“To Fisk,” means to refute, point by point, a published story; the verb comes from the left-wing British journalist Robert Fisk, whose slanted dispatches are often ruthlessly “fisked” in the blogosphere. Big Journalism’s comments on the text of the Washington Post’s “Cops Say There Was No ‘Escort’ For Bank Protesters” are in green:

A tempest developed in the conservative blogosphere over the weekend, with the D.C. police at the center of the storm.  the language art of belittling: “a tempest (as in a teapot) developed in the conservative blogosphere.” A bit condescending.

The controversy surrounds a May 16 protest organized by liberal group National People’s Action a group that merits some investigating and the Service Employees International Union. Hundreds of protesters targeted two homes in Chevy Chase, Md. — one belonging to a Bank of America attorney, the other to a J.P. Morgan Chase lobbyist — for raucous rallies decrying Wall Street’s efforts to influence bank-reform legislation.  That’s not what the video clips feature. They feature a wider, anti-capitalist agenda in play.

The protests had already garnered much attention from conservative activists upset that liberal activists would target bank employees at their homes. Then Big Journalism, a Web site started by digital media mogul Andrew Breitbart, published an item on Friday claiming that D.C. police officers had “escorted” the protesters to the residences. The word “escorted” came as Cpl. Dan Friz of the Montgomery County PD and I discussed the right word to describe the MPD’s role. I suggested a couple of options, like “accompanied” and then “how about escorted?” to which he readily agreed and repeated the word.  If they had a vehicle at the front of the caravan, it’s an escort. The item was picked up by influential bloggers, and yesterday, the Washington Examiner published an editorial titled “No more police escorts for union thugs.”  “Thugs” was the Examiner’s characterization. (more…)

The family of Greg Baer, Bank of America executive, is located in a jurisdiction protected by the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD), which responded promptly to a disturbance call from his neighborhood last weekend.

According to Corporal Dan Friz, an MCPD spokesperson in Rockville, Maryland, the department received a disturbance call from one of Baer’s neighbors at 4:10 pm last Sunday. Four MCPD units arrived at Baer’s Greenville Rd. address at 4:15 pm.  At least two Metropolitan Police Department units from the nearby District of Columbia were already at the scene when they arrived.

Why? Because police cars attached to the Washington MPD’s Civil Disturbance Unit had escorted the SEIU protesters’ buses to Baer’s home. Such cross-jurisdictional escort activity is not uncommon for both departments according to Friz and Metro Police Department spokesperson Officer Eric Frost.  Still, the District police did not inform their colleagues of what was about to happen in one of their Maryland neighborhoods.

The Maryland officers reported there were approximately 500 protesters on and near the front lawn of Baer’s house.  Montgomery County was not given a “heads-up” concerning the planned protest.  Although a protest permit is technically required in Montgomery County, in practice no citation is issued if the protestors disperse when requested to do so by the owner of the private property they occupy. (more…)