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D.C. journalist arrested, charged with assaulting officer
A Washington Times reporter was arrested while covering the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. and said she was struck by police, but declined to disclose whether she will file a formal complaint.
Jacquie Kubin, online communities editor at The Washington Times, was charged with assaulting a police officer and crossing police lines while she was outside the Marriott Wardman Park, where the conference was held, said Deborah Hines, Kubin's attorney.
Kubin, who is scheduled to appear at the Superior Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 28, denies assaulting the officer and crossing the police line, according to Hines. The attorney also said that police declined to provide details of why she was arrested.
“She had a First Amendment right to be there. She is a credentialed journalist,” said Hines. “There was no reason for her to become part of the story.”
The police were not able to confirm her arrest. Kubin used her married name, Szadkowski, when she was arrested.
Kubin, who said she has never been arrested in her 20 years as a journalist, said she is still in shock from what happened. Kubin said she always felt confident that she was protected by rights under the First Amendment, but "when they are forcibly taken from you, you see them in a new light," she said.
There is a two-segment video of Kubin’s arrest, which took place around 6:30 p.m. on Friday, and is posted on SaveTheNews.org. An unidentified man is filming the event and yells out to police that Kubin is a credentialed journalist as she was being arrested.
Kubin said she was assaulted by an officer who "repeatedly struck" her in the chest before she was arrested. The alleged assault was not captured on the videos of her arrest.
From the video, Kubin can be seen leaving the sidewalk as she attempts to get the officer’s name who she said struck her so that she could file a complaint. An officer can be heard telling her to "stay back." She was arrested shortly. Kubin was released about 9 hours after she was arrested.
“[Kubin was] legally exercising her right as a journalist,” said Hines. “She did not do anything wrong.”
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"credentialed journalist"
The term "credentialed journalist" is offensive. All Americans have the same rights, and government has no authority to define or license journalists. This creeping credentialism is promoted by government and mainstream journalists. The former because they get defferential treatment from the mainstream media; the latter because they want to distinguish themselves from bloggers and other non-traditional reporters, and they want special consideration by government officials.
Arrest
It is problematic that a journalist would not follow police instructions to stay on the sidewalk. Needless to say, CPAC brought out violent marxist "black bloc" demonstrators who would have loved being able to engage in hit and run assaults, then run across the street and hide in the crowd. Freedom of the press gives us all the right to get the story. It does not give journalists the right to be the story. If a female journalist pushed a cop, she should have afforded the same Constitutional right to be arrested and go to jail as any other citizen.