Attacks on Journalists, WeAreChange Almost Gets Arrested

In this video you see a guy wearing a dark blue hooded sweater and a black winter cap seconds after he lunges at journalist Tim Poole, people grab him and he's caught on tape. A little later in the video you see police attempting to arrest the same guy, around 3:39 to 3:47 you see him, but you must be swift with your pausing skills. As far as I can tell, he's exactly the same guy. Police let him go after grabbing him and that's that. You see the scene twice.

Who's this guy? Is there more to it? Supposedly there have been coordinated attacks on independent journalists, but I'm only typing what I've read. Another journalist, OccupyFreedomLA had something similar happen to her in which she had her phone stolen in Oakland. Tim also made a few tweets today regarding someone that was following him, one which includes a photo of the guy on a bridge in the distance, the other regarding the license plate of somebody following him.

As well you hear a pretty fowl mouthed cop lash out at Luke, the recorder, for what it seems, just recording and running. The cop says he could find 20 reasons to arrest him, which is bull.

I may not be in full support of the actions of OWS, but it does anger me that information is tampered with and that these journalists are being attacked, threatened or subject to having their recording devices stolen or damaged. It's clear that mainstream media will never, ever be as in-tune and conscious of these events so much as those who record them live giving the audience a clear, unbiased, uncut view of what happens. Plenty do not want this.

In any case, watch the video and post what your thoughts are.

reply to post by murkraz

Tim Pool is a rather controversial figure -

In our coverage of last night's Occupy Wall Street march, we noted that a masked protester struck a man operating a camera that was livestreaming. That man is Tim Pool, a well-known if extremely divisive documenter of Occupy Wall Street.

Pool records everything he sees—including protesters releasing the air out of the tires of NYPD squad cars during the eviction of Zuccotti Park. Last night, Pool's presence was especially significant considering the aggressive tactics of some of the protesters: is he a valuable outlet for transparency or a self-promoting "snitch" who has been less than candid about his motives?

"He's not part of the OWS media team. That could mean he's getting paid from somewhere else," a protester who attended the planning of last night's action and declined to be identified, told us. "Let's talk about transparency: where is his money coming from?" Presumably Pool receives donations—and he has over 11,000 Twitter followers, while many more watch his livestream.

OWS doesn't seem to like him much. Maybe they are responsible for the attack (a masked protestor) and trying to turn it around. "Innocent journalist attacked" - only no where does it say by "police or authority figures". Very interesting controversy. Is he truly an independent journalist? What is his agenda or more importantly - is he on someone's payroll?

gothamist.com...

Regardless what you are the only thing you should care about is documenting things as they actually are. In a big even such as this if you "choose sides" with your camera it is easy to spot from multiple sources showing things differently.

reply to post by Maluhia


Actually most of the movement loves Tim Pool and has a large amount of respect for what he does, it's the provocatuers/morons that are only around to cause trouble, that are out for him because he films what they do and doesn't shy away from pointing them out to cops.