Did police abuse photojournalist, Jorge Tabora?
A News Five’s team was on the scene of the shooting on King Street and was heading back to this station when it spotted the police vehicle with two of the suspects. Photojournalist Jorge Tabora stood on the street in front of the Queen Street Police Station and used his phone to video the police vehicle. He was accosted by an officer who grabbed his phone and then proceeded to delete the images off Tabora’s personal phone. The officer offered no explanation as to why he was deleting the images. Now, our reporters and we are sure those of other media houses have had issues with the police at crime scenes, but we believe that the police went too far this afternoon when they took possession of a personal phone and deleted images from it. As a first step we have filed a complaint and are weighing our options. It is not the first time that officers in the department engaged in possibly illegal tactics against the station. In 2009, when a drug plane landed on the Southern Highway, several police officers were arrested in connection with the plane. News Five was the first crew on the scene. The officer who was in charge of the operation, forced News Five cameraman Christopher Mangar and journalist Jose Sanchez into the back of a pickup and drove them over five miles and dumped them in a deserted stretch of the highway.
The police need to learn WITHOUT QUESTION that wherever they are, in this day of smartphones, they might be end up in photos or videos any time they are in public. So behave accordingly.
Unless the reporter was somehow interfering with the police operation, preventing it from occurring, then I believe he was within his rights to film what was happening in public, and the police were wrong to delete the clip. In that case police should pay damages.
As for the 2009 drug plane incident, I feel a little differently. That was an exceedingly touchy situation, with good cops arresting bad cops, and probably nobody knowing quite who to trust. So I am not very offended by the practical expedient of driving the reporters away so they could enjoy a nice walk in the country.
What can i say about the Police. They are a bunch of idiots, with no education. I want to say so much about those horse holes, but today is a blessed day.
Why not file assualt charges on the officer? What he did is against the law. We have to stop letting the police get away with these types of abuses. It all stems from a severe lack of training and supervision. Our police command staff is not qualified nor do they have the will to professionally manage the police department. As long as this situation continues we will continue to be subjected to these types of non-professional abuses of power.
under PUP all reporters would start a protest march immediately. all media have given this administration a free ride, now this is the way they behave.