Bloomberg's defense of press restrictions during the raid on Zuccotti Park
A night at Zuccotti Park. Man Bartlett via flickr
12:59 pm Dec. 9, 20112
In a radio interview this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg denied the police department prevented reporters from covering the police department's clearing of Zuccotti Park. He also said, as he did shortly after the Nov. 15 raid, that the police curtailed reporters' access to the park to prevent them from getting hurt.
They were asked to "step aside so the police can do their job," Bloomberg said today.
That is sharply at odds with the version of events from media outlets who covered the raid, in the course of which a number of reporters were arrested for allegedly trespassing.
Bloomberg, who owns a media company bearing his name, said, "You don't have a right, as a press person, to stand in the way just in the interest of you getting a story."
The Observer's Hunter Walker wrote this morning that the skirmish between police and reporters "kept them several blocks from the park," and Rosie Gray at the Village Voice noted Bloomberg's comments today also included the argument that granting reporters full access to the police action wouldn't "be fair to the protesters," who would then have had to be "running around, and working around things, it's hard to find out what's going on, hard to communicate. And then people can get hurt as well."
Here's what the mayor said:
The press made a big deal they were denied their rights. They were asked, as we do with every such thing where the police have to take action, you have to step aside so the police can do their job. You don't have a right, as a press person, to stand in the way just in the interest of you getting a story. We didn't keep anybody from reporting. They just had to stand to the side while the police did their job. Police have to protect people. Police are human beings; they want their lives protected as well. And in the middle of any police action you just can't let another group in and get in the way of doing something. It would also not be fair to the protesters because then you're running around, and working around things, it's hard to find out what's going on, hard to communicate. And then people can get hurt as well. So, I think in looking back, they did a great job.
Rights like Freedom of Press are some of the basic requirements our Founding Fathers based our ENTIRE legal and political systems on. These rights are being endangered and flat-out violated by denying access to Occupy events to witness the police brutality going on in the police state we are being subjected to. Raise your voice and concern and defend the rights we are entitled to by spreading the word with these free posters I designed on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/11/propaganda-for-occupy-movemen...
On Friday January 6 starting at 2pm. I am organizing a protest at Bloomberg's Mansion at 79th St. and 5th Ave. against the repeated arrests and unconstitutional police brutality against the NYC Working Press corps, freelance journalists and Indymedia livestreamers. There is a Facebook page for this / Protest Arrests of Journalists Photograph Bloomberg's block for 10 hours. I also organized the drum circle protest there and Civil Rights attorney Norman Siegel will be present to help us protect our first amendment rights. I worked for over 20 years as a photojournalist and had a NYPD issued press card for most of those years.