Tag Archives: Media Repression

Video Shows SCPD Blocking Media from Sean Arlt Killing Press Conference

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Video Shows SCPD Blocking Media from Sean Arlt Killing Press Conference

by Wes White and Robert Norse (rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com)
Thursday Feb 23rd, 2017 2:36 PM
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/02/23/18796773.php

Activist Wes White documents the exclusion of alternative media from the SCPD’s 2-16 Press Conference. There SCPD Police Chief Vogel announced that Officer Eric Bailey was the killer of Sean Arlt, who, police say, approached them aggressively with a metal rake back in early October. The only evidence presented was Vogel’s account, some partial audio, and a partial obscured video that had no recognizable figures in it and ended ten minutes before Arlt died.
Wes White came over from Salinas to film the two press conferences (by D.A. Jeff Rosell and Police Chief Kevin Vogel). He was admitted to the D.A.[‘s conference, but subsequently denied entrance to the second held at the Police Department’s “Community Room”.

Also excluded were Robert Norse (a Free Radio Santa Cruz broadcaster), John Malkin (a reporter with Good Times and KZSC) as well as Food Not Bombs activists Keith McHenry and Abbi Samuels.

The video and audio shown by police give no clear picture of Sean Arlt’s approach to the four police officers. There was no offer to release the D.A.’s investigation or the original police reports.

The few media present at Vogel’s press conference asked very few questions. That section of the video (shown at the closed Press Conference) and subsequently posted on the SCPD’s website and Santa Cruz Indymedia) can be seen at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/02/16/18796574.php?show_comments=1#18796590. Questions begin 57 minutes into the audio file and some are unintelligible. It is unclear which media were allowed into the room.

Wes White is a video-journalist, recent candidate for Salinas City Council, and co-founder of the Monterey County/Salinas Union of the Homeless. His video of the SFPD Press Exclusion is at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGnW82WWpww&feature=youtu.be .

Norse’s audio of the D.A.’s press conference plus some commentary is at http://radiolibre.org/brb/brb170216.mp3 (15 minutes into the file).

Commentary outside the SCPD Press Conference which he was excluded from is at http://radiolibre.org/brb/brb170216.mp3 (1 hour and 4 minutes into the file).