Journalists Under Seige

The United States Department of Justice says it welcomes all journalists into their press conferences as long as they follow a short list of criteria listed on its website.
However, that turned out to be a lie as a pair of Portland journalists learned earlier this week.
The journalists were from Flossin Media, a black-owned, Portland-based digital magazine founded in 2004 that covers social justice issues as well as other general interest issues.

“I’m uncomfortable talking about it, but I think we have to,” began Joe Scarborough in the two and a half minute video you can see below, before describing an extortion campaign by the White House to silence criticism in his daily broadcasts.
You can see the anguish on Scarborough’s face and that of his co-host as they recount details of a presidential blackmail scheme, which was aimed squarely at devastating their First Amendment right to remain free of government censorship.
Trump threatened exposure of non-public information in the National Enquirer tabloid.

Homestead Police Department (HPD), in South Florida, has myriad problems respecting the First Amendment. I went to HPD this week to serve some officers in a civil rights suit, the story was covered earlier. While entering I discovered that HPD still has not learned that photography is not a crime.

FBI agents in Texas ripped two cameras out of the hands of a PINAC reporter who was standing in front of a federal building legally recording from a public sidewalk Thursday, claiming they were in fear for their safety.
“I don’t want to be struck in the face,” said Keith A. Byers, an Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the El Paso FBI office at 660 South Mesa Hills Drive.
However, David Worden made no indication he would strike the agents in the face with his cameras.

Las Vegas police arrested a journalist Saturday who was video recording a protest against President Donald Trump, demanding that he release his tax forms.
Police say KLAS news videographer Nebyou Solomon was arrested for trespassing and obstructing because he was standing on the private property of the Fashion Show Mall, refusing to leave when ordered to do so, then refusing to identify himself.

Concerned about the expenses involved in the New Hampshire Justice Department’s ongoing court battle to prevent voters from taking selfies in the voting booth, local activist and journalist Dave Ridley showed up to their budget workshop meeting, camera in hand, to ask members of the House Finance Committee how they felt about the mounting expenses in fighting the suit.
But committee members waisted little time in telling Ridley that he would not be allowed to video record the meeting.

Los Angeles police arrested journalist Jasmyne Cannick while covering a protest against police brutality the night before Thanksgiving 2014, twisting the truth to accuse her of leading a throng of protesters across an imaginary police “skirmish line,” then claiming in their reports that she became so aggressive, they had to push her back.

 
Homestead Police Department (HPD) has silenced the First Amendment with false stalking charges and restraining orders.
Their abuses leading to two of my three false arrest, and to me being served with four frivolous restraining orders.
Sadly, such abuses are not limited to Florida, and occur nationwide.
I have researched this new trick in the police playbook being used to stalk away the First Amendment.
PINAC presents this series as a case study on such stalking abuses in Florida and across the country.

PINAC reporter Jeff Gray was up to his old tricks again, photographing power plants from public sidewalks, making public records requests at police stations, not breaking any law, when he was approached by cops who accused him of breaking fabricated laws, even going as far as to accuse him of plotting an attack on police.
We’ve seen it all before with Gray; the paranoid cops believing they are keeping the world safe by violating his Constitutional rights, seemingly unconcerned about making fools of themselves on YouTube.

The South Carolina town of Greer has doubled down on their police department’s blatant constitutional violations, but not how you’d expect.
The City of Greer released a body cam video-  which you can see below- where the first officer on the scene admits that the man they arrested wasn’t doing anything wrong when they rolled up and started asking for identification – without a state law enabling them to conduct a “stop and identify.”