arrest

COPENHAGEN -- InvestigateWest photographer Christopher Crow was released from custody by Danish authorities who held him for 10 1/2 hours after arresting him for covering protests outside the United Nations climate summit.

Mark Malijan, an InvestigateWest photographer who was himself pepper-sprayed and hit with a police baton, confirmed Crow's release. Below is a picture shot by Malijan of Crow in custody.

[caption id="attachment_7412" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Christopher Crow shortly after his arrest. InvestigateWest photo by Mark Malijan."][/caption]

Contacts:
Daniel Lathrop 206-718-0349

InvestigateWest photographer detained in Copenhagen

SEATTLE -- A  journalist on assignment for InvestigateWest to cover
protests outside the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen
was arrested Tuesday -- the second time he has been arrested while
photographing demonstrators. This time, demonstrators were attempting
to enter Copenhagen’s Bella Center, the site of the international
climate talks.

Christopher Crow of Bellingham was taken into custody by police, who
are empowered under a new law to hold demonstrators for up to 12 hours
without filing charges. He was arrested at about Noon local time and
remained in custody as of 6 PM local time.

Crow was previously arrested Sunday and released after 3 ½ hours
without any charges being filed.

In both cases, the officers took Crow away despite the fact that he is
a credentialed journalist carrying out his duty as to document the
unrest in the streets and not a participant in the demonstrations.
Demonstrators are angry about an emerging United Nations treaty that
would allow some companies to profit from fighting climate change.

After his first arrest, InvestigateWest executive director and editor
Rita Hibbard had issued the following statement:

"This is an outrageous affront to the freedom of the press. Reporters
are obligated to cover civil disturbances like the protests in
Copenhagen, and police who arrest journalists are violating their
human rights. Christopher and InvestigateWest are owed an apology by the
Danish authorities and we will be filing a formal protest."

Members of the InvestigateWest team in Copenhagen available for
interviews via Skype.

By Alexander Kelly

COPENHAGEN – As protesters tried but failed to penetrate the conference center where negotiators are hashing out an international climate treaty, the United Nations today barred about 1,000 environmentalists who had previously been granted credentials.

[caption id="attachment_7374" align="alignleft" width="226" caption="Police used pepper spray, police dogs and their batons to keep demonstrators from getting inside the climate talks. InvestigateWest photo by Mark Malijan."][/caption]

Meanwhile, InvestigateWest photographer Christopher Crow was arrested for the second time this week, this time as he tried to photograph the protesters attempting to break into the Bella Center amid barking police dogs and clouds of tear gas. About 230 demonstrators were arrested, police said.

The UN cited security concerns to justify ejecting whole delegations sent to the talks by environmental groups. But officials at the same time said they expected to expel increasingly large numbers of environmental delegates as the talks in the overcrowded center wend their way toward a Friday conclusion, and 119 heads of state arrive with their entourages.

The conference center's maximum capacity is 20,000, according to the facility’s website. The UN, however, accredited up to 45,000 for the conference.

Journalists have had trouble getting into the meeting hall.

COPENHAGEN -- For the second time in a week, an InvestigateWest photographer trying to cover protests against the United Nations climate treaty negotiations here has been arrested.

Christopher Crow was taken into custody along with a number of protesters attempting to get inside the Bella Center, where the international summit is being held, InvestigateWest correspondent Alexander Kelly reports.

Kelly will have a more detailed dispatch forthcoming.

Crow was also arrested on Sunday while covering demonstrators who were on their way to shut down Copenhagen harbor in protest of the "cap  and trade" policies international negotiators are haggling over.

Those policies, critics say, are misguided because they allow corporations to buy and sell the right to emit planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide.  Proponents of the system point to the way it has helped ratchet down sulfur dioxide levels in the United States, lessening the impact of acid rain.

-- Robert McClure

OK, now that InvestigateWest photographer Christopher Crow has been released by Danish authorities, we thought we should offer a look at what he was capturing when he was so unfairly swept up by police while covering protests of the emerging United Nations climate treaty.

These shots are from just before Chris was arrested, as protesters tried unsuccessfully to shut down the harbor in Copenhagen, where negotiators from around the globe are trying to lay the groundwork for a global pact to rein in global warming:

[caption id="attachment_7230" align="aligncenter" width="199" caption="InvestigateWest photo by Christopher Crow"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_7231" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="InvestigateWest photo by Christopher Crow"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_7232" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Danish cop ties protester's hands. InvestigateWest photo by Christopher Crow."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_7241" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Once trapped inside the police barrier, demonstrators were informed they would be searched before the demonstration would be allowed to continue.

[caption id="attachment_7203" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Christopher Crow"][/caption]

InvestigateWest correspondent Alexander Kelly reports the InvestigateWest photographer Christopher Crow has been released by Copenhagen police. In an earlier dispatch by Kelly we covered details of Crow's arrest, which occurred while he was photographing demonstrators outside the United Nations climate treaty talks in Copenhagen. The demonstrators were intent on shutting down the harbor of the Danish capital .

-- Robert McClure

By Alexander Kelly

COPENHAGEN -- InvestigateWest photographer Christopher Crow was arrested today by police wielding batons and accompanied by police dogs. Crow had been photographing demonstrators trying to shut down Copenhagen's harbor outside the United Nations negotiations on climate change.

[caption id="attachment_7185" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Christopher Crow in custody at the scene of his arrest. InvestigateWest photo by Mark Malijan. "][/caption]

 Crow was taken into custody along with about 275 others. Some 400 to 500 demonstrators had been involved in the protest.

Demonstrators marched roughly six blocks before riot police trapped the group against a metal railing about 2 1/2 miles from the harbor.

InvestigateWest’s second photographer, Mark Malijan, and videographer Blair Kelly and I made our way across the police line shortly before officers closed in with rubber batons and police dogs.

[caption id="attachment_7193" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Crow is escorted to a waiting police van. InvestigateWest photo by Mark Malijan."][/caption]

Riot cops violently tore protesters from a cargo truck that carried the march’s leaders.