There's a contretemps over an ABC crew getting arrested. So I asked the hotel about it.
Quoted in full, with their permission:
Dear Mr. Danziger,If I may provide an explanation about today's events:
The ABC news cameras were intruding on the entrance of the hotel, creating an unsafe entrance/exit for our guests, which are our priority at all times. The police department asked them to move to the side several times so that our guests could enter/exit, and ABC refused. ABC was clearly told that they could stand on the sidewalk but it is illegal to block an entrance to any business, which is what they were doing. After not complying with the police requests, they were then asked to move to the other side of the street. It is our understanding that ABC continued to speak belligerently to the police and were arrested for not complying with police orders. The arrest resulted from issues between the police and ABC, not The Brown Palace Hotel.
Watch the video at the link; there's not enough info to support or reject her explanation.
Props to the Brown Palace for getting the problem and responding quickly...let's see how the story develops.
Edited for clarity; hard line breaks removed by NM to better suit this blog's format.
I was pleased at how rapidly the Brown Palace responded to my identical inquiry. I'm guessing that by now they have an email filter that sends this autoresponse....
However, one man's "public right to know" is another man's "blocking my entrance". I'm not overly sympathetic with either party, but I lean toward ABC just a bit. And considering how poorly the Denver Police responded to an immediate DEATH THREAT to Michelle Malkin, I'm definitely not taking DPD's side....
contretemps
/pedant
It will be interesting to hear from the ABC reporter on where he was standing and what he was asked to do.
It will also be interesting to hear why the police forced the ABC news reporter into the street instead of the side to clear the entrance.
So tell me something. Off-duty Denver police arrested ABCNews' producer for trespass.
Which corporation exactly is pressing that charge?
The Brownshirt Palace should be ashamed of itself for hiring thugs and should be sued for false prisonment.
The police thugs who arrested this journalist are in the paid employ of the Brown Palace, and I hope one day, a jury exacts a price against the hotel for their actions.
The last time I checked, America wasn't an oligarchy, where corporations such as the Brown Palace can have inconvenient people jailed for exercising their constitution rights.
If I'm not mistaken, the Brown Palace's entrance is intruding upon the public right of way. It looks like they open directly onto a public sidewalk, which THEY DO NOT OWN.
If they want a private entrance, then the Brown Palace (god, what a name!) should have set their building further back from the street, and provided an entrance area which was on private property.
As mentioned above, it is quite disingenuous for the Brown Palace to hire off-duty police officers to serve as security for a private establishment, then lay the blame for the actions of those officers upon them and their office.
Several jurisdictions have forbidden their officers from accepting this type of employment because of these liability issues.
The editing of the ABC video tells me all I need to know. None of the warnings included, or even evidence that there had been no warning. Pathetic.
#2: Fixed.
It will be interesting who pays the judgment for the lawsuit that the reporter will win in court. If the DA in Denver has any bollz, it will be interesting to see what the officer is charged with. Not holding my breath on the DA. At least a million dollar settlement would be in order, don't yo think?