Mayor Bloomberg’s Spokesman Explains How Only One Reporter Was Arrested During The Zuccotti Park Raid [Update]
This morning, we wrote about an interview NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and the Department’s top spokesman Paul Browne gave to the Queens Chronicle in which Mr. Browne discussed the arrests of reporters following the police raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park.
“Paul Browne, the deputy commissioner for public information, who accompanied Kelly to the interview, added that only one journalist was arrested during the operation, despite stories to the contrary, which he called ‘a total myth,’” Chronicle Editor in Chief Peter C. Mastrosimone wrote.
We noted that this seemed to be a discrepancy with an email Mayor Bloomberg’s top spokesman sent in response to a post on the Awl describing reporters arrested while covering the Occupy Wall Street raid in which he acknowledged five reporters with press credentials were arrested.
We reached out to both Mr. Browne and Mr. Loeser to explain why they seemed to be in disagreement. A heated Mr. Loeser called us back to explain that only one reporter was arrested in Zuccotti Park itself while the other reporters were arrested in other areas that day.
“He’s talking about the issue at Zuccotti Park,” Mr. Loeser said of Mr. Browne’s comments. “There’s not a discrepancy.” Read More
