Arrested for asking | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Larry Rushing, 78, a former FDA research scientist, was arrested after making an oral Freedom of Information Act request at White Hall City Hall on June 22. Rushing says Mayor Noel Foster told him FOIA requests must be written, and when he continued his request out loud the mayor called police, claiming he had been ordered to leave and refused. Police Chief David Parker’s report, the article says, acknowledges officers removed Rushing from his chair and arrested him. The piece criticizes the arrest as an attempt to restrict public access to government property. It also describes a July 23 email exchange in which Foster initially said documents would require in-person pickup, then later emailed from a personal Yahoo account.