And while a member of the House is alleging that the government is conspiring to derail democracy, we've already shown you how the police on Friday worked to muzzle and harass the press, particularly 7NEWS. As we reported, 7NEWS cameraman Alex Ellis was arbitrarily singled out and arrested by Commander of Operations, Crispin Jeffries. As the videotape showed, it was for nothing at all. And for good measure, Jeffries also approached Keith Swift in a threatening manner and clubbed Alfonso Noble across the jaw.
But this morning at a police press briefing, Jeffries refused to discuss
his clear abuses of the press and incredibly, in the face of clear video evidence refuting it, Press Officer G. Michael Reid said that our Alex Ellis was the one doing the aggressing.
G. Michael Reid, Police Press Officer
"We are not aware of any force used against the media, except to just ask the media to confine themselves to a certain area and to not obstruct the work of the police."
Q: Is the rationale for the arrest of Mr. Ellis from Channel 7?
G. Michael Reid,
"Obviously Mr. Ellis was not heeding the warnings of the police officers and as a result he was detained temporarily."
ACP Crispin Jeffries, Commander of Operations
"Anything I say seems to be something that the media wants to play with. So let me give you something to play with, the police will perform at its best and will be ready to deal with any situation come Friday, whether an approval is given or no approval is given. Those are my comments."
Later on we'll have much more from Friday's protest as we'll put together all the images that we couldn't fit into Friday's newscast and give you a timeline of how it all went down.
