Things are melting down in Minneapolis.

The Minnesota Governor has activated the National Guard and the state police have been deployed to try to control the situation.

But the state police may have just stoked the situation instead by arresting a CNN crew live on air. Police claim that the crew didn’t move out of the riot area when they were told. The CNN crew said they were trying to be compliant with the police and that’s what it appears like from the video. But then they were arrested while the cameras rolled.

They arrested the reporter, Omar Jiminez on air, but also arrested the whole crew including the producer and the cameraman.

Minnesota State Police arresting CNN's @OmarJimenez and crew live on TV on @NewDay for reporting on the protests. Police say they were arrested because they were told to move and didn't. Omar was completely respectful and cooperative, ans asked the police where to do the report. pic.twitter.com/HPVtvQ59Xo

— Sam Fernando (@Sujayanth) May 29, 2020

(Video 2 of 2) pic.twitter.com/AUkOfFd2Hq

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) May 29, 2020

According to CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, the crew, in addition to Jiminez, included producer Bill Kirkos and the cameraman Leonel Mendez.

This isn’t the first time that reporters have been arrested during riots, generally for the same alleged reason — not moving after police have declared it a riot and anyone within the area subject to arrest, although this may be unique to have it happen live and on the air. It happened multiple times during the Ferguson riots, for example.

The Governor said he would intervene, called it unacceptable and apologized.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has apologized for the arrest of a CNN reporter and camera crew and says he will have them released. “It was totally unacceptable.” https://t.co/wzsTRlW3I4 pic.twitter.com/7xec3wTnbm

— CNN (@CNN) May 29, 2020

Live now on CNN as reported by @JohnBerman: CNN president Jeff Zucker spoke to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz who apologized for State Police’s arrest of @OmarJimenez and our team. He is working to get them released. Walz said he takes full responsibility for what happened.

— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) May 29, 2020

Jimenez and the others were later released.

Bad move and seemingly unjustified. Other members of the crew were white, so why they arrested Jimenez and the others didn’t seem to be related to race, but that didn’t stop CNN and other media from suggesting it was racism. Blue checks also blamed President Donald Trump, despite the fact the state, the city, and the police are all controlled by Democrats.

A black reporter from CNN was arrested while legally covering the protests in Minneapolis. A white reporter also on the ground was not. https://t.co/GcfwEvyYQC pic.twitter.com/Mg4ZwKIuKt

— CNN (@CNN) May 29, 2020

That reporter was Josh Campbell, who was in a different location, said he complied with police requests and wasn’t arrested.

Racism in real time https://t.co/J2IVhu99qs

— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) May 29, 2020

The arrest of the CNN crew in #Minneapolis is a direct result of Trump’s incitement against media – months & months of his “fake news” and “nasty questions” and other attacks against journalists must be blamed for this.

Journalists arrested live on TV in an ostensible democracy

— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) May 29, 2020

No, the Trump folks were not behind the arrest or even happy with it, calling it outrageous.

Mayor Frey & Gov Walz have completely lost control in Minneapolis in a catastrophic display of failed leadership.

The city is on fire & they outrageously arrested a CNN crew.@realDonaldTrump called in DOJ to investigate George Floyd’s death.

Clear-eyed justice must be served! https://t.co/QvA6zvYGuu

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) May 29, 2020