Refused to turn over protest footage of Anarchists vandalizing a police car. Prosecutors make a tenuous connection to damage done to property that's partially funded with federal dollars as a means of getting around California law which protects journalists against a compulsion to turn over unpublished material.

This is kinda bullshit and kinda scary for a number of reasons.

• Vandalizing a police car is stupid. It's an egocentric act with null social impact, and it represents the worst-of-the-worst kind of black-bloc type activity. Stop it, kids. Your energy is being wasted.
• However, the prosecutor's contention that any act against local police is a federal crime which superceeds state law is creepy and tenuous. I hope the ACLU's appeal on this matter wins out.
• Finally, the worst is that jerk-ass federal prosecutors and DAs have this ridiculous hard-on for so-called Anarchists and are implementing police-state type actions and procedures in the hopes of locking some of them up. Almost as stupid as vandalizing a police car. You're supposed to be the grown-ups. Fucking act like it.

This is a conflict that doesn't need to escalate. Most importantly, the precident of these gestapo tactics -- that's not hyperbole: giving the State the power to force journalists to turn over their materials severely undermines the freedom of the press -- is very dangerous.