Finally, a Major Paper Writes about the Insanity in St. Paul

Better late than never, the NYT finally brings the St. Paul police's authoritarian anti-media tactics to the attention of mainstream America:

On the final night of the convention, as Senator John McCain was preparing to address delegates inside the Xcel Energy Center, the police prevented marchers who did not have a permit from crossing two bridges that led to the convention center. Later, as demonstrators took to the streets near the state capitol, the police lobbed flash grenades into the crowd while thick plumes of tear gas clouded the air. Then, several hundred demonstrators and more than a dozen journalists were directed onto a third bridge, where they were ordered to sit and place their hands on their heads.

Those trapped on the bridge included two reporters for The Associated Press, a photographer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and two Fox News editors.

“At some point even a journalist has to recognize that they are in violation of the law,” Tom Walsh, a St. Paul Police spokesman, said as the arrests were taking place. “Are they going to get arrested or are they going to cover it from a distance?”

But hey, I'm sure those Fox News editors were actually just scary anarchist radicals passing themselves off as legitimate journalists. Because there's no way the police would round up members of the media just for trying to observe what's happening at a protest--not in America...

(Via Slog.)