Deion's mom says he's cool

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/aug/07/reporter-handcuffed-news-press-threatens-sue-naple/

Nothing says good times like being arrested at a youth football game and then getting cut loose because Deion Sanders' mother vouched for you.

 

OK, for the next time some starts a thread about what to wear on an assignment, I'm going to guess that if reporter David Dorsey had been dressed at least in slacks and a polo shirt, he would not have been detained by police.

 

Slacks in southern Florida in the middle of summer. Are you serious?

 

Awesome:

The staff member who initially pointed Dorsey out to the officers cried when informed of the miscommunication.

 

Slacks or handcuffs. Take your pick.

Seriously, I hear this stuff all the time and I really don't think that you are going to be hospitalized because you wore 23'' more khaki on your legs than if you wore cargo pants.

I am pretty sure most police officers this side of Reno 911 survive wearing pants to work on a daily basis.

 

The slacks v. shorts arguments are lame. Look nice whether you're wearing one or the other, or follow your newspaper's policies. It wasn't the shorts that got him detained.

Providing some solid identification from the newspaper with your name and position, along with contact inforformation at the paper, might help. Not asking a cop for his ID or resisting also wouldn't hurt.

A guy tries five times to get to Sanders? During that time no one can positively identify the guy who has been there since 1995 as a newspaper reporter? He doesn't positively identify himself to someone in charge (like the flack who boo-hoos later?)

There seems to be some more to this story.

 

Pervs wear slacks, too. Bring a press pass.

 

Guy can wear flip-flops, board shorts, and a Hawaiian shirt for all I care. As long as he has a press pass. Doesn't even have to be for this specific event. Many of our people don't have official photo IDs that state they're from our shop. They have non-photo passes that identify them as employees of ours, and use that in conjunction with a driver's license.

Sounds like a combination of a guy thinking everyone knew him and not being prepared, an overzealous police department, and a poorly managed event.

 

A little more info since I work with David.

The thing the article left out, probably because it made no attempt to call David Dorsey, was he did try to hand the officer his paper issued credential and the officer would not look at it. And there is a witness who saw David try to show the credential and is willing to testify to that. He also was not attempting to talk to Deion 5 times. He was walking on and off the field interviewing different people like Deion's wife, his mother, former principal, players from the Naples team.

Lastly, what would you wear to cover two Pop Warner games on a Saturday afternoon in 95 degree heat? In Florida, we wear shorts, polos, hats and lots of sun screen. There's a thing called skin cancer that we try to avoid down here. By the way, the police officers were also wearing shorts.

 

At least he didn't call out the cops' mamas.

 

And I don't really care what he was wearing or blame him for wearing shorts and a cap.

I just pointed it out because it is a constant source of angst and discussion on these boards and it seemed to play into this incident.