KGO-TV Crew Detained

[goodfoot]

In case you haven't heard or seen it, reporter Wayne Freedman and photographer Craig Southern were roughed up, handcuffed, and detained by Napa Sheriffs deputies while covering a small fire. KTVU shot video and is streaming it raw. KGO plans on filing a grievance and a law suit. The sheriff's department has appologized.


http://www.ktvu.com/video/13667098/index.html

[Sean-1966]

What's the story... More info please.

[TXTechPhoto]

I didn't see them roughed up, but i did see the reporter acting like a jackass. More information is needed!

[goodfoot]

I guess his cell phone was "roughed up" more than anything, but here's the story from a local paper...

ABC claims sheriff's deputies detained reporter at fire scene
By DAVID RYAN
Register Staff Writer
Thursday, July 12, 2007
KGO-TV’s ABC7 news director Kevin Keeshan said Wednesday he would be pressing criminal charges and filing a civil lawsuit against Napa County Sheriff’s deputies for briefly detaining two of his colleagues.

Keeshan said ABC7 news photographer Craig Southern and reporter Wayne Freedman were detained by deputies around 4 p.m. Wednesday over an argument about whether the journalists were too close to a fire burning around the 2600 block of Atlas Peak Road.

Representatives of the Napa County Sheriff’s Department did not return phone calls regarding the incident.

Keeshan said deputies broke one of the men’s cell phones in half after he used it to film the other man being detained. Keeshan also said deputies confiscated equipment.

“I’ve been a journalist for 30 years in California and never in my 30 years have we ever had a reporter or photographer arrested or detained for doing their job,” Keeshan said.

The journalists were filming the fire about a quarter mile south from the blaze from where a Napa Valley Register reporter and photographer were allowed by deputies to gather news near the base of the fire.

“We will pursue all legal actions,” Keeshan said, adding a Napa County Sheriff’s representative called to apologize and assure him the department would perform an internal investigation.





[Since the cell phone was being used as a news gathering device, I wonder if breaking it constitutes assault & battery. I have been told that if someone damages your camera while you are shooting it is an extension of you as a journalist & it is protected by the same rights that you are. Maybe law enforcement has the right to damage your equipment if they don't like what you are shooting...it seems like lately there have been more limitations on what we are allowed to do and where we are allowed to go even if we are within our legal rights. I think this is an important case to follow.]

[Chicago Dog]

Neither the video nor the brief article give very much information.

What I did notice was the shooter resisting arrest. There's not much you can do when you're in cuffs with some ham-fisted sheriff's deputy holding your wrists behind your back. Putting up a fight is a dumb idea. Don't give the cops a reason to put your face into the side of a truck.

Let the lawyers do the fighting. That's what they're there for.

[Baltimore Shooter]

"What would Terry Toller do"?



Warren

[Cambot Mk. II]

I think Terry would say this was felony assault since the cell phone was destroyed.
I think it's called "assault under color of law", or something like that.

Regardless of what the legal settlement will be, the Sherrif's dept. now has footage of their actions out in the public domain.
I wouldn't want to be in their shoes right now.

[Tdomi74]

I loved the the part when the photographer started to resisting arrest. The cop knowing that he was being filmed kindly leaned the photographer into the side of the truck and give him a stern yet quiet talking too. After that I think the photographer realize that he was no match to wrestle with him. After that he complied with the deputy orders.

Granted we have the right to do our jobs as long as we stay on the outside of the yellow tape. At the scence there was no yellow tape that I saw in the video that was offered on line. So that leads me to believe that the deputies ask them to move a few times and judging by the reaction of the reporter. He was the person that got them in this mess in the first place am betting.

[PhrozenPhoto]

The odd thing to me, if they were sooo close to the fire where the hell was it?? You don't see any smoke flames or anything anywhere near them?? I thought CA had it written somewhere in their penal code that if a journalist is willing to assume the risk and is not interfering they can cross certain perimeters to do their job. Then right at the end you hear the cop telling someone they can shoot from pretty much the exact spot you see the other two getting cuffed... odd to say the least. I don't know Napa very well, but everything I've heard it's a pretty upscale area, so hopefully this crew hits that upscale communties' pocketbook hard to help them remember journalist's rights.

[Tdomi74]

I have to admit the reporter in said video should get an emmy for the arrest.

[David R. Busse]

Originally Posted by Tdomi74

Granted we have the right to do our jobs as long as we stay on the outside of the yellow tape.

This was California, and we have penal code section 409.5 which specifically ALLOWS media inside of closed emergency scenes like fire. I'll leave it to others to quote the law chapter and verse.

The reporter was continuing a distingushed family tradition.

Wayne Freedman (a friend of mine for more than 30 years) is the son of the late Mike Freedman, an ABC Sports cameraman who was involved in a nationally-televised football sideline scuffle in the late 1970s. The game was not going the way Ohio State coach Woody Hayes wanted, so Hayes turned around and punched whatever he could find, which happened to be Mike Freedman and his HL77 sideline camera. It got big media play back then and was the first incident that led to Hayes' eventual firing.

[Todd Rogenthien]

It sounded like the photographer was telling the deputy that he was not taking his camera. I think he was trying to get away in order to protect his gear. You would think the officers would have more pressing issues during a wildfire to tend to. And if they were too close, then what's the deal with all of the other media you could see in the video?

Now more importantly, who is that behind Busse in that pic? It looks a lot like Don Cherry.

[Canonman]

Here is the reporter's side of the story...

http://webblog.abc7news.com/2007/07/...-leading-.html

He describes what led up to the confrontation, which should help put some of the armchair quarterbacking to rest in this thread.

cm

[cameradog]

Originally Posted by Tdomi74

I have to admit the reporter in said video should get an emmy for the arrest.

Lemme explain something for those who don't know who this is. I know Wayne Freedman. If Wayne was angry, he had reason to be. If I remember correctly, at last count Wayne had more than 50 Emmies. He doesn't have room to display them all. He was also the subject of a documentary that won an Academy Award. Wayne is a f*cking legend, and probably a better reporter than anybody here has worked with (except Busse, who I believe has actually worked with Wayne himself).

His background doesn't necessarily make him right. But in a situation where it's Wayne's word against a couple of hotdog cops, I'm more than willing to give Wayne the benefit of the doubt. This is NOT a guy who has made a career out of mistakes.

From what I know of the situation, California law gave Wayne and Craig the right to be where they were. The cops did NOT have the right to remove them. The cops did NOT have the right to detain them. The cops did NOT have the right to break Wayne's cellphone. Everything about this is bullsh*t as far as the cops' actions are concerned.

The sheriff knew immediately his department had f*cked up; that's why he quickly acknowledged the mistake and made his deputies back down. Unfortunately his department STILL needs to pay dearly for the infringement of the journalists' rights, to send the proper message to ALL hotdog cops in California who still don't understand the laws they swore to uphold. The sad thing is that I suspect that Wayne's reputation had something to do with the sheriff's reaction. If it had been a lesser-known reporter in the same situation, would he have been as quick to recognize the mistake?

[David R. Busse]

[QUOTE=Now more importantly, who is that behind Busse in that pic? It looks a lot like Don Cherry.[/QUOTE]

You win a case of Molson Canadian for correctly identifying "Grapes," my favorite Canadian TV personality.

To answer another question, yes, I have worked with Wayne Freedman many times...even worked the 1984 Winter Olympics with his Dad (a huge thrill for me).

BTW, did you know that the KGO news director Kevin Keeshan is the nephew of Robert Keeshan, a/k/a tv's "Captain Kangaroo?"

[Todd Rogenthien]

You can send my case of Molson to KVUE along with any autographed copies of "Don Cherry's Grapevine" you may have sitting around.

Don Cherry = GENIUS! (only when he's not doggin' my Sabres though)

[Lenslinger]

I'm reluctantly holding back on issuing a Class 5 Schmuck Alert on the Napa County Sheriff’s Department for one reason: a veteran reporter acts like a total dillweed on the now obligatory videotape. More on that later. For now, the facts: Shortly after KGO-TV's Wayne Freedman and Craig Southern arrived at the scene of a fire this afternoon, law enforcement officials rescinded their invitation. Trouble is, the news crew had no invitation. See, breaking news doesn't come with an RSVP; when newsworthy events occur in a free society, journalists can go anywhere (a private citizen can) in order to record, document and disseminate the details. It's a little thing we call Freedom of the Press and a bunch of guys in powdered wigs and knee socks thought it was important enough to include it in a very important document two hundred and thirty some years ago. You'd think by now, the Napa County Sheriff's Department would had received the memo. Apparently not.

Of course, I wasn't on that California cliffside this afternoon. (I was interviewing a Russell Terrier in a surfboard sweater, if you must know.) Thus, I can only guess at what preceded the recorded take-down, the sequenced still shots, the reporter's account and the internet chatter now swirling around this temporary detainment. Taken as a whole, it's a multi-media conundrum that puts some product launches to shame. It's also a techicolor testament to the politics of spot news. Increased adrenaline, pack mentality, competitive paranoia and power grabs: these highly reactive factors are all in play when calamity, cops and camera crews and collide. As a reformed Southerner, I myself am probably a bit too passive by the flashing lights, but then again I've always found amannerly disposition and good ole boy slouch got me alot farther than screeching fits and attempted levitation. Still, it is hard to debate Constitutional Law with a guy trying to twist your arm behind your back.

Which brings me to my lone caveat. I have every reason to believe the Napa County Sheriff's Department was wrong in their detainment of KGO's camera crew - an assertion reinforced by the fact that both reporter and photog were soon released with no charges filed and little explanation given. But to the average viral video viewer, the guilt surely lies in the Fouth Estate. Why? As the footage begins, reporter Wayne Freedman is on the verge of apoplexy: screaming, squirming, demanding legal counsel. That's all well within this allegedly legendary journalist's rights, but methinks he'd be better off if, instead of behaving like Rick Flair on a ringside tear, he'd follow my folks wise advice and 'act like he had some smarts'. Perhaps then, these increasingly common clips of 'Cops Gone Caveman' wouldn't be so damned wince-inducing to watch. Just sayin'...

[couryhouse]

What is the Law in Az.... I am here but... I keep to the edge of scenes.......and have not pushed the envelope so do not know where the edges of the envelope are...

Originally Posted by David R. Busse

This was California, and we have penal code section 409.5 which specifically ALLOWS media inside of closed emergency scenes like fire. I'll leave it to others to quote the law chapter and verse.

The reporter was continuing a distingushed family tradition.

Wayne Freedman (a friend of mine for more than 30 years) is the son of the late Mike Freedman, an ABC Sports cameraman who was involved in a nationally-televised football sideline scuffle in the late 1970s. The game was not going the way Ohio State coach Woody Hayes wanted, so Hayes turned around and punched whatever he could find, which happened to be Mike Freedman and his HL77 sideline camera. It got big media play back then and was the first incident that led to Hayes' eventual firing.

[David R. Busse]

Don't think Arizona has such a law...wait'll you try to cover a wildfire there. You won't get near the thing. It's like shooting news in Communist China.

[couryhouse]

Ok... I have not tried to cover any of those... You ran into DPS or Forestry folk... I have never worked with any of them...

I did have alot of fun with the Sheriff Joe's Helicopter Pilots.. we did a little interview.

I am not able to run with any amount of weight much any more.... and I fear if I got close to the wildfire I might become one of the statistics...

In Glendale here Fire ad Police have been very helpful.
Ed

Originally Posted by David R. Busse

Don't think Arizona has such a law...wait'll you try to cover a wildfire there. You won't get near the thing. It's like shooting news in Communist China.