Journalist Arresting for Criticizing Cops

[Eric Cordian]

In today's news of the truly odd.

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KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) -- A newspaper editor and publisher was arrested for
publishing an article alleging a cover-up in an internal police
investigation he had filed an official complaint about, police records
show.

Dennis Cooper, 66, editor of the weekly Key West The Newspaper, was
arrested Friday and released two hours later on his own recognizance.

The affidavit for his arrest cites a Florida statute that makes it a
misdemeanor for anyone involved in an internal police investigation to
disclose information before it has been entered into public record.

Cooper has alleged a police lieutenant lied in court about a 1996 stop of
a bicyclist, and that the Key West Police Department covered it up.

He filed a complaint last month with the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement accusing an internal affairs investigator of falsifying
information about his review of the incident.

[...]"