NYPD curbs Post reporter from interviewing migrants on public sidewalk
New York City cops have stopped journalists from speaking to the hordes of migrants camped on public sidewalks outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan this week as the city’s makeshift processing center hit capacity this past weekend.
City cops barred reporters from talking to the troubled asylum seekers as they sat crammed on the sidewalk — using “exigent circumstances” as an excuse. But legal experts have labeled the move nonsense, calling their attempts to block a Post reporter a First Amendment violation.
“You have a First Amendment right to speech — and in this case — the migrant has the right to speak to the reporter but the reporter has the First Amendment right to do their job,” New York City civil rights and civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel told The Post.
With exigent circumstances — an emergency situation that requires immediate attention — “very often police make it up as they go along,” Siegel said, adding about the “exigent circumstances” claim: “Unless they had specific factual information creating some sort of crisis on that street, that’s improper for the officer to be saying that.”
A Mulligan Fire Safety employee named Kerry Simon prevents NY Post reporter Jack Morphet from speaking to asylum seekers while they are in line Robert Miller
While reporting on the recent surge of asylum seekers awaiting processing on Monday, a Post reporter was told, “You don’t have to be here, you want to be here,” to which the reporter pushed back, telling him he was on a public street and had the right to be there and do his job.
In response to the reporter, the officer said there were “exigent circumstances” that meant he could not be on the sidewalk, though he would not specify what they were.
New York City cops have stopped journalists from speaking to the hordes of migrants camped out on public sidewalks outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. Robert Miller
While reporters have been told they cannot stop to speak to the bulk of migrants outside the Roosevelt Hotel on East 45th Street, they’ve been able to conduct interviews with a few migrants who leave their spot in line to talk.
Photographers have also been stationed across the street from the line, which has shortened over the past day as migrants cram in closer together, hoping to work their way into processing.
Reporters have been told they have to speak with migrants across the street from the line into the processing center. Robert Miller
When asked about the incident involving the Post reporter on Wednesday, Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said: “There should be no reason why that is happening. That seems strange, I’ll follow up.”
This stopping of reporters outside the Roosevelt Hotel comes as DocGo, a medical services company hired by New York City to help the migrant crisis, has been accused of telling a New York Times reporter that they were not allowed to speak to migrants being held in a hotel in Albany.
The NYPD did not immediately comment.
Source: New York Post
