Joe Biden came to town and the Constitution ended when a North Carolina cop told a PINAC reporter he was not allowed to access his car, which was parked in a public garage, even though the cop claimed it was “private.”
“If you do not leave, you will go to jail,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Andrew Isaacs told PINAC reporter Joshua Brown last week as he was on assignment covering a Joe Biden speech at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte.
Not only did Isaacs tell Brown the public area was “private property,” he threatened to charge him with trespassing if he didn’t leave.
Isaacs then charged towards him, gesturing with his handcuffs, grabbing Brown’s wrist and squeezing it tightly after he complied with the cop’s order to leave the property.
Brown later confirmed the area was open to the public during a subsequent recorded telephone conversation with Jeff Lowrance, the college’s public information officer.
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“We’re a public institution. But there are certain restrictions on certain activities,” Lowrance said in a telephone conversation that can be heard here.
PINAC reporter Joshua Brown
“If media was invited to that event. If you had your credentials, you had every right to be there.”
The video of the incident, posted below, shows Isaacs ordering another reporter away from the area, who was also trying to access his car.
That reporter left, but after the cop grabbed Brown’s wrist, another reporter walked up to interview him.
“First he told me to leave the immediate area where the parking deck was,” Brown told her.
“So I leave the area and film on the sidewalk. He comes up to me and says ‘do you want to go to jail?
“I was like you told me to leave the area and I did. He said ‘now I want you to leave the property.’ So then he demands my ID because he suspects I’m committing a trespassing crime. So I show him my ID. He tells me to leave the property; I’m leaving the property; I’m walking backwards filming him.”
Brown pointed out that officer Isaac charged towards him, gesturing with his handcuffs, after he complied with his order, which was unlawful anyway since he was clearly on public property.
“He didn’t like that I was filming him. So he pulls out his handcuffs. Comes up to me. And grabs me.”
“And I scream,” Brown continued, ‘”Sir, what are you doing? You told me to leave the property. And that’s what I’m doing’ . . . and that’s why he grabbed me. He got mad because I was filming him. I got his name and badge number. And I plan to pursue this.”
Brown knew the area was public property when he was first ordered to leave, which is why he started recording.
“I exited the VP Biden’s speech and walked on Elizabeth Ave. Then I walked down the alley/street to the right (aerial view) of the Sloan Morgan Building,” he explained.
An unidentified reporter who was also covering Biden’s speech witnessed the incident and approached Brown for an interview afterwards.Brown stated officer Andrew Isaac’s badge number is 5125.
Brown stated officer Andrew Isaac’s badge number is 5125.
Interestingly, Biden’s speech at the Dale F. Halton Theatre, circled in orange in the above map, was about how crucial community colleges are to local communities and businesses. The green circle is where the police encounter occurred.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department are currently in the national spotlight after another officer shot and killed a man named Keith Lamont Scott on Tuesday, claiming he had a gun.
However, not only is North Carolina an open carry state, Scott’s family said he was only holding a book while sitting in a car waiting for his kid to be dropped off on a school bus.
Police say they were in the area to serve a warrant on a man when they encountered Scott, who was not the person they were serving the warrant on.
The post Watch: North Carolina Cop Assaults PINAC Reporter After Threatening to Arrest him for Trying to Access his Car on Public Property appeared first on PINAC News.