A video showing 12-year-old United States-based journalist Hilde Lysiak standing up to a local law enforcement officer has gone viral.
The video taken by Miss Hilde, now viewed more than 340,000 times, shows the confrontation with Arizona town marshal, Joseph Patterson.
In an article Miss Hilde wrote about the incident on her website Orange Street News, she said she was riding her bike on the side of the road in the small town of Patagonia, travelling to an undisclosed location to work on a story, when stopped. She was asked to identify herself by Mr Patterson, and did so as a journalist.
“I don’t want to hear about any of that freedom of the press stuff,” Miss Hilde quotes Marshal Patterson as responding.
“I’m going to have you arrested and thrown in juvie (juvenile detention).”
Miss Hilde then began filming. When she pushed him on what she could be arrested for, Mr Patterson changed his answer three times.
“The officer first said it was for ‘disobeying his command’, then said it was for riding on the wrong side of the road. Finally, the officer said a mountain lion was spotted in the area despite their being other people in the area who were not kicked off the road,” Miss Hilde’s article reads.
When Miss Hilde began filming the altercation, Mr Paterson incorrectly stated it was illegal for her to post it online. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution gives citizens the right to film on-duty authorities if they are not interfering with the officer’s ability to do their job.
At the end of the video, Mr Patterson can be heard saying he would call Miss Hilde’s parents.
“You aren’t an adult, so don’t act like,” Miss Hilde’s story quotes Mr Patterson as saying before driving off.
Mr Paterson’s conduct has since been “carefully reviewed” and undisclosed action has been taken, according to a statement on the town of Patagonia’s website.
“The matter has been carefully reviewed and we have taken action we believe to be appropriate for the situation,” the statement reads.
“We do not publicly disclose personnel actions including discipline and will have no further comment on this matter.”
This is not the first time Miss Hilde has made international headlines.
In 2016, when she was nine years old, she reported on a suspected murder in her Pennsylvania neighbourhood, hours before other news outlets reached the scene.
She subsequently wrote an opinion article for The Guardian, in which she said ”Yes, I am a nine-year-old girl … but I’m a reporter, first.”
