Arrested reporter rips Scarborough

A Washington Post reporter arrested at a McDonald’s in Ferguson, Mo., fired back Thursday at MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and other pundits who criticized him for not listening to police.

“I would advise Joe Scarborough to come down to Ferguson and get out of 30 Rock, where he’s sitting there, sipping his Starbucks smugly,” Wesley Lowery said on CNN’s “New Day” when asked to respond to Scarborough’s comments.

{mosads}“I invite him to come down here and talk to the residents of Ferguson, where I’ve been since Monday afternoon, where I’ve had tear gas shot at me, having rubber bullets shot at me,” he said.

Lowery said he has “little patience for talking heads” commenting on a community that’s “on fire.”

“Instead of putting more reporters on the ground, we have people like Joe Scarborough running their mouths and have no idea what they’re talking about,” he added.

Scarborough questioned why Lowery and The Huffington Post’s Ryan Reilly, who was also arrested, didn’t abide by police demands.

“I’ve been in places where a police officer has said, ‘You know what guys, this is cordoned off, you’re going to have to move along. You’ve got to go.’ ‘Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am,’ ” Scarborough said during his “Morning Joe” show on Thursday morning.

Scarborough then suggested Lowery and Reilly were seeking to become part of the story.

“I don’t sit there and have a debate and film the police officer, unless they want to get on TV and have people talk about me the next day. I am sure I’m just the worst person in the world for saying this,” Scarborough said.

Before Scarborough’s comments, “Morning Joe” played a video Lowery recorded when police officers dressed in SWAT gear entered a McDonald’s and ordered patrons to pack up their things and leave.

Lowery recorded one officer repeatedly asking him to leave, saying he only had 45 seconds. The officer covered the camera lens and ushered him out.

Lowery wrote in The Washington Post Thursday that as he left, his bag slipped off his shoulders, and when he said he needed to adjust it, the officers said “okay, let’s take him” and slammed him into a soda machine.

Scarborough questioned why 45 seconds wasn’t enough to pack up his belongings.

“By the way, what was he packing up? If he was packing up our entire control room, that’s fine. He had a freaking laptop. Come on.”

Lowery and Reilly were eventually released Wednesday night and weren’t told why they were arrested and weren’t provided any information or documentation about their arrest.

Conservative talk radio host Dana Loesch tweeted late Wednesday that Lowery and Reilly “did the OPPOSITE of journalism and hijacked the light onto themselves.”

“You have “questions” about arrests and scene in the McDonalds, @DLoesch & @JoeNBC? Then call me and ask em. I’m not hard to find,” Lowery tweeted.