Wesley Lowery, Reporter Arrested In Ferguson, Speaks To TJMS

Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery was a guest on the Tom Joyner Morning Show on Wednesday, August 14th and hours later he was arrested at a nearby McDonalds in Ferguson, Missouri. He was there covering the story of unrest, following the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown by police over the weekend. “Officers say, you should get out of here, things are getting crazy. If you choose to stay here we’re not going to be able to protect you but they weren’t satisfied that we were going to stay and cover the riot,” Lowery says. What he says next will surprise you! Click the link above to hear the entire interview or read it below!

TOM JOYNER:  Wesley Lowery from The Washington Post is on the phone and out of jail.  What’s happening?

WESLEY LOWERY:  (Laugh) Thank you, Tom.

TOM JOYNER:  (Laugh) Not you too, you’re a journalist.

WESLEY LOWERY:  My objective facts tell me that I can do all these other interviews, but the day I go on Tom Joyner.  (Laughter)

TOM JOYNER:  Come on, Wesley, not you too.  All right, Wesley, what happened?

WESLEY LOWERY:  So, for people not on the ground here in Ferguson, the main stress where everything’s happening, where the initial shooting of Michael Brown happened, where the protests have been happening, are on what essentially is a main thoroughfare off of a, like a freeway, actually.  So you actually can imagine you got gas stations, as we’ve seen the one that was burned, McDonald’s, The Dollar Store, and so it was during the afternoon, there was a massive afternoon protest, largely peaceful afternoon protest, the police came out in a massive show of force. For myself and many other reporters it was all hands on deck, we were all covering this live from the sites, tweets, a lot of live updates, a lot of pictures, because this isn’t the first time the full SWAT and riot team had showed up during the daylight.  And so here we are documenting this and independently of each other, Ryan Riley, from The Huffington Post, the other reporter and his team, our phones were dying.

So what we did was we walked about two blocks, there’s a McDonald’s.  This has basically been the media center of all of Ferguson.  Any reporter here, he’ll tell you that, because as everybody knows that McDonald’s are definitely Wi-Fi.  And so for reporters who are typing and filing, anytime I’m on the road I think I need to find a McDonald’s or a Starbucks.  And so we’re in the McDonald’s writing the reporting, like a lot of reporters have been.  I believe him and I were the only two reporters at that moment because everything was topping off.  We had to pull ourselves out for a second because our phones were dead.  And so we’re the only two reporters in there, we’re working and filing, there’s maybe half a dozen people in there.  And at one point I look up and I see that there are six or seven officers now in the McDonald’s, you know, with their large weapons walking around and they’re talking to some of the patrons saying you should get out of here, things are getting crazy down there, you should get out of there.  So obviously I went on high alert. You know, I started to try to take pictures of what was going on in the McDonald’s, tweeting that; hey, officers have just shown up and they’re now evacuating us.

All of the sudden the story had come to our little alcove where we thought we had escaped it.  But at the time they did not order us to leave.  They said if you just choose to stay here we’re not going to be able to protect you.  If you call 911 we’re not going to answer, we’re not going to show up here, we told you; you need to leave.  Like, all right, cool.  They walk back to the front, they were not satisfied with the idea that we were willing to brave whatever it was, that we weren’t scared by the idea of a riot, in fact we were here to cover if there was going to be a riot.  So then they went to the manager to try to talk him into kicking us out.  Tried to talk him into giving them authority to evacuate the place or whatnot.

I had no idea whether or not that was granted but what I do know was a few moments later some of the officers re-approached us and said we’re evacuating, now you have to get out of here, you’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got my phone in my hands, so I hit record on my video, because, again, we’re being evacuated from a McDonald’s, this is going to be good video no matter what happens.  This is going to be something, this is going to help show what was going on in the ground, at which point an officer with a large assault weapon says to me; stop recording, turn that off.  And I said, as I’m walking backwards, still recording him, trying to get to my stuff, because I have no intention of staying in this McDonald’s they’re evacuating.

I said; Officer, don’t I have a first amendment right to record you?  He didn’t like that, but he didn’t directly respond to it.  He just said; move it, move it, move it.  So here I am holding in my left hand, it’s why my video has my fingers all over it, because I don’t really know how to hold these in my left hand, but with my right hand I’m trying to pack up my stuff, and, for some context, and I’m kind of going long here, but some context right before that, because my phone was dead, I was sitting there letting it charge, but also trying to do a little bit of a Twitter Q&A with people. I’ve been on the ground for a few days here, so I know there are some people who aren’t in Ferguson had some questions I might have answers to because they might’ve missed it.

So I was going back and forth.  I have all of my notebooks spread across this entire desk.  I was digging through my notes trying to be able to answer questions for people.  And so it’s taking me a little while with one hand to pack everything up, unplug computers, unplug things, load them up, try to zip up my bag.  Meanwhile, as he’s saying move, he’s gesturing with his weapon, which for me, I’ll be honest, it means, I might have been a little less attentive to packing and a little more attentive to this large weapon being gestured at me.

And so as I’m trying to pack my stuff up, I get up, I put my backpack on, I start walking towards the door, and I say; sir, am I going to be able to get my car, or do I need to walk out?  I don’t have time for your questions.  I don’t have time – I said; sir, I’m trying to leave, I need to know, can I go to my car?  Or should I just walk out?  And, again, this is not some type of urgent situation; they’re evacuating a McDonald’s two blocks away from the action.

They could’ve taken 20 minutes to do it, it wouldn’t have made any difference, there was no immediate threat to anyone inside that McDonald’s. And so here we are, and so I have my bag over one shoulder, and finally he says; yeah, you can go to your car.  So I’m walking towards that door, at which point another officer approaches me from that direction and says; you can’t go out that door, go out the other one.  I said okay, sir, so I just; can you tell me what door to go out?  I’ll go out it.  But the two of you are giving me opposite instructions.

They confer for a quick moment, they point me in the other direction, so as I turn around, my backpack, which is slung over just one shoulder, because, again, I’ve got my phone in my hand, begins to slide off of my shoulder.  I say; Officer, just give me one second, I just got to readjust this bag.  I didn’t want them to think I was stopping or defying their orders, that I need to readjust this bag, it’s about to fall, everything’s going to spill; you’re going to be upset.  That’s when they said; okay, let’s take him.  They threw me up against the …

TOM JOYNER:  Threw you up against the …

WESLEY LOWERY:  Up against the fountain soda machine, at which point, at which point I knew I was being arrested, I knew that was going to happen.  And so I …

TOM JOYNER:  Now this is Ferguson Police?

WESLEY LOWERY:  This is Ferg—well, it’s a combination, it’s was county police, there was, I believe there was some Ferguson Police, and also some other state agencies, I mean …

TOM JOYNER:  And all of them white?

WESLEY LOWERY:  I believe all of them inside of McDonald’s white.  At one point we saw a black officer outside while they were holding us, but all these officers in the McDonald’s are white.  So they throw me off, my phone is still recording in my left hand, but I dropped everything else in my right hand and I’m saying to them; I’m not going to resist, you can arrest me, I’m not resisting, I’m not resisting.  And they’re saying to me; you are resisting, stop resisting.  And that, frankly, was the most horrified I’ve been, because I’ve just seen too many videos of people who were allegedly resisting arrest/not resisting arrest, these things happening.  And so I’m telling them, I’m not resisting …

TOM JOYNER:  This sounds like a foreign countr …

WESLEY LOWERY:  I’m not resisting, I’m not resisting, I’m not, you can arrest me, my hands are behind my back.  I know that I’m going to be fine as long as nothing happens to me physically.  And so I’m telling them; I’m not resisting, you can arrest me.  So then …

SYBIL WILKES:  Are you still recording at this time?

WESLEY LOWERY:  I recorded through most of it.  So the video we posted, I think there are maybe five or ten seconds after that that I think our video editors cut out.  But for the most part, until they physically threw me it recorded.  And then I, the phone dropped out of my hand as the Coke started splashing on my arm, because I was up against the fountain soda machine.  And so I have some of this recorded, at least the audio of it, it goes black.  But then they, they take me outside, and as I’m walking out I see Ryan’s still in the corner having more of a verbal conversation, I was telling him; tweet that they’re arresting me, tweet that they’re arresting me.

He didn’t have that opportunity; moments later they’re slamming him into something, putting him in cuffs bringing him out. As we’re coming out some of the res—some of the people who had been in the McDonald’s, actually some nice, we had some very nice conversations with some of the, there was a woman that came up to me right bef—a few minutes before; hey, are you with the media?  I see your, and we had a kind of nice back and forth, not an interview, we were just chatting.  You know, civil.  And she’s screaming out to me; why are they arresting you?

And I said; for videotaping them.  And that alerted a few journalists who were in a broader area; I think there was a picture of Ryan taken in his cuffs.  We are standing outside at this point, outside the McDonald’s in the middle of the street, and they have a police tank, you know, one of the big trucks they use to transport people.  And as we’re, and initially they want to put us in this and they open the back door and there are two people in there.

There’s one sitting on one of the benches, there are benches on both sides, and then the other person is this large, large black man, had to be well over 250, probably 300, 350 pounds, who cannot sit on the bench …

TOM JOYNER:  Wait a minute, Wesley, Wesley, Wesley, Wesley …

WESLEY LOWERY:  Yes?

TOM JOYNER:  I’m, I’m, I’m out of time.

WESLEY LOWERY:  Oh, you’re out of time?  (Laugh)

TOM JOYNER:  I’m so out of town.

WESLEY LOWERY:  This man was screaming for paramedics and they refused to give him one.  That’s the end of my story.  That’s the end of that story.  Imagine the Eric Garner video.  That is what happened in front of us, the guy was locked up.

TOM JOYNER:  But you are all right?

WESLEY LOWERY:  I am all right physically, and like I said before a few times, I’ve seen residents of Ferguson be actually injured.  I am not injured.  I’m fine.  We’re going to be fine.  This story shouldn’t be about me, but in a same way this is an anecdote about what’s going on in the ground here.  If I was dealt with this way, another reporter was dealt with this way, imagine residents who don’t have the legal power of The Washington Post behind them, who don’t have people noticing them being arrested and tweeting; hey, is that reporter getting arrested?  So that’s why, listeners who aren’t here and aren’t seeing this, that’s the context I get from this, I don’t want people to feel sorry for me.  I’m in the field right now reporting on it.

TOM JOYNER:  All right.  Well, God bless, Wesley.

For iPhone:  (Photo Source: Twitter)