Comments on: Texas TV reporter arrested for doing his job

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:04:21 +0000

Cyrus…..Do you not know how important a reporters job is? Without the news how would people know what the heck is going on in the world? Reporters stories are depressing because well for one have you not looked outside into the world? War, Murders…..the worlds depressing, so therefor the stories will also be as well.

By: Cyrus Lincoln

Cyrus Lincoln — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:27:03 +0000

You reporters are just so annoying. I would think you would sell your soul if you thought the story was good enough. Why don’t you actually report something positive going on in your area. The world can only get more depressed with your reports. I hope your stories are worth it.

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:06:42 +0000

The segement about the reporter bieng arrested.

I feel that the police officer that harrassed the reporter should be demoted to a 911 response phone operater.
I also feel that police officers like him are poor role models and its officers like him who give good ones a bad rap.
Wouldn’t suprise me if you read about that police officers obituary in the news if he keeps that kind of unprofessional attitude.

Fed Up!
Chuck.

By: Joshua Howard

Joshua Howard — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:01:48 +0000

The funny thing about this is that the only way to “fail to identify” in Texas, is to be under arrest to begin with. Case in point, in Sec. 38.02. Failure to Identify. of the Texas Penal Code explicitly states
“(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally refuses to give his name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer who has lawfully arrested the person and requested the information.”
So lets see…if an officer just starts chatting me up and asks my name (i.e., a conversation & I can leave at any time), I don’t have to provide that information. Lets say that I’m legally detained (i.e., terry stop), I STILL don’t have to provide that – I just can’t “[...]intentionally give[s] a false or fictitious name, residence address, or date of birth to a peace officer[...]” when legally detained. Finally, lets say that I am arrested; I must provide this information (I don’t have to have the identification credentials, just provide the information). Refusing to provide that information leaves me open to more charges that might not end up getting dropped if the original charge is proved to be bogus and/or dismissed.

To offer a bit of a different view, why did the station post the video on their website as the “raw” video, despite obvious editing and deletion of segments. Raw is just that, it is unedited, unchanged from its original content. Several commenters on the news site portrayed the camera man is being rude and insulting to the police and standing far closer than any other reporters. Unfortunately, due to the station’s editing, it is unclear how the reporter was behaving.

In any event, the way the police responded was not correct. Just because they have the capability to wield their police powers doesn’t mean they need to give into their emotions and do what they want. Its unfortunate, but the police generally don’t seem to believe that they need to hold themselves to a much higher standard than their fellow citizens, applied to both their demeanor and how they execute their office’s powers. Maybe working in the customer service industry for the past several years has glued me to the ideal that “I must always be polite, and another person’s inability to do so is no excuse for me to lower my standard for my own conduct; that is my pride as a human being.”

FYI, I looked up the Texas status for Failure to Identify after I had a run-in with a sheriff deputy I was taking pictures of (I mean come on, who parks their off-duty vehicle at the bottom of a T intersection with their red-and-blues flashing with no-one around for over 30 minutes?). When his backup had arrived and they were ‘sorting things out’ he told me offhandedly “I should take you to county (county jail) for Failure to Idenity” I had to work hard not to laugh. After I got home I double checked myself and found I was in the right. That notwithstanding, the twit of a deputy called the FBI on me and I had a nice little chat with them.

By: sickntired

sickntired — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:35:03 +0000

it seem that one those small pricks so-called police get a badge it goes to their heads, they think that they have carte blanc to do what they want.

I think those who want to be a police office need to have a BA in public relations before they can get a badge.. The truth is that cities will hire anyone who as a clear background period.. that is the only requirement.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:52:15 +0000

This is total crap on the departments behalf. The department needs to look into their leadership if this kind of thing is common. I will acknowledge the shooter was not the nicest in the world but he is justified. The cop’s reaction is incredulous. He has the what your going to tell my boss big deal attitude…. The scene was COLD so don’t give me the active investigation blah…. There is no tape up, and an excess of officers standing around doing nothing while the shooter is 30 yards back and he still get hassled ? Carlos, myself or any other daily newspaper shooter or tv cameraman can tell you that the PD would have called the city desk to brag on their catch if their was no one at the scene and want a photog sent to the station to shoot the dope…

How long before someone looks into legislation that makes it a misdemeanor for the police or the public to interfere with a member of the media while they are covering a story. (I know this is never going to happen but hey if you can tell google its got to make blurry buildings there is always how)

By: Harmsy McTwelve

Harmsy McTwelve — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:55:06 +0000

Will police never learn to just leave the law-abiding citizens alone? I got bored one day and read a bunch of your blog posts, and my head is spinning from all the harassment I’ve been reading about.

By: Carlos Miller

Carlos Miller — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:16:26 +0000

You’re right, Scott. I was in a rush when I wrote this because I had to go somewhere. I just got home.

I meant to write “was harassed”.

Thanks for pointing it out.

By: Scott Chamness

Scott Chamness — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:00:25 +0000

Good story Carlos.
Just a small thing that may have a bit of a grammar issue. “including a videographer who has harassed himself”. A videographer harassing himself? I don’t know, that doesn’t sound quite right, maybe I looked at it wrong.