Jack Dunphy is a pseudonym for an active duty LAPD Sergeant and blogs for PJ media. This week writes about the arrest of a St Louis journalist. As far as he goes, he makes some excellent points. But he leaves some things unsaid, that need to be said. Journalists-shouldn’t-exempt-law/

Reporters from a police perspective are a pain in the ass. But they are pains in the asses much like your brother-in-law at family get-togethers at Christmas. Most of the time everybody gets along, but once a year brother-in-law runs off the reservation. So it is with journalists.

Cops and journalists cooperate more than they clash. Need a prime parking space at a scene, got you covered. Can’t you get the shot from the sidewalk? It’s gotta be the middle of the street, hang on. Let me get somebody to direct traffic. Putting up crime scene perimeters and closing off disaster areas is a public safety consideration, not an effort to screw with the press.

If it can be done safely and with the permission of command, press access can extend to areas normally considered to be off limits. For that to happen there has to be a partnership between the journalist and police.

When a journalist embeds with the rioters, to get access, he/she has entered into the partnership referred to in some quarters as a criminal conspiracy. But it is not too late, a reporter who finds themselves in that position gets ample warning to vacate and comply with police orders. Reporters who stay, are breaking the law despite police advice to the contrary haven’t got a bitch coming. A reporter who complains of arrest is in much the same boat as the prostitute who took a rubber check for services rendered. The prostitute is not going to get a whole lot of sympathy. She violated one of the most sacred rules of her industry, get the money up front.

This incident is a prime example of why the mainstream media deserves no credibility.