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An Arizona Cop Threatened To Arrest A 12-Year-Old Journalist. She Wasn’t Backing Down. (Video)

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(L-R) Patagonia Town Marshal Joseph Patterson: Orange Street News Reporter Hilde Lysiak

Video footage shows a 12-year-old journalist reacting to an apparent threat of arrest in Arizona, where she’s investigating border issues.

When a small-town Arizona cop stopped a 12-year-old reporter who was chasing down a story tip on Monday, he probably had no idea what he was getting himself into.

Hilde Kate Lysiak, the preteen journalist whose exploits have inspired a Scholastic book series and an upcoming TV show, made a name for herself in 2016 by being the first to report on a grisly murder in her hometown, then firing back at the haters who suggested that a 9-year-old girl shouldn’t be hanging around crime scenes. Since then, she has continued to break news about bank robberies, alleged rapes and other lurid crimes in the Orange Street News, the paper that she publishes out of her parents’ home in Selinsgrove, Pa.

“NOTE TO DEALERS: OSN Will Not Be Intimidated,” she wrote last month, after reportedly receiving threats because she had published text message exchanges between an alleged drug dealer and a woman whom he had reportedly solicited for sex.

So naturally, she didn’t back down when Joseph Patterson, the town marshal in Patagonia, Ariz., allegedly threatened to throw her in juvenile jail on Monday, then falsely claimed it would be illegal for her to film him and publish the video on the Internet. Instead, she posted their exchange on YouTube and in the Orange Street News — which in turn prompted town officials to discipline Patterson, as the Nogales International was the first to report on Wednesday.

[vc_btn title=”Continue reading (Subscription needed)” color=”primary” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnation%2F2019%2F02%2F22%2Fan-arizona-cop-threatened-arrest-year-old-journalist-she-wasnt-backing-down%2F%3Futm_term%3D.d6d17e2565e1%26wpisrc%3Dnl_most%26wpmm%3D1||target:%20_blank|”][vc_message message_box_style=”3d” message_box_color=”blue”]WashingtonPost.com, excerpt posted on SouthFloridaReporter.com, Feb. 24, 2019

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