Around 1:00 am this morning, police gave final warning to the Occupy Philly protesters to evacuate Dilworth Plaza, next to City Hall. Before the police issued their final warning to the protesters, however, the police told journalists that they had to vacate the area and watch the events unfold from across the five lane street, probably 150 feet away from the entrance to the Occupy Philly encampment. From the press vantage point, it was almost impossible to see the actual protest site.
Did the police have the right to evict the press?
Were the police simply ensuring that journalists did not interfere with the police work? Or were the police trying avoid a situation like that at the University of California, Davis, where video of a campus police officer pepper-spraying a group of protesters became a viral phenomena?
6 comments:
I have gone over to the Occupy site a couple times, with the most recent being Monday, to interview people for my journalism class. Each time I was there the overall message was that the police were treating the protestors fairly and kindly. I think the police just wanted everyone out of the way because they were tired of dealing with everything. I do think the journalists do have a right to be there and report, so they should not have been made to stand so far away from what was actually happening.
I think that that journalists have every right to be there. To have them not be there is to have the news being told by word of mouth and it usually gets construed. Having objective reporters there, reporting on the actual police brutality that is taking place will reveal the truth. That is journalists' number one job: reveal the truth. To keep them away from the scene seems to be authority figures keeping them from the truth. Issue facing journalism?
Humans should have remembered that the OCCUPY PHILLY protest movement had their Dilworth Plaza permit expire on their 43rd day (Friday 11 November 2011); if you acurately remember, that was the day the Temple Owls defeated the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks, 70-36, in both of their NCAA women's basketball season openers at Temple University McGonigle Hall. Once again, not a surplus of humans understand the context of the OCCUPY movement. What is the OCCUPY hoopla/shenanigans even protesting anyway? At this point, some humans believe these frivolous humans protest nothing (obsolete). If you do not protest, you will not have to risk your rights and life, meaning you will not be booked to the "big house" (not the Michigan University football stadium). Joe Paterno stated after his 11/9/2011 firing, "Good luck on your studies and please get some sleep. Good night." Paterno attempted to turn his negative impact into an important message in order to expunge the nefarious Pennsylvania State University student protests that occured due to his sudden exit as their head football coach.
-Scott Samuel David Weiss
Temple Clas of 2015, Journalism
12/02/2011, 5:37AM
I believe that the police should not interfere with the Journalists who are trying to cover news. It is important the J's report on the scene in terms of where news is unfolding. I believe that it does not involve wanting to protect the Journalists, considering that J's cover wars. I say let the Police do their jobs and let the Journalists do theirs!
I think that the police had every right to intervene and tell the journalists to leave. First of all, this was in fact a protest, and a riot could have broken out. No one knew how the protesters were going to react with being evicted. The police did their duty to keep everyone in and around the area safe. The journalists could easily see everything that was happening across the street and were obviously able to get the story because it was being broadcasted as soon as the occupiers were evicted around 1am.
I think that the police had every right to intervene and tell the journalists to leave. First of all, this was in fact a protest, and a riot could have broken out. No one knew how the protesters were going to react with being evicted. The police did their duty to keep everyone in and around the area safe. The journalists could easily see everything that was happening across the street and were obviously able to get the story because it was being broadcasted as soon as the occupiers were evicted around 1am.
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