Police Didn’t Realize Arresting a Citizen Journalist Would Cause Such a Stir
- Chadwick Dolgos
- 1 minute ago
- 2 min read
Officers with the Portland Police Bureau expressed surprise after learning that arresting citizen journalist Nick Sortor had triggered widespread outrage across social media.
The department believed the move would finally earn them some praise for once.
According to officers on the scene, Sortor was peacefully filming public events when he was approached, detained, and charged with the serious crime of “recording things we don’t like.”
Department sources said they assumed the public would cheer them on, since “everyone hates the media now.”
“We thought we were doing a good thing,” said Sergeant Luke Reynolds, who described the arrest as “a morale booster” for the department.
“You have to understand, we’ve spent the last few years protecting rioters, getting bricks thrown at us, and being told we’re the problem. When we saw a journalist, we figured, hey, maybe this time people will thank us.”
Two hours after the arrest, videos of Sortor’s detainment went viral online. Within minutes, journalists, citizens, and every conservative social media influencer were demanding his release.
“It’s just baffling,” said Officer Kelsey Martin. “People used to scream that the press was the enemy of the people. We actually acted on that, and suddenly everyone’s mad at us.”
Sortor was released the next day with a disorderly conduct charge.
Witnesses said officers appeared genuinely stunned when the crowd outside the station began chanting in support of him instead of the police.
“Honestly, we thought we’d finally done something people would agree with,” one officer muttered while looking at his phone. “Guess we’ll just go back to letting the anarchists run the city.”
City officials said they are reviewing the incident but reassured residents that no rioters were harmed during the arrest.
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