We the people are demanding that Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney honor his oath, uphold the Constitution, dismiss the baseless and retaliatory charge against an American journalist, and conduct a real, impartial investigation into the conduct of Suffolk County PBA President Louis Civello.

No police union president should be above the law. No prosecutor should use the power of his office to protect the politically connected while punishing the person who exposed them. The same laws that apply to ordinary citizens must apply to powerful union officials, police officers, prosecutors, and everyone who holds public authority.

My name is SeanPaul Reyes. I am an American journalist. I do not carry a weapon. I carry a camera and a copy of the Constitution.

On June 25, 2026, I went to the Suffolk County PBA headquarters in Brentwood to do what journalists have done in this country since before there was a country. I asked a powerful man a question.

That man is Louis Civello, president of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, one of the most politically powerful police unions in New York.

He did not answer the question.

He personally placed me in handcuffs, cranked them so tightly that my hands went numb, and had my vehicle towed while I sat detained.

Think about what that means.

A police union president, acting on behalf of a private organization, personally handcuffed a journalist for asking a question in the State of New York.

Then it got worse.

After I peacefully exercised my constitutional right to protest, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney went into court and obtained an ex parte stay-away order of protection against me.

Ex parte means I was not there.

No notice.

No hearing.

No opportunity to defend myself.

A prosecutor and a judge, behind closed doors, restricted the movements of a journalist after that journalist publicly criticized a politically powerful police union president.

What does that order do to my rights, and to yours?

It operates as a prior restraint. It prohibits my presence before I have committed any new offense and forces me to choose between covering and criticizing a powerful public figure or risking arrest and incarceration for doing my job.

It punishes protest and criticism.

In City of Houston v. Hill, the United States Supreme Court recognized that the freedom to verbally oppose or challenge police action without risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics distinguishing a free nation from a police state.

This order flips the Constitution upside down.

Instead of using the machinery of government to protect citizens from the abuse of power, the government is using that machinery to shield the powerful from scrutiny.

Instead of investigating the conduct captured on video, the District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the journalist who documented it.

Instead of demanding accountability from a politically connected police union president, the government has attempted to silence the person demanding answers.

And it was all done without due process, in secret, against a man whose only weapon is a camera.

We are demanding equal justice under the law.

We are demanding that District Attorney Ray Tierney honor his oath.

Dismiss the baseless and retaliatory charge.

Investigate Louis Civello’s conduct fairly and independently.

Stop using the criminal justice system to shield the politically powerful from criticism.

A camera is not a weapon.

Journalism is not a crime.

Protest is not harassment.

Criticism is not a threat.

And no one, no matter how powerful, politically connected, or protected by a police union, is above the law.