HARRISBURG—The tech team is here for the holiday weekend filling us in on what went down last night after the incident at J&J’s in Harrisburg.
We call Chris and Jade our “tech kids” because they manage the website; when we’re stuck at home doing paperwork and things, the tech kids are usually in Harrisburg, watching south counties for us. Last night was an interesting night for them.
After leaving J&J’s, the team went back to the dungeon, and were working on Jade’s car, which had a burned-out license plate light (which she learned courtesy of a kind ISP officer at the scene of J&J’s; we won’t name him, but we thank him). While they were out working on the car, they noticed three Harrisburg police cars traveling south on Main Street at a very high rate of speed (they are estimating they were going at least 70. “All you could hear was the ‘whoosh’ as they were passing, no sirens, no lights, and they did NOT stop or even slow down at stop signs,” Chris told us).
So of course, the tech kids hopped in the car and took off south down Main, following what was obviously an indication of some action.
Five blocks down, next to the new liquor store (Discount Food Mart, which used to be a Huck’s), the three HPD had stopped and the officers had gotten out of their cars and were conversing with a black gentleman who was standing on the sidewalk. They appeared to be questioning him about something. The tech kids drove a little way past the scene and parked at the liquor store lot, Chris got out with a camera, took three steps, and very abruptly, all the cops stopped what they were doing, got in their cars, and took off in different directions…fairly quickly.
Two of the cars had headed west, so the tech kids followed him; the third went east, and the tech kids completely lost where the black feller went. Apparently, it wasn’t very important, whatever they were doing with him.
This reflects what happened to Chris a little over a month ago in front of Shagwells, when Chris went to get a photo of a reported fight in progress there, and was spotlighted by the cops, keeping him from getting a photo. We contacted Mayor Eric Gregg about the incident; he later advised that it was the county who responded to that incident within city limits. Whatever, Eric.
Anyway, we just want to reiterate: We have the right to photograph/videotape the police while they’re on the job. They have no expectation of privacy when they’re on duty, and they have no right to interfere when journalists are doing so. We’re glad there weren’t any overt actions on the part of the police last night…but their response was interesting, to say the least. Maybe they’ll get used to us eventually, because we’re not going away…or maybe the new mayor will crack down on the negative response we sometimes get within the county. Because policing the police is what we, and every taxpaying citizen, should be doing, so cops: be expecting it.