ABC producer arrested at Democratic convention

The Beijing Olympics were the most-watched event in television history, and it seems Denver's police must have been some of the most avid viewers -- they've clearly picked up some law-enforcement tips from the Chinese. The cops arrested ABC producer Asa Eslocker Wednesday for the crime of taking pictures of big-ticket Democratic Party donors.

Eslocker's camera crew was on a sidewalk outside Denver's Brown Palace Hotel, shooting video for a series of reports on the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention to air on ABC World News. The hotel told Eslocker to beat it; when he didn't, the cops handcuffed and hauled him off to the slam where he was charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order -- taking pictures of rich plutocrats evidently being against the law in Denver. Hey, you think Katie Couric had him busted?

Comments

[Harry Balzer]

This is just the beginning, and you liberals always rant and scream about the GOP. HA HA HA HA HA

[ric]

Serves him right. He was asked to beat it by the Hotel. Down with the Liberal media.

[Mr Boring]

Define liberal as it pertains to you.

I keep seeing it slung around as if it were a bad word.

Sounds like a good word to me.

But please do define it so I know why you think it's so bad.

[Media]

Here's the story on ABC News:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/story?id=5668622&page=1

[yelirekim]

Liberal is the old fashioned word which has been replaced by progressive. it has previously been known as leftist, socialist, and Marxist.

Thos who use liberal as a label for themselves or others use it for its political meaning. This usage has little to do with its literal meaning as liberals are not necessarily liberal minded, but are often dogmatic.

[BleedingHeartLiberal]

Liberal (Adj.) - Meaning to not have one's head up one's ass

[jsclerus]

Hey, don't mess with Denver cops! The Denver Police Department is one of the toughest in the nation and by the way, this is the West, so we want it that way!

[Laughing at racist conservatives]

"Take your hands off of me unless you plan to arrest me!"

[Stav]

yelirekim,

Liberals wanted a United States independent from the rule of England. Tories (conservatives) hated the founders and mostly left for Canada when the Liberals won.

Liberals wanted to see an end to slavery. Conservatives wanted to maintain this human stain in the name of commerce, they mostly left for South America when the Liberals won.

Liberals want a United States with the world's best health care system (currently in the low 30's), best jobs, and strong moral leadership in the world. Conservatives want to keep wages low (believe me I'm on Wall Street, I hear corporate leaders whine about the damaging effects of wages every day), policies of domestic spying and torture that make us a weakling on the world stage, and a plutocracy that would take you back to the system of King George, hopefully most of you will just go to hell when the Liberals win.

[dv]

hmmmm....what about the "Dixiecrats"....

[Republicans Hate America]

Liberal is having an open mind where conservative is having a narrow mind.

[American]

Liberal = open minded, forward looking, accepting of change and new ideas.

Conservative = not

[Daredevil]

So, the Democrats do not want to make the name of their multimillionaire supporters known to the people.

[American]

The Democrats didn't ask the photographer to leave. The hotel did. We don't know why.

[Paul D. Harvill]

Based upon the contents of the article, appears that one or more law enforcement officers view themselves as "Big Brother" - like in the book "1984" by George Orwell.

[American]

hmmm...the Dixiecrats. You mean those southerners who moved to the Republican Party because the Democrats weren't racist enough?

[American]

The photographer was on hotel property taking pictures of guests (ABC doesn't know if they were donors or not, they assume so but have no actual knowledge of it). The hotel told the photog he was trespassing and asked him to leave. He refused. The hotel called the police. The police asked the photog to leave because he was trespassing. The photog refused. He was arrested for that.

Sounds pretty straightforward and rational to me.

[Maggie Simpson]

Liberal....what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine!

Liberal.....no you cannot report it or photograph it unless I say you can.

Liberal.....take from the rich to buy the poor vote.

I could go on and on and on....

[American]

Conservative = take from the poor and give to the rich.

Conservative = I'll spy on you even if it's against the law.

Conservative = mine, mine, mine

You could go on and on, but you'd still be wrong and wrong Naggie.

[Fred]

Hey "American" - I've got news for you: A public sidewalk is not private property, no matter what some meathead rent-a-cop says. And taking pictures from a public sidewalk is not only a perfectly legal thing to do, but also a constitutionally protected free speech activity.

Whether the label is "Liberal" or "Conservative", it makes no difference. When the ultra-rich and ultra-powerful get together they don't like Joe SixPack to see what they are up to.

I hope the ABC producer sues and wins big bucks - and the big meathead should serve time behind bars.

[yelirekim]

Liberals wanted to end slavery? My oh my, I guess the history books got it wrong. Lincoln was not a Republican in your fantasy world?

Liberals wanted the poor blacks to stay out of Federal Construction contracts and came up with the Davis Bacon act.

Leave the revisionist history to the professional progressives. They are very good at hiding their tracks and making talking point for you to repeat without a thorough understanding.

Am I supposed to be impressed that you work on Wall Street? Does this mean you study in between bussing the tables?

[American]

Okay yelirekim, let's dial the history forward to today. Who ended Jim Crow - Dems or Repubs? Who ended forced segregation - Dems or Repubs? Who forced the Dixiecrats out of their party - Dems or Repubs? Which Repub presidential candidate made sure to announce his candidacy at a locale famous for its' racist abominations (that would be Reagan the dirtbag).

[American]

Evidently you would be wrong, Freddie.

[George]

so folks, what part of "the liberals" accopmlishments in the last 60 years would you like to abolish..would it be The Social Security Act?...the Civil Rights Act ?...The Voting Rights Act ? perhaps Medicare or Medicaid or maybe legislation to improve education for your children?

Liberal and proud of it( NOT Marxist and not Facist/Republican)

[Jack]

Liberal-Thomas Jefferson
Conservative-Adolf Hitler

[ike]

Thomas Jefferson slave owner not a liberal

[D-QBAN]

Freedom of the press....if filming from sidewalk, public property they had every right to film.

Ye shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.

[Ed]

I got one, who takes it up the ass = liberals
who are the rug munchers = liberals

need i say more

[Gerry Toner]

lib•er•al (l b r- l, l b r l)
adj.
1.
a. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
b. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
c. Broad based, not narrow in scope, covering a wide range of ideas, options, topics, experience, et al.
So the opposite is what? An inability to think?
Chew on this:
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." Thomas Jefferson
...and this...
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln

[Gerry Toner]

One more comment..."liberal media" does not exist. Some 95% of ALL of the media in this country is controlled by fewer than a dozen giant corporations. ALL corporations have benefited from the relaxation of the monopoly laws, the deregulation of industry and the entitlements given to them over individual citizens. Corporate America has more rights than the citizens this country is supposed to be for...if you think for one nanosecond than ANY corporation is "liberal" you are delusional beyond help.

[Gerry Toner]

Sorry...one more...in Abraham Lincoln's time the Republican party was NOT, I repeat NOT conservative...it was a RADICAL, LIBERAL party then, and the democrats were then entrenched conservatives. Almost all of the southern legislators of the Civil War era were democrats to a man. Times, change, as do political outlooks of parties...but do some research before you try to label things more than 150 years ago as if they were participating today.

[Truth]

During Lincoln's time, the Republican Party was not the same party as it is today. In point of fact, it held the ideals of the Democratic Party today. Learn your history. Of course, those ideals did not last very long.

[American]

Thomas Jefferson: the quintessential liberal

(freed his slaves in his will. wish he'd done it sooner.)

[Barry Fitz]

It may be that the illegal arrest of Asa Eslocker should become a Supreme Court case involving civil rights. The Denver Brown Palace Hotel is in the legal wrong via an attempt to use the Denver police as the thesis of their hubris. Anyone can take photographs from a sidewalk and
should have no police or industrial interference. The evidence is clear that there is a rightful lawsuit awaiting Asa Eslocker based on civil rights law and wrongful criminal accusations. The Denver Brown Palace Hotel is known to have Democratic ties. Mr. Eslocker, a non-Democrat, should not be accosted in a Republican Democrat war while engaged in the discipline and responsibilities of his career.
His non-interference with the Denver Brown Palace Hotel was met with the Hotel's illegality. The City of Denver then is also liable due to police interference of a non-benign nature. It may seem that this attack on Mr. Eslocker via the City of Denver and the Denver Brown Palace Hotel is politically motivated. Those with the sensibility of wisdom can conclude that Mr. Eslocker was wrongly treated. This wrongdoing
should be corrected and this correction should occur in the legal system for the legal record. In the United States of America, Mr. Eslocker has legal rights which the City of Denver has violated. The legal acumen absent from the City of Denver's actions against Mr. Eslocker have resulted in the City of Denver failing to do what a prudent person would do given a similar set of circumstances. This constitutes legal negligence on the part of the City of Denver with regard to Mr. Eslocker.

[jo]

[email protected]

Send an email to the Brown Palace hotel and tell them what you think of them having a photogrpaher/producer who was on public property arrested.

A hotel that arrogant and un-American deserves to go bankrupt.

[American_too]

Um, do any of the (idiotic) conservatives take note of the fact that ABC News was trying to do a report that makes Democrats look bad? If, as the right wing-nuts always yell (and they never seem to do anything but yell), all the mainstream media are liberals who hide the truth about the Democrats in order to fool good Americans into voting for Dems, why would ABC News be doing a story that, if it makes it to air, will make Democrats look bad? Is this something that the "liberal media" would do? Can you explain that?

[E James (Jim) Brennan]

Maybe the ABC producer was attempting to film some of the Dem "glitterati" for a puff-piece showing big-shot endorsement of the Obamanation. Motivations are not the point. If this had happened at the Republican Convention, it would have been break-in & interrupt live news on every channel. It's just more hypocricy from the BS artists.

[jose]

I totally agree with Barry Fitz and Fred. I'm a News ENG Photog and constantly find police office do not understand what is difference of public vs private property. The same happen with the Channel 10 reporter a few months ago at the High School. The state attorney dropped all charges. The police officer who works for the school board should of been trained before and if not after the incident to understand about a little paper called the constitution and what rights all of us have.

[enhager]

If you want to talk about our constitutional rights to question authority, whether that authority be Democrat (in this case) or Republican, check out http://www.photographyisnotacrime.org.

How as a conservative can you condone the police impeding the investigation of Democratic donors? oh that's right - you're stupid.

[enhager]

If you want to talk about our constitutional rights to question authority, whether that authority be Democrat (in this case) or Republican, check out http://www.photographyisnotacrime.org.

How as a conservative can you condone the police impeding the investigation of Democratic donors? oh that's right - you're stupid.

[enhager]

Oh and since there's no link to the video - which doesn't lie - watch the video of the arrest at http://www.photographyisnotacrime.org.

[American]

If the hotel is "known to have Democratic ties", do you think the Denver Police are known to have Republican ties?