citizen journalism

Breitbart Reporter Critical of Black Lives Matter Movement Jailed with Black Activists, Finds Common Ground on Police Abuse

Louisiana police suspended the First Amendment during mass protests in Baton Rouge over the weekend, sweeping up journalists and protesters alike for exercising their rights to free speech.
One of those arrested was Lee Stranahan, a Black Lives Matter critic, filmmaker and news reporter for the conservative news outlet Breitbart.

Louisiana Store Owner Sues Baton Rouge Police for Confiscating Surveillance Video After Killing Alton Sterling

In the moments after shooting and killing Alton Sterling in front of a convenience store where he had been selling CDs, Baton Rouge police entered the business and began confiscating all surveillance footage that may have captured the incident.
They also seized Abdullah Muflahi’s cell phone that had recorded the shooting, before handcuffing him and placing him in the back of a patrol car.
They did all this without a warrant, which is illegal.

Baton Rouge Cop Pulls Gun on Demonstrators Protesting Alton Sterling Killing

A Baton Rouge cop pulled out his gun on a group of citizens protesting the Baton Rouge police killing of Alton Sterling Saturday night.
The cop waved the gun around at the crowd, telling them to “back up” because they were converging onto the street – not that they were charging him as he will probably claim.
“Hands up, don’t shoot!” the crowd began chanting as the cop placed the gun back into his holster to drag a woman away who had laid down on the street to block traffic.

WATCH: Portland Police Arrest Man Who Aimed Handgun At Protesters (UPDATED)

“HE’S AIMING HIS GUN!” rang out across the street corner as a group of eight protesters neared the man holding his camera in a white plastic cover.
Last night, Portland Police detained the 36-year-old blogger Michael Strickland known as “Laughing at Liberals” after the video blogger pulled his Glock 18 handgun with extended clip out of his pocket, and aimed it at two dozen protesters “scanning the horizontal plane” with the weapon.

Dallas Police Accuse Innocent Man of Being Suspect in Sniper Shooting, Tweeting his Photo to Thousands of People (Updated)

Mark Hughes is either the unluckiest man in the world or the luckiest, depending on how you look at it.
Unlucky in that we was singled out by the Dallas Police Association as a suspect in Thursday night’s sniper shootings that so far has left five police officers dead and seven wounded, his picture tweeted out to tens of thousands of people in the country, a man considered armed and dangerous.
A man who could have easily been shot and killed by police during their frantic search for a gunman or by anybody else for that matter considering Texas is a very gun-friendly state.

New York Man Arrested for Recording Cops Seeks Court Injunction to Stop NYPD from Making These Arrests

In another example of abuse of power and sheer arrogance, an NYPD officer arrested a man for recording officers from a public sidewalk, accusing him of blocking pedestrian traffic.
It was a lame excuse for an arrest in the nation’s most populated city where congested sidewalks are just a way of life.
The incident took place in 2014 when three NYPD cops were surrounding a man who had passed out on the sidewalk. The man was awake and talking to police when An walked by and began recording.

Boston Police Won’t Turn Over Public Records Despite Pocketing Fees

Co-written with Maya Shaffer
“It is shameful that this is happening in such a progressive state like Massachusetts, which is supposed to value transparency and freedom of information. I believe that nothing short of the threat of legal charges will convince the media relations department of the Boston police to do their jobs. Please do your part to make this happen.”

California Cops Tow Car with Occupants Inside After Driver Refuses to Roll Window More Than Three-Quarters Down

California police were not satisfied that a man driving through a DUI checkpoint had rolled his window three-quarters of the way down and handed them his drivers license.
No, they wanted the window rolled all the way down, so when he refused, they ordered a tow truck driver to latch on to the car and drive it away from the video of the men recording the stop – while the occupants remained inside – then had the driver use a slim jim to open the driver’s door.
The driver was then arrested on unknown charges, even though he showed no signs of impairment.