According to their Twitter accounts, officers just arrested two journalists in Ferguson Missouri.
Wesley Lowery, from the Washington Post, and Ryan Reilly, from HuffPo, were inside a McDonalds when officers confronted them. Here are the tweets:
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 4:53 PM
Police come into McD where me and @ryanjreilly working. Try to kick everyone out.
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 5:39 PM
Was arrested
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 5:40 PM
Also Ryan Reilly of Huff Po. Assaulted and arrested
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 5:41 PM
Released without any charges, no paperwork whatsoever
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 5:44 PM
Officers slammed me into a fountain soda machine because I was confused about which door they were asking me to walk out of
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 5:41 PM
Refusing to give us any names of the officers
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 5:44 PM
Was waiting to be taken away, large black man SCREAMING for help in back of police truck
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 5:44 PM
They refused his several calls for paramedics
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 5:45 PM
"I'm dying. I'm dying. Please call help he screamed." They mocked him
Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery)
8/13/14, 5:46 PM
Detained, booked, given answers to no questions. Then just let out
Here is what Reilly had to say:
Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly)
8/13/14, 5:40 PM
@ryanjreilly and @WesleyLowery have been arrested for "not packing their bags quick enough" at McD's #Ferguson
Another journalist, Matt Pearce from the LA Times, contacted the Ferguson police chief. His response?
Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce)
8/13/14, 5:30 PM
I just called Ferguson police chief to ask about @WesleyLowery and @ryanjreilly, told him what I knew. His response: "Oh, God."
Looks like the police continue to make events worse in Ferguson.
6:15 PM PT: jjstraka34 posted a diary about this as well - here is a
link to diary!!!
6:52 PM PT: HuffPo story about the incident: here
7:06 PM PT: With a hat tip to Zinman, TPM has now posted an article as well, with some excellent photos here.
7:59 PM PT: Anyone checking in with the diary late, I encourage you to scroll through all the comments here and in the other diary. Kossacks have been doing a great job posting wonderful (devastating) photos and links to live streams of events in Ferguson.
From watching the livestreams, it appears the police officers have just lost all sense of scope. They are firing pellets into the crowds and tear gas everywhere, into residential streets, into yards, at journalists. They don't seem to care that the protests are peaceful and they don't seem to give a damn about the people they are supposed to be serving and protecting. Stay safe, Ferguson. The rest of us? We need to have a national conversation, right the hell now. About police killing our black citizens and police acting as if the streets of American towns are part of a war zone. It needs to end.
10:55 PM PT: Alderman Antonio French, who has been a constant source of excellent information from Ferguson as well as a great asset to his community, has been arrested by officers in Ferguson. See story here. His wife has tweeted that he is being booked for unlawful assembly after being pulled out of his car for "not listening".