Brown Palace Hotel and brownshirts in Denver
Aug 27, 2008 Medialites, Oppression, Politics and Poker
These days you’d think that perhaps (maybe from reading my other blog) free expression, commercial or otherwise, were solely an Internet issue, and the MSM is mostly on the other side of it, hiding behind some pretextual body of law or another. (And perhaps you’d think free expression were solely a suntan lotion issue!) But it’s not:
DENVER–Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.
Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit. . . .
A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.
Read the whole article (via Glenn Reynolds), which includes language we don’t even bleep out at 
LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION
August 27th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
If you ever wanted to branch out from IP law, the area of photographer
August 27th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
[...] MORE ON THE ARREST OF THAT ABC NEWS CREW outside of the Brown Palace, from Ronald Coleman. [...]
August 28th, 2008 at 8:13 am
We shouldn’t jump to blaming the Police. Perhaps this was more of an arrest of an obnoxious Journalist rather than a suppression of Photography issue. Remember this was between two potential boneheads. Cops and Jobbers, err Journalists.
By the assertion that they were blocking the sidewalk I surmise, (Guess), that Police in question had an issue with the Photogs behavior. And I know from experience that ‘Professional’ Journos think they have a right to be at locations that the mere hoi polloi cannot go.
So until we have more information, I’m going with Occam here and siding with the Police. After all, some Cops are bad, but all Journalists, well….
August 28th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Journalists can indeed by pushy and obnoxious. But did you watch video?
August 28th, 2008 at 9:39 am
[...] we fear teh Barry?
August 28th, 2008 at 11:11 am
What are the names of the cops involved?
August 28th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Wow, I hadn’t seen the video. Don’t these cops know SOP is to seize the camera? I’d charge that cop with false arrest and endangerment.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that any thing said in a public square can be legally heard, anything seen in a public square can be legally photographed.
The Denver Police are going to have a a lot of fun with this section 1983 claim. And by ‘fun’ I mean they are going to pay up.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Did you see the cop with the cigar, some guys just do it for the movie star self image. He was the one with his hands around the reporters neck. No doubt he puts his uniform on four legs legs at a time then poses in front of the mirror for an hour…just looking for some action to talk about in the locker room.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Jonah Goldberg’s book Liberal Fascism came out just in time for us to view Obama’s thug-driven, mass-stupidity campaign as fascistic. Our maximum leader in training is determined to wipe out all traces of his actual life history and beliefs.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
We contacted the hotel today, the Denver DA office and also ABC. The hotel had EXTRA cameras up due to a need for extra security. We told them they should show that to the Denver DA and the internal police investigators. Everyone should contact the Internal Affairs of the Denver Police Dept. and the Boulder country Sheriffs Office. 3 of those officers should be ashamed of themselves and so should the hotel. The three members of the crew did leave the property and were right on the sidewalk when the first officer came up and pushed him into traffic. The camera doesnt lie, nor the audio. What happened to the 3 hour period between when the Brown Palace placed the complaint at 9AM and the arrest and booking time at noon? According to the hotel, he was blocking guests and a mircophone hit a guests head. SHOW THE VIDEO TO INTERNAL AFFAIRS BROWN PALACE. For a police officer to push a man across the street into oncoming traffic, tell him the Brown Palace owns the side walk he is on (he admitted the man was on the side walk), and another officer telling him he was lucky that he didnt know the f++k out of him. The man made NO resistance and NEVER put his hands up and had a cell phone in his hand. You can better believe the City of Denver will pay lots of money for this error and those “officers of the court” are thugs and should loose their jobs and charged accordinly just as any of us would. They oversteped their authority in so many ways. CALL THE HOTEL, DENVER INTERNAL AFFAIRS OFFICE, BOULDER COUNTY SHERIFFS PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE… LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!
September 5th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
also, contact the reporter’s attorney in Denver. Google the reporters name and put in “attorney” and you can find the attoneys name. Contact them and let them know what you saw and get a statment to them. His arrangment is in less than a month I believe.