Writers from the Washington Post and Huffington Post were assaulted and arrested after authorities swarmed a Ferguson, Missouri McDonald’s restaurant Wednesday (Aug. 13). The arrests are the latests in a long lists, as the tensions between police and resident power forward since a cop killed 18-year-old unarmed Black teen, Mike Brown last weekend. The Poynter Institute Reports:
Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery and Huffington Post reporter Ryan J. Reilly said on Twitter Wednesday night that they’d been arrested and released while working in a McDonald’s. Both journalists were reporting on the scene in Ferguson, Missouri. Lowery had just filed a piece about the police in Ferguson, where police shot a young man named Michael Brown on Sunday night. Earlier tonight, when asked on Twitter who he feared more, protesters or police, Lowery replied: “easy answer, i’m a black man – the police.” Mike Cavender, the executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association, urged Ferguson police to “work with journalists.” Reporters who’ve been covering the unrest there reported police have fired rubber bullets into crowds that included journalists.
Lowery’s were credentials were visible to the officers. He and Reilly were subsequently released, and no charges will be filed against them. Earlier today the city asked residents to limit their protest to “daylight hours” and to keep them “in an organized and respectful matter, ” but failed to own up to the ongoing police brutality. “The City of Ferguson mourns the loss of Michael Brown’s life that occurred this past Saturday,” the statement reads in part. “We understand members of our community, and those nationwide, are grieving with us. We have worked diligently to provide an opportunity for our resident to both grieve and voice frustrations through prayer vigils and peaceful protests.
It goes on to say that the city is “working to restore confidence in the safety of our community and our neighborhoods so that we can begin the healing process.”
View Lowery and Reilly’s tweets in the gallery. — Photos: Twitter
