Community | August 27, 2008 | 84 comments

ABC reporter arrested in Denver taking pictures of senators, big donors

source: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/story?id=5668622&page=1

Image
SushiBandit

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/story?id=5668622&page=1

DENVER--Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.

Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown's Palace Hotel.

A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.

Eslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.

  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Politics,   Election 2008,   1 more
  2. tags:
    News,  Politics,  News and Politics,  Election 2008,  6 more
  3. recommended by:
    merasyad
  4.     
    |

84 comments // ABC reporter arrested in Denver taking pictures of senators, big donors

  • PatriciaMarie
    • 0
      PatriciaMarie  

    • I bet the politicians didn't want to be filmed maybe someone could check their voting record as affected by these big bussiness. How many new laws was being formed in these parties that we will have to live with? The lobbies do make the laws and elections accordingly to who does their bidding. They can make or break elections because of the money they use to get their way.

    • 4 years ago
  • TerryA
    • 0
      TerryA  

    • I know it is a very hard pill to swallow, but this country has become a police state...all in the name of "National Security".

      I am sure that this will not be a very popular opinion, but why can't America follow the example of countries like Denmark, Netherlands or Sweden. They also have "National Security" issues, but they don't rape and pillage the rights and freedoms of their citizens to accomplish it.

      These countries are listed in the top 5 of the best places to live in the world. America is #26.

    • 4 years ago
  • beefysw53
  • J_Jammer
  • sindlinger
    • 0
      sindlinger  

    • this is insane. if ABC doesn't follow up on this and defend their guy, their credibility as a news organization has to take a hit. this is crap.

      also, who knows what impact it will have, but I just posted notes about this story on the Brown Palace's listings on Yelp and Trip Advisor on the small chance that someone will be swayed by it.

    • 4 years ago
  • Paratus
    • 0
      Paratus  

    • All the speeches at the convention have been about taking back our country. If we want to truly do this we need to elect people who follow the Constitution and not any other agenda. Anyone here who thinks that the Chosen One will put a stop to behavior such as this is mistaken. If we install BO we will see more violations of the Bill of Rights, or what is left of it.

    • 4 years ago
  • litost
  • the_taminator
  • shortk8
    • 0
      shortk8  

    • Looks like that producer got off easy...check out this guy in Denver that got the shit beat out of him when the cops didn't know cameras were running.

    • 4 years ago
  • litost
  • Nettle
  • satanskidney
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  
    • shortk8:

      fuck these lying pigs

      I am so sick of psychopaths masquerading as our protectors...to serve and protect their own inflated egos...

      I am so sick of seeing innocent citizens battered by
      angry police officers who want to beat someone so badly that they go into this line of work -- this is becoming a legalized outlet for brutality.

      Firing these assholes isn't enough. They need to go to prison where they belong...hopefully someone will beat their asses while they are there.

      I hate to get this mad, but I am so fed up with this kind of behavior from law enforcement in this country...too many of them have no business in this line of work. They are the ones who need to be picking prison cotton in Louisiana.

      The double-standard with police needs to end. They cannot be trusted to even police themselves.

    • 4 years ago
  • NeoDotCom
  • swami
  • NickerBocker09
    • 0
      NickerBocker09  

    • I think the police are going a bit nuts because they dont want to be known as the city where Barack or Biden were shot. Sorry to say it so bluntly, but its probably true. Not thats its a proper excuse though.

      Now.....the RNC should be interesting. The reporters shouldnt even go...

    • 4 years ago
  • darkhorsejim
  • asherp
  • JudahEvan
    • 0
      JudahEvan  
    • darkhorsejim:

      Though I def agree with you asherp in that the Telecom immunity provision in the FISA bill, disregarding the fact that the original bill needed no updating to begin with and just needed to be followed, was entirely bullshit, not to mention unconstitutional. Though I def agree (he should have voted against it), I also believe that Obama, being a former constitutional Law professor, will be much better for the overall upholding of our Constitution when compared to what McCain will offer, especially with our 4th and 8th amendments in mind.

    • 4 years ago
  • TerryA
    • 0
      TerryA  
    • darkhorsejim:

      Maybe in a perfect world Obama will be able to ride in on a white horse and right all the wrongs committed against our constitution by the Bush regime, but the reality is this. We are blessed with a Supreme Court absolutely loaded with Bush appointees, and they are there for "LIFE". It is their responsibility to interpret the Constitutionality of Bush's actions, and so far they have given a green light to every single atrocity. Until these clowns all die off nothing "CAN" be done to change what has already been done.

    • 4 years ago
  • Robroy1
    • 0
      Robroy1  

    • I am intrested in pissedoffinarkansas's blog. What is up with that current, I am wondering the same as him as to why a story like that would be put aside? I hope there is a good answer somewhere and I hope current will respond as to why this decision was made. Arkansas if you get an answer let us know, I think many of us are intrested in why a story like that was passed so quickly. It has echoes of Neal Bush and the S&L scandal. Oh how those Bushes have raped America. Now it's the McCain's turn, but let's expose it O.K.

    • 4 years ago
  • Robroy1
    • 0
      Robroy1  

    • I think drumguy08 is probably right and I"ll bet the reporter was warned. People jump to conclusions without the entire story sometimes. But having stayed in many hotels that are really busy I can understand that the hotel owns the sidewalk. I wonder if we will ever know the entire story? Like someone said, move back away a little bit and leave the passageway open. DUH.

    • 4 years ago
  • TheCyclist
    • 0
      TheCyclist  

    • This sounds extremely illegal (on the part of the police). You can take pictures from public places of anything you like (as long as you're not using things like telephoto lenses and the like).

    • 4 years ago
  • prgen
    • 0
      prgen  

    • Nobody has seen anything yet, wait until the RNC in Minnesota. There will be mass arrests and violent protests. The Police will be arresting anybody who steps foot on the streets.

    • 4 years ago
  • SilenceNoMore
  • DJMatt2
    • 0
      DJMatt2  

    • Welcome to the Police State.

      BTW, forget about a lawsuit. You can't get justice from those who claim to BE the law. ALL ABC/Disney will get is some money. The officers responsible will still keep their jobs and their pensions. The people behind the arrest will still remain where they are.

      Today it's the protesters and the media, for reasons they can stretch and manipulate to their own ends.

      Tomorrow it's you, and by then no reasons will be asked or required.

      Are you mad enough yet?

    • 4 years ago
  • clayjj05
    • 0
      clayjj05 [removed]  

    • Ownership of the sidewalk brings up a bigger question.

      Does the Dry Cleaners own the parking-lot?

      Because im sick and tired of their little signs telling me i cant park in front of their shops.

    • 4 years ago
  • JudahEvan
    • 0
      JudahEvan  
    • clayjj05:

      I'm glad to see you in good spirits clayjj. I agree. I thought we Americans could use our sidewalks and parking lots, just a thought.

      Signs. Signs. Everywhere there's signs.

    • 4 years ago
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  

    • this is just BS...and ABC better file a lawsuit...

      God help us when our nation has become dependent on lawyers to defend our freedom.

    • 4 years ago
  • satanskidney
    • 0
      satanskidney  

    • The only way that I can see this guy's arrest as not being a violation of the Bill of Rights is if they had notified him that he was on public property. I didn't see any signs in the background saying "No Trespassing" nor did I hear any officer's tell him the reason that they we're removing him from the premises the first time.

      If we're going to do away with the First Amendment then we might as well call America the fourth reich.

    • 4 years ago
  • SushiBandit
  • Pericles_Lewnes
  • drumguy08
    • 0
      drumguy08  

    • actually, many businesses, especially hotels, pay extra to keep sidewalks clean and clear so that they're customers can, in the hotels case, check in and out with ease. so technically, the hotel owns the sidewalk.

      solution...move the cameras...duh

    • 4 years ago
  • Incredulous
  • neco0202
  • JudahEvan
    • 0
      JudahEvan  

    • Don't you love that pig with the cigar in his mouth, violating the First Amendment rights of a reporter with that disgusting roll of tobacco dripping from his ugly lips. Just love it.

    • 4 years ago
  • ninja_tiger
    • 0
      ninja_tiger  

    • whom is this current.tv serving anyways. There is no good reason to drop a story like the Arizona future bank scandal being covered up before ir can become a scandal....hello, why was this story censored on current.tv?

    • 4 years ago
  • pissedoffinarkansas
    • 0
      pissedoffinarkansas  

    • I'm sorry to hijack this story like this but I've got a good reason.
      I just posted a story about John Mccain's son quitting his position on the board of directors of a bank that is reportedly in line to be taken over by the feds entitled "Something Fishy In Arizona?". It was immediately dropped from the board and viewable only on my profile page.It also won't come up on a search. I don't care if it makes t.v. or not but I do think everyone should have a chance to look at it. This is not the first time this has happened and when I ask the staff about it they always tell me because it's viewable on my profile page it didn't get dropped. But who the hell is going to see it there?
      What do you guys think?

    • 4 years ago
  • pirho338
  • dabne
    • 0
      dabne  
    • pissedoffinarkansas:

      It's called an agenda.

      This site is so screwed up anyway with so many worthless submissions that even if they didn't take it away I most likely wouldn't find it.

      I post stuff all the time that doesn't appeal to a liberal audience and it never moves. People vote it down so nobody can find it. Nobody comments either. Current has a vote down option to bury stuff internally they don't want on their site. It's ridiculous. A vote down option, that should tell you all you need to know. Or in your case, they just pull it. Current has gone so far wrong from where they started it's a joke.

    • 4 years ago
  • SilenceNoMore
  • SDLN
  • justright
    • 0
      justright  

    • This all once again highlights the fact that when there wasn't such a gap between the haves and havenots, this type of incident was rare instead of commonplace.

    • 4 years ago
  • Pericles_Lewnes
  • Nettle
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  
    • Pericles_Lewnes:

      "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

      by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887

    • 4 years ago
  • damnneargenius
    • 0
      damnneargenius  
    • Pericles_Lewnes:

      Yeah, but at least they might not be robbing the stagecoach while headed for a cliff when entrusted to drive it.

      There has got to be a better way with all the advances in communication and technology. All "great" leaders have the whip until someone takes it away from them.

    • 4 years ago
  • damnneargenius
    • 0
      damnneargenius  
    • Pericles_Lewnes:

      Tell me you wouldn't vote for Google over the Democrats or Republicans any day?

      If Google designed a system to run the country as well as they run their company, we might not be headed for certain disaster.

      I've been promoting this idea on my blog for some time, but the closest its come to fruition that I'm aware of is Barack meeting with Eric Schmidt, the Google CEO, at the same time he was meeting with Warren Buffet etc.

      I don't know what that meeting was about, but I'd like to hope it was to acknowledge the impending danger of our economy unless semi-dramatic action is taken to stop the bleeding.

      As a country, it appears we are bleeding financially. Last time I checked, the common consensus said that's not a good thing, so why not ask Google to use their "type" of thinking/brainstorming to address it from a neutral yet completely patriotic perspective?

      We need the brain power running some of the great American companies running the government towards non-self-destruction instead of elected statues.

      What have they done?

      Nothing.

      What are they going to do?

      Talk about great vague ambiguous optimistic plans or more of the same with a smile and a grin? Sounds familiar for some reason.

      What's my other option?

      So, in summary, yes, I think Google kicks much more ass in the way it operates than does either political party and would have the Democracy running like a well-tuned engine.

      The politicians seem to want to tell you enough about some minor bad news to keep you focused and worried about that and not about the discrepancy in numbers that's coming according to the Libertarians.

      I'm kind of new to paying attention to politics, only in the last few years, by my angle was more like looking at other governments like Denmark as a example and wondering why the U.S. can't seem to be all responsible like that. Is it the American culture or the American system that makes the people allegedly so different from those anywhere else in the world that are now doing better than us in quality of life and economically.

      It's really confusing, in that in our society, depending on who you talk to, everyone is blaming everyone else instead of working together to solve the problems.

      I mean, if the Republicans are responsible for all the crap that is hitting the country, I don't think Jesus Christ himself could win the presidency on their ticket right now. I'm not so sure that true, I think both parties are responsible for letting the predatory lending get to the point where there is no one but our own citizens left to prey on.

      Maybe we can just go back to the days when the spending was balanced if not inversing.

      Man that's some amazingly aggressive advertising.

      I need to come up with a new word for Democracy. It's not a Democracy the same as it was before, because now technology can factor so heavily into the equation as a tool to balance power more accurately.

      It's a Technocracy.

      Yes, I just made that up, but I needed a buzzwood in order to continue my vague but inspired rant.

      Whoops, no time to continue brainstorming.

      Time to study television production.

    • 4 years ago
  • damnneargenius
    • 0
      damnneargenius  

    • Well, if you were a questionable political-type possibly on the take wouldn't you use your authority to have those interested in exposing the truth about you to millions arrested too?

      Come on, be reasonable.

      Why does the government of the default country into which I was born have to suck so much in my lifetime?

      If the system were redesigned to get money out of politics, imagine how much better the style and efficiency of government policy would be.

      As it is, the system breeds corruption in its basic design. Lobbyists weren't part of the plan when this country's government was (re)built.

      I still say we should just let Google run things and be done with it.

    • 4 years ago
  • justright
  • justright
  • Bbuff
  • SDLN
  • Incredulous
  • pissedoffinarkansas
  • pakazak
    • 0
      pakazak  

    • well after all, it has been 40 years. maybe y'all are too young to remember Chicago 1968.
      lawsuits? the media is going to sue?
      then what? they don't get 'access'.

    • 4 years ago
  • aswift1
  • Bbuff
    • 0
      Bbuff  

    • When stuff like this happens, our country is doomed. I know my Grandfather would never have believed his eyes if he saw law enforcement being HIRED like they are today.

    • 4 years ago
  • Blazesboy
    • 0
      Blazesboy  

    • There is absolutely no possibility that the hotel or cops were in the right here. The sidewalk is a public space and don't ever let anyone tell you differently. This reporter's First Amendment rights were violated, period. Got him out of the way, though, didn't it?

      It would not surprise me to see a lawsuit come out of this one, since this was a major news organization. On the other hand, it would not surprise me if they didn't sue for exactly the same reason.

    • 4 years ago
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  
    • Blazesboy:

      What sucks, is even though the police department was wrong, the worst that will happen is that the charges will be dropped, and the police might pay a fine, or go under additional training.

      Meanwhile, the objective of stifling investigative reporting is still achieved.

    • 4 years ago
  • SDLN
    • 0
      SDLN  
    • Image

    • The police seem to know they have carte blanche. Any abuse of power during the DNC or RNC will be excused and ignored by most everyone.

      BTW, this Asa Eslocker is part of the crew that put together this piece on the "Pelosi 100":
      http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/story?id=...

      "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) created the 'Pelosi 100' for people "who contribute and raise $100,000 in personal funds," according to documents obtained by ABC News.

      The wealthy members of the 'Pelosi 100' attended a private, lavish party Monday night in the penthouse suite of the Denver Performing Arts Center, featuring Tony Bennett, John Legend and James Taylor.

      There was a heavy security presence with police telling reporters 'no media is allowed,' although observers on the balcony of a nearby apartment building could view the scene."

    • 4 years ago
  • kadugen
    • 0
      kadugen  

    • I hope more demonstrators and reporters push the envelope of the law these coming weeks. I hope every incident gets recorded. Most of all, I hope something significant happens that might wake people up!

    • 4 years ago
  • rightbrain
  • imagism31
    • 0
      imagism31  

    • Aren't the police suppose to "trespass" you from the premiss's. You usually get a verbal warning or the police make you sign a paper. Shouldn't he have been asked to cease taking pictures? The action taken against him was clearly a strong warning, and it went straight to the top.

    • 4 years ago
  • cocheezy
    • 0
      cocheezy  

    • This doesn't make any sense. Paparzzi gets away with this shit all the time, and when this guy does something newsworthy, he gets put in the can? What bunch of crap.

    • 4 years ago
  • 1percent
    • 0
      1percent  

    • Once again, the police are breaking the law to enforce the law.

      Right now the only freedom you have in Denver right now is : The freedom to do what you're told...

      What a perversion of democracy....

      Ride on!

    • 4 years ago
  • rightbrain
  • fiat_lux088
  • Pericles_Lewnes
    • 0
      Pericles_Lewnes  

    • This is fucking BULLSHIT! What has happened to our country?

      It's getting to the point where nothing is going to change until a citizen killed right before our eyes.

      On the other hand this is what the press should expect after sleeping with their thumbs up their ass for the last seven years.

      BTW, who are the senators?

    • 4 years ago
  • ProgressiveBum
  • brad62
  • aspenlve
    • 0
      aspenlve  

    • According to the ABC website the Sheriff's said that the hotel owns the sidewalk. Is this true? If it's public property the arrest was unjust. If they did own the sidewalk then this isn't even newsworthy.

    • 4 years ago
  • Pericles_Lewnes
    • 0
      Pericles_Lewnes  
    • aspenlve:

      No it is newsworthy. If that was private property, then it should have been handled differently.

      Maybe this producer was an asshole, I dont know, but it was handled BADLY and if you let something like this go, it's OVER.

    • 4 years ago
  • Blazesboy
    • 0
      Blazesboy  
    • aspenlve:

      Hotels do not own sidewalks. However, businesses will sometimes assert ownership over the public space in front of their buildings so that they can stifle people's First Amendment rights in precisely this way. Happens quite a lot, actually.

    • 4 years ago
  • extblues
    • 0
      extblues  
    • aspenlve:

      Yes it does. The most common example that I have seen is when a union goes on strike and attempts to picket in front of their workplace. Suddenly the sidewalk, and sometimes the street, becomes private property in order to keep those on the line at a semi-comfortable distance.

      Of course, the sidewalk and the street are maintained by the city, so it is, by default, a public space and is supposedly subject to the full force of the Constitution.

    • 4 years ago
  • Elligirl
  • asherp
  • voldypoo
  • Elligirl
  • brad62
  • saltygirl
  • Greenpointer

top videos