Jimenez being arrested by the Police in Minneapolis on Friday
Police in the United States trying to restore order in Minneapolis following an overnight violent protest over the killing of George Floyd by a police office who cut his breath by kneeling on his neck, have arrested a CNN reporter identified as black or brown by the international TV station itself.
Mr Omar Jimenez, according to CNN, is a black and Latino and had been deployed along with a white reporter, Josh Campbell to cover the story on the violent protest which started last night until the early hours of Friday when the National Guard showed up. By that time some buildings, including a police station had been razed and shops looted by the angry protesters.
“I identified myself as a reporter with CNN,”said Campbell, “They (the police) knew we had been covering the story overnight until the police arrived and asked people to move back. They got to Omar and he identified himself as CNN reporter, yet he was arrested.”
According to CNN: ” A black reporter from CNN was illegally arrested while covering the protest in Minneapolis, (while) a white reporter on the ground was not, ” the network said.
The Minnesota police then took Omar into custody. The camera of the crew which fell on the ground was left untouched for a long time during which it beamed the scene to the world, showing Omar being handcuffed and led away.
The protest had gone violent and even spread to other cities across the United States, when citizens of the state heard that prosecutors were unwilling to file criminal charges against the dismissed killer cops.
Incredible lack of order in the free for all that Omar was arrested”, said CNN in its situation reports of the event. Meanwhile, the Governor of Minneapolis, Tim Walls has apologised to the CNN over what he called, “totally unacceptable and clear violation of Omar’s rights.” He accepted full responsibility for the “irresponsible and unacceptable” behaviour of the police. The crew have been released.
