One of America’s best-known photographers made the news for all the wrong reasons when he was beaten up by “Trump’s Secret Service security detail at some ten-cent political rally in Virginia.” As photographer Nate Thayer goes on to say in his post Trump Beats Up an Iconic American War Photographer “Trump should hang his head in embarrassment and shame. And America should be outraged.”
Thayer puts Christopher Morris into perspective far better than I could, but I strongly recommend taking a good look at his web site. Morris was at the event working for TIME, and you can read their response as well as an article on NBC News. He was attacked and then briefly arrested because he was taking pictures when protesters interrupted Trump’s rally and Trump shouted the order to his goons “Get them out of here!”
While it unfortunately isn’t uncommon for photographers to be assaulted while covering protests, either by police, stewards or by protesters, it seldom makes the news as in this case. This morning I read of an incident in London last night where a photographer was pushed and impeded by protesters, and such things are common, particularly when covering the extreme right.
The London police have usually been well-behaved recently when I’ve been around, but photographers are often jostled and officers deliberately stand in their way to prevent them taking pictures. A few years ago I used to be threatened with arrest frequently, although I haven’t yet been arrested I have several times been held by police for some time. Several photographer friends have received compensation for injuries and unlawful imprisonment from police.
I’ve also been assaulted on several occasions by stewards on a march, and once near the US Embassy was lucky to avoid serious injury when sent flying backwards, narrowly avoiding a concrete obstruction and rolling over with only slight bruising. I’ve been lucky too when pushed into oncoming traffic.
Such things should not happen. And they should certainly not happen at a political rally and at the order of a candidate for the US Presidency.
As Thayer ends his post:
“How dare you desecrate the work of people like Chris Morris who has risked his life to document events far more important than your irrelevant little political campaign, Mr Trump? You should be defending the rights of people like Morris to do his job, not arresting them.
“Even Saddam Hussein didn’t arrest Christopher Morris, but Trump did. What does that say about America in 2016?”
