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{
"title": "Photojournalist tackled, colleague assaulted, while covering protests in New York",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-tackled-colleague-assaulted-while-covering-protests-new-york/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-12T18:36:12.517442Z",
"last_published_at": "2020-10-12T18:42:28.408960Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2020-10-12T18:42:28.339490Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Rochester",
"longitude": -77.61556,
"latitude": 43.15478,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Unknown individuals physically assaulted two journalists covering protests on May 30, 2020 in Rochester, New York, allegedly tackling one of the correspondents to the ground.</p><p>Jack Diamond, a photojournalist for News10NBC in Rochester, was covering a demonstration alongside his colleague, reporter Andrew Hyman, at about 5 p.m. in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park.</p><p>The rally attracted hundreds of attendees and was mostly peaceful, <a href=\"https://www.whec.com/news/news10nbc-reporter-photographer-attacked-during-protest/5745850/\">Hyman told News10NBC</a> for its report on the assault on him and Diamond.</p><p>A group of police at the scene began firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd. Thereafter, Hyman said an individual approached him, asking him questions about his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, recording the exchange with a smartphone.</p><p>Hyman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the inquisition attracted the attention of five or six men passing nearby. One of the men snatched Hyman’s earpiece, which was connected to a smartphone he was using to cover the demonstrations. Then the others began shoving him. The Tracker has <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc10-journalists-attacked-during-live-coverage-of-protests-earpiece-stolen/\">documented Hyman’s assault and the damage to his equipment here</a>.</p><p>“I was just out of it,” Hyman told the Tracker, noting that his assailants were all wearing masks. “I couldn’t see their faces.”</p><p>As the reporter tried to flee from the scuffle, he looked back and saw that some individuals had tackled Diamond and took him off his feet.</p><p>But then two or three other individuals who were not involved with the tackle helped the photojournalist to his feet and he was able to escape without injuries or damage to his equipment, Hyman said.</p><p>“In the parking lot across from the Public Safety Building, News10NBC Photojournalist Jack Diamond and I were both grabbed by a group,” Hyman told News10NBC. “I had my earpiece taken, and Jack was tackled. We were not hurt, just shaken up.</p><p>Hyman told the Tracker that neither journalist sought medical attention following the attack. He said that the Rochester Police Department contacted him about the incident but as of his Aug. 18 interview with the Tracker he had not received additional information about possible charges against the assailants.</p><p>Diamond and the Rochester Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p></div>",
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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"
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"targeted_journalists": [
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{
"title": "North Carolina reporter assaulted, knocked out while covering mall looting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/north-carolina-reporter-assaulted-knocked-out-while-covering-mall-looting/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-08T14:49:57.353605Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:21:32.154312Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:21:32.055021Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Fayetteville",
"longitude": -78.87836,
"latitude": 35.05266,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"upysy\">A reporter for the Fayetteville Observer said he was hit, knocked unconscious and kicked while he and a colleague livestreamed the looting of stores in a North Carolina shopping mall on the night of May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"f8kqf\">A group of people <a href=\"https://www.wral.com/looting-fires-vandalism-mark-protests-over-death-of-george-floyd-in-raleigh-fayetteville/19121290/\">broke into the Cross Creek Mall</a> about six miles west of downtown Fayetteville following protests earlier that day against police violence in the city’s downtown. Demonstrations had erupted nationwide days before, following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, while he was in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"k6sve\">Paul Woolverton, a senior state reporter for the Observer, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he headed downtown to start reporting on the protests at around 7 p.m. This was shortly after people had <a href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/arrest-made-arson-fayetteville-s-historic-market-house\">set fire to the Market House</a>, a historic downtown Fayetteville building that was once the site of <a href=\"https://www.wral.com/protesters-break-into-set-fire-at-historic-building-in-fayetteville/19122012/\">a market for enslaved people</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"92p2i\">Woolverton said the Market House was still burning when he arrived downtown, where he saw people acting aggressively toward TV camera people nearby. He said he wore press credentials in full view on a lanyard around his neck, and that he was carrying a notebook, pens, cellphone and selfie stick. While downtown, he ran into colleague Melody Brown-Peyton, and the two decided to stick together. Downtown Fayetteville would later be closed to all traffic, so the pair drove in Brown-Peyton’s car to the Cross Creek Mall, where they heard that looting was taking place. They stopped at Woolverton’s home on the way to get his camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"37cnl\">Woolverton and Brown-Peyton parked across the street from the mall and walked over to it. They saw a group of white men with pickup trucks and long guns, and saw people running out of a J.C. Penney store with dresses and other merchandise.</p><p data-block-key=\"cuzln\">“It was kind of ‘Mad Max’<i>-</i>looking,” Woolverton said.</p><p data-block-key=\"sy16z\">Woolverton was struck and knocked unconscious just after 11 p.m.. by an unknown male assailant, <a href=\"https://www.fayobserver.com/story/news/2020/05/31/fayetteville-observer-reporter-assaulted-during-looting-at-cross-creek-mall/112306126/\">Brown-Peyton told</a> the Fayetteville Observer. He was livestreaming on Facebook at the time and <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2535999873377550&ref=watch_permalink\">video from the scene</a> cuts off a few seconds before he was hit. Woolverton said he was trying to be careful about raising the phone because he was aware that it would attract attention. He remembers hearing the man who attacked him say “Don’t be taking no pictures,” before he grabbed Woolverton’s selfie stick and phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"mvpmb\">“My memory is him grabbing at my cellphone, me yelling at him, struggling with him upright,” Woolverton said. “My next memory is waking up and a police officer next to me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cncuy\">Brown-Peyton told him the attacker got into a pickup truck and drove away. She also told Woolverton that he was lying down with his eyes rolling back.</p><p data-block-key=\"104up\">“I have no memory of the conversation,” Woolverton said. “I didn’t know my phone number, I didn't know why I was at the mall or how I got there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rwly8\">Brown-Peyton contacted Woolverton’s editor and his girlfriend, and they went to the hospital. Brown-Peyton told Woolverton the assailant was struggling to get hold of Woolverton’s camera, but he couldn’t because of the strap. The attacker also kicked Woolverton when he was unconscious on the ground. Woolverton’s camera bag was ripped and his camera was slightly scuffed.</p><p data-block-key=\"9svoy\">On the morning of May 31, 2020, Woolverton <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FO_Woolverton/status/1266993893406629892\">tweeted</a>: “Got a knot on my head, scrapes, bruises from head to foot and a concussion. The looters at Cross Creek Mall didn’t like that I was shooting video (see their activities on the<a href=\"https://twitter.com/fayobserver\"> @fayobserver</a> Facebook page). I am told I was kicked and punched but don’t remember that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"feqov\">Woolverton filed a police report after the incident, but police didn’t identify the suspect. The Fayetteville Police Department didn’t respond to a request for updates on the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"3lupw\">Woolverton said he didn’t know whether he had been targeted for being a journalist. “I think he just saw a guy with a camera.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mt72d\">He told the Observer that this was the first time anyone had attacked him while he was doing his job in 30 years as a journalist, and that he felt lucky his colleague was by his side.</p><p data-block-key=\"sp7ed\">“I was trying to be situationally aware, but it came really fast out of the blue. A big lesson is don't go alone,” Woolverton said. “Thank God Melody was there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hfh4r\">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. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/IMG_2611_2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lxsk3\">In North Carolina, Fayetteville Observer senior reporter Paul Woolverton was knocked unconscious while livestreaming looters on May 30, 2020. He was treated for a concussion and other injuries.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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{
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"name": "North Carolina",
"abbreviation": "NC"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Paul Woolverton (The Fayetteville Observer)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Reporter struck with crowd-control munitions while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-struck-with-crowd-control-munitions-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-07T16:49:26.361898Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:03:46.769093Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:03:46.569868Z",
"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=\"eyol5\">Los Angeles Times correspondent Molly Hennessy-Fiske was one of more than a dozen journalists fired at with crowd-control munitions and pepper spray while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"26oax\">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=\"axu95\">Half an hour after the 8 p.m. curfew began, Minnesota state patrol officers fired pepper spray and rubber bullets at a group of at least 20 journalists including Hennessy-Fiske and LA Times photographer Carolyn Cole, according to Cole’s account of the incident <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-06-01/they-came-toward-us-firing-pepper-spray-and-rubber-bullets\">in the LA Times</a> and <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2882143978738897\">social media</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mollyhf/status/1268317400904208384\">posts</a> by the journalists.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You can hear me and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Carolyn_Cole?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Carolyn_Cole</a> attacked in this video; see me scaling a wall at the end. I stand corrected: <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MnDPS_MSP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MnDPS_MSP</a> did shout something at us: "Move!" Hence, I replied "Where do we go?" Thanks <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ryanraiche?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ryanraiche</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/MinneapolisUprising?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MinneapolisUprising</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Minneapolis?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Minneapolis</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/1fT36u03kZ\">https://t.co/1fT36u03kZ</a></p>— Molly Hennessy-Fiske (@mollyhf) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mollyhf/status/1268317400904208384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 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=\"mg49n\">Cole wrote that many of the journalists were wearing clearly marked press vests, and that Hennessy-Fiske loudly identified the group as journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"a1x8w\">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=\"gtzwg\">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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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"mszyp\">Minnesota State Patrol troopers on guard following a protest against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 29, 2020. Troopers shot Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske with a crowd-control munition at a protest the following day.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-05-25 00:00:00+00:00) Los Angeles Times reporter sues Minnesota State Patrol following assault at protest",
"(2024-04-05 14:43:00+00:00) LA Times reporters reach $1.2 million settlement with Minnesota State Patrol"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Molly Hennessy-Fiske (Los Angeles Times)"
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{
"title": "VICE Media producer, crew arrested while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-producer-crew-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-29T18:27:47.139822Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:04:10.981247Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:04:10.898031Z",
"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=\"hevog\">Dave Mayers, a producer for VICE Media, and three colleagues were arrested on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"gu9s5\">The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"2jci3\">Mayers told the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that he was reporting on protesters in downtown Minneapolis with three VICE journalists — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-reporter-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Alzo Slade</a>, Jika González, and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-producer-arrested-crew-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Ellis Rua</a> — prior to their arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"qlq9e\">The journalists were following a protest at about 8:10 p.m. when several state troopers pulled up in front of them, Mayers said. “They pop out of their cars and they have state trooper body armor on and tear gas launchers and stuff. They cut the protest off from being able to head downtown.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yjzn3\">Mayers said that he and González, a VICE producer, were filming the line of officers when the troopers started firing tear gas toward the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"fdo3a\">“It was unprovoked,” Mayers said. “It was a very peaceful protest and didn’t seem like it was going to be confrontational in any way and it turned confrontational very, very quickly. It was the police that ratcheted it up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8l61c\">Mayers said he heard a state trooper tell a colleague to get one of the protesters just before the troopers shot tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"8shco\">Mayers said he saw a yellow tear gas canister hit a person who was standing in front of a correspondent from another network. Once the crew decided that the state troopers were shooting tear gas indiscriminately, they ran down a narrow side street and put on their masks. Yellow and white gas swirled in the air. Mayers said he saw the troopers advancing from the main street.</p><p data-block-key=\"pvjuu\">“One of the police looks down [the side street] at us and points a gun at us and says, ‘Get down, get down, get down,’” said Mayers, who used police interchangeably with state troopers and other law enforcement. Slade’s microphone was still on. Mayers was wearing an earpiece that connected to the microphone and was able to hear Slade clearly.</p><p data-block-key=\"sk36w\">“At this moment, I was terrified,” Mayers said, noting that the crew included three Black men and González, who’s Latina.</p><p data-block-key=\"cjfzb\">As the state troopers approached, the crew yelled that they were members of the press. The state troopers looked at Slade’s VICE-issued press pass, handcuffed him with zip ties and took him to a police van, Mayers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"z1603\">“They looked at my ID and I asked, ‘What are we being arrested for?’” Mayers said. “They didn’t really answer, and did the same thing.” The state troopers handcuffed Mayers with zip ties too.</p><p data-block-key=\"ahkr3\">“We shouldn’t have looked like anything other than press,” Mayers said. “We had tens of thousands of dollars of camera equipment on us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"45c8l\">The detention took place near Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in downtown Minneapolis, according to the citation that was later issued.</p><p data-block-key=\"cf8zf\">Police took Mayers’ camera, put it in a plastic bag, removed his gas mask, and led him into the police van next to Slade, Mayers said. The van, he said, was in the middle of a street where tear gas had just been released. Mayers and Slade were both coughing from the gas that hung in the air.</p><p data-block-key=\"zwsgi\">They waited in the van for about an hour before moving, Mayers said. The van was partitioned with Rua, a VICE camera operator, later joining Slade and Mayers. González was on the other side of the van with a woman who was not a journalist, Mayers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b8mxl\">The journalists were transported to the Hennepin County Jail. Their gear was brought there in plastic bags, Mayers said. They waited in the police vehicle while the police determined their charges. Law enforcement included officers from Hennepin and a second county, the journalist said.</p><p data-block-key=\"t996n\">Police then took the journalists out of the vehicle and into the jail where each crew member was fingerprinted and photographed, Mayers said. While they were fingerprinted, their plastic zip ties were replaced with metal cuffs, Mayers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"eaodm\">The journalist said he didn’t see any other people being processed aside from the VICE crew and the woman who was arrested with them though there were about 50 police in the facility, Mayers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ehnj8\">Each member of the VICE crew was charged with violating curfew, according to the journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"fw072\">After about four hours, the journalists were released and their equipment was returned without damage, Mayers said. The crew walked back to their hotel because their vehicle was in the opposite direction, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"xo8cu\">Mayers said that a VICE lawyer told the crew their charges would be dismissed. Weeks later, the crew members received a court summons in the mail.</p><p data-block-key=\"i2oc9\">The journalist received a letter dated August 4, 2020, from the Deputy City Attorney for the city of Minneapolis stating that the charges were dismissed, a copy of which was seen by CPJ.</p></div>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
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"protest"
],
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{
"title": "VICE Media producer arrested with crew while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-producer-arrested-crew-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-29T18:14:21.215703Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-11-18T20:08:40.169161Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-11-18T20:08:40.119670Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Ellis Rua, a camera operator for VICE Media, and three colleagues were arrested on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests, Rua told the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p>The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p>Rua said that he and the VICE crew — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-reporter-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Alzo Slade</a>, Jika González, and Dave Mayers — were spending time with protesters at a food distribution center when they decided to follow a protest that was starting up so they could get B-roll.</p><p>Police appeared in front of the group of protesters and the journalists, obstructing their way forward, and began firing tear gas, Rua said. Law enforcement emerged from vehicles labeled as belonging to Minnesota State Troopers. They were wearing riot gear that also identified them as state troopers, according to Mayers.</p><p>When law enforcement started firing tear gas, Rua suggested the crew find a corner to put on their gas masks. Rua didn’t think the state troopers would arrest journalists with press passes. But the troopers approached the journalists and told them to get on the ground, Rua said. The group complied.</p><p>One of the officers said he would need to speak to his commander. The officer spoke with someone by phone, and then told the journalists that they were under arrest, Rua said.</p><p>“I was quite surprised,” Rua said. “We did identify ourselves as press, but they still proceeded to arrest us.”</p><p>The detention took place near Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in downtown Minneapolis, according to the citation that was later issued.</p><p>Rua was carrying a gas mask with canisters, a helmet, and a camera. The rest of the crew had other equipment including two Sony Fs7 cameras and multiple lenses, according to Rua.</p><p>Initially law enforcement used plastic ties to secure the wrists of all four crew members, Rua said. First Slade, then Mayers, and then González were walked to a police vehicle, while Rua was left waiting in the side street for what he said felt like 15 to 30 minutes before he was also brought to the vehicle.</p><p>The journalists were then taken to a police building where the plastic zip ties were replaced with metal handcuffs and they were fingerprinted, Rua said. The journalists were not allowed to make a phone call or read their Miranda rights at any point during their detention, Rua said.</p><p>Each of the journalists was given a citation for breaking curfew from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department, the journalist said. They were expected to appear in court in late October.</p><p>Eventually, Rua and Mayers were notified that the charges against them have been dropped. As of late September, Slade and González were still waiting for a similar notification.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "VICE Media producer arrested while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-producer-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-28T21:10:36.724890Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-11-09T17:13:29.412611Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-11-09T17:13:29.330967Z",
"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=\"zy5ud\">Jika González, a producer for VICE Media, and three colleagues were arrested on May 30 in Minneapolis, for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"5qnq7\">The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ke8ac\">González told the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that she was reporting on protests in downtown Minneapolis with VICE film crew members <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-reporter-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Alzo Slade</a>, Ellis Rua, and Dave Mayers. The crew was following protesters when police began forming a line to block the protest’s progression, González said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ctl95\">“We stayed to get a few shots of police forming the line, and then the first thing of [an irritant] was launched,” said González, who referred to police when she meant Minnesota State Troopers. The crew ducked into a side alley off of the main avenue, the journalist said.</p><p data-block-key=\"12u1h\">“We were thinking that police had established that line and were going to stay there because this march was very peaceful,” González said. Law enforcement then came around the corner and started yelling at the journalists to get on the ground, and they complied, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jq7k7\">González said she could see Slade and Mayer but Rua was behind her. Her colleagues were lying on the ground. González said she was kneeling on the ground with her hands up. Her mask was on halfway.</p><p data-block-key=\"kzdum\">González said that an officer approached Slade, who said they were press. The state trooper glanced at his press badge before taking him away.</p><p data-block-key=\"bh491\">Troopers took Mayer and then González to a holding vehicle that was partitioned by gender. González was held with a woman who was not a journalist, she said. Rua was then brought to the other side of the vehicle to join Mayer and Slade.</p><p data-block-key=\"uxrvt\">The detention took place near Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in downtown Minneapolis, according to the citation that was later issued. The Tracker documents all <a href=\"http://pressfreedomtracker.us/arrest-criminal-charge/\">arrests</a> separately.</p><p data-block-key=\"n9hj9\">González said her hands were ziptied. A trooper removed her gas mask and ignored her request for a medical mask, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"z6q8q\">Troopers put the journalists' equipment — including several cameras and microphones — into bags and took them along with the journalists to the precinct. Troopers also confiscated the crew’s cellphones, González said.</p><p data-block-key=\"z46tb\">“There was no way protesters would be carrying all of those cameras,” González said.</p><p data-block-key=\"3p484\">When they got to the precinct, law enforcement deliberated over what citation they should use to process the journalists, according to González. At no point was the team read their Miranda rights, the journalist noted.</p><p data-block-key=\"jh7l8\">González said she again requested a surgical mask and was given one by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"t0nt8\">Eventually, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office charged the journalists with violating curfew, according to the citation viewed by CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rxk2\">As the police were walking González out of the precinct, she said one of the officers mentioned thinking that they weren’t supposed to arrest “you guys,” meaning journalists. González said another officer responded, “Well, now you can put it on your resume.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uiyil\">The crew’s equipment, including their cellphones, was returned during their release and no footage was deleted, González said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5g8df\">According to <a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2020/05/30/journalists-report-being-fired-on-gassed-in-minneapolis-george-floyd-protests/\">news reports</a>, the media was exempt from curfew the night the VICE crew was arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"241cb\">About a week after the arrest, González received via mail a court summons from the Hennepin County District Court for October 26, according to a copy of the summons that was seen by CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"v1lnv\">A VICE spokesperson told CPJ that the Commissioner for the Department of Corrections has said the charges will be dropped.</p><p data-block-key=\"sjpi0\">But as of late September, González told CPJ that she had not yet received any notification of dropped charges.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [
"(2020-08-11 22:21:00+00:00) Charges dropped against VICE Media producer arrested while covering Minneapolis protests"
],
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"tags": [
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"protest"
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"categories": [
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},
{
"title": "Journalist says was knocked to the ground, kicked while covering LA demonstrations",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-says-was-knocked-ground-kicked-while-covering-l-demonstrations/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-18T16:52:20.992070Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-02T14:39:00.317383Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-02T14:39:00.227907Z",
"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=\"880v8\">A Los Angeles police officer shoved and kicked the writer and publisher of West Hollywood news outlet Wehoville while he covered a local protest against police violence on May 30, 2020, according to the journalist and the outlet’s <a href=\"https://www.wehoville.com/2020/05/30/a-curfew-declared-for-weho-because-of-george-floyd-demonstrations/\">reporting of events</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"3js83\">Wehoville’s Henry Scott told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on that Saturday afternoon he was walking south on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood at the intersection with Beverly Boulevard. As protesters moved east down Beverly Boulevard he walked along with them.</p><p data-block-key=\"u5tf2\">Scott told the Tracker he took notes and photographs as he followed the crowd toward a parking lot on Third Street west of Fairfax Avenue where demonstrators were holding signs and chanting.</p><p data-block-key=\"onblt\">“On the street, a police car had been set on fire,” Scott said. “A line of police officers wearing riot helmets and carrying batons and rubber bullet rifles stood at the edge of the parking lot watching the demonstrators, who were peaceful.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q3j1f\">Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department began advancing toward the protesters. Scott told the Tracker that he wasn’t wearing any press credentials, but identified himself as a journalist when they drew close. He also asked an officer — whose helmet identified him as Rodriguez — whether they were moving people out of the parking lot and why. Scott said he hadn’t heard a dispersal order.</p><p data-block-key=\"66ehh\">Scott said the officer didn’t answer but suddenly knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the ribs on his left side. Scott had been taking video of that officer and others shoving demonstrators and shooting rubber bullets at their feet earlier that afternoon, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jnl8i\">Two others — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-journalists-covering-protests-los-angeles-assaulted/\">multimedia journalist Lexis-Olivier Ray</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-police-baton-while-covering-la-demonstrations/\">visual journalist Chava Sanchez</a> — also reported being assaulted by LAPD officers in the same intersection while covering afternoon clashes between demonstrators and police.</p><p data-block-key=\"v01jt\">The LAPD didn’t respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"vj1pl\">“It took me six weeks to completely recover from that assault,” Scott told the Tracker, “which for the first few weeks left me in pain that required taking anti-pain medication and made it nearly impossible for me to bend over and very difficult to get out of bed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bclsw\">Scott said that he didn’t seek medical treatment because of concerns about catching COVID-19.</p><p data-block-key=\"tdy2h\">The protest in L.A. 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=\"o7n1p\">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 demonstrations 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",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Henry Scott (Wehoville)"
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},
{
"title": "Three Raleigh newsrooms damaged during protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/three-raleigh-newsrooms-damaged-during-protests-may-30/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-10T13:01:33.310704Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:43:08.859558Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:43:08.764859Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Raleigh",
"longitude": -78.63861,
"latitude": 35.7721,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3h9xr\">The offices of INDY Week, The News & Observer, and ABC11 in downtown Raleigh, N.C. were damaged during protests in the city on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"816kg\">Alternative weekly newspaper INDY Week reported extensive damage to its newsroom, while ABC11 and The News & Observer newspaper both had windows smashed as protests stretched late into the night.</p><p data-block-key=\"s6jvt\">The protests in Raleigh echoed demonstrations across the country sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"8cb3f\">The newsrooms in Raleigh were damaged late in the first major day of protesting in the city. Demonstrations had been peaceful through the day, but late in the evening, after police began using tear gas to disperse crowds, a small group of people began destroying property in the city’s downtown.</p><p data-block-key=\"ixxxt\">INDY Week Raleigh news editor Leigh Tauss told U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she had returned to the office while covering the protests to wash her face off and get some water, after she had been caught up in tear gas. She was in the back of the ground-floor office near the water cooler, shortly before 10 p.m., when she heard the window shatter, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"gz6qg\">She sank down to the floor and called her editor, before she moved out toward the front of the office and saw a brick had been thrown through the window, she said. She posted about the damage <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeighTauss/status/1266911866959339521?s=20\">on Twitter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ol5t3\">Tauss said she tried to leave the office then, but when she stepped outside, there was more tear gas in the street so she came back inside. She was in the hallway when she heard someone enter the office and ducked into the basement to hide. After waiting for a few minutes, she got a text from another journalist who was outside and who told her it was clear for her to leave. She posted on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeighTauss/status/1266915505903984640?s=20\">Twitter</a> at that point that it appeared that someone had tried to take water, but no computers were missing.</p><p data-block-key=\"o6kmv\">Later that night, according to Tauss, somebody entered the office and caused more extensive damage. Large windows were entirely smashed. Couches in the office were set on fire, setting off the sprinkler system. While other equipment was damaged by the water, her desktop computer went missing, she said.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I’m devastated. We are a progressive newspaper. Last night I was inside when the first brick was thrown <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Raleigh?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Raleigh</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/MJvPdscyqf\">pic.twitter.com/MJvPdscyqf</a></p>— Leigh Tauss (@LeighTauss) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeighTauss/status/1267085577419186178?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=\"odj1g\">The three offices were just some of many businesses damaged in the city. According to <a href=\"https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article243135136.html\">an article in the News & Observer</a>, “nearly every” business in Raleigh’s downtown area was damaged overnight.</p><p data-block-key=\"tkw5n\">A spokesperson for the Raleigh Police Department said police were aware of damage to INDY Week and the News & Observer. There haven’t been any arrests related to the incidents, according to the department.</p><p data-block-key=\"hniy5\">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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Raleigh_newsroom_damage_0530.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"apfq7\">INDY Week Raleigh news editor Leigh Tauss was washing off tear gas in the North Carolina newsroom when the vandalizing began. “I’m devastated,” she said the next day posting the damage — burned furniture, water damage and stolen equipment.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"actor": "private individual",
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{
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],
"state": {
"name": "North Carolina",
"abbreviation": "NC"
},
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"[Durham] Indy Week"
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"Equipment Damage"
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{
"title": "Reporter struck with pepper balls during live broadcast on Omaha protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-struck-pepper-balls-during-live-broadcast-omaha-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-02T15:29:42.560303Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:20:53.015760Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:20:52.932204Z",
"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=\"gapui\">Jessika Eidson, a reporter for CBS-affiliate KMTV, was hit by projectiles fired by police while reporting live on protests in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 30, 2020, according to footage of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ytqe\">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=\"kvph3\">Eidson was reporting on the second night of protests in Omaha, which had moved as the night progressed from 72nd and Dodge Streets to downtown, according to Eidson’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1266880732963770374\">tweets</a> and other <a href=\"https://omaha.com/news/local/person-shot-to-death-in-old-market-as-tear-gas-fills-streets-during-second-night/article_28f8d39e-e4bc-5377-8568-44a75fc99368.html\">news reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"tkw0l\">Shortly before 10:30 p.m., Eidson <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1266932043021238282\">tweeted</a> protesters had gathered near the police headquarters, where she observed tear gas and fireworks.</p><p data-block-key=\"6esay\">Eidson then went live on air to report from the scene near Howard and South 12th Streets. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1267057057640955906\">video</a> of the incident, Eidson says her crew got a “very painful” whiff of tear gas earlier. She reports she just saw a man throw something at police, just as a bang from a firecracker can be heard. The video feed cuts to a view of the city.</p><p data-block-key=\"2a1ux\">Almost immediately Eidson exclaims, “OK, we gotta go though! I just got hit!” Eidson <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1267057058945404928\">tweeted</a> that Omaha Police shot at her and her colleague with <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1266951026030120961\">pepper balls</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"b0x2s\">It isn’t clear whether Eidson’s crew was targeted by police. “We were several feet away from any officer or protester,” Eidson tweeted. “We had a large tripod, camera and bright light showing we were doing a newscast when I was directly struck twice.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rnb1o\">At a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/3NewsNow/videos/920763531669271\">press conference</a> earlier that night, Chief of Police Todd Schmaderer said police deployed tear gas and pepper balls after the protest was declared an unlawful assembly. Lt. Sherie Thomas, a spokesperson for the Omaha Police Department, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the department was conducting an ongoing review of the protests, but didn’t comment specifically about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"j14pl\">Eidson and KMTV didn’t respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"r2gg7\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1266951026030120961\">video</a> update from her home an hour after the incident, Eidson says she and her cameraman were both safe, but she had a large welt on her leg where she was hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"fdut4\">“I’m doing OK. I have little bit of a cough right now,” she says in the video. “I think I'm going to go inside and maybe drink some milk and see if that helps.”</p><p data-block-key=\"amqyw\">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></div>",
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{
"title": "Tires Slashed: Officers pierce journalists’ car tires in Minneapolis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tires-slashed-officers-pierce-journalists-car-tires-in-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-28T17:54:36.958055Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:49:56.811702Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:49:56.730541Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": true,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"c8p5t\">Law-enforcement officers punctured the tires of news crews and journalists as they reported on multiple days of protests in Minneapolis, according to news reports and an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0uho\">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=\"y3tyk\">According to <a href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/anti-racism-police-protest/2020/06/videos-show-cops-slashing-car-tires-at-protests-in-minneapolis/\">Mother Jones</a>, officers punctured the tires of all vehicles in a Kmart parking lot on May 30 and again on a highway overpass on May 31 after those areas briefly turned into police staging grounds.</p><h4 data-block-key=\"zjf1t\">May 30, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"ge9rp\">At least three journalists and one news team — <a href=\"https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1266987126467461120\">Andrew Kimmel</a> of AuraNexus; freelance photojournalist <a href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/anti-racism-police-protest/2020/06/videos-show-cops-slashing-car-tires-at-protests-in-minneapolis/\">Philip Montgomery</a>; Lucas Jackson, a staff photographer for Reuters at the time; and a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/phil_leblancSRC/status/1266932590465949697\">Radio-Canada news crew</a> that included reporter Philippe Leblanc — reported returning to their respective vehicles after covering protests near the Fifth Precinct to find the tires slashed. Kimmel <a href=\"https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1267203570522304513\">reported</a> that four CNN vehicles also had their tires slashed.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This tow truck driver has been here all day. He later told me four <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CNN</a> vehicles had their tires slashed here as well. There was an entire row of press vehicles that all had to be towed. <a href=\"https://t.co/LG40yxlrde\">pic.twitter.com/LG40yxlrde</a></p>— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1267203570522304513?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=\"1zdv2\">Jackson told the Tracker that while he and Montgomery were walking away from their parked cars that evening, police officers from the nearby Fifth Precinct shone flashlights on the photographers. Both put their hands in the air and identified themselves as members of the media, Jackson said. When they returned to their cars in the early hours of May 30, their tires had been punctured. They drove to a nearby parking lot, where they changed Montgomery’s tire (Montgomery did not respond to emailed requests for comment as of press time). Jackson, who didn’t have a spare tire, drove his vehicle to his hotel and called a tow truck the next day.</p><p data-block-key=\"fbce3\">While he didn’t witness the incident, Jackson told the Tracker he believed officers were responsible because they had been the only people in the area when the photographers had parked their vehicles. Additionally, he said, on several occasions over the following days he had seen officers engaging in similar acts. When police officers “left their precincts to expand their security perimeters, they would puncture vehicle tires” along the way, he said. Spokespeople for both the Minneapolis Police Department and the city of Minneapolis declined to comment, telling the Tracker that the “incident is part of ongoing litigation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"anyil\">WCCO reporter Jeff Wagner tweeted about the tire slashings that night, noting in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Jeff_Wagner4/status/1266945900951330817\">follow up tweet</a> that he couldn’t confirm whether law enforcement was responsible for the damage.</p><p data-block-key=\"we5cj\">“If I tried walking up to the officers to ask, I would have been shot at w/ tear gas or a rubber bullet,” he wrote. “They were yelling at us to leave the premises.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ucaub\">The Tracker is documenting <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">several hundred incidents</a> of journalists being assaulted, arrested, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. More than 30 press freedom aggressions in Minneapolis and St. Paul affecting 60 journalists have been documented since May 26. You can read them <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-26&date_upper=2020-05-31&state=Minnesota&endpage=10\">here</a>.</p><h4 data-block-key=\"frk9z\">May 31, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"09lq4\">Luke Mogelson, who was on assignment for the New Yorker magazine, told the Tracker that he parked his car on the shoulder of the South Washington Avenue overpass spanning I-35W in downtown Minneapolis on his way to cover protests at the nearby U.S. Bank Stadium on May 31. Other cars were parked in the same fashion, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mpk1b\">Many protesters dispersed at the arrival of an 8 p.m. curfew, but others marched to I-35W in the direction of Mogelson’s car, he said. Protesters “found themselves suddenly trapped: in both directions, a few hundred feet away, a wall of police obstructed the highway,” Mogelson wrote in an account in the <a href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/22/the-heart-of-the-uprising-in-minneapolis\">New Yorker</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"expf1\"><a href=\"https://youtu.be/sP7hM_sdpkQ?t=4160\">Video</a> published by Canada’s Global News shows officers from at least three agencies deploying on the far end of the South Washington Avenue overpass as a crowd runs away. After officers form a perimeter on the block, several puncture the tires of a red car and then Mogelson’s silver rental car. The other cars that were parked near Mogelson’s car had apparently left before the video was filmed after curfew, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"xl30p\">Lt. Andy Knotz, a spokesperson for the Anoka County Sheriff, told the <a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/officers-slashed-tires-on-vehicles-parked-during-mpls-protests-unrest/571105692/\">Star Tribune</a> that Anoka County deputies punctured the tires on May 31 under orders of the state-led <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">Multi-Agency Command Center</a>, which was coordinating the law enforcement response to the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"iy67i\">Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bruce Gordon told the <a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/officers-slashed-tires-on-vehicles-parked-during-mpls-protests-unrest/571105692/\">Star Tribune</a> that piercing tires was “not a typical tactic,” but “vehicles were being used as dangerous weapons and inhibited our ability to clear areas and keep areas safe where violent protesters were occurring.”</p><p data-block-key=\"71glu\">In a June 9 <a href=\"https://www.anokacounty.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2691\">press release</a>, the sheriff’s office said the order was given to deflate the tires of the “illegally abandoned vehicles” for the safety of law enforcement and protesters in the area, adding they “could have been used as deadly mobile weapons as seen on previous days.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4ta9f\">“That argument doesn’t really hold water,” Mogelson told the Tracker, explaining that his vehicle couldn’t have been a threat because it was surrounded by so many law enforcement officers in every direction.</p><p data-block-key=\"kdmgz\">Earlier that afternoon, a tanker truck drove through thousands of protesters marching on I-35W less than half a mile from where Mogelson parked his car, according to <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/semi-truck-george-floyd-protesters.html\">news reports</a>. The driver was arrested and <a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/trucker-who-rolled-into-35w-protest-released-without-charges/570957332/\">released</a> pending investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"h0iz5\">In the Global News video, Anoka County deputies wearing dark brown pants with a stripe puncture the tires with the assistance of another wearing a full camouflage uniform.</p><p data-block-key=\"tzviq\">Lt. Knotz of the sheriff’s office told the Tracker he was uncertain which law enforcement agency’s officer was clad in the camouflage uniform. Gordon of the Department of Public Safety didn’t respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"bsa6x\">Capt. Melanie Nelson, a spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard, told the Tracker it wasn’t involved in the incident. A couple of days before the tire slashing, the Minnesota National Guard <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MNNationalGuard/status/1266400955786039298\">tweeted</a> that “not everyone you see in camouflage” is a guardsman.</p><p data-block-key=\"1g6tf\">Mogelson told the Tracker he approached law enforcement officers from several local and state agencies, identified his car to them, and asked them not to tow it. He said he believed in retrospect that his tires were already punctured, but he didn’t realize it at the time. When he returned later to retrieve his car, he said a couple of officers laughed when he learned all four of his tires were punctured.</p><p data-block-key=\"0diwo\">Mogelson left his vehicle and found a ride to continue reporting at a memorial for George Floyd, he said. The protesters he had followed were corralled at a gas station near the highway, he said. Police across the country have been using <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">a maneuver called kettling</a> to hem in crowds at demonstrations. About 150 protesters in Minneapolis that day were arrested, according to Mogelson’s New Yorker article and other <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq6wzFo59jg\">news</a> <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyezyOrBEXk\">reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"xzqi2\">Mogelson later filed a report with Minneapolis police to make an insurance claim, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7xf0m\">Mogelson said he didn’t want to focus too much attention on the car. “It seems pretty clear they did not know it was my car when they slashed the tires,” he said. “A lot of journalists that were there in Minneapolis were physically abused, harassed and attacked.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lk2y5\"><i>Information in this roundup was gathered from published social media and news reports as well as interviews where noted.</i></p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"f9hls\">Minneapolis police slash a car’s tires on Washington Avenue by the I-35W highway on-ramp during demonstrations on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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{
"title": "Syracuse police shove photojournalist to ground, damaging his camera equipment",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/syracuse-police-shove-photojournalist-ground-damaging-his-camera-equipment/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-27T14:44:11.998249Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:55.310007Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:55.224203Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"e45lv\">A photojournalist with Syracuse.com and the Post-Standard newspaper was shoved to the ground by a police officer while covering protests in Syracuse, New York, on May 30, 2020, video of the incident shows. The journalist suffered scrapes and bruises and two of his camera lenses were broken.</p><p data-block-key=\"fej0h\">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 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=\"k1r0w\">News photographer Dennis Nett was covering the protests in downtown Syracuse on the night of May 30 with two other photographers and two reporters. John Lammers, senior director of content at Advance Media New York, the parent company for the news outlets, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. At 9:37 p.m., a group of riot police moved to clear the area in front of the Public Safety Building on South State Street of protesters who had broken windows at police headquarters and the nearby criminal courts building, syracuse.com <a href=\"https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/syracuse-police-officer-shoves-news-photographer-to-the-ground-during-protest-video.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ba03p\">In a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KDW8_8dVXg\">video</a> of the incident recorded by Nett’s camera, the line of officers are seen advancing yelling “move back, get back.” One officer is seen gesturing at Nett and then breaking away from the line of officers, charging towards the journalist, and knocking him to the ground. In a separate <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLCsXa99LpY\">video</a> of the incident, Nett can be seen stumbling and then falling over from the assault. The photographer suffered cuts and bruises to his elbow and hip, syracuse.com <a href=\"https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/syracuse-police-officer-shoves-news-photographer-to-the-ground-during-protest-video.html\">reported</a>. Lammers told the Tracker that two of Nett’s lenses were damaged from the fall, but that “Dennis kept working with a busted lens and a skinned up elbow and hip.” One of the lenses has been repaired and another isn’t yet repaired due to a Nikon parts shortage, a representative from syracuse.com/The Post-Standard told the Tracker on Aug. 26.</p><p data-block-key=\"el1aj\">Nett was wearing a press identification card around his neck and had cameras slung from both shoulders, syracuse.com reported. A witness to the incident, Clifford Ryans, told the outlet that he was clearly identifiable as a journalist. “They couldn’t say they didn’t know he was a reporter because he had all the cameras on his person and he was taking a picture as they did it,” Ryans <a href=\"https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/syracuse-police-officer-shoves-news-photographer-to-the-ground-during-protest-video.html\">told syracuse.com</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"n3sf2\">Nett didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"z2ay2\">After conducting a review of the incident, Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner said the officer, whom he identified as Sgt. Todd Cramer, had acted with “reasonable and necessary” force and wouldn’t be disciplined, syracuse.com <a href=\"https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/syracuse-police-chief-defends-sergeant-who-shoved-photojournalist-at-protest-no-discipline.html\">reported</a> on June 12.</p><p data-block-key=\"tnhb5\">In a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLCsXa99LpY\">video</a> of a press conference posted by syracuse.com, Buckner is shown saying that Nett “didn’t comply with the instructions that we clearly gave him and that put him in harm’s way.” According to the report by syracuse.com, Nett told police in an interview about the incident that he “recalled hearing commands from officers a few seconds before he was shoved…[and] was preparing to move.” Buckner said Cramer “did not know, at that moment, that Nett was a journalist,” according to the website’s report.</p><p data-block-key=\"oyprv\">Tim Kennedy, president of Advance Media New York, said in a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLCsXa99LpY\">statement</a> that the company was disappointed with the announcement. “Dennis Nett was working in the public service and posed no threat to police. He didn’t deserve to get shoved to the ground, in a way that was neither necessary nor reasonable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gzjmk\">Lammers told the Tracker there have been no further developments related to the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"caz39\">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": "Police push, fire projectiles at journalists on assignment for New York Times",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-say-police-pushed-one-over-wall-fired-projectiles-them-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-21T13:57:45.751152Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-11T14:46:49.889350Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-11T14:46:49.729116Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"p0tpv\">Police officers shoved, threatened and shot projectiles at two freelance journalists while they reported for the New York Times on protests in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020, according to interviews with the journalists and videos of the incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"uy9vh\">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=\"3ri0s\">Journalists Mike Shum and Katie G. Nelson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they were reporting in the Fifth Precinct of Minneapolis for the Times as an 8 p.m. curfew came into effect.</p><p data-block-key=\"zbqvt\">As seen in a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2882143978738897\">video</a> from local ABC affiliate KSTP, a line of state police formed to the south of the station on Nicollet Avenue. “Please disperse or you will be arrested,” a loudspeaker blares. Within seconds of the warning, the police appear to use flash bang grenades and tear gas. They then begin to advance.</p><p data-block-key=\"nptu5\">The video shows a line of State Patrol troopers, in maroon pants and helmets, and what appear to be Department of Natural Resources conservation officers in green pants and helmets approaching a group of journalists huddled on the side of the street. As previously reported by the Tracker, State Patrol troopers pepper sprayed the group at close range as the journalists identified themselves as press.</p><p data-block-key=\"qkra1\">Nelson and Shum had gas masks, but a third person working with them didn’t, Nelson said, so she escorted this person to safety as Shum stayed to film.</p><p data-block-key=\"0d032\">Shum and the other journalists fled from the advancing police. Several journalists attempted to turn west off Nicollet Avenue on West 31st Street, but found themselves trapped in an alcove on the corner of a building with no exit. They could either go back into the tear-gas clouded street or try to climb over a wall, Nelson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"uwe5t\">NBC journalist and producer Ed Ou filmed inside the alcove, his head bleeding from an unknown weapon or projectile and his vision blurred by tear gas and pepper spray, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc-producer-group-journalists-targeted-assault-state-patrol/\">he told the Tracker</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"v3m4d\">Ou’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/edouphoto/status/1267981849537609728\">video</a> shows several journalists climbing over the wall as Shum rounds the corner, several officers right behind him. The officers appear to be wearing green and tan DNR uniforms. As Shum attempts to scale the wall with his large camera, an officer pushes him from behind.</p><p data-block-key=\"inqrg\">Shum said he heard the officer order him to “get the fuck out of here,” before shoving him. “I was pushed hard enough where I sort of lost control and fell on my shoulder and arm,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"q8h3h\">He added he rolled through the fall and suffered superficial injuries as he tried to protect his camera and body.</p><p data-block-key=\"vm5aw\">L.A. Times photographer Carolyn Cole wrote in an <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-06-01/they-came-toward-us-firing-pepper-spray-and-rubber-bullets\">account</a> of the incident that an officer also “lifted me up onto the wall and I fell to the other side.” Cole, who said she <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/la-times-photographer-targeted-with-pepper-spray-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">suffered cornea damage</a> from the State Patrol pepper spraying her at close range, was helped to the hospital by local residents.</p><p data-block-key=\"8bkn7\">DNR spokesman Chris Niskanen said the department respects the freedom of the press but “disagrees with [the Tracker’s] characterization of events.” He didn’t specify why. Niskanen added he couldn’t comment further on the incident because it “may be subject to ongoing litigation initiated against the State of Minnesota by multiple media members.”</p><p data-block-key=\"t6se4\">Nelson and Shum have joined a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/aclu-mn-sues-law-enforcement-over-attacks-journalists-covering-george-floyd-protests\">lawsuit</a> seeking class-action status filed by the ACLU of Minnesota against Minneapolis and state officials concerning the treatment of journalists covering the Floyd protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"k94rg\">The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to the Tracker’s emailed list of questions. In a May 31 <a href=\"https://youtu.be/DK-Ua2TlCHw?t=1240\">press conference</a>, the Chief of the State Patrol, Col. Matt Langer, praised the law-enforcement effort during a dangerous and unpredictable night while also saying: “We are never perfect.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q71yc\">Shum reunited with Nelson and they continued to report on the dispersal of protesters near the Fifth Precinct police station. About an hour later, the team was filming a couple of people approaching a police line with their hands up near a Kmart a few blocks from where Shum was shoved, Nelson said. A Minneapolis Police officer about fifty feet away pointed a projectile launcher at them, Nelson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4w807\">Nelson said she yelled that they were press, adding there was no question they looked like journalists given their large cameras, ballistic helmets and protective vests.</p><p data-block-key=\"oorzo\">In a video filmed shortly after that Nelson provided to the Tracker, Minneapolis police officers in a line start ordering people to move. Nelson can be heard warning Shum, “Mike, Mike, Mike, they’re gonna push us. Keep shooting Mike.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gkp07\">Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder told the Tracker he couldn’t comment on the incident. He added that “every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”</p><p data-block-key=\"534k5\">Late into the night, Nelson and Shum were driving a couple of blocks off Lake Street on their way to 38th and Chicago, where protesters had created a memorial on the site of Floyd’s killing.</p><p data-block-key=\"b5yoh\">Nelson turned the car onto a road blocked by a police checkpoint, the journalists told the Tracker. Nelson said the police shined a bright light at them. Blinded, she slowed the car down. Nelson said she yelled that they were press through the open windows of the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"nntwh\">Nelson said the police yelled “Go home” and “We don’t care” in response.</p><p data-block-key=\"vg6pq\">Nelson pulled a U-turn and drove away as the journalists heard the pinging of projectiles hitting her car. They said they believe the car was hit with pepper balls.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ko35\">At around the same time, unidentified law-enforcement officers fired projectiles at the car of a television crew for France’s TF1 and arrested them, the Tracker previously <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/french-television-correspondent-arrested-curfew-violation-minneapolis/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ocly4\">It isn’t clear which law enforcement agency fired the projectiles at Nelson’s car. 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=\"wznrs\">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=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=111\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/MPLS_demos_KNelson8.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"zvtkg\">Freelance journalist Mike Shum looks back as a police line advances in Minneapolis’ Fifth Precinct shortly before police push him over a wall on May 30, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"case_number": "0:20-cv-01302",
"case_type": "CLASS_ACTION",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"withdrawn"
],
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"Black Lives Matter",
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"shot / shot at"
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "VICE Media reporter arrested while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-reporter-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-18T17:57:05.972781Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:38.711431Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:38.620861Z",
"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=\"bu81p\">Alzo Slade, a reporter for VICE Media, and three colleagues were detained and fingerprinted by police on May 30 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests, according to Slade.</p><p data-block-key=\"qgahw\">The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ftt5h\">Slade told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was reporting on protests in downtown Minneapolis with three other VICE journalists when they encountered a long line of police in riot gear forming a wall to block the street. Slade said that the police began spraying tear gas and pepper spray. He realized that the crew — producers and camera operators Jika Gonzalez, Elis Rua, and Dave Mayer — needed to turn away to put on the gas masks they were carrying.</p><p data-block-key=\"ur4za\">“We didn’t go into a peaceful protest wearing gas masks and flak jackets because visually that just says that you’re expecting trouble and that you’re looking for trouble,” Slade said.</p><p data-block-key=\"iwyg2\">The journalist said that he and his colleagues ducked into an alleyway and turned around to see that riot police had followed them.</p><p data-block-key=\"m0pf1\">“We immediately announced that we’re press, but they told us to get down on the ground,” Slade said. “We comply 100 percent. We get down on the ground and as a police officer walks toward us, I hold my credentials up and I say ‘I’m press, we’re press, sir!’,” Slade said.</p><p data-block-key=\"o2wdw\">A police officer then proceeded to use zip ties to secure Slade’s hands behind his back while his gas mask was still on, he said. The other crew members also had their hands zip tied behind their back.</p><p data-block-key=\"i6p22\">“It is important to note that in this crew, there are four people and three of us are Black men,” Slade said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tdgb0\">Slade said that the officer, a Minnesota State Trooper, then asked to see his credentials. He managed to show the officer, despite having his hands tied behind his back. The journalist said he was then passed to another officer who placed Slade and his crew into a wagon in the middle of the street that was still thick with teargas and pepper spray. Police removed his gas mask while Gonzalez was sent to another part of the police wagon with other women.</p><p data-block-key=\"o9yvy\">“One of the crew asks for masks; they tell us we’re going to get masks when we get down to the station,” Slade said. Instead, he said, they sat in the van for about 25 minutes.</p><p data-block-key=\"4j9ge\">At the station, Slade said they waited for officers to figure out their case number before each crew member was fingerprinted.</p><p data-block-key=\"vb13o\">“They gave us [each] a citation and VICE’s attorney immediately contacted the state of Minnesota and filed grievances,” Slade said. “The state of Minnesota assured us that [the citations] would not go on our record and that [they] would be dropped.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ktlfn\">About a week later, Slade and the other VICE crew members received a notification in the mail with a court date, Slade said. The notice said failure to appear would result in a bench warrant.</p><p data-block-key=\"laimf\">The Commissioner for the Department of Corrections has since confirmed to VICE that the dismissals are forthcoming, according to a VICE spokesperson, who corresponded with CPJ via email.</p><p data-block-key=\"6s0x5\">According to <a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2020/05/30/journalists-report-being-fired-on-gassed-in-minneapolis-george-floyd-protests/\">news reports</a>, the media was exempt from curfew the night the VICE crew was arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"rloid\">“What added insult to injury is that we lost a night of coverage,” Slade said. “We were not able to cover the protests that night. We were not able to cover the aggression by law enforcement that night, so that’s really what kind of stung just as much.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8o3k1\">The Minneapolis Police and Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ulbfw\">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>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39P2K.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"tvikx\">Minneapolis law enforcement officers and protesters are seen amid tear gas on May 30, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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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": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [
"(2020-08-11 22:02:00+00:00) Charges dropped against VICE Media reporter arrested while covering Minneapolis protests"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Alzo Slade (Vice News)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "WGN news van vandalized in Chicago during protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wgn-news-van-vandalized-chicago-during-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-14T19:07:42.058406Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:05:54.633712Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:05:54.553169Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"z9cuz\">A van for television network WGN News was vandalized by unidentified individuals during protests in Chicago, Illinois, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"pdy14\">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=\"5vwd0\">A spokesperson for WGN said the van was in Chicago’s downtown near the Wrigley Building when the incident occurred. “Our truck was parked seemingly out of harm’s way—but then the protests spread to that area,” spokesperson Gary Weitman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email. “No specific groups were involved—one person started spray-painting, and then others joined in."</p><p data-block-key=\"zgps4\">Weitman said no crew member was hurt in the incident, but declined to elaborate on details of the incident’s timing or location.</p><p data-block-key=\"1p2ya\">Mark Guarino, the Chicago correspondent for the Washington Post, told the Tracker that he saw the van, which had been covered in graffiti and crude language, driving north on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago at around 6:30 p.m. on May 30. A few minutes later he posted an image of the van to Twitter.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Chicago's very own <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WGNNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WGNNews</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/AUrfsju2LR\">pic.twitter.com/AUrfsju2LR</a></p>— Mark Guarino (@markguarino) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/markguarino/status/1266877222884904960?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=\"dbiht\">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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/WGN_news_van_0530_Il.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"08i04\">The WGN news van as seen on Michigan Avenue in Chicago on May 30, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "private individual",
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": null,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "vehicle"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"WGN-TV"
],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
],
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},
{
"title": "WDEL journalist’s phone stolen during Facebook Live stream",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wdel-journalists-phone-stolen-during-facebook-live-stream/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-13T20:47:03.704771Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:05.636536Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:05.539075Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Wilmington",
"longitude": -75.54659,
"latitude": 39.74595,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5k01e\">Radio journalist Mike Phillips had his employer-issued iPhone stolen by an unknown person while covering protests in Wilmington, Delaware, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"zwzf8\">Protesters took to the streets of Wilmington and cities across the United States following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes during a May 25 arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"v8797\">Phillips had been reporting on demonstrations on May 30 for radio station WDEL alongside fellow correspondent Sean Greene.</p><p data-block-key=\"lql4e\">Phillips told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protests had been mostly peaceful throughout the day but that during the evening hours he observed some individuals smashing storefront windows and stealing merchandise.</p><p data-block-key=\"tuf8r\">Phillips said that Greene had been broadcasting via Facebook Live with an iPhone at around 6 p.m. when an unknown individual punched him and stole the device.</p><p data-block-key=\"b7lc3\">Phillips said that at the time of Greene’s assault, which the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-punched-during-protest-delaware-iphone-stolen/\">Tracker is documenting here</a>, he had also been broadcasting to Facebook Live. In <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/36402300821/videos/293874228438350\">Phillips’ video</a>, individuals can be seen removing items from a building, which Phillips can be heard describing as “the looting of a store” in downtown Wilmington.</p><p data-block-key=\"6ozkv\">During Phillips’ broadcast, an unknown individual wrenched the phone from his hands and made off with the device. Phillips’ phone continued to record video after it was taken from him, and an individual can be heard laughing as they run away from the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"r9z7f\">“It was disheartening that I couldn’t keep doing my job that night,” Phillips said.</p><p data-block-key=\"nsh4k\">Phillips later reported the theft of the phones to Wilmington police on behalf of WDEL. As of press time, Phillips said that neither his nor Greene’s phone had been recovered and no arrests had been made in connection with the alleged thefts.</p><p data-block-key=\"fempv\">Aside from incidents on May 30, Phillips said WDEL reporters haven’t faced altercations during subsequent coverage of the demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"u96eg\">“We have covered plenty of stuff since then and have had no incidents whatsoever,” Phillips said.</p><p data-block-key=\"c62hr\">Though Greene was injured in the field, Phillips said he hasn’t feared for his safety while covering the Wilmington protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9foa\">“Despite what happened to Sean, I didn’t feel unsafe,” Phillips said. “It was more of a crime of opportunity, if you want to call it that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2szin\">A spokesperson for the Wilmington Police Department declined to comment on the incident or confirm whether there was a continuing investigation into Phillips’ report, citing restrictions on releasing such information under Delaware’s Victims’ Bill of Rights.</p><p data-block-key=\"31ps1\">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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"actor": "private individual",
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Delaware",
"abbreviation": "DE"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"robbery"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Mike Phillips (WDEL-FM)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Radio journalist shot with projectile during Pittsburgh protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/radio-journalist-shot-projectile-during-pittsburgh-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-12T18:59:21.628492Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:46:55.072216Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:46:54.990029Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Pittsburgh",
"longitude": -79.99589,
"latitude": 40.44062,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"bmo1y\">Bill O’Driscoll, a reporter for the local public-radio station 90.5 WESA, was struck by a projectile fired by police while covering protests in Pittsburgh on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ghu9\">Protests that began in Minneapolis on May 26 had 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=\"6cc4y\">O’Driscoll told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that May 30 was the first big day of protests in Pittsburgh, with demonstrations beginning downtown around 2 p.m. He took over for a colleague covering the protests for WESA at around 5 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"lqpwa\">“In a familiar pattern now, the protest had started quite peacefully: Protesters were blocking the streets, marching, chanting, blocking the streets, etc.,” he said. “After a couple of hours, there was an incident where an unoccupied police car was set on fire. A second car was then set on fire in the same area. The protest at that point was called off by the organizers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"veix9\">While most of the protesters dispersed, O’Driscoll said up to 200 people remained on downtown streets. He found a splinter group of protesters and followed them as they marched.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ii3i\">When the group turned on to Smithfield Street — which cuts through the middle of downtown — they encountered a police blockade manned by officers clad in riot gear.</p><p data-block-key=\"axfr7\">“The police had decided at that point to stop the protest, or, in other words, to initiate a confrontation with the remaining protesters,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jd1ed\">O’Driscoll said that around 6:30 p.m. he was standing behind the front line of protesters and was at least 30 to 40 yards away from the police. Officers had begun firing tear gas and crowd-control munitions, though he said he wasn’t sure what type of projectiles they were using.</p><p data-block-key=\"8jaht\">“I had my back turned — not intentionally, that was just the way I was facing when I knocked out a tweet about what was going on — and I just felt this impact on my left buttocks, and it felt like I’d been hit by a baseball pretty hard at short range,” O’Driscoll said. “Then I realized immediately that it had been something that had been fired, and then I started to run off down the street in the opposite direction until I could figure out what was going on.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And your humble reporter was just hit in the left buttocks by what I think was a rubber bullet. That stang <a href=\"https://twitter.com/905wesa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@905wesa</a></p>— Bill O'Driscoll (@ODriscoll1bill) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ODriscoll1bill/status/1266866373428420609?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=\"rav51\">O’Driscoll told the Tracker that he didn’t know if he was targeted. While he said officers couldn’t have seen the press credentials around his neck because of the way he was standing, he was carrying a large, noticeable microphone.</p><p data-block-key=\"atmmj\">“I had been on that particular scene for a while at that point, and within sight of the police, so it’s also possible that they could have identified me and if they were targeting me they probably would have seen who I was at that point,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"iqbfe\">The Pittsburgh police didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"9mhsb\">At a <a href=\"https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/05/30/cheif-schubert-floyd-protests-comments/\">press conference</a> that evening, Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert said “white males dressed in anarchist attire” had hijacked what had been a peaceful protest. Schubert didn’t discuss police use of crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"1y8hi\">While the projectile left a large bruise, O’Driscoll said it didn’t hamper his ability to work and he covered a subsequent protest as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"iezm2\">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 related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Pennsylvania",
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"shot / shot at"
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Journalist shoved with a police baton while covering LA demonstrations",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-police-baton-while-covering-la-demonstrations/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-12T20:29:29.419479Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:18:48.498212Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:18:48.416771Z",
"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=\"r57qi\">Journalist Chava Sanchez was pushed and tear gassed by law enforcement while covering protests in Los Angeles on May 30, 2020, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Sanchez is a visual journalist with KPCC/LAist, a Southern California-based public media network.</p><p data-block-key=\"avg71\">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=\"hj59z\">Sanchez told the Tracker he arrived at Pan Pacific Park at around 1 p.m. to document a Black Lives Matter protest. A couple thousand people had congregated at the park, he said. Protesters then marched through the city’s Fairfax District.</p><p data-block-key=\"g5lcs\">Sanchez said he first encountered law enforcement, who represented the Los Angeles Police and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s departments, between 3 and 5 p.m. A police vehicle had been lit on fire near the intersection of Fairfax Avenue and Third Street. Law enforcement formed a line to prevent protesters from moving west, creating a tense stand-off, Sanchez said.</p><p data-block-key=\"wvdls\">Sanchez, who was wearing his press badge, wanted to cross the police line to document what the protests looked like from the other side. But when he approached the line to cross, a Los Angeles Police officer wearing dark blue or black riot gear shoved him back with a baton, Sanchez said.</p><p data-block-key=\"oj259\">“I said multiple times, ‘I’m press,’ and after I ID’d as press, they did relax a bit, but they did not allow me to cross their line,” Sanchez told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"f4xrb\">His second encounter with law enforcement came around 5:30 or 6 p.m., he said. By then, the police had closed down streets to move protesters toward La Brea Avenue, east of Fairfax. Sanchez had decided to go home, but he noticed another stand-off between law enforcement and protesters near Beverly Boulevard and Stanley Avenue. He stopped to take photos of the confrontation.</p><p data-block-key=\"887gs\">After bottles were thrown at law enforcement, the police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. Sanchez said city police officers and county sheriffs were present when the tear gas was shot.</p><p data-block-key=\"5bbuh\">“You hear pops, then you see canisters, and you see a cloud of smoke,” Sanchez said. “At that point I couldn’t see anymore. It went full on to my face.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ce1wa\">Protesters assisted Sanchez by pouring milk in his eyes, which provides some temporary relief from the burning feeling caused by exposure to tear gas. Sanchez, who goes by his nickname, Chava, rather than Jose Salvador, tweeted his appreciation to protesters for their help.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So thankful for all the folks who helped me after the police started shooting tear gas into the protest. <a href=\"https://t.co/bkamzDom52\">pic.twitter.com/bkamzDom52</a></p>— Jose Salvador (@chavatweets1) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/chavatweets1/status/1266908034070003714?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=\"v4ivl\">After law enforcement fired a second volley of tear gas, Sanchez left the demonstration.</p><p data-block-key=\"fvmpq\">In a statement responding to the Tracker’s inquiries, Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Norma Eisenman said, “We do not comment on pending complaints.” The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"tnicf\">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>",
"introduction": "",
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{
"title": "Journalist targeted with tear gas during Ohio protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-tear-gassed-hit-police-projectiles-during-ohio-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-12T17:42:52.856166Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:42:37.855289Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:42:37.754298Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Toledo",
"longitude": -83.55521,
"latitude": 41.66394,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2xcj6\">Nolan Cramer, a journalism student interning for the Toledo City Paper, said he was targeted with tear gas by law enforcement while covering protests in Toledo, Ohio, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"21csn\">The protest was held in response to a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for more than eight minutes during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The incident sparked anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"g04ww\">Cramer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was photographing near the corner of East Woodruff and Franklin Avenues as Toledo Police Department officers worked to disperse protesters in the street at around 5:45 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"xomxq\">“I had my camera out, my press credentials displayed and was clearly identifiable as press,” he said. “That is when a TPD officer deployed and threw a tear gas canister in my direction.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uvh4o\">Cramer said that the officer deliberately targeted him and Toledo Blade editor Nolan Rosenkrans, who was standing next to them, despite both of them wearing visible press passes. Both journalists were caught in the cloud of tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"0i31f\">“Luckily, neither of us were physically injured and our equipment was not damaged,” Cramer said. “I was very fortunate that all I had to deal with was being tear gassed. So many journalists around the country are experiencing way worse.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ajo93\">Rosenkrans told the Tracker that he had not felt targeted with tear gas that day, but noted that he did not know what Nolan had experienced or seen.</p><p data-block-key=\"attkv\">Reflecting on the incidents that day, Cramer told the Tracker, “What is even worse is knowing my incident was not isolated. I witnessed multiple journalists either have less lethal force used on them or be threatened with less lethal weapons.”</p><p data-block-key=\"geuc0\">“In my opinion, it seemed like Toledo police officers did not care whether someone was a protester or a member of the press; their main concern was dispersing everyone in sight.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jubmq\">Lt. Kellie Lenhardt, who commands the Toledo Police Public Information Section, told the Tracker over email that the department did not receive complaints from Cramer or other journalists that day.</p><p data-block-key=\"0p1r3\">Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said <a href=\"https://www.toledoblade.com/local/police-fire/2020/06/22/Police-banned-from-wearing-military-style-camouflage-city-plans-to-move-internal-affairs-by-August/stories/20200622099\">during a press conference</a> on June 22 that there was an investigation into officers’ conduct during the protests. Kapszukiewicz also announced that officers will no longer be permitted to wear military-style camouflage.</p><p data-block-key=\"dn7q3\">On July 22, Toledo police announced that three officers were <a href=\"https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/toledo-police-officers-riot-discipline/512-c4ac369d-3a86-4d62-893d-48f5e516b787\">disciplined</a> for misconduct during the May 30 protests. One officer received a written reprimand while the other two were suspended and given last chance warnings, meaning they could be fired following another infraction.</p><p data-block-key=\"6hxy6\">“Police legitimacy cannot improve if departments fail at policing their own,” Police Chief George Kral said in a <a href=\"https://toledopolice.com/images/Press_Releases/News_Release_-_Officers_Disciplined_for_May_30_Riot_Actions.pdf\">press release</a> announcing the disciplinary measures. “I will ensure that officers are held accountable when their actions are found to violate department policies, and I will always support the hundreds of officers that positively represent Toledo Police.”</p><p data-block-key=\"v5qus\">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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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"23a6o\">As an intern for the [Ohio] Toldeo City Paper, Nolan Cramer said he was photographing during the early evening of May 30, 2020 when a Toldeo police officer threw a tear gas canister in his direction.</p>",
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{
"title": "Journalist arrested while covering LA demonstration",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-while-covering-la-demonstration/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-11T21:37:16.023279Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:46:25.998205Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:46:25.907365Z",
"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=\"15q3d\">Journalist Fiorella Isabel Mayorca, co-owner of <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnESeKWQPmL85jLaZU6Babg\">video news outlet The Convo Couch</a>, was kettled and arrested by police on May 30, 2020, while covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles.</p><p data-block-key=\"u70nd\">The Los Angeles protest was part of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations around the country. The protests kicked off after the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"7p550\">Mayorca arrived at the protest at Beverly Boulevard in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles around 3:30 p.m. with two crew members, including her brother Jonathan. She and Jonathan began to film the demonstrations. <a href=\"https://youtu.be/5bSNF3DSzZk\">Mayorca’s footage</a> shows demonstrators on the boulevard chanting, holding signs, facing off with a line of police officers and then walking with their hands up.</p><p data-block-key=\"llabp\">When the demonstrators started to move west on Beverly Boulevard, Mayorca followed and continued filming. At about 4 p.m., protesters headed down an alleyway near Beverly Boulevard and North Fairfax Avenue. The Los Angeles Police Department had blocked off all other streets and directed protesters in the direction of the alleyway verbally and with their hands, Mayorca said. The police then kettled the demonstrators in the alley, blocking off exits and trapping protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"20rbh\">“They started to kettle people and we thought we should be OK because we’re press,” Mayorca said.</p><p data-block-key=\"z4k8o\">Mayorca wore a press badge that hung from a lanyard around her neck. She and her brother told police officers they were press, but they were ignored, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"28o06\">Soon, Los Angeles police rushed in. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Fiorella_im/status/1267359859386707969\">Video</a> of the police entering the alleyway reviewed by the Tracker does not appear to pick up an audible warning from police. Officers began arresting protesters and journalists, including Mayorca and her brother.</p><p data-block-key=\"beq23\">Mayorca was put in handcuffs and then pushed up against a wall by a police officer, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"r8s22\">“[A woman officer was] seriously groping me. She went in my underwear. They were acting like we were hiding drugs,” she told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"yl9mv\">Officers placed zip-tie handcuffs on Mayorca. She said they felt extremely tight.</p><p data-block-key=\"fzxvg\">“The worst part of it was the wrists,” Mayorca said. “The way they placed it, it was like our wrists were going in different directions, not a normal position. It hurt.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e3h95\">After spending about an hour in a police wagon, she and her brother were taken to the Van Nuys police station in Los Angeles, where she said she was held for about two hours and then released.</p><p data-block-key=\"7povz\">Mayorca was given a citation for failure to obey a lawful order, a misdemeanor charge.</p><p data-block-key=\"px9rc\">The Tracker asked the LAPD to comment on Mayorca’s arrest, including allegations that she was groped while detained by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"otk7y\">In response, the department referred the Tracker to a statement <a href=\"http://www.lapdonline.org/home/news_view/66668\">published in June</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"pz3w4\">“The Los Angeles Police Department continues to investigate allegations of misconduct, violations of Department policy, and excessive force during the recent civil unrest,” the statement reads. “The Department has assigned 40 investigators to this effort and we will look into every complaint thoroughly and hold every officer accountable for their actions.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qkxfl\">In June, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer <a href=\"https://www.lacityattorney.org/post/feuer-takes-restorative-non-punitive-approach-outside-the-court-system-for-peaceful-protesters\">said</a> his office would be resolving the cases of peaceful protesters arrested during recent Black Lives Matter protests in a “non-punitive” way.</p><p data-block-key=\"ox2uw\">Jorge Gonzalez, a civil rights attorney who’s part of a team representing protesters arrested during the recent demonstrations, said the Los Angeles City Attorney has tentatively agreed to dismiss the charges, on the condition that protesters complete an online course on the First Amendment. Gonzalez said Aug. 3 that the team is rejecting the city’s condition and awaiting the city’s response.</p><p data-block-key=\"3snes\">Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Feuer, told the Tracker protesters will be invited to a voluntary, virtual conversation about policing, bias, and inequity organized with the help of local cultural, academic and criminal justice institutions.</p><p data-block-key=\"o9rjh\">Mayorca’s brother Jonathan is a named plaintiff in a <a href=\"https://nlg-la.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/06/AMENDED-COMPLAINT-ECF.pdf\">class-action lawsuit</a> against the LAPD for allegedly violating protesters’ constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, using excessive force, and holding protesters in unlawful conditions of confinement. When reached for comment, LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman said the “department does not comment on pending complaints.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9otu1\">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 related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-05-31 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at LA protest"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Fiorella Isabel Mayorca (The Convo Couch)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Arizona TV news crew attacked while covering Scottsdale protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arizona-tv-news-crew-attacked-while-covering-scottsdale-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-11T18:29:04.120626Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-11-06T19:33:08.996551Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-11-06T19:33:08.820854Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Scottsdale",
"longitude": -111.89903,
"latitude": 33.50921,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ewgw2\">A news crew with Phoenix’s 3TV and CBS 5 was <a href=\"https://www.azfamily.com/news/arizonas-family-news-crew-attacked-during-scottsdale-protest/article_2d8353a6-a302-11ea-b674-b70424d7b15a.html\">rushed by a crowd</a>, and their security guard injured, while the journalists broadcast live from protests in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"8uw2w\">Demonstrations in Phoenix and Scottsdale began 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 late May.</p><p data-block-key=\"cgcbl\">Reporter Max Gorden and a videographer went to Scottsdale Fashion Square, a large shopping mall, in response to a tip that protesters planned to gather there around 10 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"btykb\">The crowd grew to several hundred as demonstrators began marching down the blocks around the mall, Gorden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. As protesters returned to the march’s starting point, some people started smashing store windows and spray-painting walls, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jz27m\">At that point, Gorden suggested to his producers to throw the live broadcast to him. When the light on the camera turned on, Gorden said, his group became a target.</p><p data-block-key=\"xtafc\">As he was getting ready to go live, someone began pushing a sign toward the camera shot.</p><p data-block-key=\"j8f3f\">Security guard Jesse Torrez, a private security contractor the station hired to accompany news crews during the protests, told the Tracker that when the camera light turned on, several people rushed toward the cameraman, with one individual holding a sign moving toward Gorden. Torrez put his hand out to stop the person with the sign. As he was holding that person back, someone else struck him over the head with a hard object. Torrez believes it may have been a metal pipe.</p><p data-block-key=\"b02gx\">Gorden saw a scuffle out of the corner of his eye. When he looked to see what had happened, he saw Torrez bleeding from his head. Both Torrez and his partner were carrying firearms, and they put their hands on their weapons. The crowd eventually dispersed.</p><p data-block-key=\"if4u5\">After safely getting out of the area, Torrez went to the hospital to seek medical attention. He had four staples put into the laceration on his head, and had to go to a concussion clinic for two months, he said. For a month after the attack, Torrez said he couldn’t drive because his equilibrium was off as a result of the head injury.</p><p data-block-key=\"eszfd\">A Scottsdale Police Department spokesperson confirmed that the incident has been reported and that police have an open investigation for aggravated assault. However, no suspects have been identified and no arrests have been made.</p><p data-block-key=\"qz2wy\">Gorden doesn’t believe that he and his colleagues were targeted because they were journalists. He said tensions were running high that night, and when the sign was pushed out of the way, they escalated.</p><p data-block-key=\"wkn13\">“Anything could spark violence in that situation,” Gorden said. “In that moment, windows were being broken out, there was kind of this fervor that sort of really, really escalated throughout the crowd.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7kgnh\">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>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/option_1.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"uf9oi\">Security guard Jessie Torrez shows an injury he sustained from being struck over the head by one of several people who rushed a KTVK/KPHO-TV news crew he was guarding as they reported on protests in Scottsdale, Arizona, on May 30, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Arizona",
"abbreviation": "AZ"
},
"updates": [
"(2020-08-17 04:00:00+00:00) Police investigation into assault on Arizona news crew put on hold"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Unidentified photojournalist 20 (KTVK/KPHO-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Reporter punched during protest in Delaware; iPhone stolen",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-punched-during-protest-delaware-iphone-stolen/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-10T18:34:10.724671Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:18:13.728747Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:18:13.646275Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Wilmington",
"longitude": -75.54659,
"latitude": 39.74595,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dlogi\">Radio journalist Sean Greene <a href=\"https://www.wdel.com/news/video-peaceful-protests-turn-into-acts-of-violence-in-wilmington/article_9e6cd368-a2cf-11ea-ae30-4715a234bbb8.html\">was punched in the eye</a> by an unknown individual who also stole a smartphone the reporter was using to cover a demonstration in Wilmington, Delaware, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7tuwk\">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, Minnesota, 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 late May.</p><p data-block-key=\"brypu\">Greene told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that protests he has covered in Wilmington and Dover, Delaware, for radio station WDEL were mostly free of violence and destruction of property, but some individuals took advantage of the May 30 demonstration in Wilmington to break into retail stores and steal merchandise.</p><p data-block-key=\"gpbbs\">Greene used his company-issued iPhone to broadcast the scene to Facebook Live. He was wearing a construction vest and had press credentials attached to a lanyard hanging from his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"wfg0p\">At about 6 p.m. Greene was filming a person trying to break a storefront window when an unknown individual punched him in the eye.</p><p data-block-key=\"ymzan\">“I hear someone scream ‘snitch!’ and the next thing I know someone has punched me,” Greene said. The individual also stole the iPhone and fled.</p><p data-block-key=\"s8bu8\">Greene said he didn’t get a good look at the assailant.</p><p data-block-key=\"77fl5\">Greene said three Wilmington police officers standing nearby saw the assault but took no action. He didn’t seek medical attention and reported the incident to the police.</p><p data-block-key=\"tuper\">A Wilmington police spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"7m6nn\">Greene said some protesters saw the incident and helped him.</p><p data-block-key=\"l083p\">“To the protesters who made sure I was OK and offered me water, thank you,” Greene tweeted following the incident. “To the police officers who saw me take a punch and did nothing, I'm disappointed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i5sv0\">Greene said he has since covered two additional protests from WDEL without incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"zm1vt\">Mike Phillips, a colleague of Greene’s at WDEL, also had a company-issued iPhone stolen while covering the May 30 protest but wasn’t otherwise harmed. Phillips reported the theft of the two iPhones to the Wilmington Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"j9eqt\">A police spokesman declined to comment on Phillips’ report.</p><p data-block-key=\"r24bj\">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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "private individual",
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Delaware",
"abbreviation": "DE"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"robbery"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sean Greene (WDEL-FM)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Free Press journalists say they were targeted with chemical irritants while covering Detroit protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/free-press-journalists-say-they-were-targeted-chemical-irritants-while-covering-detroit-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-08T12:10:46.800200Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:55.432830Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:55.350125Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pa3xw\">Free Press education reporter David Jesse said he was targeted with tear gas and rubber bullets by law enforcement while covering protests in downtown Detroit, Michigan, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"4s6xr\">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, Minnesota, 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=\"lf9c2\">Jesse told the Committee to Protect Journalists — a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — that around midnight on May 30th an officer threw tear gas toward the group of journalists he’d been standing with and that someone began to fire rubber bullets. Jesse wasn’t hit but felt the incident was targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"x6h60\">“I had my iPhone out in one hand, taking a picture of what’s going on, and in my other hand, I have [my] media credential out, you know, showing the media credential,” Jesse said, adding that the journalists were screaming, “Media!”</p><p data-block-key=\"si9q3\">“It was very clear who we were,” he said. “We were all taking pictures. … It was very clearly aimed at us and getting us off the streets. There’s no doubt they were shooting right at us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"21mui\">Jesse told CPJ that he didn’t feel like any other deployments of tear gas were aimed at the journalists. “They were tear-gassing protesters and the cloud just sort of travels,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vpsfg\">Several other Free Press colleagues were caught up in tear-gas and rubber-bullet fire that evening. No one was injured, and there are differing opinions as to whether the journalists were targeted. The Free Press did not respond to an emailed request for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"xipnt\">When contacted by CPJ, the Detroit Police Department’s voicemail box was full. The department did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"dw36m\">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>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"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": [
"David Jesse (Detroit Free Press)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Weapons aimed at Free Press journalists covering Detroit protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/weapons-aimed-free-press-journalists-covering-detroit-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-08T12:01:32.559567Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:30.403982Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:30.323392Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fmcq1\">Two journalists who’d been reporting for the Detroit Free Press had weapons brandished at them by law enforcement officials while covering protests in the city on May 30, 2020, they told the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"gznsu\">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, Minnesota, 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=\"ojspr\">Detroit Free Press reporter M.L. Elrick, who’d been reporting that evening with a group of Free Press journalists, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that at around midnight, a police officer pointed a nonlethal rifle at him. Elrick was standing on a street with Free Press reporters <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-police-officer-aims-weapon-at-free-press-journalist/\">Branden Hunter</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/free-press-journalists-say-they-were-targeted-chemical-irritants-while-covering-detroit-protests/\">David Jesse</a>, several other reporters and unidentified people in civilian clothes. Elrick was wearing a press badge, khakis and sneakers, according to photographs of the evening and the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"oza3e\">Elrick said that he “explained to the cop who [he] was and nothing happened.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oqn7g\">Immediately following this incident, police used tear gas to disperse protesters as well as a rubber bullet gun, but Elrick said he did not feel like it was aimed at the reporters.</p><p data-block-key=\"2idmy\">“There was tear gas everywhere, so some people got it in their eyes,” Elrick told CPJ about that evening. “There [were] a lot of people going out there without proper regalia,” which, in Elrick’s opinion, made it difficult to distinguish journalists from protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"flc0k\">The Free Press did not respond to an email requesting comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"2vzm3\">When contacted by CPJ, the Detroit Police Department’s voicemail box was full. The department did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment as of press time. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"e5hvu\">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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"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": [
"M.L. Elrick (Detroit Free Press)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Independent journalist says LA police damaged his equipment while arresting him",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-says-la-police-damaged-his-equipment-while-arresting-him/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-07T17:38:02.302763Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T22:34:18.259058Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T22:34:18.067323Z",
"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=\"ncx04\">Jonathan Mayorca, a journalist and co-owner of video news outlet The Convo Couch, was arrested by Los Angeles police while filming a demonstration on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"oqbv9\">The protest was part of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country. The protests were sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"58cd9\">Mayorca told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at the protest in the Fairfax area of Beverly Boulevard at around 3:30 p.m. along with two crew members, including his sister, Fiorella. Mayorca immediately began to livestream the demonstration. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bSNF3DSzZk&feature=youtu.be\">Video</a> shows protesters gathering, holding signs, facing off with a line of police officers and then walking with their hands up and chanting.</p><p data-block-key=\"v5tgz\">The protesters moved west down Beverly Boulevard, and Mayorca and his crew followed. At around 4 p.m the protesters went down an alley near Beverly Boulevard and North Fairfax Avenue because the police had blocked off all other streets, Mayorca said. Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department then blocked all exits, or kettled the protesters in the alley. Mayorca and his crew were prevented from leaving.</p><p data-block-key=\"ka8l9\">Mayorca said he told the police he was a member of the press, but they ignored him. Mayorca was wearing a press badge on a lanyard hanging from his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"iofg7\">“We told them multiple times, ‘we’re press, we’re press’,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b57jb\">Protesters and Mayorca and his crew knelt on the ground in the alley as police officers watched them from a “line in front and behind us,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"h409u\">“One protester was crying hysterically,” Mayorca told the Tracker. “She threw up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"21fov\">Soon after being kettled, LAPD officers moved into the alley. Mayorca did not hear a dispersal order and was not given an opportunity to leave before he was arrested, according to a <a href=\"https://nlg-la.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/06/AMENDED-COMPLAINT-ECF.pdf\">class-action lawsuit</a> Mayorca joined against the LAPD for alleged federal and state constitutional rights violations. Mayorca’s video of the incident does not appear to pick up an audible warning from police.</p><p data-block-key=\"ljx06\">Officers grabbed Mayorca, pushed him to the ground, and arrested him, he said. The officers’ actions broke the microphone attachment for his camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"hcrlg\">“It was the height of aggressiveness,” Mayorca said.</p><p data-block-key=\"h8xsf\">According to Mayorca, an officer said his camera equipment was broken before his interaction with police.</p><p data-block-key=\"p7x4j\">The police used zip-tie handcuffs to detain him.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here’s the quick clip of us getting arrested as the cops lied and kettled the people into an alley. People were asking where to go & the cops led them to more cops. They refused to let us go even though we had badges and told them. <a href=\"https://t.co/nfYvTl561J\">pic.twitter.com/nfYvTl561J</a></p>— Fiorella Isabel🌹🔥 (@Fiorella_im) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Fiorella_im/status/1267359859386707969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 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=\"dtodm\">“The police put me against a wall and searched me,” Mayorca said.</p><p data-block-key=\"6284b\">The police brought Mayorca to the Van Nuys police station, where he was held for about two hours and then released, he said. Mayorca said he repeatedly complained about the tightness of his zip-tie handcuffs, but the police ignored him.</p><p data-block-key=\"72oc6\">“It cut off my circulation a bit,” Mayorca said. “It was uncomfortably tight.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wqen0\">He was issued a citation for failure to obey a lawful order, a misdemeanor.</p><p data-block-key=\"e9c4c\">Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer <a href=\"https://www.lacityattorney.org/post/feuer-takes-restorative-non-punitive-approach-outside-the-court-system-for-peaceful-protesters\">said in June</a> that he would use a “non-punitive approach” to resolve the cases of peaceful protesters outside the court system.</p><p data-block-key=\"k1ldd\">Jorge Gonzalez, a civil rights lawyer who's part of the team representing protesters, said the city has tentatively agreed to dismiss the charges if protesters complete an online course on the First Amendment. Gonzalez told the Tracker Aug. 3 that he is rejecting the city’s condition and awaiting the city’s response.</p><p data-block-key=\"opzwp\">However, Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Feuer, said protesters will be invited to a voluntary, virtual conversation about policing, bias, and inequity organized with the help of local cultural, academic and criminal justice institutions.</p><p data-block-key=\"pehzv\">Mayorca is a plaintiff in a <a href=\"https://nlg-la.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/06/AMENDED-COMPLAINT-ECF.pdf\">class-action lawsuit</a> against the LAPD for allegedly violating protesters’ constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, using excessive force, and holding protesters in unlawful conditions of confinement. When reached for comment, LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman said the “department does not comment on pending complaints.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i7ney\">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 related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/LAPD_Floyd.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"a2af4\">Police at protests in Los Angeles, California, on May 30, 2020, after the murder of George Floyd in police custody. Journalist Jonathan Mayorca was forcibly arrested and his camera damaged while documenting the protests.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
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"case_number": "2:20-cv-05027",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "recording equipment"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-05-31 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at LA protest",
"(2024-09-05 00:00:00+00:00) Appeals court reverses class certification in suit with journalist plaintiff"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist’s credentials stolen during DC protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalists-credentials-stolen-during-dc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-05T18:16:53.529990Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:17:56.675125Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:17:56.578600Z",
"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=\"i3b7i\">Matthew Rodier, a freelance photojournalist who was covering protests in Washington, D.C., had his National Press Photographers Association credentials stolen on May 30, 2020 by an individual who said that his photos were “getting people killed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"43h9h\">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, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later 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=\"vck71\">Rodier, who frequently contributes to the Sipa USA agency, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he’d been covering events near the White House on the evening of May 30, when he was approached by a woman who asked him to stop taking photos.</p><p data-block-key=\"o3r6f\">“She said, ‘Your pictures are getting people killed,’” Rodier recounted. “I asked how and she responded, ‘Look what happened in Ferguson,’” seemingly a reference to <a href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/puzzling-number-men-tied-ferguson-protests-have-died-n984261\">speculation</a> that a number of individuals connected to 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, had died suspiciously.</p><p data-block-key=\"bu428\">During current protests, calls for photojournalists to blur the faces of people they photograph at demonstrations, or to not publish images that show identifying features, has inspired <a href=\"https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2020/should-journalists-show-protesters-faces/\">a debate among journalists</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9is9\">Rodier said he told the woman “that it’s both my First Amendment right and my job to take the pictures.” He said that she responded violently: “She ripped the press pass from the lanyard around my neck and threw it into the crowd.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i41jx\">Rodier, who continued to document that evening without his NPPA lanyard, was also the subject of multiple assaults while covering protests the following day in D.C. The Tracker captured those incidents <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-journalists-assaulted-while-covering-dc-protests/\">here</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalists-jaw-broken-at-washington-dc-protests/\">here</a>. 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 are documented <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">by the Tracker here</a>.</p></div>",
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"links": [],
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "press identification"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"robbery"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Matthew Rodier (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
}
]
