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{
"title": "Omaha news car spray painted with profanity during late May protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/omaha-news-car-spray-painted-with-profanity-during-late-may-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-12T13:10:27.899511Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:25:30.234354Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:25:30.150850Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Omaha",
"longitude": -95.94043,
"latitude": 41.25626,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qlfj9\">A KMTV 3 News Now car was found vandalized in the early morning hours of May 30, 2020, while the reporter was covering protests against police violence in Omaha, Nebraska.</p><p data-block-key=\"4iwn3\">Reporters from KMTV 3 News Now, a CBS-affiliate station, were documenting protests that began across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"we5wm\">According to the <a href=\"https://omaha.com/news/local/72nd-and-dodge-shut-down-as-tear-gas-protesters-fill-streets-omaha-police-make-multiple/article_85901422-09dc-500c-b016-7d6be516e418.html#1\">Omaha World-Herald</a>, thousands of protesters gathered at 72nd and Dodge, one of Omaha’s busiest intersections on May 29th. Deputy Chief Ken Kanger said that there was generally no violence and harm, according to the World-Herald, but as of 10:30 p.m. Lt. Sherie Thomas said the demonstration was no longer peaceful.</p><p data-block-key=\"28kn7\">KMTV-TV 3 News Now News Director Geoffrey Roth told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the news vehicle was parked about 3 blocks away from the protests as a safety precaution. Roth said a reporter returned to the car shortly after midnight on the 30th to find it spray painted with profanity and what appeared to be gang symbols, but there was no other damage.</p><p data-block-key=\"fy3d7\">“The vandalizing of our news vehicle was only a small part of what happened to our reporters in the field that evening,” he said. “Two were shoved to the ground by police officers while covering the protest that night and another was threatened with arrest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4y9tl\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Nebraska",
"abbreviation": "NE"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [
"KMTV-TV"
],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
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{
"title": "Documentary filmmaker pepper-sprayed by NYPD while covering Brooklyn protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentary-filmmaker-pepper-sprayed-by-nypd-while-covering-brooklyn-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-07T17:40:27.646609Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:25:13.224793Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:25:13.143989Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cp3n6\">Documentary filmmaker Christopher Frierson was pepper-sprayed in the face by police while he filmed a protest in the Brooklyn borough of New York on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"g8qc3\">The protest was among the many demonstrations that broke out in response to police violence and in support of Black Lives Matter following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"fkbii\">Frierson, whose work includes the award-winning documentary “The King” and the forthcoming “Don’t Try to Understand,” said in<a href=\"https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/5/chris_frierson_filmmaker_pepper_sprayed\"> an interview with Democracy Now</a> that the May 30 protest in Brooklyn had been peaceful until a woman threw a water bottle toward police from the group he was filming. He said that police began running toward the group spraying liquid at people, including him.</p><p data-block-key=\"wyn08\">The Tracker couldn’t reach Frierson for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"elk11\"><a href=\"https://youtu.be/u8Xvt9L48A4?t=45\">Video Frierson recorded</a> shows an officer in a helmet and face shield approaching and directing a stream of liquid in the direction of the camera from several feet away. The camera points toward the ground and Frierson can be heard groaning. He told Democracy Now that it was the second most painful experience in his life.</p><p data-block-key=\"kyx03\">“I think that it’s more than the pain,” he said in the interview. “It’s just not knowing what’s happening all of a sudden, because you’re robbed of your sight. You’re robbed of your senses.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rbqkz\">Frierson kept the camera rolling after he was sprayed. Shortly after, voices can be heard around him asking if he had been sprayed and helping to treat him. Someone pours a liquid into his eyes and on his face, explaining that it will reduce the stinging, and wiping his face and nose.</p><p data-block-key=\"za7ch\">“They got me right in the face, I saw it happening,” Frierson says in the video.</p><p data-block-key=\"5vc7m\">Frierson was incapacitated, unable to see, for more than 10 minutes after he was sprayed, according to <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/09/protests-pepper-spray-police-george-floyd\">The Guardian</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"d59jo\">The Guardian reported that Frierson was clearly displaying a press badge at the time he was sprayed.</p><p data-block-key=\"1jlnd\">“I’d assumed they wouldn’t do anything to me because I was press and I had a camera in my arms, but I found out that I was wrong,” Frierson told the Guardian.</p><p data-block-key=\"2o9lp\">The New York City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Christopher Frierson (Independent)"
],
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{
"title": "Rubber bullet hits LA Times photojournalist’s camera and arm",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rubber-bullet-hits-la-times-photojournalists-camera-and-arm/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-07T17:04:02.262217Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:43:36.105705Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:43:35.970803Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nq70r\">Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco said his camera was struck by a rubber bullet, which also bruised his arm, while he was covering a protest in Los Angeles on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"6nke7\">Sinco was covering one of hundreds of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that were held across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"789r3\">Peaceful protests were held across the city earlier in the day on May 30, but by afternoon, people began looting and vandalizing property in some parts of the city, the <a href=\"https://laist.com/2020/05/30/los-angeles-george-floyd-protests-day-four.php\">LAist reported</a>. Later that day, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, and a curfew was imposed from 8 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. the following morning in LA and the surrounding area.</p><p data-block-key=\"3zzke\">Sinco told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that he was covering a protest that night in downtown Los Angeles. Demonstrators were confronting police, and some people threw objects toward law enforcement, according to Sinco. Police began moving in a line formation toward the group of protesters, where Sinco was positioned, and two officers shot less-lethal projectiles, a category that includes rubber bullets, toward the demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"13y0g\">Sinco said that he was lowering his camera from his eye, holding it near his stomach, when a rubber bullet hit it. He said he could feel the impact of the projectile on the camera. The rubber bullet then ricocheted off and hit him near his elbow on the inner bicep of his left arm, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ef89r\">The projectile ripped through metal alloys of the body of the Canon 1DX camera, according to Sinco. A photograph he<a href=\"https://twitter.com/luissinco/status/1266683997913927680\"> posted on Twitter</a> shows a hole on the top of the camera exposing the interior of the device.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Check this out. Rubber bullet fired by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/LAPD?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LAPD</a> gashes by camera instead of my face during <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydprotest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydprotest</a> in LA. <a href=\"https://t.co/aTh46j2DZa\">pic.twitter.com/aTh46j2DZa</a></p>— luis sinco (@luissinco) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/luissinco/status/1266683997913927680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cpj5n\">Sinco said he tried to use the camera after it was hit, but it no longer worked.</p><p data-block-key=\"pb4lg\">Sinco believes he was likely hit because he was with the group of demonstrators that police were firing on. He said he does not think he was targeted because he was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"wel7z\">Sinco said he was wearing a press credential around his neck. The situation was chaotic, he said, and he did not identify himself verbally to police or protesters as a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"qjro2\">The camera was substantially damaged and needed to be repaired, Sinco said. He said he had a bruise for several days where the rubber bullet ricocheted into his arm, but it was not very painful.</p><p data-block-key=\"g7i77\">“The camera took most of the force, I think,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vlxur\">The damage to Sinco’s camera was referenced in a<a href=\"http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/146415.pdf\"> resolution</a> the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors<a href=\"https://mynewsla.com/crime/2020/06/09/l-a-county-supervisors-resolve-to-oppose-attacks-on-journalists/\"> adopted on June 9</a> affirming the rights of journalists to report without interference from law enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"quz14\">Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for comment</p><p data-block-key=\"l780f\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
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"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Photojournalist hit with multiple projectiles while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-with-multiple-projectiles-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-07T16:52:43.146211Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T21:10:39.641895Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T21:10:39.549116Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3tqfy\">Independent photojournalist Nick Stern said he was shot by police with crowd-control projectiles twice while covering a protest in Los Angeles, California on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"nbgea\">The L.A. protest was one of many held across the country in response to a video showing the police killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"jfp48\">The demonstration that began in the city’s Fairfax District started out peaceful, but tensions escalated later in the day as police cars were set on fire and law enforcement used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters, according to <a href=\"https://laist.com/2020/05/30/los-angeles-george-floyd-protests-day-four.php\">LAist</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"b8oj7\">Stern, whose work has been published by the Daily Mail and other publications, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he followed the protest from Pan Pacific Park as the crowd moved through the neighborhood, coming to a halt at the intersection of Third Street and Fairfax Avenue around 2:30 p.m. When a line of police formed to block the route along Third Street, Stern said he was among the protesters, at the front of the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"kgu10\">The police would occasionally shout “move back” and use batons to push the crowd of protesters back.</p><p data-block-key=\"v4s5z\">Stern said an officer was very aggressive with him, even though he was displaying press credentials and holding two professional cameras. He said the officers prodded him repeatedly in the ribs with a baton. Frustrated, Stern moved within the crowd of protesters to another area, but a second officer started jabbing him with a baton, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"9h2qp\">The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"biq7r\">Stern said he moved again to another area within the protest group and displayed his press credentials to an officer who led him through the skirmish line, away from the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"agux2\">Stern said he was standing about 10 feet behind the line of police. He said he brought his camera up to his face to start taking photographs of a group of officers carrying crowd-control weapons as they walked under a cloud of smoke billowing from a police car that had been set on fire.</p><p data-block-key=\"izljy\">“As I started taking the picture I realized that one of the cops has got his 40-millimeter gun actually pointing straight at me,” Stern said.</p><p data-block-key=\"38u3t\">Stern told the Tracker he used his other hand to grab his press credentials, which were hanging from his neck on a lanyard, and held it up by the side of his face. He said he also shouted out that he was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"6buu2\">Then the officer fired, shooting Stern on his right thigh with a 40-millimeter crowd-dispersal round, Stern told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"g3zlj\">Stern said he wasn’t near any protesters when he was shot. He said he was the only civilian on that side of the police line and other officers were at least two yards away from him.</p><p data-block-key=\"avede\">About half an hour later, Stern said that he was standing talking with another journalist on the police side of the skirmish line when another round grazed his left knee. He said he didn’t see where the projectile came from, but he said both he and the other journalist were clearly identifiable as members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"3r6yh\">Stern said he believed he was targeted because he was a journalist. In addition to shouting out that he was a journalist and showing his press credentials, he said he was carrying two large Nikon cameras.</p><p data-block-key=\"k1jof\">“It's clear that I was not a protester,” Stern said. “I see no other reason why I was targeted. I was not chanting, not acting aggressively.</p><p data-block-key=\"trw3w\">Stern said the shot on his right thigh was intensely painful. He had a bruise and said he had difficulty walking for about a week because it was painful to put pressure on that leg.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39OU2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cudes\">Los Angeles Police officers respond to protests on May 30, 2020, following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Officers that day shot photojournalist Nick Stern with multiple crowd-control munitions and struck him with a baton.</p>",
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"name": "California",
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"updates": [
"(2021-05-03 12:29:00+00:00) Photojournalist files lawsuit against LAPD",
"(2024-02-06 16:57:00+00:00) Photojournalist reaches $150k settlement in lawsuit against LAPD"
],
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"shot / shot at"
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{
"title": "Central Track editor hit with flash-bang grenade while covering Dallas protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/central-track-editor-hit-with-flash-bang-grenade-while-covering-dallas-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-05T18:31:46.778904Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:24:36.453280Z",
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"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Dallas",
"longitude": -96.80667,
"latitude": 32.78306,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8oyzw\">Pete Freedman, the co-founder and editor of the Dallas alternative news site Central Track, was hit with a flash-bang grenade while he was reporting on a protest in the Texas city on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"qjg7c\">The protest against police brutality and racial injustice in Dallas was one of many held across the country in response to a video of the police killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"7cnv1\">Demonstrators gathered outside City Hall in Dallas early in the afternoon and briefly marched through downtown, <a href=\"https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2020/05/30/protesters-at-dallas-city-hall-say-no-more-and-focus-message-on-police-brutality/\">The Dallas Morning News</a> reported. When the protest returned to the plaza, confrontations escalated with police, and law enforcement used tear gas and flash bangs on the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"stva2\">Freedman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he started livestreaming the demonstration from around 3 or 4 p.m. He said tensions between protesters and police were high, with protesters shouting their frustrations at police, and police shouting instructions at the demonstrators. At one point, he said, a SWAT team arrived in armored trucks, shouting at protesters to move back onto the plaza from the street, and deploying tear gas on the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"itg8i\">Freedman said he was trying to get to the other side of City Hall around the east side of the building, but the police would only allow people to leave by going around the west side. He said he was walking with a crowd of people against the building while police fired flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward them.</p><p data-block-key=\"nct3t\">In a<a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tv/CA1BfSZBFmw/?igshid=f7dl99kx99wk\"> video</a> posted on Instagram, Freedman can be seen walking with protesters as police move the group toward the City Hall building.</p><p data-block-key=\"hxokd\">“They are literally putting our backs up against the wall here,” he says.</p><p data-block-key=\"goky9\">At the 33:30 mark, Freedman’s camera is pointing out to the empty plaza in front of the building, when a canister can be seen passing by before an orange flash in the lower right side of the frame. Freedman told the Tracker that was when the device hit him in the leg and exploded.</p><p data-block-key=\"e7a3n\">“There's no avoiding it,” he said. “It skirts right into my path and it happens to, like, explode right as it hits like my shin.”</p><p data-block-key=\"x719g\">Freedman said he was wearing a press badge, including his photo, outlet and the words “press” and “media,” on a lanyard. He said he didn’t believe he was targeted because he was a journalist. He said that the use of crowd-control devices seemed indiscriminate.</p><p data-block-key=\"15y68\">“The scary thing to me was that there was no regard for who anybody was,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"eaw6g\">A spokesperson for the Dallas Police Department told the Tracker they couldn’t find any record of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffqbg\">The explosion shocked him, he said. When he looked down a little while later, he said he saw he was bleeding. The device left him with a bruise and a cut, altogether the size of a baseball. He said the wound wasn’t very deep and he was able to follow the protests for the next eight hours without treating it, but it took about a month to fully heal.</p><p data-block-key=\"dfrwc\">Freedman said that he has covered many protests in Dallas in the past, but after he was hit with the flash-bang grenade, he was more alert about how to identify himself as a journalist. A few days later, he said he bought a vest marked “PRESS.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ekaxl\">“Covering the rest of the summer I think I was much more aware of maybe having to better identify myself,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ulak\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
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"tags": [
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"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
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},
{
"title": "KATV journalists hit with tear gas while covering Little Rock protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-journalists-hit-with-tear-gas-while-covering-little-rock-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-23T22:06:25.855729Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:24:19.490770Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:24:19.410039Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Little Rock",
"longitude": -92.28959,
"latitude": 34.74648,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pefc8\">KATV News reporter Shelby Rose said she and several colleagues were hit with tear gas deployed by police while they covered protests in Little Rock, Arkansas, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"g5ko0\">The demonstrations in Little Rock were among many anti-racism protests across the country that were sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as well as other deaths of Black people at the hands of police.</p><p data-block-key=\"ds2hf\">Rose was covering the protests in downtown Little Rock as tensions escalated between police and protesters. According to the<a href=\"https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/may/31/in-lr-rally-near-capitol-turns-violent-/\"> Arkansas Democrat Gazette</a>, Arkansas State Police used tear gas multiple times that night to disperse protesters who gathered in the city’s downtown.</p><p data-block-key=\"84790\">Rose said she and four other KATV journalists were first hit with tear gas when they stood near a small group of protesters, shortly after the Arkansas State Police arrived. One journalist, digital reporter Paige Cushman, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she had seen police using tear gas indiscriminately in a different area shortly before the news team was hit with it, and said she didn’t believe the news team had been targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"e7jte\">Rose said there were a handful of protesters near where she was standing with her colleagues, preparing for a live broadcast. She and members of her team were clearly identified as journalists. They were wearing polos with the KATV news logo and carrying camera equipment, including a powerful light used to shoot video, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"yiydf\">“There was no warning for tear gas,” she said. “They shot it right at us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"01qeq\">In a live broadcast shot immediately after tear gas was used, Rose walked along a sidewalk, with protesters visible nearby, describing the effects. “My eyes are currently burning right now,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"goj94\">In a clip from a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/KATVChannel7/videos/248916816172334\">Facebook Live video</a> recorded by a colleague, Rose and other members of the team kneel on the ground, as someone helps her pour water in her eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"cmi0g\">Rose said she believes police intentionally fired tear gas toward her. “It was obvious who we were, and we were standing right next to them.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wzg0d\">Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said in an email that the incident hadn’t been reported to the agency. He said police wouldn’t have fired on reporters standing near the police line, because the officers wouldn’t have deployed tear gas on themselves. “I assure you no tear gas was directed at any state troopers or reporters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xlhfe\">He also said police always issue a loud warning to disperse before using tear gas. Rose said she heard no announcement from police before the tear gas was deployed.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9vbx\">About 15 minutes later, Rose was standing on a corner on Martin Luther King Drive with no protesters near her when a tear gas canister landed near her, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ezool\">Video reviewed by the Tracker that was shot as Rose was broadcasting live shows a line of police carrying riot shields, blocking a street. A tear gas canister appears to be shot from the line of police, alight and trailed by a shower of sparks. As she reported on the scene, Rose initially called the canisters “fireworks,” before she realized they were tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"nucht\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Arkansas",
"abbreviation": "AR"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Shelby Rose (KATV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist says he was kicked by individuals during L.A. protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-says-he-was-kicked-individuals-during-l-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-01-26T20:03:21.143332Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:24:01.369946Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:24:01.290486Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2w7cf\">Photojournalist Ringo Chiu, a member of the National Press Photographers Association, said he was kicked by individuals while documenting protests in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"cvgjh\">The protests in Los Angeles were sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Demonstrations against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"0lbt2\">Chiu <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/ringochiu/posts/10159068500404063\">posted multiple photos</a> of bruises on his left leg and damage to his camera on Facebook the following day, with the caption, “Rubber bullet fired by LAPD and kicked by a protester…”</p><p data-block-key=\"g3b9i\">The Tracker documented the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-rubber-bullet-his-camera-damaged-during-l-protest/\">assault and equipment damage from the rubber bullets here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"anpfk\">Chiu told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email: “I am not sure whether or not I was targeted when I was kicked by the protesters during the chaos of the protest. They were attacking a police vehicle and most likely did not want me photographing them in the act.”</p><p data-block-key=\"945ye\">The Los Angeles Times <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-30/protesters-march-toward-beverly-hills-demanding-justice-for-george-floyd\">reported</a> that multiple vehicles belonging to the Los Angeles Police Department were vandalized and at least two were set on fire during the protests on May 30.</p><p data-block-key=\"hoc78\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented hundreds of incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country in 2020. Find these incidents <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ringo Chiu (Freelance)"
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with rubber bullet, his camera damaged during L.A. protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-rubber-bullet-his-camera-damaged-during-l-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-01-26T19:59:18.264733Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:23:43.340514Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:23:43.251300Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"z9eqv\">Photojournalist Ringo Chiu, a member of the National Press Photographers Association, was struck with a rubber bullet and had his camera damaged while documenting protests in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"mu4p3\">The protests in Los Angeles were sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Demonstrations against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"o2ncn\">In a post initially to Facebook and later shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Chiu wrote that officers fired a rubber bullet that would have struck him in the upper body had it not been for his camera, which took the brunt of the hit. The lens hood of his Leica Q camera was damaged, as seen in photos posted to his <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/ringochiu/posts/10159068500404063\">social media</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ringochiu/status/1274644151384985600\">accounts</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My Leica Q was hit by a rubber bullet fired by LAPD in a protest last month. Not working anymore 😭😭😭 <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/leicaq?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#leicaq</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/leica?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#leica</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/leicala?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#leicala</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/leicaphotojournalism?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#leicaphotojournalism</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/leicalove?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#leicalove</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/protest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#protest</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/blacklivesmatters?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#blacklivesmatters</a><br><br>📸 <a href=\"https://t.co/5G5YvhfQad\">https://t.co/5G5YvhfQad</a> via <a href=\"https://t.co/tFiRvDN0df\">https://t.co/tFiRvDN0df</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/0TtnqwOSXm\">pic.twitter.com/0TtnqwOSXm</a></p>— Ringo Chiu (@ringochiu) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ringochiu/status/1274644151384985600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 21, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4k70u\">Chiu told the Tracker that he was also struck on his inner left thigh with a second rubber bullet fired by law enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"eaw1o\">CBSLA <a href=\"https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/05/30/hundreds-gather-in-fairfax-district-as-part-of-latest-protest-over-deadly-arrest-of-george-floyd/\">reported</a> that both Los Angeles Police Department officers and L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies were at the scene in tactical gear. Neither agency responded to requests for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"l4hir\">Chiu was also assaulted by individuals while documenting the protest, which the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-says-he-was-kicked-individuals-during-l-protest/\">Tracker has documented here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"o8s30\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented hundreds of incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country in 2020. Find these incidents <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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{
"quantity": 1,
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"tags": [
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"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"categories": [
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"Equipment Damage"
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},
{
"title": "Video journalist hit in head with projectile during DC protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-hit-head-projectile-during-dc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-12-04T20:37:59.843180Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:50:39.828885Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:50:39.742422Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zhgqy\">Ford Fischer, co-founder and editor-in-chief of News2Share, was struck with crowd-control munitions twice while on assignment for digital wire service <a href=\"https://www.zenger.news/\">Zenger</a> covering protests in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"gy977\">The Washington protests were part of a surge of demonstrations across the country, sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis.</p><p data-block-key=\"02gzk\">Fisher, whose video news service focuses on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/N2Sreports\">"the latest on politics and activism,</a>” told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was watching a “stand-off” between riot officers and protesters in front of the White House in Lafayette Park. He said some demonstrators threw objects at police and ignited fireworks, and officers pushed back and shot crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"83ovh\">“At one point during that chaos I did get a sharp sting into my gut, and I was able to feel that it was a pepper ball because it releases a pepper-spray equivalent around it,” Fischer said. “But that was far enough from my face that it didn’t have the sort of blinding effect that being maced or taking a pepper ball closer to the face would have, so I essentially ignored it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"v1gcn\">At around 11:45 p.m., Fischer said that fireworks set off by a protester landed somewhere between where he was standing and the officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"9dl4c\">“I made a remark into my stream, jokingly, to the effect of, ‘Sorry, a firework blew up next to my head,’ and I was saying that because it was probably extremely loud to people watching,” Fischer said. That clip can be viewed <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Zenger/status/1266977661462732806\">here</a>. The scene is then relatively quiet, until “about 20 seconds later, there was a pepper round that was shot and that hit my right shoulder,” Fischer said.</p><p data-block-key=\"eddir\">Fischer said that the round exploded close enough to his face that he felt the chemical irritant powder, which he said left him blinded for several minutes. He posted an image of the abrasion on his shoulder <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10221575675083394&set=pb.1298269668.-2207520000..&type=3&theater\">on Facebook</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"lyw8q\">Throughout the night, Fischer said, he heard a “rat-tat-tat-tat-tat” of officers firing off multiple rounds of pepper balls. When he was struck the second time, he said that he could hear only one shot fired. Because of that, he believes he was targeted: “I don’t think anybody could have focused in on me and seen anything other than a journalist.” Fischer said he was wearing his Congressional and White House press passes around his neck and carrying a “studio-sized” video camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"6zuyc\">“There was somebody who very quickly came to my aid and poured water in my eyes,” Fischer said. “And I was still kind of struggling as I walked north-bound away from it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hgpy1\">“Because I was still in residual pain and shaken up from that, I ended up leaving that protest pretty early,” Fischer said. “Once there was a safe way to exit, I did so.”</p><p data-block-key=\"078b6\">In Fischer’s footage from that night, some law enforcement officers appear to be carrying shields labeled with “military police” and “U.S. Park Police,” but it was not immediately clear to which agency the officers shooting belonged. Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"0ssqi\">The following night, Fischer was struck in the forehead with a rubber bullet and detained by police. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-struck-crowd-control-munition-briefly-detained-amid-dc-protests/\">documented those incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"name": "District of Columbia",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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},
{
"title": "Independent journalist shoved, car shot at by rubber bullets while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-shoved-car-shot-rubber-bullets-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-24T21:57:05.699319Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:23:24.547986Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:23:24.465102Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"x9anz\">Independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg was pushed by a law enforcement officer and her car window was shot out by rubber bullets fired by police while she was covering a protest in Los Angeles on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"0m9pm\">The protest in Los Angeles began as demonstrations erupted across the country, sparked by a video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man. Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital. Protests against police brutality and for racial justice have continued across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"rvigh\">Berg was on assignment for Status Coup, which describes itself as a progressive media company, and was on her way to cover a protest on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. She told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview that when she and a photographer parked the car, she got out and was confronted by a member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. She said she showed her press credentials and the officer left.</p><p data-block-key=\"5kf9u\">Minutes later, another member of the sheriff’s department confronted her, she said. Again, she showed her press credentials, but she said the law enforcement officer did not back off. According to Berg, he pushed her, backing her toward the street where a line of law enforcement vehicles were driving by. She said she feared she would be run over.</p><p data-block-key=\"00wv1\">As she was covering the protest, she said that law enforcement began deploying tear gas. She said that she was in close proximity to a canister fired by police which landed near her and another journalist, neither of whom were standing near protesters. She was disoriented and having trouble breathing, and protesters helped her to leave the area and recover from the gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"l3kwd\">Around 6:30 p.m., she began to leave the area in her car, Berg said. Body camera footage she later acquired from the Los Angeles Police Department showed officers had formed a line across a broad street and started firing crowd control munitions, like rubber bullets.</p><p data-block-key=\"xgj92\">Cars were stuck in traffic and could not leave the area. Berg said that she put her head out of the window and asked the police where they were supposed to go.</p><p data-block-key=\"npyx8\">She said that an officer looked at her, then fired shots at her vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"o9cx4\">The rubber bullets shattered the glass of her rear window, leaving large holes, and left dents in the body of her car, photos show.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The cops just shot out by back window. And it was completely unnecessary. This after tear gas, being ribbed by a bully stick and other atrocities. And I had my press credentials visible. Coverage of today to follow on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@StatusCoup</a>. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/laprotest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#laprotest</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloyd</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/pSdLtSIAXq\">pic.twitter.com/pSdLtSIAXq</a></p>— Notorious Lefty-Desiree McLefty Face (@TinaDesireeBerg) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TinaDesireeBerg/status/1266922413591105536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cevqd\">A spokesperson for the LAPD said the department was not aware of the incident and that the department does not deploy tear gas. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"903cx\">Berg said that she has communicated with the National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles about joining a class action lawsuit about police conduct during the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"i4gee\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country. <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">Find these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Berg_assault_0530_CA.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"xiuev\">While covering a May 30, 2020, protest in Los Angeles, independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg says law enforcement pushed her and later shattered the window of her car with rubber bullets.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Tina-Desiree Berg (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Russian journalist targeted with pepper spray while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/russian-journalist-targeted-with-pepper-spray-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-07T16:45:45.616728Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:01:54.279467Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:01:54.198381Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0qzpi\">Mikhail Turgiev, a correspondent with the Russian news agency RIA, was targeted with pepper spray while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"3bqsy\">Protests began in Minnesota on May 26, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"mps4g\">Turgiev told the Committee to Protect Journalists — a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — that police pepper-sprayed at about 11 p.m. after he had taken refuge in a Vice News crew’s vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"jphhf\">Turgiev said he told the officer he was a member of the press and showed his State Department-issued press credentials, and then an officer pepper-sprayed him, according to a video from the Russian government-funded channel <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtDsQjTweT0\">Sputnik</a>. The journalist was able to turn his head and the spray only got into his right eye, he said in that video.</p><p data-block-key=\"fu2ms\">“There’s no explanation of why they used this kind of force,” Turgiev told Sputnik.</p><p data-block-key=\"munen\">More than three dozen journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Minneapolis&date_lower=2020-05-30&date_upper=2020-05-30\">assaulted, arrested or had equipment damaged</a> while covering protests that night. The Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota State Police, and Minnesota National Guard did not reply to emailed requests for comment about these incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"fpwwu\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Mikhail Turgiev (RIA)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "WLKY correspondent targeted with flash-bang grenades while covering protests in Louisville",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wlky-correspondent-targeted-with-flash-bang-grenades-while-covering-protests-in-louisville/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-27T19:56:14.082226Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:22:43.658495Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:22:43.567455Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ymggo\">Stephon Dingle, a correspondent for local broadcast station WLKY, and his news crew were targeted with flash-bang grenades thrown by individuals while covering protests in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"jr8j9\">Protests in Louisville have centered around the deaths of Breonna Taylor, shot and killed inside her home by Louisville police in March, and the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"yb2l3\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Stephon_Dingle/status/1266560921238937606\">post to Twitter</a> at 10:43 p.m., Dingle said that individuals had thrown flash-bang grenades, a nonlethal device typically used by police, at him and his crew. Dingle did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"pnavn\">“And just like that a group of protestors threw their own flag bangs and hit our crew who was standing afar as people quickly dispersed,” Dingle wrote.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And just like that a group of protestors threw their own flag bangs and hit our crew who was standing afar as people quickly dispersed. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/chaos?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#chaos</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreonnaTaylor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BreonnaTaylor</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WLKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WLKY</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/8xw32Xb5j4\">pic.twitter.com/8xw32Xb5j4</a></p>— Stephon Dingle WLKY (@Stephon_Dingle) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Stephon_Dingle/status/1266560921238937606?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k9144\">In the Twitter video, two members of the WLKY news crew talk about being hit with the projectiles — and one shows a mark on his body — but it did not identify the men. The Tracker has documented their assaults as Anonymous WLKY 1 and Anonymous WLKY 2.</p><p data-block-key=\"gfuop\">At least one other WLKY news crew was also attacked and two WLKY news vehicles were vandalized that night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented all May 29 WLKY incidents <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-29&date_upper=2020-05-29&targeted_institutions=265\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"1zx24\">The Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Kentucky",
"abbreviation": "KY"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Stephon Dingle (WLKY)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist targeted with tear gas while covering Dallas protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-targeted-with-tear-gas-while-covering-dallas-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-27T15:44:58.772029Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:19:44.861364Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:19:44.776858Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Dallas",
"longitude": -96.80667,
"latitude": 32.78306,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dm76l\">A news crew with CBS Channel 11 covering protests in Dallas was forced to scatter when a police officer tossed an activated canister of tear gas at two journalists as they were about to go live on air on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"wkj67\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"v20b5\">Photojournalist Bret Kelly and reporter Steve Pickett were stationed in downtown Dallas covering protests. At around 10:15 p.m., they were getting ready to begin their live shot. Typically, the station would have alerted them both, but they had only one working earpiece so Pickett told Kelly aloud, Kelly told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"m1ib2\">Kelly believes that a Dallas police officer standing 10 feet away overheard him. "As soon as [Pickett] said that, an officer took a canister and tossed it right at our feet, underhand, like he was playing cornhole," Kelly said. The canister landed on the ground between them and started spewing tear gas. "By then we were live," Kelly said. "We got gassed pretty hard and took flight a little bit."</p><p data-block-key=\"53lmq\">Pickett can be seen on CBS 11 <a href=\"https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/05/29/cbs-11-reporter-steve-pickett-overcome-tear-gas-covering-george-floyd-protest/\">video</a> struggling to breathe and find a way out of the area where the gas was deployed. "I’m trying to get out of the tear gas, this is killing us," Pickett says to the studio journalist as his eyes visibly water and he stumbles his way out of the cloud. He tells his colleague that earlier that night he was also threatened with arrest. The Tracker has <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cbs-channel-11-prepared-go-live-dallas-officer-tosses-tear-gas-canister-toward-news-crew/\">documented his assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9eww\">Kelly <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BKSpxshooter11/status/1266901579728379908\">wrote</a> about the experience on Twitter the next day, saying “ ... I was nowhere near any protesters. Definitely a conscious decision by that officer.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Happened to me last night, when I was nowhere near any protesters. Definitely a conscious decision by that officer.</p>— Bret Kelly (@BKSpxshooter11) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BKSpxshooter11/status/1266901579728379908?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"vsvor\">An emailed request for comment sent to the Dallas Police Department about the incident was not returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"rwd85\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Bret Kelly (KTVT)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "WLKY journalist targeted with projectile while covering protests in Louisville",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wlky-journalist-targeted-with-projectile-while-covering-protests-in-louisville/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-27T20:02:47.796814Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:23:04.054141Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:23:03.908116Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"f7zeg\">A WLKY news crew was targeted with flash-bang grenades thrown by individuals while covering protests in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqcje\">Protests in Louisville have centered around the deaths of Breonna Taylor, shot and killed inside her home by Louisville police in March, and the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"u41r6\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Stephon_Dingle/status/1266560921238937606\">post to Twitter</a> at 10:43 p.m., WLKY correspondent Stephon Dingle said that individuals had thrown flash-bang grenades, a nonlethal device typically used by police, at him and his crew. Dingle did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"jef6s\">“And just like that a group of protestors threw their own flag bangs and hit our crew who was standing afar as people quickly dispersed,” Dingle wrote.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And just like that a group of protestors threw their own flag bangs and hit our crew who was standing afar as people quickly dispersed. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/chaos?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#chaos</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreonnaTaylor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BreonnaTaylor</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WLKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WLKY</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/8xw32Xb5j4\">pic.twitter.com/8xw32Xb5j4</a></p>— Stephon Dingle WLKY (@Stephon_Dingle) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Stephon_Dingle/status/1266560921238937606?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7n6gh\">In the Twitter video, two members of the WLKY news crew talk about being struck in the side with the projectiles — and one shows a mark on his body — but it did not identify the men. The Tracker has documented their assaults as Anonymous WLKY 1 and Anonymous WLKY 2.</p><p data-block-key=\"so1kt\">At least one other WLKY news crew was also attacked and two WLKY news vehicles were vandalized that night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented all May 29 WLKY incidents <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-29&date_upper=2020-05-29&targeted_institutions=265\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"py3ox\">The Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"name": "Kentucky",
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"Black Lives Matter",
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Unidentified journalist 3 (WLKY)"
],
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{
"title": "Photojournalist for Norwegian outlet targeted with projectiles during Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-for-norwegian-outlet-targeted-with-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-28T19:46:27.005124Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:23:51.771735Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:23:51.678525Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4793w\">Thomas Nilsson, a photojournalist for Norwegian outlet Verdens Gang, was targeted by law enforcement while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"k8ucz\">Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"sl7qt\">Nina Svanberg, a reporter for the Swedish outlet Expressen, told the Committee to Protect Journalists — a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — that she and Nilsson had walked with protesters up from the Third Precinct to the Fifth Precinct on the 29th. National Guard troops and police arrived to the area to disperse the crowd and enforce the 8 p.m. curfew in place.</p><p data-block-key=\"wllti\">At about 11:30 p.m., Minneapolis Police Department officers began indiscriminately firing projectiles and tear gas to disperse the crowd, Svanberg said. One hit her on the hip. She added that she crawled behind a car to avoid being hit again, but was caught in the tear gas. The Tracker documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-european-outlets-hit-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/\">Svanberg’s assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"mht75\">Nilsson, who could not be reached for comment, wrote in an account for Verdens Gang that he was affected by the chemical irritant as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"bmoc9\">The journalists eventually met up in an alley where an Australian news team was sheltering with its security team.</p><p data-block-key=\"89kes\">It was there that Nilsson discovered that he had a red laser sight on his stomach, he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"hpjks\">According to his account, he moved farther into the alley and waited for about 10 minutes. When he looked out to check whether it was safe, he found himself once again targeted with a laser sight, he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"0r34p\">Svanberg told CPJ that both she and Nilsson were wearing press passes. Nilsson noted in his account that he also was carrying two cameras and was wearing a helmet and a gas mask. In the account he said that he is certain the police knew they were journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"kdy17\">The Minneapolis Police Department did not respond to multiple phone and emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"sq1wo\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Thomas Nilsson (Verdens Gang)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Police aggressively seized journalist’s press pass amid Manhattan protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-aggressively-seized-journalists-press-pass-amid-manhattan-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2022-08-23T20:32:49.616083Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-08-23T20:32:49.616083Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-08-23T20:32:49.553706Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"w65vf\">Lachlan Cartwright, a then-reporter for The Daily Beast, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering protests in New York City on May 29, 2020, when a police officer aggressively seized his press pass.</p><p data-block-key=\"94rg9\">Cartwright told the Tracker in a July 2022 interview about the incident that he was asked by an editor to provide back-up to a colleague who was already documenting the Manhattan protest. The demonstration was one of many sparked nationally by the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. The Tracker documented hundreds of incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-26&date_upper=2021-06-02&tags=Black+Lives+Matter+protest&categories=\">Find those incidents here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4gls7\">“When I entered where the protests were in Union Square, there were cars on fire, it was just mayhem,” Cartwright said. “And the cops were very aggressively advancing on the protesters, but also kind of being super aggressive to journalists, including myself.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dhqs9\">The reporter said he approached one of the New York Police Department officers and had a back-and-forth with him about the fact that he was a journalist trying to document the protest and that the police’s actions were making it difficult for him to do his job.</p><p data-block-key=\"4usku\">After the exchange, Cartwright had resumed covering the protest when he suddenly felt a hard tug at his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"1trra\">“A cop had actually ripped my badge from around my neck,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7u1ge\">Cartwright told the Tracker that in his haste when leaving his apartment he had mistakenly grabbed a press pass he had been issued while working for a different outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"41gv4\">The officer refused to return the credential. Cartwright told the Tracker that, to the best of his knowledge, it is still in the police department's possession.</p><p data-block-key=\"51v1j\">NYPD did not respond to emails requesting comment.</p></div>",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "press identification"
}
],
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Lachlan Cartwright (The Daily Beast)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Officer in Minneapolis points weapon at public radio reporters",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/officer-in-minneapolis-points-weapon-at-public-radio-reporters/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-14T14:04:24.254067Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:25:47.824702Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:25:47.715914Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ak0cd\">An officer brandished a weapon at two public radio reporters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, even after they identified themselves as press, just after midnight on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"91ajh\">American Public Media reporters Samara Freemark and Madeleine Baran had spent much of the evening covering the protests outside the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct when they decided to head back to their car and go home, Freemark told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"6wx5v\">As they attempted to cross Nicollet Avenue, a formation of law enforcement officers appeared, blocking them from crossing the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"25g96\">Freemark described the situation as initially being calm. “But all of the sudden, there was a switch that flipped,” she said. An officer suddenly appeared next to Freemark and Baran and shoved a weapon inches from their faces while shouting, “Get the fuck out of here,” Freemark recounted. She said she was not sure exactly what type of weapon it was, but that it did not resemble a pistol and seemed designed to fire crowd control ammunition.</p><p data-block-key=\"fxdvv\">“We were yelling, ‘We’re press, we’re press,’ but he kept shoving it in our face, yelling at us to ‘get the fuck out of here,’” she said. “It was dark, so shocking, and so unexpected.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lbn0e\">The officer did nothing to acknowledge that they were press, Freemark said, and, eventually, they ran away. “Every time we stopped, there were cops yelling at us,” she said. Freemark and Baran were unable to reach their car and had to walk home.</p><p data-block-key=\"7i1y6\">Minneapolis was under an 8 p.m. curfew that evening, but journalists were expressly exempt from it.</p><p data-block-key=\"nljai\">Freemark said that the police line they encountered included officers from multiple agencies, and she was unsure which agency the officer who pointed the weapon was from.</p><p data-block-key=\"iph6d\">An email sent to the Minneapolis Police Department inquiring about this incident was not returned as of press time. Bruce Gordon, director of communications for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, replied that before he could comment he would need to know if the incident in question involved a State Patrol trooper.</p><p data-block-key=\"a66s8\">After the encounter, Baran tweeted about the experience:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A Minneapolis police officer pointed a weapon at me at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sfreemark?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sfreemark</a>’s heads, while we were standing on Nicollet and 32nd covering the protests. I yelled that I’m a journalist. He did not lower his weapon, so we ran. Calling it a night.</p>— Madeleine Baran (@madeleinebaran) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/madeleinebaran/status/1266610933071138816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"49qap\">An interview request sent to Baran was not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"togmm\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"jk2z7\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"actor": null,
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"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Samara Freemark (American Public Media)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with crowd-control munition during Denver protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-crowd-control-munition-during-denver-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-27T17:52:08.221028Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:20:28.743699Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:20:28.650488Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3siuk\">Taylor Schuss, a photojournalist with Denver NBC affiliate 9News KUSA, was struck with a pepper ball fired by Denver police while covering protests in the Colorado city on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"o0n7n\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"pwz65\">That evening, police fired a pepper ball that hit Schuss on the ankle, according to Tim Ryan, director of content at 9News KUSA, who summarized the incident in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"98qw1\">Ryan wrote that Schuss and the reporter he was with, Steve Staeger, “don’t believe they were targeted as journalists but rather happened to be in a group of protesters who were targeted.”</p><p data-block-key=\"woa3c\">Staeger later tweeted about the incident, also adding that an individual had sprayed Schuss’ camera lens with some substance while they were covering the demonstrations.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I watched <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Taylor_TVnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Taylor_TVnews</a> take a pepper ball shot into his ankle by police and have a protestor spray his camera lens with something, all while we both endured about 5 or 6 rounds of tear gas tonight during coverage tonight. Yet through it all he stayed focused.</p>— Steve Staeger (@SteveStaeger) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SteveStaeger/status/1266625470541463552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eut79\">Schuss did not reply to an interview request sent via Twitter message.</p><p data-block-key=\"yko6n\">Requests for comment on this incident sent to the Denver Police Department were not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"nly5i\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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"state": {
"name": "Colorado",
"abbreviation": "CO"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Taylor Schuss (KUSA)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Unknown individual pepper sprays CBS4 Denver news crew",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unknown-individual-pepper-sprays-cbs4-denver-news-crew/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-27T18:06:03.480220Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:20:56.084669Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:20:55.987765Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"oljpi\">An unknown man sprayed pepper spray at CBS4 Denver news crew that was covering the protests on the streets of Colorado’s capital on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"teobe\">This incident occurred during the second night of protests in Denver over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis Police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes on May 25. Related protests have spread to cities across the nation.</p><p data-block-key=\"qqp5f\">Photojournalist Rob McClure and reporter Jamie Leary were both “OK” after the attack, according to a tweet from CBS producer Dago Cordova, who <a href=\"https://twitter.com/dago_deportes/status/1266586649024176128\">shared</a> video footage of the incident.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">During our special <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/CBSNDenver?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CBSNDenver</a> coverage of <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/JusticeForGeorge?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#JusticeForGeorge</a> protests, a man went up to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JamieALeary?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JamieALeary</a> & <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RobCBS4?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RobCBS4</a> and sprayed them with pepper spray. He did this after he did it to fellow local journalists. Jamie & Rob are okay <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CBSDenver?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CBSDenver</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/k76tZsoHXq\">pic.twitter.com/k76tZsoHXq</a></p>— Dago Cordova (@dago_deportes) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/dago_deportes/status/1266586649024176128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k5w75\">The crew was set up directly across from the Colorado Capitol along Lincoln Avenue. In the video, an unidentified young man in a colorful striped shirt, black baseball cap and black balaclava holding a canister of pepper spray walks by the journalists, who are filming live, then doubles back and sprays the crew with pepper spray. “Hey hey hey, Are you kidding me?” Leary says as the attack is underway.</p><p data-block-key=\"hnx9t\">Leary told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that both she and McClure were able to avoid a direct hit from the pepper spray because they had just watched the man pepper spray another camera crew nearby. They were watching him carefully, she explained. “He walked by us and then did an about-face,” Leary said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1viqj\">The Tracker <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/protestor-pepper-sprays-cbs4-denver-another-news-crew/\">documented Leary’s assault here</a>. McClure’s camera was lightly sprayed, but was not damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"jeayq\">The identity of the other camera crew attacked was not immediately available.</p><p data-block-key=\"yieki\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Colorado",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "AP reporter struck with projectile during Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ap-reporter-struck-with-projectile-during-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-28T21:04:02.516110Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:25:23.652890Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:25:23.570586Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9nkoy\">Associated Press photojournalist John Minchillo posted on social media that he was struck with a crowd-control munition while covering the fourth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"simmu\">Protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"qxkqh\">Two days after the incident, Minchillo <a href=\"https://twitter.com/johnminchillo/status/1267116569223725059\">posted on Twitter</a> that he was also struck by a less-lethal projectile while reporting that day, and said that police had fired indiscriminately.</p><p data-block-key=\"tzmta\">“No distinctions were made... when I and my colleagues were hit by officers,” Minchillo wrote. “This is a protocol that I’ve not seen elsewhere.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">No distinctions were made two nights back when I and my colleagues were hit by officers. Last night was full force in a wide spread. This is a protocol than I’ve not seen elsewhere. Lone officers do sometimes act so, not entire units. No discretion, just total area denial.</p>— john minchillo (@johnminchillo) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/johnminchillo/status/1267116569223725059?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"id416\">Minchillo could not be reached for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"qz9u6\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"John Minchillo (The Associated Press)"
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},
{
"title": "WCCO journalist hit by projectile while covering protests in Minneapolis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wcco-journalist-hit-projectile-while-covering-protests-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-15T21:07:11.102856Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:32:25.930356Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:32:25.851759Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"vjav4\">Jeff Wagner, a reporter and anchor for WCCO, a CBS affiliate station based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was livestreaming protest coverage as he was hit by a police projectile on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"86zbh\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"3j0kx\">Wagner was covering the fourth night of protests in Minneapolis on May 29. The night before, protesters overran and set fire to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct. But the focus on the 29th had shifted to the Fifth Precinct.</p><p data-block-key=\"fvqyx\">In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=545070406162328&ref=watch_permalink\">livestream</a> video filmed by Wagner, the Minnesota State Patrol can be heard over loudspeaker just before 11:30 p.m. ordering people to disperse immediately. About 10 minutes after Wagner filmed the loudspeaker warning, he was hit by a police projectile.</p><p data-block-key=\"z5cuu\">Wagner did not respond to requests for comment, and a message left on the WCCO general line was not answered.</p><p data-block-key=\"vzxk1\">In the livestream, Wagner reports that State Patrol troopers were advancing north on Nicollet Avenue, shooting projectiles at protesters who’d been throwing objects and launching fireworks at the police. He stands separate from the action in a mostly empty parking lot on the side of the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"fym5n\">A lone officer can be seen stepping into the parking lot and appears to hit one individual trying to retrieve a bike. Wagner asks if the person is all right, just as he, too, is hit. Wagner grunts as his phone tumbles to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"8cz05\">Wagner says in the livestream that he is all right despite the projectile feeling like the “the hardest punch to my forearm I’ve ever had.” But he says he recognized the risk of reporting close to the action.</p><p data-block-key=\"lplwf\">“I had my hand up. I got my news badge,” Wagner says as he flashes the badge on the video. “It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter in that moment. I looked like anybody else.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ja5me\">The livestream video does not clearly show the officer who shot the projectile at Wagner. Protesters, journalists and even law enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">dozen</a> agencies joined the law enforcement effort in Minnesota in late May, often wearing similar-looking uniforms.</p><p data-block-key=\"yj07x\">The Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to the Tracker’s emailed list of questions.</p><p data-block-key=\"f6pgx\"><a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-reporter-hit-projectile-tear-gassed-during-live-coverage-minneapolis-protest/\">Several</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-european-outlets-hit-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/\">other journalists</a> were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-hit-by-police-projectiles-in-minneapolis-fifth-precinct/\">hit</a> by police projectiles and tear gas fired by either State Patrol or Minneapolis Police that evening, as documented by the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"g9vo0\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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{
"title": "TV station evacuated, windows smashed amid protests in Louisville",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tv-station-evacuated-windows-smashed-amid-protests-louisville/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-25T21:32:55.366401Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:32:08.048500Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:32:07.950413Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qrijd\">The staff of television station WHAS 11 was forced to briefly evacuate the station’s offices in Louisville, Kentucky, after the building’s windows were smashed during a protest on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"myrqf\">The protest was held in response to the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was shot dead by police on March 13, as well as the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since late May.</p><p data-block-key=\"qh75a\">Shortly after 11 p.m. on May 29, a WHAS producer posted on Twitter that he and other staff members were back on the air after having to evacuate the downtown building for 25 minutes when unidentified people started smashing windows.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ggbq\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreakingNews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BreakingNews</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WHAS11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WHAS11</a> crew forced to evacuate building for about 25 minutes after protesters starting smashing our windows. We're back on air now. We are SAFE and we are SECURE. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Louisville?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Louisville</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreonnaTaylor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BreonnaTaylor</a></p>— Stephen A. Ostrosky (@producer_steve) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/producer_steve/status/1266566387373420545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gime6\">A news reporter from the station also described having to evacuate the building and said everyone returned safe and unharmed.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WHAS11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WHAS11</a> crew was forced to evacuate the building after some protesters smashed our windows. Thankfully everyone is safe and all is well. Please stay safe <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Louisville?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Louisville</a></p>— Senait Gebregiorgis (@SenaitTV) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SenaitTV/status/1266570203292409856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jexob\">At around 11:30 p.m., a journalist from the nearby Courier-Jourier saw broken window panes and graffiti spray painted on the network’s building, the newspaper <a href=\"https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/metro-government/2020/05/28/breonna-taylor-shooting-what-know-louisville-protest/5280762002/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"zmrx9\">Doug Proffitt, an anchor on WHAS 11, <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=756299548476021\">reported</a> on air later that night that a group of protesters had come down Chestnut Street towards the station’s building and that “it was a frightening situation.” He also said WHAS staff had suffered effects from tear gas that entered the building, but didn’t elaborate.</p><p data-block-key=\"vjwz7\">The network didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"89ici\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
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{
"title": "Journalist says police fired pepper balls at him while he stood alone covering Denver protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-says-police-fired-pepper-balls-him-while-he-stood-alone-covering-denver-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-18T18:32:54.838836Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:31:39.909305Z",
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"date": "2020-05-29",
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"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"shfdf\">Reporter and photographer Kevin Beaty says that police officers tried to pelt him with pepper balls while he was covering protests in Denver on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7mjda\">The protests erupted in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"iqctr\">Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held in cities across the U.S. since late May.</p><p data-block-key=\"eiglm\">Another Black man, Elijah McClain, died in August 2019 after a fateful encounter with police in Aurora, Colorado, which is in the Denver metro area. McClain’s name has been invoked in signs and chants at protests sparked by Floyd’s death.</p><p data-block-key=\"iqeez\">Beaty told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was standing alone on the lawn of the Colorado State Capitol while covering the May 29 protests for Denverite when a truck carrying Denver Police Department officers wielding pepper ball launchers arrived and began firing off rounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"hpyzr\">Beaty said he didn’t take direct hits, but he heard rounds make contact with his backpack.</p><p data-block-key=\"6bf2g\">“Even the smallest bit of powder getting into your respiratory system will make you sneeze or cough,” Beaty said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1tev5\">Beaty said that in addition to using pepper balls, Denver police were also hitting protesters with tear gas throughout the day and that he had taken some himself.</p><p data-block-key=\"ytaaz\">He did not seek medical attention following the May 29 protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"m9xr1\">Later that night, Beaty <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KevinJBeaty/status/1266565780671348736?s=20\">tweeted</a> that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock told him earlier that day that police would not target bystanders to the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"rb6qm\">“Why, then, did I just get shot while standing alone on the Capitol grass taking photos?” he said in the tweet.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/DenverPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DenverPolice</a> the mayor told me this morning bystanders are not the intended target of this enforcement. Why, then, did I just get shot while standing alone on the Capitol grass taking photos?</p>— Kevin Beaty (@KevinJBeaty) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KevinJBeaty/status/1266565780671348736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"f2kcn\">The Denver Police Internal Affairs Bureau contacted Beaty after he tweeted about the incident, Beaty told the Tracker. He filed a report with the office, but said he has not been contacted since.</p><p data-block-key=\"baexf\">A spokesman for the Denver Police Department declined to comment on Beaty’s case.</p><p data-block-key=\"ykt90\">“An internal affairs investigation into this incident is underway and it would be inappropriate for the department to comment at this time,” spokesman Jay Casillas said in an email.</p><p data-block-key=\"hetmw\">Denver has seen numerous demonstrations since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, Beaty said. But the protests that broke out in the days following Floyd’s death were “some of the wildest I’ve ever seen.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xx6io\">“It was pretty bananas for the first few days,” Beaty said.</p><p data-block-key=\"qpvek\">In the months since, Beaty said that he has seen protesters in Aurora carrying firearms. He also noted that there have been a number of shootings during area demonstrations. In July, a 23-year-old man allegedly opened fire at a Jeep that attempted to drive through a group protesting McClain’s death while marching on Interstate 225 in Aurora.</p><p data-block-key=\"s1w2n\">Two protesters were struck with bullets during the shooting, <a href=\"https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/07/28/samuel-young-aurora-mugshot-shooting-jeep-elijah-mcclain-protest/\">according to CBS4 Denver</a>. Samuel Young, the accused shooter, is charged with four counts of attempted murder.</p><p data-block-key=\"une2t\">“In the last month, things have gotten more worrisome from a safety perspective,” Beaty said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2lo0s\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Videographer hit by police projectiles in Minneapolis’ Fifth Precinct",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-hit-by-police-projectiles-in-minneapolis-fifth-precinct/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-08T11:11:19.119271Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:30:29.755819Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:30:29.672284Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
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"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tggag\">Police officers struck freelance filmmaker and journalist Mike Shum with two projectiles while he was reporting on protests in Minneapolis on May 29, 2020 for the New York Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"w6x10\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"hrct4\">Shum and Katie G. Nelson, a freelance journalist also reporting for the New York Times, were covering the fourth night of protests in Minneapolis on May 29. The night before, protesters overran and set fire to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct. The focus on the 29th had shifted to the Fifth Precinct, Shum told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"pcpxl\"><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000007164958/protests-minneapolis-police.html\">Video</a> shot by Shum and Nelson shows hundreds of protesters gathered outside the station as police stand on the rooftop, ordering them to disperse. Police deploy tear gas and protesters aim laser pointers and shoot fireworks at police. The video ends with a line of police emerging through a thick cloud of either tear gas or smoke on Nicollet Avenue next to the station.</p><p data-block-key=\"oev7x\">Shum said he and several other photojournalists filmed the officers as they began to fire projectiles. Protesters scattered by the tear gas were nearby, but the journalists stood together “obviously trying to get our shots,” Shum said.</p><p data-block-key=\"i5wbr\">Shum heard projectiles whizzing by his head before he was hit in the foot and side.</p><p data-block-key=\"t9c2q\">“I was trying to hold my shot realizing I could hear the whizzing by and I was like, OK, they are obviously shooting at us. And that’s when I got hit in the foot,” Shum said. “We should probably start running now.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xhikw\">He said he wasn’t sure what kind of projectile hit him, though he suspected the one on his side was a ricochet given the force and angle of the impact.</p><p data-block-key=\"vmumn\">The projectile that hit his foot “had more of an impact than I gave it credit for,” Shum said. His foot bruised with minor swelling. Walking was harder than normal but the injury didn’t require a doctor’s visit, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"pkgu4\">Shum told the Tracker he believed the police didn’t specifically target him but were shooting indiscriminately in a general direction that included many journalists. He said he wasn’t sure which law-enforcement agency was responsible, or whether other journalists in the group were hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"5wvry\">Protesters, journalists and even law-enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">dozen</a> different agencies joined the law-enforcement effort in Minnesota, often wearing similar looking uniforms.</p><p data-block-key=\"4t27k\">In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=545070406162328&ref=watch_permalink\">livestream</a> filmed by Jeff Wagner, a reporter with CBS affiliate WCCO, the Minnesota State Patrol can be heard over loudspeaker just before 11:30 p.m. ordering people to disperse immediately. Within the next twenty minutes, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-reporter-hit-projectile-tear-gassed-during-live-coverage-minneapolis-protest/\">several</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-european-outlets-hit-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/\">journalists</a> were hit by police projectiles and tear gas fired by either State Patrol or Minneapolis Police, all within a block radius of where Shum was hit. Nine minutes after Wagner filmed the loudspeaker warning, he, too, was hit by a police projectile.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ubso\">Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder told the Tracker he couldn’t comment on Shum getting hit. He added that “every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sbbwf\">The Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to the Tracker’s emailed list of questions.</p><p data-block-key=\"mpi02\">Capt. Melanie Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota National Guard, told the Tracker that “the Minnesota National Guard did not employ non-lethal rounds during the civil unrest in Minneapolis, Saint Paul and surrounding communities.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qvgqp\">Despite the injury, Shum continued to report on the protests with Nelson. The following day, law-enforcement officers pushed him over a wall and fired on Nelson’s car in separate incidents, the journalists said.</p><p data-block-key=\"eebuc\">Nelson and Shum have joined a class-action <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/aclu-mn-sues-law-enforcement-over-attacks-journalists-covering-george-floyd-protests\">lawsuit</a> filed by the ACLU of Minnesota against Minneapolis and Minnesota officials concerning the treatment of journalists covering the Floyd protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"yjr4j\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"56toq\"><i>Editor’s Note: Shum withdrew from the lawsuit in September 2021. The metadata for this incident has been updated to reflect that. The journalists documented in the Tracker and remaining in the suit can be found</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?case_number=0:20-cv-01302\"><i>here</i></a><i>.</i></p></div>",
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{
"title": "Journalist hit with projectile two days in a row in Minneapolis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-projectile-two-days-row-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-04T20:59:12.490697Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:30:08.341092Z",
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"date": "2020-05-29",
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"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cqc8r\">Reporter Julio Rosas told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was struck by a projectile shot by law enforcement while reporting on a protest in Minneapolis on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"pw86o\">The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"qhcox\">Rosas said he was hit near Minneapolis' Third Precinct while reporting for Townhall, which describes itself as a conservative news and commentary site.</p><p data-block-key=\"7p3jg\">In the early afternoon, Rosas <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266437348537106432\">filmed</a> State Patrol troopers and National Guardsmen stationed near stores that had been burgled. At about the same time, officials <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MnDPS_BCA/status/1266436388767105024\">announced</a> the arrest of fired police officer Derek Chauvin on third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison later added a second-degree murder charge in addition to charging three other former officers with aiding and abetting murder.</p><p data-block-key=\"7d0de\">The situation grew tense as an <a href=\"http://news.minneapolismn.gov/2020/05/29/mayor-frey-signs-emergency-regulation-in-minneapolis-establishing-curfew-tonight-at-8-p-m/\">8 p.m. curfew</a> drew closer, Rosas said. He filmed <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266492246519623685\">protesters</a> emotionally <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266509533171658755\">confronting</a> a mixed deployment of National Guard and police, including State Patrol.</p><p data-block-key=\"0wh57\">Some officers can also be seen wearing riot gear with “Police” or “Sheriff” written on it. It isn’t precisely clear to which law enforcement agencies they belonged.</p><p data-block-key=\"ipv4p\">Protesters, journalists and even law enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">dozen</a> different agencies joined the law enforcement effort in Minnesota, often wearing similar looking uniforms.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0prb\">Officials by loudspeaker ordered protesters to disperse 10 minutes before curfew, as officers donned gas masks, Rosas told the Tracker. Rocks and bottles flung from the protesters’ side of a barricade were met with projectiles and tear gas from law enforcement, Rosas said.</p><p data-block-key=\"afpwj\">But instead of advancing to enforce the curfew, police and National Guard troops began to withdraw from the area, Rosas said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tfp75\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266550380193873920\">video</a> of the incident Rosas filmed from the sidewalk, law enforcement are seen backing past a burned-out building. He told the Tracker he had informed the National Guardsman closest to him that he was a journalist. He was wearing press credentials around his neck. Rosas pans to the left as police fire projectiles toward a line of protesters down the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"nujlu\">Then the sound of another shot rings out and the video cuts off. Rosas was hit in the torso. He would later <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266539093908959232\">tweet</a> a photo of a welt of about 40 millimeters in diameter, the same as some of the projectiles he saw being used.</p><p data-block-key=\"w5k20\">Rosas, who was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-projectile-shot-minneapolis-police-vehicle/\">hit by what he believed was a pepper ball</a> the previous day, said the pain of getting hit by a 40mm projectile was on a different level.</p><p data-block-key=\"trcdh\">“When I first got hit, on a scale of one to 10 pain-wise, it was a 10 for the first minute,” Rosas said. “And then I thought ‘Oh shoot I need to get out of here.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"uiaux\">Rosas said he jumped over a small fence on the side of the road and landed on his back. Other people in the area helped him up and asked if he needed to go to the hospital. He wasn’t coughing up blood and didn’t feel pain breathing, so he went back to reporting, assuming he didn’t suffer serious internal damage. Later that night, he went to the hospital and received an official all-clear.</p><p data-block-key=\"1lhm6\">Capt. Melanie Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota National Guard, told the Tracker it “did not employ non-lethal rounds during the civil unrest in Minneapolis, Saint Paul and surrounding communities.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rzx8n\">The Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to questions sent by the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ki9l8\">Rosas said he would be “very surprised” if he was hit by accident because there was no one around him. But he said he didn’t know whether he was targeted specifically as a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"40yrt\">Citing his experience assessing threats in the Marines, Rosas said it didn’t make sense to focus on him, as he posed no danger whether he was recognized as a journalist or not.</p><p data-block-key=\"0xhlf\">At least 12 people across the country were partially blinded by police projectiles between May 28 and June 2, according to a Washington Post <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2020/07/14/george-floyd-protests-police-blinding/?arc404=true#main-visual\">investigation</a>. One of those 12, freelance writer and photographer <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-permanently-blinded-others-assaulted-during-minneapolis-protests/\">Linda Tirado</a>, was hit in the left eye on the same night and precinct as Rosas.</p><p data-block-key=\"hoxyy\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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