Black Lives Matter protesters held a conference at Cleveland State University over the weekend, but when a white reporter came to cover the event, they told him to get out.
While gathered on a public sidewalk outside a building on the CSU campus, one of the protesters announced that the sidewalk was a “people of African descent space,” and informed anyone not of African descent that they should “go to the outside of the circle… Immediately.”
Northeast Ohio Media Group crime reporter Brandon Blackwell, who is not of African descent, complied with the protesters request. But when he did, a chorus of people told him to “stop filming,” and followed him to the far side of the sidewalk with t-shirts and other objects blocking his camera.
“I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you,” one of the protesters said as they held their hand in front of Blackwell’s camera.
Mark Naymik, a columnist for Cleveland.com, summed up the group’s behavior in one scathing paragraph at the bottom of this explanation of the events:
The Movement for Black Lives should be embarrassed by the actions of some of its supporters. Their quick judgment toward police and their prejudiced and intolerant reactions to a reporter doing his job represent the very things they decry.
WATCH:
When Blackwell inquired as to why the protesters didn’t want him filming their rally, which was located squarely on public property, they offered up some bizarre explanations.One protester accused Blackwell of being a federal agent. One woman, freelance race reporter, Rosa Clemente, said Blackwell was endangering children in the crowd because “police target their children.””Do you think that the police are not putting files on our children?” she asked. “That’s why we asked them not to tape.”Another said he was nothing more than an agitator. One other man accused the reporter of being a white supremacist.(RELATED: Black Lives Matter Protesters Block Cops Aiding 14-Year-Old, Get Pepper-Sprayed)
Blackwell asked why they would gather in a public place if they didn’t want to be filmed, and Clemente said they didn’t do it in private because “when we do it in a private place we’re surrounded. We’re surrounded by the police.”
Later in the video, a girl in the crowd shouts “That’s white privilege!”
Blackwell responds “This is the privilege of anyone in a public space.”
Another man in the crowd then says, “I got 800 black people behind men, what the fuck are you going to do?” before he and another man start to push Blackwell and reach for his camera.
Blackwell asks someone in the crowd to restrain the protester and one large man steps in to keep things from getting out of hand.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.