MINNEAPOLIS, MN—On Friday, May 29, the Minnesota State Patrol arrested a CNN reporter and his crew while they were reporting about the ongoing protests.
The protests – which in some cases have morphed into riots – are taking place to decry the murder of George Floyd, and to push for charges against the now-terminated officers who allegedly killed him.
A recording of the live broadcast of the crew’s arrest can be watched at twitter.com/CNN/status/1266315061221613569?s=20. It has been viewed over 5.2 million times so far.
The correspondent is Omar Jimenez. All members of the crew were “handcuffed and detained” on a street in Minneapolis at around 5:10 a.m. CT. One of the arrestees – a photographer called Lionel – told CNN that police claimed they were detained because they did not move despite being asked to.
In the recording, Jimenez can be heard telling the officers:
“We can move back to where you’d like. We can move back to where you’d like here. We are live on the air at the moment…This is the four of us, we are one team… Just put us back where you want us, we were getting out of your way, so just let us know… Wherever you’d want us, we’ll go. We were just getting out of your way when you were advancing through the intersection, so just let us know and we got you.”
A fellow CNN correspondent in the area, Josh Campbell, said that the police also came to him – but he was given permission to stay.
“I identified myself … they said, ‘OK, you’re permitted to be in the area,'” said Campbell to CNN. “I was treated much differently than (Jimenez) was.”
“A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves – a clear violation of their First Amendment rights,” Tweeted CNN. “The authorities in Minnesota, [including] the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately.”
CNN Communications confirmed at 6:43 a.m. CT that the crew had been released. At 7:00 a.m. the Minnesota State Patrol Tweeted that “the three were released once they were confirmed to be members of the media.”
The Tweet has garnered over 7,200 comments thus far – a number that is increasing by the hundreds every few seconds. Canyon News has not managed to locate a positive response in the comments as yet. CNN replied to the Tweet after half an hour.
