citizen journalism

A man who was taking photos in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant ended up detained by cops demanding his identification, telling him they were investigating burglaries in the area.
It is not clear how they took the leap from questioning a man for taking photos in public to investigating burglaries, but “burglaries in the area” is an old standby excuse frequently used by police to detain and harass innocent people, even if there have not been a rash of burglaries.

Dave Ridley, a New Hampshire journalist and member of the Free State Project, was ejected from the Penrose Public Library in Colorado Springs last week after security officials told him he had to obtain permission from officials to record an anti-Trump meeting that was set to take place there.

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 believes Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers were the ones who had him ejected from a press conference where Governor Rick Scott was going to brag a .1 percentage reduction in the state’s unemployment rate last week.
After all, the FDLE has not only been monitoring him for years through the Florida Fusion Center, Gray was initially welcomed into the press conference along with the rest of the St. Augustine media on November 18.
But that was before Scott’s FDLE security detail arrived at Ideal Aluminum Products and began sizing him up.

An Ohio man who stole an Oakwood Village police cruiser after struggling with a cop is still at large.
The incident was captured on video by a witness, who began recording when a cop and the man were struggling in the middle of the street.
“This nigga just hopped in a police car and drove the fuck off,” said the man recording as he was driving away in his own car.
The man posted it on his Facebook page.

One would be led to believe that a United States Mail Service distribution center was sort of “National Security” location or as officials would describe it as “Critical Infrastructure” when it is anything but that.

Five months after agreeing to pay a $45,000 settlement to a man they arrested for recording them tasering a man on his front porch, the Allentown Police Department is being sued again.
This time, by the man they tasered and tortured that night.

Philadelphia cops were arresting two men on a darkened street for disorderly conduct aka “contempt of cop” when one of the men being arrested called out to a passing bicyclist, asking him to record the interaction.
The cyclist, Jean-Jacques Gabriel, wasted no time in stopping his bike, pulling out his smart phone and video recording on Facebook Live.
The cops then began harassing him with their usual bullying routine; accusing him of obstructing traffic, even though Gabriel was standing across the street on his bicycle in a bike lane.

“Do not fucking reach!” an enraged Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy shouted after pulling out his gun on a licensed private investigator sitting in his car in a residential neighborhood working on a case.
But all Ken Sheppard was doing was reaching towards his ear to remove his cell phone ear piece in order to better hear the deputy.
However, that was enough to make deputy Tai Plunkett fear for his life where he kept the gun pointed at Sheppard’s head with trembling hands in a surreal scene seemingly out of a movie.