DJ John Knefel, stand up comedian and co-host of the news show Radio Dispatch, was arrested on Dec. 12th during a peaceful Occupy Wall Street protest at the Winter Garden atrium, owned by Brookfield Properties, in lower Manhattan.
John was taking video of the protesters and live-tweeting the scene, when a NYPD officer asked if he had media credentials as he was being thrown to the ground violently and subsequently arrested - along with 17 others - for observing the scene and held in jail for an astounding 37 hours. All those arrested and held during this long 37 hours had refused to "voluntarily" allow a retinal scan of their eyes, which may have contributed to their especially lengthy detention.
If you recall my earlier post on the arrests at this occupy event, remember that press credentials did not stop officers from violently seeking out persons with cameras or laptops to arrest even with press credentials prominently displayed.
John and Molly are independent journalists who have been covering the Occupy Wall Street movement since Sept. 17th, and are strong voices within that community.
John's sister and co-host, Molly, questioned the arrest, and wrote about her experience on Salon.com and also appeared on Keith Olbermann's Countdown to talk about the arrests. Molly was the person in my previous report that the NYPD cop told "I have a gun on me, okay? I don’t want any people coming that close to me.”
You can also listen to the story of John's arrest, and Molly's observations and experiences with the NYPD here on Radio Dispatch.
Video courtesy of BreakThru Radio.
