Miami reporter arrested

jimpeel

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
http://www.local10.com/news/14410631/detail.html

Local 10 Reporter Arrested While Covering Story
Police Search Uncovers Concealed Weapon, But Reporter Had Permit

POSTED: 9:55 am EDT October 24, 2007
UPDATED: 12:49 pm EDT October 24, 2007

MIAMI -- A Local 10 reporter was arrested at Miami Central Senior High School while he was on assignment covering a story about school violence.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade Schools Police told WPLG-TV's Jeff Weinsier he was trespassing and that he needed to leave.

He was not inside the school or inside the fenced-in area that surrounds the school. School board police told him to leave and go across the street from the school, but Weisnier said he was on a public sidewalk.


Police said they were giving him a lawful order to get off the property and that he was within 500 feet of a school.

Weinsier on videotape tries to convince officers that he had the right to be on the sidewalk and pointed out that other people were on the sidewalk, but after repeated attempts, police handcuffed him.

When police searched Weinsier they found a loaded .38 revolver. He does have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Local 10 reported that Weinsier has received death threats as a result of Dirty Dining television reports that feature restaurants that fail health inspection reports.

Local 10 attorney Isaac Mitrani said that a concealed weapons permit allows a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school, but not inside a school and that Weinsier never went into the school.

"If they are in a place that other people are -- public or anything -- and you focus only on a reporter and you tell them they need to leave, that would violate the constitution," said Mitrani.

Weinsier has been charged with resisting an officer without violence, trespassing and carrying a concealed weapon on school grounds. He bonded out of jail Tuesday.


Copyright 2007 by Local10.com. All rights reserved.
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The people handed over power. The 2nd has been dead for a long time.
 
There is the raw unedited video of the events leading up to his arrest HERE. The video clearly shows that he never set foot on school grounds. He remained on the sidewalk throughout.
 
How much you want to bet that the reporter WANTED to get arrested in order to change the CCW laws in Florida?
 
SAF has come to his defense. They have reviewed the video and they say that they

http://saf.org/viewpr-new.asp?id=247

NEWS RELEASE
SAF DEFENDS MIAMI REPORTER, SAYS FIRST AMENDMENT IMPORTANT AS THE SECOND
For Immediate Release: 10/24/2007

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today called the arrest of WPLG reporter Jeffrey Weinsier a “First Amendment outrage” that only subsequently focused on a concealed handgun he was carrying “simply to deflect public attention from the fact that Weinsier was arrested for doing his job.”

Weinsier is licensed to carry a concealed handgun, and reportedly does so because his investigative reports have resulted in death threats. He was arrested Tuesday at Miami Central High School while working on a story about school violence, and reportedly charged with trespassing on school property with a weapon, resisting officers, and possession of a firearm on school grounds. SAF has reviewed video of the incident.

“Weinsier’s arrest has far less to do with his Second Amendment rights than it does his First Amendment rights, and we think school authorities and the officers involved know it,” said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. “Our staff has reviewed the video and it does not appear Mr. Weinsier set foot on school property. He appears to have remained on a public sidewalk, where he had a right to be as a citizen, and a responsibility to be as a reporter doing his job.

“He never exhibited the handgun,” he added, “nor does it appear he entered any school facility. The only threat he seems to have posed to anyone might have been his already-proven ability to flesh out a story that perhaps school authorities would rather not see on the evening news.

“We are also alarmed at the attempt by one officer to block photographer Frank Debesa’s camera, so he could not document the incident on video,” Gottlieb said. “This is the United States, not a police state, and our Constitution protects press freedom to the same degree that it protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. The public has a right to know what goes on in their schools, and Weinsier was trying to tell them.

“The Florida statute regarding guns on school property appears to be on Weinsier’s side, but that will ultimately be for a judge to determine, if this case goes that far,” Gottlieb said. “We don’t think it should, and we are hopeful that WPLG stands behind its reporter because if authorities can arrest Weinsier today, who will they arrest tomorrow? A free society cannot allow any abuses of constitutional rights. The Bill of Rights is an all-or-nothing package, and we either defend every part of the document, or the entire thing is worthless.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nations oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and an amicus brief and fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

-END-

Second Amendment Foundation
12500 NE Tenth Place • Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 454-7012 • FAX (425) 451-3959 • www.saf.org
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Gato_Solo said:
How much you want to bet that the reporter WANTED to get arrested in order to change the CCW laws in Florida?
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Change them to what? They are not only the most liberal in America but are also the first "shall issue" law ever passed.
 
Gato_Solo said:
Make them more restrictive is what. Happens more often than most people think...
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According to the story, he has gotten death threats as a result of some of his investigative stories and that is why he carries a firearm.
 
jimpeel said:
According to the story, he has gotten death threats as a result of some of his investigative stories and that is why he carries a firearm.
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I read that, too. Reporters get death threats for some stories. It's part of being a reporter. Not all of them take to carrying concealed weapons. ;)
 
The Los Angeles Unified School District has its own police force, too. I'm sure other major metro school districts have their own police forces as well.
 
The school police are mostly there to serve as revenue enhancers by handing out speeding and parking tickets. In the cases where a school is a major sports entity, their campuses swell by temporary populations of 100,000 or more per event. They serve as crowd control and thin out the drunks. They are almost always armed... otherwise that pack of drunk teens wouldn't pay them any mind. They are assuredly needed when the schools are dowtown in the major cities. The riff-raff needs to be kept at bay.
 
It's an actual police force, with department-issued guns and the power to issue citations and arrest citizens. Rent-a-cops can't write tickets and can only hold people in the office until the real cops show up to arrest the person.
 
Gato_Solo said:
I read that, too. Reporters get death threats for some stories. It's part of being a reporter. Not all of them take to carrying concealed weapons. ;)
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Not all of them live in states where they can. He lives in FL so ... he can.
 
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