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posted by martyb on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the Get-Off-My-Lawn-Supplies dept.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/22/an-arizona-cop-threatened-arrest-year-old-journalist-she-wasnt-backing-down/

When a small-town Arizona cop stopped a 12-year-old reporter who was chasing down a story tip on Monday, he probably had no idea what he was getting himself into.

Hilde Kate Lysiak, the preteen journalist whose exploits have inspired a Scholastic book series and an upcoming TV show, made a name for herself in 2016 by being the first to report on a grisly murder in her hometown, then firing back at the haters who suggested that a 9-year-old girl shouldn't be hanging around crime scenes. Since then, she has continued to break news about bank robberies, alleged rapes and other lurid crimes in the Orange Street News, the paper that she publishes out of her parents' home in Selinsgrove, Pa.

"NOTE TO DEALERS: OSN Will Not Be Intimidated," she wrote last month, after reportedly receiving threats because she had published text message exchanges between an alleged drug dealer and a woman whom he had reportedly solicited for sex.

So naturally, she didn't back down when Joseph Patterson, the town marshal in Patagonia, Ariz., allegedly threatened to throw her in juvenile jail on Monday, then falsely claimed it would be illegal for her to film him and publish the video on the Internet. Instead, she posted their exchange on YouTube and in the Orange Street News — which in turn prompted town officials to discipline Patterson, as the Nogales International was the first to report on Wednesday.

[...] In the Orange Street News, Lysiak wrote that she was riding her bike to investigate a tip at around 1:30 p.m. on Monday when Patterson, whose position in the small town is equivalent to that of a police chief, stopped her and asked for identification. The 12-year-old gave her name and phone number and mentioned that she was a member of the media. She said Patterson told her, "I don't want to hear about any of that freedom-of-the-press stuff" and added that he would have her arrested and thrown in juvenile jail.

Later, Lysiak ran into Patterson again. This time, she was filming.

"You stopped me earlier and you said that I can be thrown in juvie," she can be heard asking in the video. "What exactly am I doing that's illegal?"

From the seat of his white Chevy Silverado truck, Patterson started to reply, then interrupted himself. "You taping me?" he asked. "You can tape me, okay, but what I'm going to tell you is if you put my face on the Internet, it's against the law in Arizona."

In fact, there is no such law. Recording a law enforcement officer in a public place is protected under the First Amendment, as Lysiak noted when she posted the video online later that day.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:08PM (6 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:08PM (#807623) Journal

    Police creating distrust in the police are their own worst enemy. The police who line up to protect obviously bad police automatically should be included among the bad.

    Once the public can no longer trust the police, or even worse is more afraid of police than of the criminals, this further destroys the fabric of our society. Maybe even more than Facebook is destroying the fabric of society.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:43PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:43PM (#807644)

    Maybe even more than Facebook is destroying the fabric of society.

    No. No, that's just not possible.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday February 27 2019, @05:12PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 27 2019, @05:12PM (#807686) Journal

      [dishonest, ignorant] Police destroy the fabric of society at the local level.

      Facebook destroys it at the national and global level.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday February 27 2019, @04:15PM (2 children)

    by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @04:15PM (#807656)

    Absolutely agree. In fact, the problem is that when there are _any_ bad cops, as we can see all too clearly on youtube, we don't know which ones we can trust. Now what.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday February 27 2019, @06:34PM (1 child)

      by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @06:34PM (#807730)

      Sadly I think it boils down to that you can't trust ANY of them.

      "The greatest Evil is when the Good do nothing"

      Any LEO that looks the other way, covers up, or tries to justify a clearly illegal/unethical/immoral act by another officer is aiding and abetting a criminal. Therefor they are also guilty of illegal activity. So you can't trust any of them.

      --
      "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by RS3 on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:50PM

        by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:50PM (#807779)

        I understand what you're saying, and I mostly agree. I think it boils down to semantics. Or maybe my optimism; but I like to think and hope that some cops are in it for the right reasons. For sure many cops get into it for wrong reasons (power and control), and since the current system does not clean itself, we don't know which, if any cops can be trusted.

        I've always had a HUGE problem with the too many obvious conflicts of interest in our government. I don't understand how things like "internal affairs" came about. We see youtube videos of cops shooting innocent people, and those cops are rarely charged with a crime, and of the few who are, most are found "innocent".

        Years ago my lawyer brother explained to me the general philosophy of how and why the govt. has to defend itself; kind of the basis of authority. The problem I have is that the US govt. was founded on the legal/philosophical principle that too much power in too few people, especially without corrective mechanisms, By and For The People, is a very bad thing. Slowly but surely the govt. has given itself more and more power- put too much power into too few people, and We The People have been both complacent and powerless to stop it.

        We need more citizen watchdog groups, and they need to be given great power to investigate, suspend, and prosecute.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @06:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @06:16PM (#807720)

    Next you'll be talking about Peelian Principles like we didn't fight a war to get away from British nonsense. Muricah fuck yeah!