Fascism: Minnesota Nice Edition

You betcha!

A CNN crew has been taken to custody amid protests in Minneapolis early on Friday morning.

Here is how the situation unfolded:

At 5:09 a.m. local time, CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was reporting live on an arrest happening in the area near a city police department precinct that protesters had burned and officers had abandoned overnight.

About a block away, a fire was burning at a different, four-story building that had contained restaurants. He was standing in front of a long line of police officers in riot gear.

Shortly after his crew captured the arrest on camera, the police officers moved towards Jimenez and his crew, asking them to move.

Jimenez told the officers he and his three colleagues were part of the same CNN crew and calmly identified himself with his CNN identification card.

Jimenez was then heard as telling the officers:

“We can move back to where you’d like. We can move back to where you’d like here. We are live on the air at the moment. 
This is the four of us. We are one team. 
Just put us back where you want us. We’re getting out of your way. So, just let us know. 
Wherever you’d want us, we will go. We were just getting out of your way when you were advancing through the intersection. Let us know and we’ve got you.”

At 5:11 a.m., two officers in riot gear stepped up to Jimenez and said “you are under arrest.”

Jimenez calmly asked why was he under arrest.

“Why am I under arrest, sir?”

He was then handcuffed and led away by the police, as the camera kept rolling.

Shortly after that, CNN photojournalist Leonel Mendez who was with Jimenez said he and the rest of the crew were also being arrested.

The camera then showed Jimenez’s producer Bill Kirkos being handcuffed taken into custody.

Shortly after that, the camera, which was still rolling, was taken away from the crew. . . .

CNN journalist Josh Campbell is also on the ground in Minneapolis, not far from where CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his team were arrested by officers early this morning. They have since been released.

Speaking to Campbell earlier, CNN anchor John Berman pointed out that Jimenez is black and latino, and Campbell is white, though he said he did not know whether race played a factor in Jimenez’s arrest. 

Campbell said he was “treated much differently.” Here’s what he told Berman:
“I was treated much differently than [CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez] was. I’m sitting here talking to the National Guard, talking to the police. They’re asking politely to move here and there. A couple times I’ve moved closer than they would like. They asked politely to move back. They didn’t pull out the handcuffs. Lot different here than what Omar experienced.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the arrest unacceptable and totally inadvertent.

Inadvertent or overdetermined . . . views differ!