Did News Corp. and the NYPD block protesters' free speech?
On Monday, I reported on an incident that took place at the News Corp. headquarters building in midtown Manhattan, where three volunteers handing out copies of a New York Post parody issue were detained and their newspapers confiscated. The episode raised a couple of troubling questions: Why did NYPD officers take it upon themselves to interfere with citizens who were exercising their First Amendment rights without breaking the law? And did News Corp. -- a journalistic enterprise that has a vested interest in defending free speech -- have anything to do with it? The answers I've gotten are not reassuring.
Melissa Lockwood, one of the three volunteers involved in the incident, says she arrived at 1211 Avenue of the Americas at 4:30 a.m. to begin distributing copies of the parody, produced by an activist group called The Yes Men to call attention to climate change. Lockwood says she handed out hundreds of copies over three hours with no trouble.
But that changed sometime after 7:30 a.m., when one of her fellow volunteers succeeded in placing a paper into the hand of News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch as he entered the building. Shortly after that, says Lockwood, two police officers who had been observing from a patrol car parked nearby approached her and instructed her to stop what she was doing.
"They were like, 'These are not the real New York Post. This is a forgery. You could be in big trouble,'" Lockwood recalls. "They said we couldn't leave until the New York Post officials came to prove that that we had fraudulent papers." The officers took possession of several bundles of papers -- as the photo below, taken by photographer Jason Nicholas, shows -- and refused to allow passersby to take any more copies, says Lockwood. After about 20 minutes, she says, the police told the volunteers they could leave.
A spokesman in the police department's public information office, Detective Joseph Cavitolo, disputed some details of Lockwood's account. "Nobody was detained," Cavitolo says. "They were spoken to." He also insisted that the volunteers' newspapers weren't confiscated, but merely moved off the sidewalk, where they were blocking foot traffic. "Nobody took any papers," he says. Cavitolo could not say what had become of them.
But Lockwood insists she was detained, if only informally. "I asked if I could leave when they first approached me, and they were like, 'No, give us your ID,'" she says. She acknowledges that she made no attempt to recover the estimated 250 to 300 copies the police had taken, chalking it up to intimidation. "The policemen said they needed to have the papers there with them, because someone from the Post was coming over to inspect them ... and they implied we would be in more trouble if we were still there" when that happened, she says.
A spokesman for the Post did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but a spokeswoman for News Corp. insists the company had no involvement. (The Post ran an AP story on the parody today, with a good-natured headline: "We're flattered! Fake 'Post' prank.")
But Mike Bonanno, one of The Yes Men's two founders, believes a complaint from inside the building, possibly from Murdoch himself, did, in fact, prompt the police response. "[The volunteers] had been there for hours previous to that without having anyone respond," he says. "Then a News Corp. representative came out, and following that the police basically followed through on what the News Corp. representative wanted them to do. They tried to spank us."
Bonanno says he's prepared to let the incident go. "We see it as a minor inconvenience, no matter how illegal it was. They can take our words, but we have more."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-22-2009 @ 4:48PM
Gregor said...
Why am I not surprised.. The Police these days will go to great lengths to intimidate citizens trying to exercise their rights and many citizens become intimidate by those, who were sworn in, to ' Protect 'n Serve' the very people, they try to intimidate and worse, under the ' color of law'.
Our society is becoming more Orwellian everyday, and
The People better get a handle on their local Police Depts. and hold them accountable, instead of ' walking or looking ' the other way. Always question perceived authority..
Police break the laws more often than not. Don't be intimidated and KNOW your Rights [.]
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9-22-2009 @ 10:04PM
MARK said...
Not to argue with the post above, but last time I tried to know my rights and not be intimidated they just threatened to arrest me for obstructing justice and all that. I backed off because I know my rights but if two cops say, against my word, that I did something they are going to win. The world isn't fair but I'm not going to get arrested for something I didn't do.
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9-23-2009 @ 7:20AM
Shawn said...
Pleading not guilty to a moving violation cost me $395. The only thing I was guilty of was being niave enough to think that the police officer would tell the truth under oath. I wonder how many innocent people he put behind bars. Which I have no doubt he had, Scary. Local retarded man (I.Q. 50) just won 2 million for an illeagle arrest and imprisonment. He spent 26 years in prison on a police fabrication. But guess what no jail time in this heinous crime perpertraited on one of our brother citizens.
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9-23-2009 @ 7:22AM
jnjarnold said...
Years ago I took a job as a staff reporter at the local newspaper office and was just over the moon about it. However, 8 months in I got a lead on a story that involved misconduct within our police department; not so unusual except for the fact that the misconduct that took place resulted in a serious crime being commited by an individual who was, on paper and according to court records, supposed to be in jail at the time but was not, due to a private agreement between the sheriff, this criminal and a local judge. After taking the facts to my editor and then having it reviewed by the owner of the paper and his lawyer, it was confirmed that the agreement made between the three men was illegal because, among other reasons, its main purpose was to benefit the judge and officer. The story was set to go to print when this judge and sheriff showed up in the newsroom, took my editor aside and threatened everything from pulling advertising to putting a gag order on us if we went through with printing the story. I live in a fairly small communty, and I learned a hard lesson that day.....people like to believe we have freedom of speech and press and surely we are seeing all the facts when we read the paper or watch our favorite news channel, but when it gets down to the wire, oftentimes it all goes back to who has enough money or political influence. Those are the people who directly influence the media as to whose side of the truth is told, how much it is worth and when it is permissable.
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9-23-2009 @ 11:24AM
Preston said...
It's been years, and I would hope that you can now comfortably divulge the name of the place where this occurred.
So, where did this happen?
9-23-2009 @ 7:22AM
shawn said...
And to the spellink police, stick it no one cares
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9-23-2009 @ 7:27AM
Mari said...
An aside to this story is that there is NO man-made climate change taking place.
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9-23-2009 @ 8:41AM
Richard said...
Mari, Look up, Electronic Mind Control on your search engine and research HAARP.You can never trust Our Government.
9-23-2009 @ 7:41AM
Evan said...
The press is the reason why President Obama and the Democratic Congress are glorified, when in reality, the majority of people are dissatisfied. I don't remember any other President who would blatantly bully the press into positive reporting and call any other reports unpatriotic.
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9-23-2009 @ 8:53AM
Ray said...
First to everyone here. If you see free post to go to sites. Click ther EXCLAMATION MARK to report these PARASITES. They are advertising for free. They remind me of people that put signs along the streets of our cities to deface. Let's get rid of the degenerates. As for News Corp and the master mind against free speech, one Rupert Murdoch. Friends of the Bushies and a very staunch Right Wing Nut. Paid the older Bushie in 1989 to become a US Citizen after being thrown out of his native Australia. Murdoch is a hardnose Rightie. If everyone uses common sense, they would boycott everything News Corp. 20th century Fox, Fox faux news, FX, New York Post Wall DStreet Journal, etc. Murdoch is a cancer on the US.
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9-23-2009 @ 8:36AM
grantdgreat said...
I was driving home from work and stopped off for a few drinks at the local watering hole. I stopped because of a friends birthday.
The police officer (of 10 months) saw me limp out of the bar( I have arthritis in my knees) he followed me and pulled me over.
As a citizen beleiving that police will help you if your innocent, I was arrested on a DUI one block from home. I had had 4 beers and I weigh 220. this would be a blood rate of .05.
I was put in jail, and was not given my breathalizer test and then demanded that they do this test and they refused and held me from the magistrate.
It has cost me about 3000.00 so far and when I questioned the police about this they told me to sign papers of my guilt, being 66, my reading eyes were not in.
Do not beleive the police will protect you if your innocent, they are looking for tax revinew and don't care if your guilty or not and the your word against mine attitude.
I always beleived this about the police, but will question them on any arrest they do from now on.
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9-23-2009 @ 8:55AM
Ray said...
I wouild have Commissiner Of Police to investigate the 2 cops. Guaranteed thaty were paid by Murdoch's stooges. This country has to be rid of parasites like Murdoch. The 2 cops should be fired. But, before they get fired. They might want to read the Bill Of Rights on the section labeled FREE SPEECH and a RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE PEACEFULLY. Murdoch is an Aussie who paid the older Bushie in 1989 to become a US citizen. Murdoch, does not know the Bill Of Rights. Rupert Murdoch is a pompus assbite Right Wing Nut.
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9-23-2009 @ 12:55PM
John Connolly said...
There is something very wrong that the young people may have not known about. That one policeman in the photo has the number 1 on his lapel. That is for the First Precinct in lower Manhattan. The News Corp building is in another precinct. He should not have been there unless he was sent from headquarters or he was working off duty for the News Corp. Either way, we have cops stealing legally held material from citizens for a wealthy foreigner. What gives, Mr. Mayor?
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9-23-2009 @ 11:17AM
Barry Champlain said...
Lost in this discussion is the fact that even if you're the head of a giant media complex, you still cannot (theoretically) pick up the phone and call NYPD, and tell them to arrest or seize the wares of someone handing out leaflets on the street.
Unless THE MAYOR specifically wants NYPD to take on such chores, including having uniforms being the on-the-street arbiters of whose publication is a "forgery", and holding those papers until a company rep can come by and "inspect" them.
This is premium constituent service for Murdoch, and uniforms don't do these things without orders from above. It's amazing how Mayor Bloomberg can be so allegedly popular, when he considers his "constituents" to be anyone but You.
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9-23-2009 @ 1:44PM
EMC said...
good story, but why does "I" have to be in the lead, as in "I first wrote about..." maybe the second paragraph would suffice.
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9-23-2009 @ 3:03PM
baja said...
Two words: trademark infringement.
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9-23-2009 @ 5:47PM
Misha Erwitt said...
Actually one word: Parody
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