Here's the explanation I got from a well-intentional NYPD white shirt friend. This is offered for context and NYPD perspective. I'm not saying I wholesale subscribe to it:
1. Being a reporter is not a magical promise that they won't arrest you if you violate police orders. A press pass means that they'll give you slightly more leeway, but when a cop says "Everybody get back on the sidewalk," or "Everybody back up," because they think a situation is unsafe, that means everybody, reporters included. For instance here: Whenever the protest walks down a sidewalk, reporters tend to be trying to get outside the crowd into the road to get a shot that includes cops. The cops consider that unsafe. Therefore if you ignore an order to get back on the sidewalk, you may be arrested.
2. The higher credentialling requirements reflect that problem. So many people have blogs, that they don't want infinite people thinking they can ignore police orders. Also, the NYPD does not consider non-neutral parties to be reporters or legal observers. If you are actively taking part in the protest in anyway (holding a sign, yelling things, wearing an affiliated t-shirt), you are protestor, not press. Even if you are wearing a press pass. You can't be both.
3. NYPD has faced massive cuts over the last 5 years, so rookies are being placed in sensitive situations. Rookies are paranoid, they're trained to be. As a sample of how paranoid: Next time you talk to a young cop, watch their body language. Their hand goes to rest on their gun. That's because they're trained in academy that anyone who comes up to them to ask the time or directons may suddenly punch them and grab their gun. Also, a lot of these cops have come from understaffed exceptionally anti-cop precincts. Some precincts in NY are war zones for cops. Think about how young and potentially traumatized these young cops are. It's not an excuse for police brutality, but something to keep in mind.
3. The cops think they're cutting the protestors a lot of slack. They say parading without a permit (50 people on a sidewalk, even single file not blocking traffic) is illegal in NYC. So they think they're entitled to be arresting a lot more people than they are, and aren't inclined to be patient with people who actively disobey orders.
4. The police definition of unsafe situations is not very fact-specific. Are a bunch of people tightly ringed around a cop making an arrest? Unsafe for the both the cop and person under arrest. Is a cop surrounded? Unsafe for the cop. Those definitions apply even if all the people surrounding the cop appear to be unarmed hippies with cameras. When cops, especially paranoid rookies, find themselves in these situations they've been trained to recognize as unsafe, they fix them as quickly as possible(ie. pepper spray, arresting everyone refusing to move).
On The Banks and New York City and the Media
Here's the explanation I got from a well-intentional NYPD white shirt friend. This is offered for context and NYPD perspective. I'm not saying I wholesale subscribe to it:
1. Being a reporter is not a magical promise that they won't arrest you if you violate police orders. A press pass means that they'll give you slightly more leeway, but when a cop says "Everybody get back on the sidewalk," or "Everybody back up," because they think a situation is unsafe, that means everybody, reporters included. For instance here: Whenever the protest walks down a sidewalk, reporters tend to be trying to get outside the crowd into the road to get a shot that includes cops. The cops consider that unsafe. Therefore if you ignore an order to get back on the sidewalk, you may be arrested.
2. The higher credentialling requirements reflect that problem. So many people have blogs, that they don't want infinite people thinking they can ignore police orders. Also, the NYPD does not consider non-neutral parties to be reporters or legal observers. If you are actively taking part in the protest in anyway (holding a sign, yelling things, wearing an affiliated t-shirt), you are protestor, not press. Even if you are wearing a press pass. You can't be both.
3. NYPD has faced massive cuts over the last 5 years, so rookies are being placed in sensitive situations. Rookies are paranoid, they're trained to be. As a sample of how paranoid: Next time you talk to a young cop, watch their body language. Their hand goes to rest on their gun. That's because they're trained in academy that anyone who comes up to them to ask the time or directons may suddenly punch them and grab their gun. Also, a lot of these cops have come from understaffed exceptionally anti-cop precincts. Some precincts in NY are war zones for cops. Think about how young and potentially traumatized these young cops are. It's not an excuse for police brutality, but something to keep in mind.
3. The cops think they're cutting the protestors a lot of slack. They say parading without a permit (50 people on a sidewalk, even single file not blocking traffic) is illegal in NYC. So they think they're entitled to be arresting a lot more people than they are, and aren't inclined to be patient with people who actively disobey orders.
4. The police definition of unsafe situations is not very fact-specific. Are a bunch of people tightly ringed around a cop making an arrest? Unsafe for the both the cop and person under arrest. Is a cop surrounded? Unsafe for the cop. Those definitions apply even if all the people surrounding the cop appear to be unarmed hippies with cameras. When cops, especially paranoid rookies, find themselves in these situations they've been trained to recognize as unsafe, they fix them as quickly as possible(ie. pepper spray, arresting everyone refusing to move).