Ark photog cuffed doing his job

The photographer should be filing a complaint with the state. I don't understand why he wouldn't.

 

As someone who did a couple of years as a crime reporter, you can't help but to be anxious around cops. Sure, the chief or desk lieutenant or PR officer can blow smoke up your ass about all kinds of helpful tips on how to cover a scene, but you're not always going to know the cop on the scene and he won't always know you. You're just some asshole about to get in his way.

Not to mention, they have semiautomatics and a few extra clips on the belt. And the taser.

But if he was so roughed up, he should have filed a complaint and kept his bitching out of the paper. It's attention whorish.

 

I don't have the problem many of you have with the piece.

Is it the best first-person piece I've ever read? No.
Could it have been written tighter? Sure.
Could it have been edited for context, chronology and syntax? Of course.

But, this isn't the only first-person account of the year. Some work. Some don't. This is "community journalism." He witnessed a perceived abuse of power and felt the need -- and of course had the forum -- to report said abuse.

 

I thought the cancer and the pain he was in standing that long were relevant. But that's me.

Yeah, it could have been tightened.

 

The only problem I have, fish, is that he felt the need to report the abuse but it's not his style to file a complaint?
If you go public with this, you damn well better back it up with a formal complaint or it reeks of hypocrisy and look-at-me journalism.

 

I certainly can understand your stance.

Wear another's shoes for a moment:
I'm ex-military too. Filing a formal complaint, one that will be forever attached to a personnel file, is very difficult to do. I'm sure many, many of you read right through that. It's not something a 25+ year Vet does.
That's what he was trying to convey. Not that he was a coward. Or afraid to make a stand. Or fearful he was in the wrong. Again, it comes down to execution. I think the intent was ok.

 

Just in case anyone was curious.
The cop's suspended...

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2007/12/trooper_off_the_streets.aspx#more

 

Jay, thanks for the update.

 

Good to see this will not be just pushed under the rug. It is almost that they want to make an example of the trooper.

 

If you poke around the blog, you'll find that the trooper has a rep. for being a douche and the reporter was previously a high-powered, well-connected lobbyist, who retired to reporting.
Warning to cops everywhere, don't cuff the guy who has the governor's number on his cell phone.

 

Kind of got the feeling he was a holding an ace -- (not you, Ace) -- but, an ace.

 

Which blog are you referring to? Thanks.