I have seen in my 50 years of life. I don’t care if they show he was resisting arrest earlier. HE WASN’T THEN AND HE CRIED OUT FOR 5 MINUTES FOR HELP 😭😭
And when our President of the United States tweets “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” – you know this problem exists at the top 🥺
My favorite dystopian apocalyptic films are bearing fruit.
This will continue to happen. Jim Crow did not die it had children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. It was report done by the government that police department, and the army is a recruitment ground white supremacist. Pray and vote at local, state, federal election every time.
It’s more than Jim Crow, the Civil War never ended.
The officers who effected the arrest should be fired NOW. You don’t give them a chance to escalate into killers.