The ongoing protests in Ferguson, Mo. highlights clearly that tensions between police and citizens in the southern town have escalated to new heights. Monday evening, a reporter for a large outlet was roughed up by police and had his press badge taken from him.
Huffington Post reporter Ryan J. Reilly, who has covered the events in Ferguson in the past, was working on the ground and capturing the happenings as they occured. Police in the area, applying unusually overzealous tactics, began to push and shove Reilly and took his media badge despite the reporter announcing he’s there as an agent of the press.
Buzzfeed reporter Brandon Wall caught the altercation between Reilly and the police using the video feature of his cell phone. During the tussle, Reilly can be heard screaming loudly “I am press!” to no avail. Eventually, Reilly was able to obtain his badge again after demanding it from the officers.
But there was another point of worry when police left the area and the “Oathkeepers,” a group of so-calledpatriots that reportedly embrace Right Wing ideology, appeared in town armed with openly with all types of weapons. The reasosn the Oathkeepers were in the area conflicted throughout the night and morning, with some claiming they were there to protect InfoWars reporters while others say they were there to protect protestors from police.
Check out the following pages to get some of the up close accounts of what went down in Ferguson Monday night and into the early hours of Tuesday morning.
[h/t to Crooks and Liars]
https://instagram.com/p/6O8QidCrhq/
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Photo: Instagram
