Occupy L.A. Arrestees Said to Include Possibly Drunk, Belligerent Reporter For City News Service
See an update here: The reporter is identified (it's a him -- our bad), and video seems to contradict what the police say.
Ted Soqui Street occupiers Wednesday morning.
A reporter for City News Service, a Southern California news wire that sells content exclusively to other organizations, including this one, was arrested during the Occupy L.A. encampment sweep yesterday, the LAPD told LA Weekly today.
The unidentified writer would be the second third journalist arrested during the eviction by cops in riot gear. Jacob "Yasha" Levine was arrested when he failed to clear out of the encampment area south of City Hall, a colleague at the Santa Monica-based Exile publication told us.
The CNS reporter did not ID himself herself as a journalist, says ...
... LAPD Lt. Andy Neiman.
In fact he she did not appear to be working, might have been drunk, and was allegedly "belligerent" when police clearing out the City Hall encampment confronted him and told him to leave, the lieutenant said.
Neiman said the woman did present his her "CNS ID" after he was arrested, and police also later found an LAPD press pass on him her.
But he she might have been allegedly drunk and defiant and did not appear to be covering the events or working, he said:
That's probably why he didn't ID himself as a journalist. He probably wasn't there in a journalistic capacity.
We're told a prominent L.A. attorney has called to talk to police on his her behalf.
We called City News Service's top editor, Lori Streifler, for comment, and had yet to hear back from her.
City News provides breaking and sometimes in-depth coverage of City Hall, police, courts and general happenings throughout Southern California to news outlets. Most of the major news organizations in L.A. subscribe to the fee-based service, though it seems to gear its content most-pointedly at TV news operations.
For decades it has maintained a presence inside the LAPD headquarters newsroom, where CNS provides 24/7 coverage of cops. This reporter worked briefly for CNS about 10 years ago.
[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com/@LAWeeklyNews]
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