Greed and theft both occurred in pre-capitalist economic systems. Do you imagine that they only began in the 17th or 18th century? There were several hierarchical economic systems before capitalism; in the west, these included slavery and feudalism, which were also based on greed and theft; and these created the same problems as capitalism, to greater degrees.

Of course ! I was think of slavery and feudalism but rather than mentioning them I just sort of lumped them in with capitalism!

correct about the history of humans on planet earth...

Which is completely irrelevant to the fact that the police had no right to search or take stuff from Luke with or without a warrant, as they appear to have focused on media files, reporter's notes, which is illegal under DC and Maryland laws.

did they shut down the wsqt transmitter?

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Luke mentions that there was a warrant.
That Luke sometimes--often even--contributes to 'open publishing' media outlets doesn't automatically designate him a reporter.
Even if you make the leap to classifying him as a reporter, and you assume that some of his files may have "reporter's notes," that still doesn't mean that the equipment is exempt from being seized. It's possible and likely that there are all sorts of entirely non-journalist related material there as well. If material that's clearly journalism-related notes start getting entered into evidence in a trial, then you can start screaming bloody murder.

I'm really struck by the irony and idiocy of someone labeling themselves a "fact checker" while being utterly ignorant of the law and without any direct facts or material on this case.

By Luke's account, there was a warrant. Go to the warrant, and you'll get (right or wrong) the police's justification for the raid. And if you want citizen journalists to be taken seriously, don't try to abuse the laws protecting journalists by describing and applying them in inaccurate ways.

Since some on this thread have no idea who/what/when/where Luke was reporting for, they don't get to make shit up.

Some individual writes:

"That Luke sometimes--often even--contributes to 'open publishing' media outlets doesn't automatically designate him a reporter."

That Luke publishes regularly to the DC Independent Media Center, an entity which has been officially recognized by the DC Metropolitan Police as media and whose contributors in the past have been granted media credentials by the MPD, makes a fairly strong case that video, audio or other media taken from him are actually covered under DC's shield law.

Of course, that hasn't stopped the DCMPD from illegally arresting accredited Indymedia reporters or carrying out other illegal and unconstitutional actions against them, which is one reason why the DC-IMC no longer requests media credentials from the MPD.

DCMPD's flagrant history of abusing the laws protecting journalists is recorded in numerous court-ordered monetary awards the city has had to pay to plaintiffs. It is a matter of record.

Maybe it's deleted because you're being a pain! Go crawl in bed with the rest of the whiners over at Freak Repugnic!

No one here has to tell you anything! Go research it yourself. Ever heard of a library or wikipedia? Stop bitching about being censored!