An incident between a reporter and Bridgeport police Thursday night should not only concern every journalist in the state of Connecticut but also sound a warning bell to the general public.

Tara O’Neill, a reporter with Hearst Connecticut Media, was taken into custody for doing what reporters do: keeping the public informed.

O’Neill was covering a demonstration of the second anniversary of a police shooting that killed a 15-year-old Bridgeport youth. Jayson Negron was shot dead by Bridgeport police Officer James Boulay on May 9, 2017, in the parking lot of Walgreens at 1000 Park Ave. He was unarmed.

O’Neill was doing what journalists do — standing on the sideline observing the protest, taking notes and shooting video. When police told her to move, she informed them she was a journalist. Instead of allowing her to do her job, she was handcuffed and put into the back of a police cruiser and hauled off to headquarters as one of the protesters.

Thirty minutes later, she was released without being charged — because she broke no law.

When learning about O’Neill’s arrest, Matt DeRienzo, vice president of news and digital content for Hearst Connecticut Media, said, “The fact that a local journalist was arrested for doing her job and reporting on the actions of police and protesters is extremely troubling, and the public deserves a full explanation of how it happened and what steps will be taken to make sure that the freedom of the press and the public’s right to know is not infringed upon like this in the future.”

But DeRienzo also said something else that is very telling and pretty much makes it clear that this was a deliberate attempt to muffle the media.

“Tara O’Neill is a dedicated reporter who is well-known to Bridgeport police and police leadership,” DeRienzo said. “There’s no chance this was a case of mistaken identity. They arrested a reporter while she was doing her job.”

He is right, which makes this so disturbing. On video, O’Neill can clearly be heard telling the officer she was a member of the media.

Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim called the protest a “very difficult situation.”

I guess it is. That is what happens when police shoot and kill a kid who has yet to reach adulthood and whose only crime apparently was stealing a vehicle. That is what a lot of 15-year-old boys have done since Henry Ford put four wheels on the road. Most don’t get shot and killed because of it.

And it is unthinkable that police would not expect a protest denouncing them for killing an unarmed kid would not be passionate, angry and vocal. An investigation may have cleared the officer but many people have little to no faith in law enforcement “investigations” of themselves that somehow always come out favorably for police — even when the suspect is unarmed.

Since Hamden and Yale police officers opened fire on unarmed people in a car in New Haven April 16, people are demanding that police be retrained, held accountable and police procedures be revised.

Police have a tough job to do, no doubt about it. But so do journalists.

And just like police serve and protect the community by fighting crime, so do journalists serve the community by keeping them informed about what is going on.

For a police officer to knowingly arrest a journalist for doing his or her job is outrageous.

But for it to come against a reporter who along with her colleagues has been “relentless in covering misconduct and coverup” in the Bridgeport Police Department, it “feels like retaliation and intimidation against the press for holding them accountable,” as DeRienzo points out.

It also shows how arrogant and omnipotent police really think they are.

But if police are under the impression that arresting O’Neill will give the rest of us pause, they should understand that muffling the media won’t work.

In a letter to Bridgeport Police Department Chief of Police Armando Perez and city Mayor Joseph Ganim, the New England First Amendment Coalition called O’Neill’s detainment inexcusable.

“While responsible law enforcement is crucial to the well-being of our communities, so is journalism,” according to the May 10 letter. “There is simply no excuse for a journalist to be arrested for doing her job.”

But it is becoming more common as police and public officials are being put under a microscope and closely scrutinized for misconduct and other suspicious deeds.

So far this year, five journalists have been arrested across the United States for doing their job — and it is no secret that around the world, journalists are being murdered and locked up for exposing or attempting to get at the truth.

“This is a challenging time for journalists,” said Justin Silverman, the coalition’s executive director. “Freedom of the press is being marginalized, if not outright attacked, by those in power on all levels of government. We can show no tolerance for this disregard of the First Amendment.”

O’Neill’s detainment screams for action. People should not be arrested because they are calling attention to law enforcement’s extreme use of force — particularly when it is deadly.

Police? Muffling the media won’t work.
