Miami police officers assaulted a TV reporter who was trying to ask the police chief a simple question.
Was the man they shot and killed last week armed?
Considering police have yet to provide an answer, we already know the answer to that question.
Of course he wasn’t armed. If Travis McNeil had been armed, that would have been the first detail released by police after last Thursday’s officer-involved shooting.
The TV reporter was Glenna Milberg from Local 10, the only TV reporter to have reported on my 2007 arrest – the one that prompted me to launch this blog. She has been a supporter ever since.
So I’m a little more peeved about this than I normally would be. Here is her video report on today’s incident.
Milberg is a hard-nosed reporter who doesn’t back down. Especially now that Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito has been undergoing intense scrutiny after his officers have killed seven citizens in the 18 months he’s been running the department.
His predecessor, John Timoney, had his own scandals to deal with, but underwent a 22-month period where police didn’t fire a single shot.
Milberg and a cameraman tried to approach Exposito today after an award ceremony. It was the chief’s first public appearance since last week’s shooting. She said they have been trying to contact him all week, but he has ignored them.
As they approached the chief, several officers formed a blockade around him, preventing the cameraman from getting close.
Milberg slipped through the blockade with her microphone and we can hear a loud thud, followed by her voice saying, “that hurt.”
She said an officer elbowed her in the sternum.
Anybody else who would have been done the same in front of a group of officers would have been arrested on the spot.
But when you get away with murder, you can get away with anything.