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The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting
- CurbStomper 3mo ago[dead]
- Chu4eeno 3mo ago[flagged]
- aetch 3mo agoSounds like they had a legitimate question for the ambassador who reacted badly - which is no surprise for someone in this administration.
- Chu4eeno 3mo agoI just don't want to jump to any conclusion as I've never heard of this site nor these people before, for all I know they could be known for doing stunts or something. Though if this really happened as they say, it reflects very badly on Belgium as well.
- tokai 3mo agoIf you don't want to jump to conclusions, why then didn't you research a bit before posting?
- iso1631 3mo ago> Though if this really happened as they say, it reflects very badly on Belgium as well. Not so sure. If the security at the event said "these people are active threats to security", then its the police's job to remove the threat and then investigate. However it should now be on those lying about it that made the accusation to prevent their evidence, and if that's not good enough then to revoke their diplomatic credentials. If the event was a private function as it appeared to be, then removing them is fine, but from the report it sounds like more accusations were made then "these people are no longer allowed at our event", and like the boy who cried wolf, that's where the problem needs to be sorted.
- expedition32 3mo agoWhen America is sending their diplomats they're not sending their best!
- throwaway173738 3mo agoWe used to send people who were concerned with building relationships. These days it sounds like we’re sending people to milk relationships dry.
- burgreblast 3mo agoSo a long article about them being kicked out and all they detail about their own actions is that "we asked him about it"? I'm not sure what "tacitly threatened" means, either. If they want sympathy, they probably should lay out the details of their actions more clearly. This just reads as some juveniles went to an event, tried to rile up an official (while filming the response in hopes of getting a juicy clip), then were surprised when they were kicked out.
- dylan604 3mo agoThat does seem to be a trend in the stories becoming more about the journalists when the expected no comment response is given as if that was the true intent because of course they are not going to comment to hostile questions. In 2026, this is not news. We know what the administration is doing, so becoming the story is not the story they want it to be. They kept repeating "we were invited" as if that means something. While you can be invited, that invitation can be rescinded. At that point, you can't keep saying "we were invited" as a meaningful response to you being asked to leave regardless of why. To me, it does feel a bit like some journos looking for clout. Kaitlan Collins is the poster child for this type abuse from Trump even if she's not being manhandled by police.
- vanviegen 3mo agoYou rescind an invitation by (preferably kindly) asking the people in question to leave. Not by informing the police that they are an "active threat".
- watwut 3mo agoThey were not an active threat. It was simply a lie. They were in fact invited.
- gspr 3mo agoA natural question to ask – after their very legitimate and important questions have been answered! (Or are you just trying to derail?)
- axus 3mo agoThe way the journalism business is going, open-source investigators and bloggers looking for clout will be the only independent media left.
- OgsyedIE 3mo agoMedia Bias Fact Check has them at center-left alignment and high factual credibility, like the Washington Post and Guardian.
- romaaeterna 3mo ago[flagged]
- sph 3mo agoState-funded journalism - people complain of using taxpayers’ money Journalism funded by private interests - people complain of bias Journalism funded by customers - people complain of clickbait to sell more rags Not sure what your comment is supposed to indicate. That they disclosed a source of funding when most aren’t even bothered to?
- mikeyouse 3mo agoThey detail the work they did with that grant money here: https://www.journalismai.info/programmes/innovation/innovation-challenge-2024/the-european-correspondent https://www.journalismai.info/programmes/innovation/innovati... Looks like it built an AI editing assistant with Google News and Polis.
- jmye 3mo agoWhat specific point are you trying to make, here? Do you think a news organization should not be acquiring tech tools? Do you think that state-funded journalism matters, in this context, or do you just think those are good bogeyman words? Come on, be proud of your opinions. Don't hide behind scare quotes and insinuations. Don't be a coward.
- jojobas 3mo ago[flagged]
- mcmcmc 3mo agoIf that’s your opinion, I don’t think you know what actual leftism is.
- kcyb 3mo agoThe European Correspondent is a legitimate, though young, news organization. I can recommend their newsletter, they write about a nice mix of topics from all across Europe.
- elil17 3mo agoYes, they're a legitimate news organization. They are partially funded by the EU government.
- breppp 3mo agoSince when having a government fund your news organization is a good sign for legitimacy
- erikerikson 3mo agoPBS put out a lot of fantastic content. Sesame Street, Nova, Frontline, Nature, Reading Rainbow, News Hour...
- buellerbueller 3mo agoSeems no better or worse than having privately funded news these days.
- elil17 3mo agoWell I would say that in this context legitimate means are they accepted by European society as "real journalists." The fact that the European government funds them does indicate that they aren't viewed by society as random crackpot bloggers.
- TheEdonian 3mo agoBelgian here, never heard of them/the site
- sam_lowry_ 3mo agoBelgian here with some knowledge of the EU-centric media operating out of Brussels. They are legit but have a tiny audience, this accident made them instantaneously recognizable. Good for them, we are all fed up with Politico (Axel Springer) + Euractiv (Mediahuis) duopoly. P.S. This is just IMO, but De Wever should not have gone to the event, he lost a lot of political capital there. He should have given the ground to Theo Francken and Vansina to do their clown thing and instead he should have traveled 100km to the Florennes airbase to assist at BAFS-2026 that happened at the same time.
- thinkingtoilet 3mo agoDoes it matter? Should they have been kicked out of an event they were invited to for asking a reasonable question? Why are you asking about a news organization and not an extremely fragile man-baby who can't take a tough question?
- iso1631 3mo agoMany blogs will omit key facts. For example you could write "I was booted out for asking a question" when in actual fact you'd broken in with some wire cutters and then proceeded to pour champagne over all the soft furnishings. A credible reporter for a credible outlet writing a credible article won't, whether that's the Washignton Post, the Daily Telegraph, or Le Monde, or if it's BBC, RTL, Al Jazzera. So it's always worth asking "is this a credible source". It used to be fairly easy, to be a journalist you had to have significant backing from a significant institution.
- breggles 3mo agoGiven that they were invited to the event "as press" (did you even read the article?) it is safe to assume that they are credible reporters.
- iso1631 3mo agoMany people on the internet lie.
- buellerbueller 3mo agoTrump omits key facts and lies all the time. Also, the SCOTUS yesterday let stand a ruling that he is in fact a rapist.
- carlosjobim 3mo agoJudge for yourself. Why are you asking other people to think for you?
- masfuerte 3mo agoThe American embassy considers them to have sufficient legitimacy to invite them.
- Arodex 3mo agoSo American, is Bill White a trustworthy ambassador or a political donor looking for clout?
- buellerbueller 3mo agoDo you ask this about all of the alt right slop artists that have been legitimized by the Trump admin? Or only about those who pose adversarial questions to the Trump administration?
- spwa4 3mo agoYes, the Brussels state is in desperate need of funds, so they rent out public parks, including the Cinquantenaire, for private events. Of course, during such events the park is not accessible to the public, and there's private security who can hand over anyone to the Brussels police to be escorted out of the park. You know, like you can do in your apartment too. So if Bill White, the US ambassador, pays to rent out the park for, I think it was 2 weeks, they can have whoever they want removed from this public park. Including any reporters.
- philipwhiuk 3mo ago> So if Bill White, the US ambassador, pays to rent out the park for, I think it was 2 weeks, they can have whoever they want removed from this public park. Including any reporters. That would be by private security not police though. You aren't generally arrested for annoying an event organiser.
- Aerroon 3mo agoIf you get trespassed then wouldn't the police get involved?
- darreninthenet 3mo agoDepends on the laws in Belgium (I've no idea what they are)... in the UK for example trespass by itself is not a criminal matter, even if somebody refuses to leave your property... they need to be doing something else.
- n4r9 3mo agoJust to clarify. The UK police can assist you in ejecting trespassers, whom you have told to leave your house, in order to "prevent a breach of the peace". They won't arrest or charge trespassers unless they have reason to suspect criminal activity. In this case the Belgian police might have been justified in escorting the journalists off the premises. But I'm not sure what grounds they had to detain and question them.
- elil17 3mo agoFor additional context, tensions are already high surrounding the US ambassador after he directly insulted multiple Belgian politicians and also attempted to interfere with local criminal judicial proceedings.
- Waterluvian 3mo ago[flagged]
- kergonath 3mo agoThe American ambassadors to almost anywhere are complete clowns these days. Obnoxious, unfunny, despicable clowns.
- iso1631 3mo agoThe ambassador is a representative of the American President, so that fits. As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.
- jimmiles 3mo agoI wish I could disagree with you, but I live in Florida.
- goatlover 3mo agoTrump's approval rating is in the 30s and has been for a while. He won a plurality not a majority of the votes in 2024. An even larger number of eligible voters didn't vote. Also Congress was meant to be the democratic representation of the people. Technically, the president is elected by the states.
- JdeBP 3mo agoI am wondering whether there will be any effect to petition e-7124. It seems unlikely, to me. * https://noscommunes.ca/petitions/fr/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7124 https://noscommunes.ca/petitions/fr/Petition/Details?Petitio...
- Imustaskforhelp 3mo agoThe Streisand Effect is taking effect in here in terms of surpressing a question has lead to many more people finding out about it, as it should be and I just find some layers of irony about America celebrating its freedom while this whole thing happens because of press freedom. I did some search on freedom250.org and found this interesting piece of TOS: YOU WAIVE AND HOLD HARMLESS THE COMPANY AND ITS AFFILIATES, LICENSEES, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS FROM ANY CLAIMS RESULTING FROM ANY ACTION TAKEN BY THE COMPANY/ANY OF THE FOREGOING PARTIES DURING, OR TAKEN AS A CONSEQUENCE OF, INVESTIGATIONS BY EITHER THE COMPANY/SUCH PARTIES OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES. also it seems to be an wholly owned subsidiary of a Non profit (national park foundation): https://www.nationalparks.org/freedom-250-faqs#:~:text=NPS%20and%20NPF%20entered%20into,planning%20and%20executing%20the%20events. https://www.nationalparks.org/freedom-250-faqs#:~:text=NPS%2... I am not a lawyer but I am unsure if this terms of service applies to the website or anything in general and if the European correspondent can sue freedom250.org or not
- alistairSH 3mo agoFreedom250 is essentially another of Trump's fundraising bodies. The congressionally created organization that was supposed to run the 250th events was America 250 - it was created in 2016 (IIRC). When Trump was re-elected, he spun up Freedom250, redirected funds to it, and started accepting bribes.
- DanielHB 3mo agoThis is an example of the Bondaz Effect which is a subtype of the Streisand Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_warrior_diplomacy#Bondaz_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_warrior_diplomacy#Bondaz_...
- pyrale 3mo ago> The Streisand Effect is taking effect in here in terms of surpressing a question has lead to many more people finding out about it The reason why people like this don't care about the Streisand effect is that they are not afraid about a one-time scandal. The value they get out of harassing their victim and potentially having them stop reporting is worth a bad buzz that people will eventually forget.
- blitzar 3mo agofree speech, I fear, is in retreat
- N_Lens 3mo agoI'm sorry Mario, your Free Speech is in another Castle!
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- nashashmi 3mo agoEurope (which could mean anything from the UK to Belgium to Hungary to Turkey) never had absolute freedom of speech like the US. But yes, even by the US standards to champion freedom of speech, it is in retreat.
- blitzar 3mo agonever had absolute freedom of speech like the US, which itself (since it was colonised) never had absolute freedom of speech.
- mrtksn 3mo agoI got the impression that free speech in the US is limited to right to annoy people and harass politicians from distance. Seems to be more restricted than Europe actually since access is tied to private property and its culturally acceptable to remove people from private spaces if you don't like their speech. In this particular case the US embassy appears to have "hacked" their way by claiming that those journalists are a threat but if it was in US they could have been removed and have their free speech in a designated area simply because they don't want them there. You can give finger to Trump from distance but you can't attend to his press conference to actually ask him stuff if he doesn't like you. That's just slightly different from Turkey where you will be arrested for giving the finger to Erdogan's motorcade(happened a few times, then Turks learned their lessons and in the stats Turkey doesn't arrest as much as Britain). In contrast, in most of Europe you usually can approach and ask politicians whatever you like.
- itake 3mo agoreminds me of Dan Brown's latest book: The Secret of Secrets.
- dimitrios1 3mo ago"Belgian police willingly comply with U.S. ambassador's request, and Belgian police stopped your reporting" FTFY > a foreign ambassador had Belgian police remove us Belgian police removed us. FTFY again. The article is making a good point, especially the hilarious irony of all the private companies, and US being complicit in limiting press freedom. But it also fails to recognize the agency and complicitness of the Belgian authorities as well, and makes them out to be some sort of innocent bystandards -- "Oh look those poor Belgians being bullied by the big bad US!" If they didn't want to remove you, they simply could have not.
- yorwba 3mo agoRenting a venue for an event usually comes with the right to decide who may attend and who may not. So if the embassy indeed rented the park, then as soon as the ambassador decided the journalists weren't welcome, they were no longer allowed to stay and the Belgian police were correctly doing their duty in making sure they complied and left. So the article isn't strictly alleging that the ambassador did anything he didn't have the right to do, but uninviting journalists from an event after they ask a question he preferred not to answer and involving the police instead of directly telling them to leave is maybe not the best use of those rights.
- watwut 3mo ago> The officers, we later learned, had been told that Samuel was an ”active threat.” The ambassador does not have the right to lie about someone being an active threat. > A few days before the event, Samuel had published on his Instagram that ambassador White tacitly threatened an American and Belgian resident after that citizen urged the Zac Brown Band not to perform at the event No right to threaten either. > how we had got into the event (that the American embassy invited us to).Eventually, they accepted that we were journalists and that they disagreed with detaining us. You dont get to invite journalists and then try to get police to detain them either.
- flohofwoe 3mo agoDid you actually read the article? The Belgian police got the information that the person would be an 'active threat' which is just absolutely bizarre and explains the somewhat 'hasty' reaction of the police to quickly remove that person from the event before asking further questions. After they realized their mistake they apologized but of course at that point the journalist wasn't allowed back in. The ambassador essentially swatted the journalist.
- nashashmi 3mo agoMore and more we see the relationship with authoritarianism (police) and tyranny (those in power) out in the open. We see this with the protests in Germany for Gaza. We see this in Britain with freedom of speech taken away from Palestine supporters. And we see this shamelessly occurring from the Trump world. I used to balk at those who were too worried at growing government power, but this is a wake up call. Protections have to be in place for the vast majority of people, even if it does allow a few criminals to get away.
- flohofwoe 3mo agoQuite a leap to bring Gaza and Palestine into a discussion about the US ambassor in Belgium.
- danw1979 3mo agoOnly if you’re not following along. The link is police abusing their allowed powers to silence free speech and protest.
- flohofwoe 3mo ago> The link is police abusing their allowed powers to silence free speech and protest. If you'd actually read the post you'd know that its about the the US ambassador being an asshole and the Belgian police doing their job (quickly removing a supposed 'active threat' from an event - because that's the only information they had - they later realized their mistake and that the 'active threat' was just a journalist asking inconvenient questions - but at that point the damage was done and the journalist wasn't let back into the event.
- x3ro 3mo ago> because that's the information they had That has always been and will always be the excuse for these kind of rights violations by the police. "Oh it's just what we were told, sorry". And yes, it's worth bringing up e.g. Palestine or climate activists being beaten, arrested etc. in this context, because it's where the limits and tolerances for this kind of behavior are being tested. Police, at least in Germany, always justify their transgressions with arguments like: "well we had to beat up these demonstrators because they were engaging in criminal behavior", the "criminal behavior" being "chanting a slogan they don't like" or "carrying an umbrella" (I kid you not). TLDR: If we continue to allow law enforcement to justify their actions with "well that's just what I was told", we are in for a very bad time, because, it turns out, anything can be justified this way.
- mbmbn 3mo ago[flagged]
- tacomonstrous 3mo agoYou seem to have a strange idea of both money and government.
- Epa095 3mo agoIt is, unfortunately, a quite common misunderstanding many have, that value is exclusively created in the private sector and spent in the public. So the private morgue creates value, and the public birth ward spends it. Nail saloons and lawyers create value, teachers and nurses does not (unless they work at a private institution).
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- pyrale 3mo ago> The writers of the article are just mad that instead of state taking money away from someone, they just funded an event with voluntary donations. In decent countries, a "voluntary donation" to state officials is called a bribe.
- mbmbn 3mo agoAnd in a decent society, the state forcibly taking your money away with the threat of violence is called a robbery.
- ascotan 3mo ago[flagged]
- kgwxd 3mo ago[flagged]
- pngwen 3mo agoI’d say the embassy did a good job of exporting the American journalistic experience. The only point of inauthenticity is that neither journalist suffered any lasting physical harm.
- ethagnawl 3mo ago> The only point of inauthenticity ... And that the fuzz "disagreed with detaining them". The real experience involves them doubling, tripling down, etc. and threatening to "find a reason". By their logic, they are never and could never be wrong.
- gsibble 3mo ago[flagged]
- TacticalCoder 3mo agoAgreed. I'd add to that, as a Belgian: let the US and americans celebrate their 250 years of independence. That US ambassador is a known asshole. These "journalists" looks like politically slanted assholes too. And this isn't tech news and shouldn't be here.
- billfor 3mo agoSad day when this is number one and highly upvoted. I don't know why they can't use AI to identify posters that leave more than 90% of political postings here, and nicely suggest that at least some of the content be technical. The political postings would be better if they contained at least some technical information, or just go ahead and change the name of the forum to something other than "hackers".
- buellerbueller 3mo agoAmerica: a terrified little country, run by a small, terrified maniac.
- elric 3mo agoI hope the journalists in question will lodge a complaint with the Belgian police watchdog, Comité P: https://comitep.be https://comitep.be Belgium has been pretty repressive towards certain journalists for a while now. Our "World Press Freedom Index"-score has gone down a fair bit in recent years, and rightly so. The current prime minister and his friends have a history of litigating against journalists who exposed some questionable deals, so it's all to be expected.
- szmarczak 3mo ago> They were “just doing their job,” It's always this one exact excuse. They were simply "following orders". The police don't have their own brains capable of thinking.
- vanviegen 3mo agoYou are meaningfully misquoting here ("doing their job" not "following orders", which has a different ring to it, at least for me). Also, apparently they do have brains capable of thinking because: "Eventually, they accepted that we were journalists and that they disagreed with detaining us."
- szmarczak 3mo agoAh yes. Let me detain you for 8 hours for doing what you're legally allowed to do. Sorry for my mistake, it's all paid by the taxpayers anyway.
- vanviegen 3mo agoApparently they were given information by the US embassy that these people were an "active thread". Perhaps they could have figured out that this was bullshit sooner, but I don't think it's the police who are at fault here.
- szmarczak 3mo agoThe wording is so ambiguous, they should've determined what's the threat first. Or else anybody could point at anybody and say "active threat". Most likely they still would've been kicked, but without being detained.
- ralferoo 3mo ago"... a foreign government using local police to eject reporters over a single question from a public space turned private at the will of the American government is not a minor diplomatic awkwardness." The fact it's a public space is kind of irrelevant here, if the landowners (the city council, I guess) decide to temporarily allow private use. If some roads had been closed for film production use etc, the police would similarly be involved in removing people who interfered with the proceedings and didn't leave when asked to. The land owner has given the company exclusive rights to the space for the duration of the event. Whether ejecting someone from a press event for asking a question you don't like is right or not (I personally think it's not) is irrelevant. At the point they ask you to leave for whatever reason and you don't comply, then it becomes trespass and the police can be asked to remove you.
- vanviegen 3mo ago> At the point they ask you to leave for whatever reason and you don't comply, then it becomes trespass and the police can be asked to remove you. According to the journalists' account, they were never asked to leave. Though I agree with the rest of your reasoning.
- watwut 3mo ago1.) The journalists were invited. 2.) The ambassador told the cops the journalists are an active threat. That was straightforwardly a lie. This was not "trespassing" event at all.
- ralferoo 3mo agoI don't particularly want to argue, but even if they were invited, if they were asked to leave it would still be trespassing. We also only have their word for it that that's what they told the cops. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, there's no way of telling from what they've have chosen to present us. Personally, I think it's suspicious that the interviewer was clearly recording their conversation on his phone that's inches from them, but we can't hear either the question or the response from the guy who seems to be asking them to leave them alone, we can only faintly hear the woman saying "no cameras, no cameras". The video then cuts and switches to the interviewer saying "well, no comment", but there are different people in frame, and personally I'd wonder how long they continued following and asking questions, and whether they were in fact asked to leave the event.
- mito88 3mo agonot surprised
- einpoklum 3mo ago> It happened roughly 300 metres from the European Commission, in Europe's capital. Well, considering the EU's general direction, that is perpahsp appropriate symbolism :-( > For a continent that lectures others on press freedom Well, if it becomes difficult to lead by example: https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2026/03/03/press-freedom-report-increasingly-hostile-environment-for-journalism-in-europe/ https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2026/03/03/press-freedo... then lecturing about it is the thing to do I guess. The US is famous for lecturing other world states about human rights.
- greenleafone7 3mo agoWhat is weird in all of this is why is the US obsessed with israel so much exactly! Was it a random choice; did they had a random number generator pick it? Why are they not going to such lengths for other random countries in the opposite side of the world for example? And if an official's number one priority is not the people that pay him and have granted him his power, should he be in that position? The US is turning into a planetary joke and it's sad to see.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- vrganj 3mo ago* AIPAC is one of the biggest donors to US political campaigns. * Entanglement of tech industries * Israel serves as an outpost of US imperialism in the Middle East. * Shared understanding with fellow Settler-Colonialist state * On a related note, it's a country with a big white-reading population in a mostly brown neighborhood. * Evangelicals believe Israel is where the battle that rings in the Second Coming will happen.
- sequoia 3mo agoPeople think AIPAC is some all powerful unique lobbying group, in fact they're not even in the top 10 major lobbyists. Did you know SpaceX gave 5x as much as AIPAC in 2024? AIPAC was also outspent by Coinbase, by Ripple, and several other companies[0]. And this "18th largest lobbyist" position is after a post-october-7 surge in spending. Pre-october-7 (2022) they were ranked forty sixth in terms of spending. Can you name 10 of the groups who spent more than them? How about five? The question worth asking is why are people obsessed with demonizing the AIPAC in particular and singling it out as the one or primary 'evil lobbying group' when there are tens or dozens of groups that spent more. The 2024 AIPAC spending number (50 mil, which is donated by American voters, not foreign money) is 1/8th of the $400 million plan Qatar (a foreign government) gave Trump in 2025. People focus on AIPAC specifically because they have a problem with Jews. Jews and other Israel supporting Americans are allowed to pool money and lobby just like anyone else. the fact that people think they shouldn't be allowed to play this game, the same one everyone else is playing in US politics, is what should be questioned. 0: https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/top-organizations?cycle=2024 https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/top-organizat...
- outside1234 3mo agoWe elected a kakistocracy. The sane majority of us are sorry about this and the road back starts this fall. Please report about this at length. This is the risk you all face if you elect a bunch of ultra right wing nut jobs.
- unbalancedevh 3mo ago> kakistocracy New vocab word, thanks. The word's been around for a while, so I guess there's some solace in knowing that this isn't the first time. Hopefully this is just a speed-bump to progress, and not a long-term decline.
- Havoc 3mo agoSounds like the Americans lied to get a stronger response than warranted. Can definitely understand why police would roll aggressively and with limited info if they’re lead to believe there is an active threat at a mass public event.
- tonetheman 3mo ago[dead]
- MetaWhirledPeas 3mo ago"The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting" Or reworded: "Belgian police stop our reporting simply because some foreign ambassador asked for it"
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- baq 3mo agoyeah this is called 'soft power'
- petesergeant 3mo agoI suspect if the Greek embassy had rented a park for an event, and then told diplomatic police that there was someone there they considered an active threat, much the same thing would have happened.
- stackbutterflow 3mo agoPeople have forgotten because it feels like eons ago but at the beginning of Trump's first term the Turkish president on a diplomatic visit to the white house sent his goons to beat peaceful American protestors while the American police did nothing to protect Americans.
- mcherm 3mo agoYes, BUT... If, indeed, the park was rented out for a private affair and the person managing that affair asked that someone be removed from the property, then like any case of trespass, it is within the purview of the police to remove that person. It doesn't make the US look good, but I don't think it reflects poorly on the behavior of the Belgian police.
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- Swoerd 3mo ago[dead]
- trwhite 3mo agoSo much for the "free speech" Vance hounded us Europeans with. All lies, of course.
- pluc 3mo agoMan, the World Apology Tour is gonna be a generational event won't it
- gwbas1c 3mo agoIt's interesting to see a European perspective on this incident. They seem a lot more intent on avoiding political agendas than Americans are. Usually incidents like this (in the US) come from activists who are very bad at "picking their battles wisely." In this case, I don't think a battle was picked going in, as there was an assumption of a fair dialog, and the way the police acted implies that they (police) were hoodwinked into doing something they normally wouldn't do. A bigger question is, what is the expected outcome from this reporting? Is it that Brussels shouldn't welcome events like this? Is it that the US needs to elect different leaders?
- newaccount670 3mo ago> A bigger question is, what is the expected outcome from this reporting? Is it that Brussels shouldn't welcome events like this? Is it that the US needs to elect different leaders? Definitely the latter. The primary goal of all journalists is to brainwash people into voting against their own interests.
- StefanBatory 3mo agoAnd then Americans will lecture us that we don't have free speech.
- Departed7405 3mo agoDon't follow people saying they are police. In fact, I am pretty sure they can't ask you anything without visible id. Also, you don't have to answer their questions before they tell you why they are asking those questions. It's none of their business.
- zem 3mo agogenuine american culture!
- UltraSane 3mo agoAs an American I'm disgusted by this idiotic ambassador and by the Belgian police who did his evil bidding.
- penguin_booze 3mo ago> attempts at American cultural exports To those who haven't realised yet, there lies the problem.