[dfxm12]

We can't pretend this is the first time something like this has happened. The problem is we see this abuse of power all the time and no one pays the consequences. The problem is qualified immunity is baked in to our legal system, so it is all too easy for those responsible to evade justice.

[andsoitis]

> we see this abuse of power all the time and no one pays the consequences

Where there is no consequence to the police departments go after the press who are investigating them?

I don’t know that we see that all the time! In fact, that’s why this story is news!

[petsfed]

A quick search revealed at least 10 distinct incidents in the US over the last 4 years (mainly in summer 2020) of reporters identifying themselves as such, and then being attacked by police. I haven't done the work to see how often there were repercussions for those attacks, but I'm willing to be its pretty rare.

[sanderjd]

Your quick search doesn't seem to have revealed something that is the same as the story we're discussing.

Like, I totally agree with you about qualified immunity and law enforcement abuses of power, but come on, you're using this story to make extremely tangential points.

This isn't an example of law enforcement attacks on the press going unpunished. I saw this on the Today show this morning. This is mainstream national news. The criminals who perpetrated this are no longer the beneficiaries of a system that is corruptly stacked in their favor, they are f'd. They will be speaking to the US DoJ, and soon, and the conversation will not go well.

For sure, when abuses of power don't get widespread attention, they can easily go unchecked. And that's bad. But this isn't that.

[petsfed]

Its a reach on my part, granted.

My claim is that there's less distance in the mind of the police between beating up a reporter for taking pictures of the police behaving badly, and raiding a newspaper for investigating reports of the police behaving badly.

[dfxm12]

This isn't an example of law enforcement attacks on the press going unpunished.

OK, I'll bite. What was the punishment?

[sanderjd]

This just happened! The punishment is not a "was", it is a "will be"!

Do you think this is a story about something that happened last year? This happened on Friday and started receiving attention two days later, which was yesterday. This is the third day since this happened. It will take months to investigate this kind of thing, and the actual punishment, after that investigation and trials, will be years from now.

If you want to have a conversation about how quickly investigations happen, fine, but three days is a completely absurd expectation.

If this gets buried and nobody deigns to prosecute it, I'll happily pick up my pitch fork and join the rest of you, but until then, for goodness sake, have some patience.

[dfxm12]

So it's not an example of an example of law enforcement going unpunished, as you said?

If this gets buried and nobody deigns to prosecute it...

Is this one is the last straw, then?