A journalist was harassed by U.S. Park police for video recording police lights on top of a patrol car from a public sidewalk in Washington D.C. Friday.
Officer T.W. Twiname chased after Arash Arabasadi as he was walking into his girlfriend’s building, demanding to know his name.
Arabasadi, who works for Voice of America and teaches journalism at Howard University, provided his first name, but then had second thoughts when the cops started jotting his name down in a notepad.
“Can I ask why you’re taking this report?” Arabasadi asked.
“Once you give me this information, I will explain everything to you, ok,” Twiname responded.
“Am I under arrest?” Arabasadi asked.
“Nope.”
“Then I’m going back inside.”
And he did.
But he came back out to ask the cop for his name and badge number.
“Do you make it a habit to harass citizens who are just out here taking pictures and video?” Arabasadi asked.
Twiname told him to have a nice day and walked away.
Twiname then contacted the human resources department at Voice of America to complain about Arabasadi.
So if you want to complain about Twiname, call his lieutenant at (202) 426-7716.
