Observations of a Jailed Journalist
John Farley | September 27, 2011 6:06 AM
MetroFocus Web Editor John Farley, kneeling, was arrested while reporting on the Occupy Wall Street protest. Farley was working on a story about citizen journalism at the time. MetroFocus/Sam Lewis.
On Sept. 24, while working on a story about citizen journalism for my employer, I found myself arrested, along with many other people. My arrest gave me a unique vantage point on the risks and rewards of citizen journalists, those non-professionals who capture stories (usually without pay) using videos and images via portable technology like a cell phone camera. Anyone, even a passerby or a police officer can be a citizen journalist. That’s its power.
Here’s what happened.
My colleague Sam Lewis and I had previously covered Occupy Wall Street, an ongoing demonstration against economic inequality, on the first day it began, Sept.17.
Throughout that day we noticed many protesters using their mobile devices to document their own experience, sometimes for themselves or their own blogs, sometimes to share with bona fide media organizations. So, midday this past Saturday, Sept. 24, we headed to Union Square, where the Occupy Wall Street protesters had marched that morning from Lower Manhattan.
When we first arrived on the scene, protesters were marching along the sidewalk in unison, chanting. There was no sense of chaos. Many held video and audio recording devices, including camera phones.
In a sudden burst of urban chaos, how can the police distinguish between passersby and protesters who may be committing civil disobedience or any other type of punishable offense? Or between citizen journalists and professional journalists?
However, the stream of protesters did disrupt traffic. Pedestrians wove in and out of the mass of protesters, some on their way to do Saturday errands, others who joined in for a block or two, chanting with the masses.
Sam and I were on the sidewalk observing the action. She was taking photographs, while I was juggling my reporter’s notebook and the audio recorder we’d brought along to interview protesters about how they were using media throughout the day.
As more people spilled into the street, police started to demand that protesters stay on the sidewalk. But as people seemed to be retreating from harm’s way, police began pushing the protesters. I saw police use large nets to corral people en masse. I watched as police pepper sprayed several young women in the face. (An NYPD spokesperson confirmed the use of pepper spray to MetroFocus.) I saw senior citizens and teenagers get arrested. I saw about 20 or 30 police officers tackle people and prod them roughly with police batons.
WATCH VIDEO:
Video of the young female protesters against whom MetroFocus reporter John Farley saw the police use pepper spray. The headlines for this video was chosen by YouTube. Youtube/TheOther99Percent.
With nearly every arrest, the demonstrators called out for “cameras, cameras” — urging others to document the events — and chanted in unison “The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!”
When I saw the young women get pepper sprayed, I ran over to interview them. While holding a microphone and wearing a badge identifying myself as an employee of “WNET – New York Public Media,” I found myself suddenly roped into one of the large nets. I was thrown against a wall and handcuffed with hard plastic zip-tie restraints. I sat on the sidewalk with about 50 others. I yelled over and over “I’m press! I’m with WNET MetroFocus! Please do not arrest me.”
I did not possess the press credentials that NYPD allocates to journalists. (As MetroFocus is less than three months old, neither I nor my journalist colleagues have yet met the NYPD’s qualifications.) So even though I work as a professional journalist, the NYPD lumped me in with everybody else.
Lumped me in indeed. I was in police custody for nine hours, eight of which I spent in a jail cell at the 1st Precinct.
An NYPD spokesperson told MetroFocus on Monday that 87 people have been arrested in total since the Occupy Wall Street protests began last weekend; however, the Daily News reported that at least 80 people were arrested on Sept. 24 alone, mostly on charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic. The NYPD would not comment further on my arrest.
Before we were all jailed, they took away everybody’s possessions, including our notebooks, pens, cameras, recording devices and mobile phones. We were separated by gender.
My cellmates were about 35 other men. Most of them were protesters, with at least two bystanders who were snatched up while snapping souvenir photos in the afternoon mayhem. Most had spent quite a bit of time documenting the events of the day, including their arrests, with whatever media tools they had at their disposal.
My cellmate JRL, who preferred to be identified only by his initials, is a 23-year-old Brooklynite. He identified himself as a citizen journalist who streams live footage through Twitter. “We like the terminology ‘grassroots media,’ where people in the march were literally marching with laptops and webcams so that they could live broadcast. I think it’s an immediate, never before possible edge,” said JRL. He was arrested while carrying his Canon 7D camera.
Multiple videos from Sept. 24 show police arresting people holding cameras and audio equipment. An NYPD spokesperson told ABC News that the police were not targeting camera operators.
I don’t know precisely why I was arrested, though I have been charged with disorderly conduct. But what I realized is that in a sudden burst of urban chaos, how can the police distinguish between passersby and protesters who may be committing civil disobedience or any other type of punishable offense? Or between citizen journalists and professional journalists?
The arrest of my cell mate, Sam Queary, 24, adds another dimension to the issue: that of the inadvertent, spontaneous citizen journalist. Queary happened to be at work at Grey Dog Cafe near Union Square when the protesters marched by.
“I heard a commotion and went outside to find cops macing women and arresting people and hitting people with nightsticks, so I started taking pictures,” said Queary. “I followed a young, black male as he was being accosted by five cops. As I tried to take a picture I was pushed away. I asked why I was pushed away and then the next thing you know I was being judo flipped.”
WATCH VIDEO:
Someone with a video camera documented John Farley’s cell-mate Sam Queary being “judo-flipped” by NYPD and arrested as he was photographing others being arrested. The video, shot by an unknown citizen journalist, has been widely broadcast and linked to by media outlets around the world. The headline for this video was chosen by YouTube. Youtube/LibertyPlazaRev.
I also met Rosa A., 33, in the police van while we were being transported to the 1st Precinct for processing. She had been shopping at the Barnes and Noble on Union Square when she saw the protesters outside. As many New Yorkers do when they see something unusual, she snapped a picture. And she was arrested.
“I’ve never been arrested,” said Rosa A., in visible pain from the plastic handcuffs. “I was just there looking at magazines.” She laughed, lightening the mood in the police van. Even our arresting officer, in the van with us, chuckled.
Between when the Occupy Wall Street protests began on Sept. 17 and this weekend’s wave of media coverage stemming from the arrests, the protesters have complained about being largely ignored by traditional media, including the major national and even metropolitan newspapers, the cable TV news channels and the local network news stations. Meanwhile, argue the protesters, similarly sized Tea Party demonstrations in recent years have received considerable coverage. The general consensus among the Occupy Wall Street protesters was that it was important to document constantly what is happening, and to present their own story when other media hasn’t.
The protesters have also claimed that the media coverage they did receive painted them in an unflattering light and hasn’t accurately represented them. Saturday’s New York Times article characterized the protesters as uninformed, mostly white hippies and trust-funded anti-capitalists. As a result, the protesters I spoke with were quite media savvy and conscious of their need to represent themselves in an attempt to legitimize their cause, which they’ve been doing on their website, on Twitter and on Youtube. In fact, they have an entire media team assembled at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, where about a dozen laptops are being powered by a portable generator, and citizen journalists are constantly uploading new footage.
The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators have been criticized, including in the aforementioned New York Times piece, as unorganized and lacking in any concrete goals, other than to raise awareness about economic corruption.
But as we all sat in a jail, I noticed an interesting thing happen.
People began to talk very seriously about organizing in a more cohesive way than they have been. Jailhouse rookies, who had never been arrested or involved in radical political activities, listened attentively as experienced activists spoke about the need to set clear demands in order to rally broader public support for specific outcomes.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to Occupy Wall Street as a movement. Maybe it will fizzle out, maybe it will grow. I do know that whatever happens will be documented. And I know that there’s a history of activist movements being bolstered when leaders and followers alike are jailed together.
My cellmate Daniel Gross, a protester who volunteers as an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World Union, helped create the first union for Starbucks employees.
“I think the NYPD is really going to try to spin what happened today,” Gross told the group, as he handed out his contact information. “I think that we should organize our own press conference.”
Around 10:30 p.m. the police began letting us leave our cell in groups of two. Before leaving, many traded contact information through smuggled business cards and contraband pens.
The still-jailed cheered the newly free.
CLICK THE IMAGES BELOW TO SEE THE ROLE MEDIA PLAYED IN SATURDAY’S PROTEST:
Tags: civic engagement, grassroots, law, Media, NYPD, Occupy Wall Street, protest
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129 Comments
129 Responses
William Carleton (@wac6) September 27, 2011 -- 12:26 pm
Good reporting, thank you; please keep it up! Your piece also makes me think that maybe there should not be such a hard line drawn between “citizen journalists” and . . . not sure what to call the other kind of journalists – “professional,” let’s say.
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Ellis Amburn September 28, 2011 -- 12:52 pm
Thanks, John Farley, for courage and first-rate reportage. Now that mainstream media’s in Wall Street’s pocket, the Woodsteins of Watergate fame are emerging from the ranks of citizen journalists–fortunately for us all.
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flame821 September 27, 2011 -- 12:47 pm
William, I think the difference is between journalists and reporters. Journalist investigate all sides of a story and write cohesive articles detailing the finer points, they uncover and report the good and the bad regardless of affiliation or ruffled feathers. Reporters simply parrot what they are told and never look deeply or critically at what they are regurgitating to the public. Mr. Farley is a journalist, Lauren Ellis is a reporter. Getting paid does not separate the two, some of the highest paid people in news are nothing more than reporters.
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bigyaz September 28, 2011 -- 3:59 pm
You’re citing a non-existent distinction. Journalists are reporters; reporters are journalists. How well they do their job has nothing to do with what you call them.
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Frank Capillo September 28, 2011 -- 5:36 pm
You can’t just make things up and pretend that they’re facts just to make a “point”
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drjimmy September 29, 2011 -- 10:02 am
What difference does it make?!
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sami September 29, 2011 -- 11:55 am
You hit the nail on the head with that. We need more Journalist like Farley. Thanks Farley for your being so open minded and reporting the facts. Reporter on mainstream media have a bias opinion, so the truth will never come threw with them. Keep up the good work!
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Bri September 27, 2011 -- 12:47 pm
Very well done.It is very reflective of the state of affairs in the US today.Perhaps these small journalistic steps can overcome the immense apathy that has a stranglehold on the majority of US citizens.Keep up your good work,you are desperately needed.
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V. V. W. September 28, 2011 -- 2:21 pm
Bri, you’re absolutely right. The level of apathy in the US is shocking. Right now, I’d guess that not more than 15% of the population is aware that OccupyWallStreet is even going on.
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cj September 27, 2011 -- 12:51 pm
You’re all idiots. This is martial law. Get with it and wake up.
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PotatOS September 28, 2011 -- 11:14 am
Nice try , Antony Bologna.
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Angus September 29, 2011 -- 4:09 pm
No, I don’t think cj is coming at this from the Antony Bologna angle. If anything, directly in opposition. What Officer Bologna did was very much in keeping with an attempt to impose martial law, despite an official statement of it being imposed. As much support and goodwill as NYPD garnered in the wake of 9/11, they are quickly eroding that with their actions here. Whether the officers on the street are acting on orders, or simply have degenerated into a bunch of goons looking for any excuse to wield mace and club, I do not know, but either way the majority of the public needs to be made aware of their unprofessional behavior. The only thing which will cause this to stop is public outcry, and until it does stop, it is taking the focus away from the purpose of the protests. Maybe if the camera crews from C*O*P*S were there, they would behave themselves? Seems to work on the troopers the show rides along with, and you KNOW that the only reason those cops are as polite and tolerant as they are is because of the cameras.
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Christine September 27, 2011 -- 1:00 pm
This is very excellent. I’ll be honest when I said I hadn’t really been paying attention until the “shower them in champagne” comments were reported (http://goo.gl/xXG8c for reference) and the pepper spray to the face occurred. If I were anywhere near New York, now, I would be there.
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Anchorite September 28, 2011 -- 7:52 pm
Christine…thanks for the ” shower them in champagne” link….
truly enlightening…keep’em comng!!!!
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HeadyJ September 27, 2011 -- 1:40 pm
Mr. Farley,
I salute you for your courage and journalistic integrity. At a time when when media outlets and “journalists” are scrambling to ignore or demonize these protests, you not only covered them passionately and accurately but also pointed out the brutality and injustice visited not only on protesters but also on observers and even, perhaps especially members of the media. It is through true journalists such as yourself and the fearless members of the livestream media team that the 99% will prevail. Thank you again and please continue doing this morally and ethically important job.
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Frank Capillo September 28, 2011 -- 5:39 pm
There’s no scrambling to ignore this at all. There’s no platform that the protestors have, so what is there to report? News outlets can’t waste air time everytime someone just wants to make noise.
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mrman September 28, 2011 -- 7:32 pm
I am assuming this comment was made in jest? Have you watched any news in the last 15 years? “News outlets can’t waste air time every time someone wants to make noise”. Yes they can and they do. They just pick and choose depending on who this someone is and how much money/shock value they have, not how solid their “platform” is. Does Lindsey Lohan have a “platform”? Does American Idol have a “platform”? Do Nancy Grace’s nipples have a “platform”? Does Mel Gibson have a “platform” other than that he is a racist drunk? I could go on for days. If the major news media chose to spend their time on groups with strong “platforms” the ACLU, Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders would lead the top stories in the news everyday. I don’t recall seeing much peace and justice being talked about on news outlets in the last 15 years but I do recalling seeing drunk bigots, greedy corporate “leaders” and corrupt, fake politicians leading news stories quite often. If you don’t think there is a shared platform among these protesters that is stronger than the bs I just mentioned then I suggest you go down to Liberty square and see for yourself because the major media outlets are going to continue to act befuddled and say “they can’t grasp what it is all about” and “there is no goal” and there is no ” clear leader” and there is no “apparent platform”. Because that’s how they have always treated social movements. If they do write about them early on it is to confound and irritate their readers and get as many people to dismiss it as possible so it will go away and then there will never be a need to understand or explain anything. During civil rights it was what could these colored people possibly want? Don’t they already have it good enough? Labor movement: They should be happy they have jobs, what could their platform possibly consist of further than wanting a job? Women’s Lib: They are already allowed the right work, no one seems to know quite what it is that they could want other than that… The journalist that wrote this article grasped their “platform” I assure you. Mainly because he was there reporting with courage, not at home with spectacles reading the “Iraq 100% for sure has weapons of mass destruction” NY Times to get his information. Social movements often prevail because they are much more powerful than the people sitting at home, the NYT and other major media, their disinformation, politicians, corporate money and power put together. In fact, there was a revolution in this country in 1776 that was more powerful than all those things put together. More than 40% of this country at the time was with the Royalists who had the power and money but history tells us that a movement of people coming together and MAKING NOISE with statements like “WE ARE NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE” was “platform” enough to create a powerful revolution of the system in order to honor and respect justice, freedom and liberty. Don’t be confused or scared of revolution, it has spawned some of the greatest movements and moments the world has ever known. It’s now time that one of those moments comes back around.
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Anchorite September 28, 2011 -- 7:55 pm
AMEN brother…!!!!
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Robinh September 29, 2011 -- 7:16 am
GOD BLESS YOU. no one could have said it better. its obvious the person your responding to has been thoroughly brained washed into believing the disinformation that the msm puts out today. those who sit around and actually believe any and everything coming out of the msm are those who revel in living in denial. they are also the ones who have so much to say about others. one of the arguments i had on another site today is about the fact that these people are being labeled “trustfund babies” and “hippies” and when i posed the question of. well if they are trust fund babies then why exactly are they out their protesting? i mean according to all the posters these people are lazy bored good for nothings. and when i snapped back that at least they were not. THE ONE FALLING FOR THE HOOKEY. the forum lit up. the funny thing is the same people who are trying to degrade the movement and the people involved are also the ones who are constantly sitting behind their computers complaining about how no one from wall street went to jail for robbing us blind. and i stated why would they? what did any of you do to make sure they would get charged and indicted? oh i know you sat behind your computer complaining about it. again the forum lit up. these same idiots refuse to believe that the msm along with wall st and washington are owned by the world bankers. and the msm prints what they are told to print or they will be folded. “”We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries.” David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission, in an address to a meeting of The Trilateral Commission, in June, 1991.
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betsy shipley September 29, 2011 -- 6:55 pm
Excellent comment. We all know that if the tea party were there, the media would be all over them
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Demer September 29, 2011 -- 5:59 pm
The Tea Party did not have a consistent message for months and months, with each protest the press reported a wide range of complaints. Your point is irreverent. Even with a small turnout if this was a Tea Party event you better believe the news networks would be all over this. Whenever it’s an anti-business angled protest it seems to get largely blackballed by the media because, duh, most of the major networks are owned by large corporations and why would they give a narrative to a message that is bound to be against their interests?
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Tom Hillgardner September 27, 2011 -- 1:48 pm
The time has come where it should no longer be the police in charge of issuing press credentials. Those rules worked fine in the 1950′s. In the New Media Age they are anachronistic. The reporter here is a professional working journalist. Police continue to deny press credentials to public access television broadcasters who have programs airing for more than 10 years. Now with Twitter and Facebook and YouTube who is to say anymore who is a “legitimate” jopurnalist? Certainly not the police who are hell bent in suppressing the truth and who are well served by the current regime of press credentials where they know they get to say who gets to report about the police.
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Ray September 27, 2011 -- 3:42 pm
Remeber the current New York Police Dept. is also a “crack” anti-terrorist organization now, so being slightly heavy handed is now part of their mentality and trust and fair are not part of that training at all.
They have been honed on fear, doubt, mistrust and suspicion far more then they were when it was just to “protect and serve” now it is to suspect and seize.
In this case, With great power comes little accountiblity , since they are now elite and protected by the political agendas of the fear and chaos folks. (right wing media and leadership)
The beltway media ignores you folks, because the reality undermines their presidential debate and their pre-scheduled manipulations of the debates and messaging they want to get out, via their media masters, who are in essence corporate funders of their own agendas, which do not include working class liberals who are just as bad as the “hippies’ of the 1960′s.
Keep fighting, but remember your need to get national exposure and to do it ina NON-VIOLENT WAY are crtitcal.
They will push you, they need unrest and chaos to keep this from growing.
(refere back to the civil rights movement for your solutions.)
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Amelia September 28, 2011 -- 7:38 pm
You are so RIGHT ON, Ray. Yours is a voice of reason.
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Eric Jaffa September 27, 2011 -- 4:01 pm
I hope you sue for false arrest.
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Juan September 28, 2011 -- 7:44 pm
Unfortunately, you cannot sue the police for jailing you without cause. Part of the way things were built. In fact, if the police ignores your right to due process and keeps you jailed for 48 hours without telling you what you’re being charged with, you still can’t sue.
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rosa adams September 27, 2011 -- 4:06 pm
Mr. Farley
I been trying to get in contact with you. I wanted to know how you were doing after the arrest. I have pictures off my camera phone and don’t know what to do with them and they’re pretty powerful.
Rosa A.
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Oliver September 28, 2011 -- 3:22 am
Hi Rosa- would you like to share the pictures with the rest of us? You could perhaps upload the flickr in low res or something?
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rosa September 29, 2011 -- 2:28 pm
