The Dangers of Citizen Journalism

Aldon Hynes at orient-lodge points to an important story about how the NYPD stole a video camera from a "Citizen Journalist" at a demonstration.

On October 30, 2006 at a demonstration protesting the murder of journalist Brad Will in Mexico, members of the NYPD assaulted an independent videographer and stole his videocamera.

That's right, stole. The filmmaker, FluxRostrum, was not arrested. He did not receive a receipt for seized property. He was not even directly asked for his camera. Instead, without any warning, he was jumped by two police officers, one of whom is an NYPD captain, and knocked down onto the asphalt of 39th Street. One police officer was succcesful in wrenching the camera out of Flux's hands. As Flux crawled around on the ground looking for the eyeglasses which had been knocked off his face during the attack, the cop with the camera quickly conferred with another officer. Then he ran off to hide the camera.

The big problem for the NYPD here: They forgot to steal the video evidence of their theft and assault from other people with cameras at the demonstration.

The video is worth checking out and demonstrates the need for Citizen Journalists and video Bloggers to take precautions and always watch each others' backs when they are in politically charged situations.

[update]The YouTube videos:




Who is FluxRostrum?




Courtesy of Scarce at MLN