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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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{
"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>",
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"name": "California",
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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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"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": [],
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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": "2024-06-14T18:18:29.864687Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:18:29.780169Z",
"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": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"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": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Arizona",
"abbreviation": "AZ"
},
"updates": [],
"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,
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"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",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": "2:20-cv-05027",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
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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",
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"Jonathan Mayorca (The Convo Couch)"
],
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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>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "press identification"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"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": [
"Matthew Rodier (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist hit by rubber bullets while documenting protest near White House",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-rubber-bullets-while-documenting-protest-near-white-house/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-29T02:01:06.406870Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:45:35.391824Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:45:35.294471Z",
"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=\"875xz\">Sally Ayhan, a reporter for TRT World — a Turkish state-owned, English-language broadcaster — said she was struck in the chest and leg by rubber bullets fired by law-enforcement officers while she covered a protest near the White House on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"5zv34\">Protests that began in Minneapolis on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"nb38m\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TRTWorldNow/status/1266952544967733250\">report</a> for TRT, Ayhan said that as she and her cameraman walked through the streets of Washington, D.C., they saw cars, including a police car, smoldering and heard tear-gas canisters and firecrackers going off.</p><p data-block-key=\"s3req\">“The rest of the protesters came, saying that they were being chased by police with fire crackers and gas canisters and rubber pellets,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mlfpl\">Ayhan, who didn’t respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment, added she didn’t see protesters struck by the projectiles, though she herself was hit several times. It wasn’t clear which law-enforcement agency’s officers fired the rounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"awbpa\">She said in her report that she was first hit in the back of the leg. “Then as I turned around trying to figure out how the police were dealing with protesters, I was hit in the chest, which hurt incredibly for a few moments,” Ayhan added.</p><p data-block-key=\"aai8m\">Ayhan <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Sally_Ayhan/status/1266909027075788800\">tweeted</a> that she was struck while reporting in front of the White House, and that it appeared to be a tactic police were using “to keep protestors from breaking through the barricades.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I was shot twice tonight by rubber bullets while reporting in front of the White House. Just one of the strategies police are using to keep protestors from breaking through the barricades. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydProtests</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/JQtXF1e0Ku\">pic.twitter.com/JQtXF1e0Ku</a></p>— Sally Ayhan (@Sally_Ayhan) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Sally_Ayhan/status/1266909027075788800?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=\"97b31\">Neither the Secret Service nor the D.C. Metro Police Department responded to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"w9bld\">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. 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/RTS39ONE.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cdc5k\">A Secret Service agent is seen behind a barricade as demonstrators rally near the White House in Washington, D.C. 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": "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": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sally Ayhan (TRT World)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Reporter for NPR affiliate struck by rubber bullet during LA protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-for-npr-affiliate-struck-by-rubber-bullet-during-la-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-29T17:34:44.055183Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:50:04.515425Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:50:04.400258Z",
"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=\"ecezm\">Cerise Castle, a reporter for Santa Monica NPR affiliate KCRW, was struck with a rubber bullet while covering protests in Los Angeles, California, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"1c2b4\">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=\"tqxb2\">In a statement emailed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Castle said that at around 6:45 p.m., she was photographing a group of LAPD officers in riot gear who had just arrived at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in the back of an open truck.</p><p data-block-key=\"5fgjw\">“As I was snapping photos, the police descended from their vehicle and began pointing rifles at the crowd. People started to run, I held my ground and continued to take pictures,” she wrote. “This is when the shooting started, without warning or prior order to disperse. I screamed after the first gunshot, then pulled myself together and began yelling PRESS and removed my lanyard from my neck, and held it above my head.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">LAPD just shot me and protestors gathered at Beverly & Fairfax with rubber bullets. I was holding my press badge above my head. <a href=\"https://t.co/9YCXq3rUvc\">pic.twitter.com/9YCXq3rUvc</a></p>— Cerise Castle (@cerisecastle) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/cerisecastle/status/1266878695555231747?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=\"l1q89\">The rubber bullet that hit her arm above the elbow crease was fired by an officer with whom she had just locked eyes with, she said. As she ran away, she sprained her ankle and is currently on crutches.</p><p data-block-key=\"rt4n5\">LAPD did not respond to an email requesting comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"yvgxf\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Cerise Castle (KCRW-FM)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Two Live 5 News news vehicles damaged in one night in Charleston",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-live-5-news-news-vehicles-damaged-one-night-charleston/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-28T03:49:23.978600Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:17:36.361778Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:17:36.267519Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Charleston",
"longitude": -79.93092,
"latitude": 32.77657,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"21j87\">A group of people hit and threw a rock into a stopped Live 5 News car carrying three journalists covering a demonstration against police violence in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"6qkdt\">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 later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence 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=\"d63u6\">The car carrying reporter Abbey O’Brien, reporter <a href=\"/all-incidents/live-5-news-reporter-in-vehicle-attacked-during-charleston-protests/\">Rob Way</a> and producer <a href=\"/all-incidents/live-5-news-producer-in-vehicle-attacked-during-charleston-protests/\">Allyson Cook</a> was driving through a crowd to get to safety because downtown Charleston was becoming violent, O’Brien said.</p><p data-block-key=\"3u3us\">“We were in a Live 5 News car obviously designated as our station,” O’Brien told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “People started banging on our windows and flicking us off.”</p><p data-block-key=\"benei\">Demonstrations had started peacefully but turned violent as the night wore on, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ck2vp\">“Once it got dark, it turned into rioting; that was definitely not as many people,” O’Brien said. “I truly believe that it was just two different groups of people.”</p><p data-block-key=\"28rd7\">While they were stopped at an intersection, members of the crowd began to bang on the windows of the car and then a rock was thrown through the back window. No one was injured.</p><p data-block-key=\"51n7\">At the time, the journalists weren’t sure whether it was a rock, tear-gas canister or an explosive, so once they got to safety, they all exited the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"dj6bt\">“We all jumped out and realized it was just a brick,” O’Brien said. “So, no one was hurt, which is good, but it was really scary.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Now that we’re safe... here’s a look at what just happened to our <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Live5News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Live5News</a> car. Someone threw this large rock while we were driving down King St. Very scary <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/chsnews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#chsnews</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/scnews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#scnews</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/0r1Fq77nZ7\">pic.twitter.com/0r1Fq77nZ7</a></p>— Abbey O'Brien (@abbeyobrien) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/abbeyobrien/status/1266934403776864257?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=\"bie8k\">They continued to report throughout the night and made sure they didn’t leave anything valuable in the car. O’Brien said that, in a separate incident, people smashed out the front, driver’s side window of a different, unoccupied Live 5 truck. Both the car and the truck were out of commission for a few days, 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\">The windows in our <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Live5News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Live5News</a> car busted in as <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/protesters?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#protesters</a> move up king street. They are using bricks dug up to also smash windows <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Charleston?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Charleston</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/zyrXyU1omv\">pic.twitter.com/zyrXyU1omv</a></p>— Lillian Donahue (@LillianDonahue) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LillianDonahue/status/1266910869742661638?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=\"jqtcd\">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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{
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"name": "South Carolina",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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},
{
"title": "Two news vehicles damaged during Reno protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-news-vehicles-damaged-during-reno-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-21T21:28:45.094527Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:01:49.933271Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:01:49.840305Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Reno",
"longitude": -119.8138,
"latitude": 39.52963,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hm8vc\">Unknown individuals damaged two vehicles belonging to ABC affiliate KOLO as the channel’s journalists reported on protests in Reno, Nevada, on May 30, 2020, the channel’s news director told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"vkf5y\">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=\"fsv1u\">Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters marched through downtown Reno, according to the <a href=\"https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/05/30/hundreds-gather-reno-protest-george-floyds-death/5291340002/\">Reno Gazette Journal</a>. But police intervened with tear gas after a splinter group began to damage City Hall shortly after 7 p.m. Officials declared the gathering an <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ChiefJasonSoto/status/1266939136163721216\">unlawful assembly</a> and imposed a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MayorSchieve/status/1266916816586072065\">curfew</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"zq69y\">KOLO News Director Stanton Tang told the Tracker that unknown individuals attempted but failed to overturn one of the station’s news vehicles. The vehicle’s windshield and rear window were shattered.</p><p data-block-key=\"ebnih\">Videos submitted to <a href=\"https://www.kolotv.com/community/user-content/\">KOLO’s user content</a> page show the vehicle parked a couple blocks from City Hall. One video shows someone repeatedly hit the side of the car before another person body-slams the front of it amid cheers. Another shows someone jump on the hood and repeatedly stomp on the windshield. A third shows a group of people attempt, but fail, to tip the car over.</p><p data-block-key=\"zjp5b\">Tang said another vehicle suffered multiple dents and a shattered side window. He said a rock was found inside the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"chekt\">Tang said he believed both vehicles were targeted because they were news vehicles.</p><p data-block-key=\"89z15\">A photo provided to the Tracker by photojournalist Ty O’Neil, who was on assignment for This Is Reno, shows a white vehicle with large KOLO branding on the side with a shattered front left window. O’Neil told the Tracker he took the photo a few blocks from City Hall on Mill Street.</p><p data-block-key=\"7nrbs\">The station filed a police report about the incidents, but no suspects had been identified, Tang said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ubwok\">The Reno Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ng1i8\">Police chief and acting city manager Jason Soto said that the department was reviewing video and media reports to make arrests for crimes committed during the protests, according to <a href=\"https://thisisreno.com/2020/05/riots-in-reno-after-peaceful-black-lives-matter-demonstration-videos-and-photos/\">This Is Reno</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"lysgp\">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/KOLO_Vehicle_Ty_ONeil_This_Is_Ren.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"06vg7\">The window of a KOLO news vehicle was shattered in Reno, Nevada, on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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{
"quantity": 2,
"equipment": "vehicle"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [
"KOLO-TV"
],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist struck repeatedly with pepper balls while covering La Mesa protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-repeatedly-pepper-balls-while-covering-la-mesa-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-10T17:33:53.253264Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:01:26.656737Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:01:26.566283Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "La Mesa",
"longitude": -117.02308,
"latitude": 32.76783,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"90inu\">East County Magazine photojournalist Henri Migala was shot with pepper balls on two occasions while covering protests in La Mesa, California, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7jqfj\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"tevla\">Migala told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was photographing demonstrations near the La Mesa police station at around 6:20 p.m., having received word that officers had begun using tear gas on demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"at206\">In an <a href=\"https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/photographer-hit-pepper-spray-shares-front-line-experience-covering-protest-la-mesa\">account for the magazine</a>, Migala wrote that when he reached the station, the standoff between police and protesters was well underway. The tear gas in the air caused his eyes to burn. Migala worked his way toward the south side of the station and crossed the street to distance himself from the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"rn0vi\">“I was wearing a bright yellow safety vest with my ‘MEDIA’ badge on the front,” Migala wrote. “I stood alone, away from any of the protesters so that I wouldn’t be mistaken for one of them. But despite standing there, alone, for about 20 minutes, I was shot with a pepper spray paintball in the leg.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0zgqu\">Migala told the Tracker that the pepper ball hit his right thigh, leaving a large amount of the chemical irritant powder on his leg.</p><p data-block-key=\"6imkm\">Police continued to engage with protesters over the next hour, he said, firing various crowd-control munitions to disperse the demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"qqiiz\">“I had been there for so long that my back started hurting,” Migala said. “So, I sat on the curb in front of the postal office across the street from the police station, pretty far from the main demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5vopa\">As he sat there, police suddenly fired pepper balls at him again, striking him an additional two to four times, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"aneqh\">“One of the pellets exploded and a bunch of the powder went into my nose, my mouth and in my eyes,” he said. “I was instantly incapacitated.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2son0\">Migala said a couple of young women were able to lead him to safety. One woman held his camera, glasses and hat as the other rinsed out his eyes for at least five minutes.</p><p data-block-key=\"adi4a\">He added that the powder was still covering his respirator mask, face, clothes and beard when he got to his car, and caused him significant difficulty breathing. The following day, some powder residue still covered his camera, and when he attempted to brush it off, his eyes watered and became irritated.</p><p data-block-key=\"ryht0\">“Just molecules of that stuff is enough to irritate your eyes with burning pain,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"i24a6\">Migala told the Tracker and wrote about a second journalist who was also struck with a projectile — believed to have been a rubber bullet — while covering the protests that day. The Tracker was unable to identify the journalist as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"6hw0r\">East County Magazine Editor Miriam Raftery told the Tracker that they don’t know for sure that Migala was intentionally targeted. ”It seems to me they should have been able to see that he was media,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"83qt7\">The La Mesa Police Department did not respond to phone requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"2piay\">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/Migala.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"i098g\">From right, photojournalist Henri Migala in a reflective vest and media credentials while covering a May 30, 2020, protest in La Mesa, California, his leg after a pepper ball hit that day, and his camera covered in residue.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
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"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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{
"title": "Police pepper spray, shove journalist covering anti-police brutality demonstrations in Brooklyn",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-pepper-spray-shove-journalist-covering-anti-police-brutality-demonstrations-brooklyn/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-09T18:49:47.868302Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:00:22.999938Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:00:22.866223Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9r8ay\">Freelance journalist Nick Pinto was pushed to the ground by a New York City Police officer after clearly identifying himself as a member of the press during a chaotic night of protests in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"vwctc\">The protests were part of the many demonstrations held across the country after the May 26 video release of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd during an arrest the previous day. Floyd, a black man, was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"81vj0\">Pinto, who was covering the protests for New York outlet Gothamist, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the Saturday evening protest in the Flatbush neighborhood was “the most mayhem I've seen on the streets of New York City ever.”</p><p data-block-key=\"09925\">By the time Pinto arrived in the late afternoon, tensions between the protesters and police in riot gear were at a fever pitch. The two sides were facing off in the street, Pinto said, when the New York Police Department pushed the crowd north up Bedford Avenue. Some protesters were throwing objects at the officers, including plastic and glass bottles, but also more dangerous projectiles, Pinto said.</p><p data-block-key=\"g5fhp\">“I saw fire extinguishers, bricks, chunks of concrete the size of footballs; I saw a cop take a giant chunk of brick and concrete in the neck and go down and I feel certain that that cop is not OK,” Pinto told the Tracker. “The police would respond by pepper-spraying indiscriminately, charging into the crowd with bats, busting people up, making some really hard arrests, dragging them back while the crowd chants ‘shame!’ And then they would reset and do it all again. This lasted for eight hours.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wavva\">When the crowd came across any police vehicles that had been left unattended, they would vandalize them and set them on fire, Pinto said. Other anti-police partisans climbed on the roof of gas stations to throw objects at officers in an environment that Pinto compared to “urban combat.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s6ary\">When the moving conflict reached the intersection of Bedford and Church avenues, the police broke up the crowd into smaller groups that the officers pursued. During this time, Pinto was hit in the back of the neck by pepper spray, which he said felt like a “very strong Tiger Balm.” Later, Pinto would inadvertently touch the back of his neck and then his eyes, resulting in a much more painful burning sensation.</p><p data-block-key=\"oneq9\">The journalist, who was wearing a press pass around his neck, told the Tracker that he was not specifically targeted by the pepper spray, but soon had a more direct encounter with an officer. Pinto was on the sidewalk on Church Avenue moving away from the line of police officers who repeatedly told him to move. He said he displayed his credentials and identified himself as a member of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"lquo8\">“I was not moving fast enough for their satisfaction. And it was a challenge to their authority,” Pinto said. One officer “locked eyes on me, came at me, pushed me, knocked me to the ground. It tore open my pants and bloodied both my knees.”</p><p data-block-key=\"38gck\">“I got back up, and I was like, ‘Hey, I'm press, I'm doing my job. I understand you're doing your job, but, just respect what I'm doing,’” Pinto continued. The officer replied, “‘No, you have to respect what I'm doing.’ And I asked for his badge number and he gave it to me. I asked for his name and he gave it to me. But I was rattled enough that I was unable to read the name that I wrote—my hand was shaking.”</p><p data-block-key=\"pid5b\">Pinto was not detained or charged with any crime. In a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-pushed-ground-nyc-officers-during-protests/\">separate incident the night of June 4</a> in Brooklyn, Pinto said he was shoved to the ground by officers during a scrum with protesters. Pinto told the Tracker that he is unsure whether he’ll file a complaint with the NYPD about the officer’s behavior on May 30 or about the incident a few nights later.</p><p data-block-key=\"tk9pp\">“I'm trying to decide whether I particularly feel like talking to the police about the police,” he said. “But I may yet do so.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9jurm\">The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"ymbez\">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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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"djagt\">A New York City police officer uses pepper spray on protesters during a demonstration in the borough of Brooklyn on May 30, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Nick Pinto (Gothamist)"
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},
{
"title": "Journalist assaulted while covering protests in Reno",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-assaulted-while-covering-protests-reno/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-09T16:44:25.871776Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:00.945134Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:00.853959Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Reno",
"longitude": -119.8138,
"latitude": 39.52963,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"aj7wc\">Don Dike-Anukam, a student political writer for the news website This Is Reno, was assaulted by several people while reporting on a protest against police violence on May 30, 2020, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"qo8wz\">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 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=\"2u67e\">Dike-Anukam and several other colleagues contributing to This Is Reno were reporting on a small crowd gathered outside City Hall as evening drew close. The crowd had splintered from a rally of hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters who had marched through downtown Reno, Nevada, that day, according to the <a href=\"https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/05/30/hundreds-gather-reno-protest-george-floyds-death/5291340002/\">Reno Gazette Journal</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"pwkd2\">The mood at City Hall had darkened as Dike-Anukam began <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/donwil/videos/10101401363538269/\">to livestream</a> on Facebook at around 7 p.m. Dike-Anukam’s livestream and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/luciastarbuck/status/1266913483481739264\">other</a> <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/david.leon.77398/videos/3036035949819497/?story_fbid=3036035949819497&id=100002393648230\">videos</a> from the scene show people breaking the windows and entrance of the building. At one point, a chair is thrown from the inside of the building, shattering a window. An alarm wails as a Nevada flag smolders.</p><p data-block-key=\"qti7r\">Suddenly someone yells, “We got the gavel!” Dike-Anukam approaches a person in a white bandana and baseball cap. “Where did that come from? Where did that come from? Did you go in the chambers?” Dike-Anukam tries to ask in the livestream.</p><p data-block-key=\"u2t2p\">“Turn that shit off,” the gavel holder says. He pushes away Dike-Anukam’s phone before walking away.</p><p data-block-key=\"t3cv0\">Two other people immediately confront Dike-Anukam. The livestream is largely unintelligible, but it appears to show a woman covering her face with blue fabric shouting expletives at Dike-Anukam as a man in an NBA All-Star sweatshirt stands by her side.</p><p data-block-key=\"3lm2k\">Dike-Anukam told the Tracker he believes the woman called him “Reno” because she saw his This Is Reno press badge hanging from his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkxp5\">Suddenly, the camera is knocked to the ground. Another <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/david.leon.77398/videos/3036035949819497/?story_fbid=3036035949819497&id=100002393648230\">video</a> posted to Facebook shows a fourth person, in black, who was originally standing next to the person with the gavel, backtrack toward Dike-Anukam. He swipes at Dike-Anukam’s camera before walking away through the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"3mkki\">Dike-Anukam picks up his still-streaming camera and tries to walk away. But the woman and the man in the NBA sweatshirt follow him. Off camera, she warns Dike-Anukam, “You’re still gonna get jumped.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2v41i\">“I don’t care. I don’t care. The First Amendment wins,” Dike-Anukam responds in the livestream.</p><p data-block-key=\"9nucl\">Then, chaos breaks loose on the livestream in a garbled, 30-second mess of shouting as the feed goes black.</p><p data-block-key=\"xck2w\">Dike-Anukam said he wasn’t certain if the woman was warning or threatening him, he told the Tracker. But he knew the crowd had grown increasingly aggressive toward the press. Earlier, he had watched protesters attempt to block a cameraman from the local NBC affiliate, KRNV, from filming the defacing of an American flag at police headquarters.</p><p data-block-key=\"i31mb\">Dike-Anukam explained to the Tracker he felt “a strong feeling, a sense of duty and conviction” to continue reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"whuts\">Ty O’Neil, a freelance photographer on assignment for This Is Reno, told the Tracker he was standing on a nearby ledge trying to photograph the crowd when he saw someone punch Dike-Anukam in the back of the head. In the chaos of the moment, O’Neil said he didn’t know who threw the punch, but a review of his photographs that day showed the man in the NBA sweatshirt making a fist right before Dike-Anukam was hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"ofsj9\">O’Neil ran toward his colleague as several people punched and kicked Dike-Anukam, who had fallen to the ground. <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/david.leon.77398/videos/3036035949819497/?story_fbid=3036035949819497&id=100002393648230\">Video</a> shows the woman with a blue head covering joining the fray after Dike-Anukam was punched.</p><p data-block-key=\"j3lmi\">Dike-Anukam tried to protect his face, his vital organs and his phone, which contained all his footage, as best he could, he told the Tracker. As he was curled into a ball, shielding himself against multiple assailants punching, kicking and pulling at him, Dike-Anukam heard someone urge the others to go for his camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"nalku\">Lucia Starbuck, another This Is Reno contributor and reporter for NPR affiliate KUNR, filmed the assault. Her <a href=\"https://twitter.com/luciastarbuck/status/1266916902464413696\">video</a> appears to show some protesters attempting to stop the attack. Someone in a black sweatshirt throws the woman who had accosted Dike-Anukam to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"dt8ao\">O’Neil jumped into the melee to try to save Dike-Anukam.</p><p data-block-key=\"58cgg\">“I shoved a bunch of people out of the way, and I grabbed Don’s shoulders and he looked up at me,” said O’Neil, his voice cracking. “He had these giant eyes of fear, and that’s definitely the thing that kind of stuck with me, how awful to see him like that was.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sra1o\">Dike-Anukam said: “Had Ty not jumped in there and separated the crowd and pulled me out, I wouldn’t have made it … I would’ve sustained significant physical damage.”</p><p data-block-key=\"j3yw9\">“I grabbed him under the arm on his left side and I picked him up. And I just started running,” O’Neil said. “There were so many people around us. Just punches and kicks and, you know, chaos.”</p><p data-block-key=\"npr3g\">Then the tear gas came.</p><p data-block-key=\"7qbsb\">It isn’t clear if the police, who up until this point had been conspicuously absent from City Hall, fired tear gas in an attempt to stop the assault or whether they coincidentally engaged the crowd at the same moment.</p><p data-block-key=\"g6n79\">The Reno Police Department didn’t respond to multiple inquiries seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ba8zj\">Everyone — the journalists, those who were attacking them and those who were trying to save them — all fled from the cloud of gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"6p5he\">“I just was recovering from getting my ass kicked, in a daze, and now all of a sudden I’m choking on this vile thing that’s got in my eyes,” Dike-Anukam said. “Everything hurts. My head is throbbing at this point. I’m wondering, am I bleeding?”</p><p data-block-key=\"2e8bg\">Despite the assault — and losing his glasses as a result — Dike-Anukam continued to report well into the night, as officials declared the gathering an <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ChiefJasonSoto/status/1266939136163721216\">unlawful assembly</a> and imposed a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MayorSchieve/status/1266916816586072065\">curfew</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"1j6gw\">The following day, Dike-Anukam was diagnosed with a minor concussion, he told the Tracker. As of June 22, he was still feeling the effects of the assault and planned to return to receive follow-up care, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"a4yxn\">O’Neil said he didn’t feel some of the blows from the crowd as his adrenaline surged. The next day, he discovered a bruise on his chest, but he didn’t know what caused it.</p><p data-block-key=\"59p25\">Dike-Anukam told the Tracker he filed a police report about the assault. On June 18, <a href=\"https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/06/18/reno-police-seek-help-identifying-suspects-attack-journalist/3215535001/?fbclid=IwAR2pDZZKx8yvNm67z1lzI3syQraDWecPn-2gbQ0f-rYUhr-mwG0nUQGTHNE\">the Reno Police Department</a> said it had identified the woman with a blue head covering and the man in the NBA sweatshirt as suspects in the assault and asked the public to help identify them.</p><p data-block-key=\"71qoh\">Police chief and acting city manager Jason Soto said that the department was reviewing video and media reports to make arrests for crimes committed during the protest, according to <a href=\"https://thisisreno.com/2020/05/riots-in-reno-after-peaceful-black-lives-matter-demonstration-videos-and-photos/\">This Is Reno</a>. He denounced the assault on Dike-Anukam, saying the journalist was a “personal friend of mine through the media, and it breaks my heart that he was injured.”</p><p data-block-key=\"y4id2\">In a personal account of the attack for <a href=\"https://www.press.org/newsroom/student-member-gives-first-person-account-being-injured\">the National Press Club</a>, Dike-Anukam wrote that his heart, too, was broken by the events of May 30. He noted the irony of a Black journalist being assaulted while covering a protest in response to the killing of Floyd, an unarmed Black man.</p><p data-block-key=\"jpvgg\">But the assault didn’t blunt his dedication to journalism. “I am not deterred, scared, or less in love with this profession,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"psz7t\">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=\"http://pressfreedomtracker.us/george-floyd-protests/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"v4c5i\">This Is Reno reporter Don Dike-Anukam, center, with hat and white gloves, films just before being assaulted by multiple individuals on May 30, 2020 near City Hall in Reno, Nevada.</p>",
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"(2020-08-05 06:40:00+00:00) Reno police issue warrants in battery of journalist who was covering protests"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist shot at with foam rounds while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/despite-identifying-press-multiple-journalists-shot-projectiles-minneapolis-law-enforcement/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-06T21:52:28.843664Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:07.983171Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:07.863454Z",
"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=\"5ik9z\">Freelance photojournalist Adam Bettcher said State Patrol troopers fired foam rounds at him while he was covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"siju0\">A curfew was in effect following protests sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest 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=\"h8fai\">Bettcher, who was on assignment for Reuters, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that State Patrol troopers fired at him at around 11 p.m. near the Fifth Precinct.</p><p data-block-key=\"eiy3x\">Bettcher said he was holding up his press credentials and shining a flashlight at himself as he approached a police line, yelling out, “I’m press! I’m press.” Bettcher said he was wearing body armor and a denim shirt that had an embroidered patch that said “PRESS” on his chest. He said he told the troopers he was trying to reach his car and they yelled at him to “go home!”</p><p data-block-key=\"v4sgl\">Bettcher replied that he was trying to get home and asked them how he could reach his car, and they shouted at him to use Google Maps, he recounted. Seconds later, one of the officers fired a projectile that whizzed by his head, he said. “I heard it hit the wall behind me,” he said. At this, he left the area. “I didn’t go back to see what they shot at me, but it was a foam baton round from the sound of it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6lhnw\">A request for comment about this incident sent to the Minnesota State Patrol and the Minneapolis Police Department were not returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"7yyzi\">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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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"djcaw\">A Minneapolis police officer clears a cameraman from near the department’s Fifth Precinct on May 30, 2020. Photojournalist Adam Bettcher, who captured this image, was shot at with a projectile after he identified as press.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Adam Bettcher (Reuters)"
],
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},
{
"title": "TRT World correspondent hit with projectiles while covering Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/news-crew-hit-projectiles-while-covering-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-06T21:41:05.898417Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:40:35.461547Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:40:35.336715Z",
"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=\"kon86\">Just after Minneapolis’ curfew went into effect on May 30, 2020, a correspondent and cameraman for Turkey’s state-run English-language news channel were hit by projectiles fired by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"8w86s\">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 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=\"b7tru\">Lionel Donovan, a Washington-based correspondent for TRT World, said he had set up for a live shot outside the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct just after the city’s 8 p.m. curfew went into effect, near some peaceful protesters staging a sit-in at an intersection. Journalists were specifically exempt from the curfew by Governor Tim Walz’s order.</p><p data-block-key=\"a46q3\">“The curfew came and it was like a button got hit,” Donovan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"pebx6\">According to Donovan, the police advanced down the street and began to fire off tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the crowd. One of the tear gas canisters hit cameraman Barbaros Sayilgan’s foot during Donovan’s live shot.</p><p data-block-key=\"fwzl0\">Sayilgan could not be reached for comment, but Donovan said he helped the cameraman and a producer off to safety, then went back into the street to film more footage himself. Donovan was filming on his phone, he said, when a blue foam round struck him in the inside of his left thigh, breaking the skin.</p><p data-block-key=\"tz7nq\">“It felt like someone took a baseball bat and set it on fire and hit me in the leg,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"tkor9\">Donovan was wearing a helmet and flak jacket, both emblazoned with “PRESS” in white uppercase letters. He said he was not close to the crowd when he was hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"y945u\">“It definitely made us very jittery for the rest of the deployment because then we just didn’t trust the police in any way, shape or form to help us with anything,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"w1wl2\">Requests for comment sent to the Minnesota State Patrol and the Minneapolis Police Department were not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"6jnj2\">On June 1, Donovan tweeted a video in which he displayed the wound on his leg:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When you hear journalists talk about getting fired on by police, this is one of the things we’re getting hit with. It felt like I got hit with a baseball bat... <a href=\"https://t.co/Xp4ZSYalvE\">pic.twitter.com/Xp4ZSYalvE</a></p>— Lionel Donovan, III (@LionelDonovan3) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LionelDonovan3/status/1267477984300208128?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=\"5jw8i\">Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s communications director, brought up the attack on the crew in a June 3 phone call with David Satterfield, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, according to an <a href=\"https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/communications-director-expresses-concern-for-turkish-journalists-in-us-amid-civil-unrest\">article</a> published in the Daily Sabah, a Turkish newspaper.</p><p data-block-key=\"g4xhq\">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=\"xzneq\">Minnesota State Patrol officers move toward protesters gathered near the police department’s Fifth Precinct on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
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"shot / shot at"
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{
"title": "Reporters chased out of Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park by officers in riot gear",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporters-chased-out-of-washington-dcs-lafayette-park-by-officers-in-riot-gear/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T17:46:39.936304Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:29:07.639671Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:29:07.555271Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tfc2w\">Secret Service agents and U.S. Park Police chased two journalists out of Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park in the early morning hours of May 30, 2020, minutes after the journalists were caught in a cloud of pepper spray, video footage of the incident shows.</p><p data-block-key=\"kz5ya\">At 3:22 a.m, officers in riot gear with the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police sprayed pepper spray toward a crowd of protesters as they attempted to clear the park across from the White House, according to the video streamed live on Periscope by Yahoo News White House Correspondent Hunter Walker. Some of it wafted over to the side of the park where journalists were standing.</p><p data-block-key=\"393nj\">“After several hours of standoff here, this was the moment that the Secret Service and U.S. Park Police decided to advance,” Walker said, narrating the unfolding scene to his viewers on the <a href=\"https://www.pscp.tv/w/1LyGBNWbrZoGN\">livestream</a>. “So they’re now pushing this crowd through the park.” Walker said he was holding up his White House “hard pass,” press credentials that allow him to enter the White House, to show he was a member of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"mk0k8\">He said he inhaled some of the pepper spray through his N95 mask, leading to the sensation of “a little fire in the back of my throat,” he said. “I only got the smallest edge of that. They’re spraying more. They’re saying 'out of the park or you will be sprayed’”</p><p data-block-key=\"wvdmw\">The officers then rushed toward the crowd. “All of us reporters are here on the side, the police are just running forward into the crowd,” he said, coughing. “I am holding my hard pass in the air.”</p><p data-block-key=\"k5uly\">A few officers then turned their attention to Walker, running towards him with their shields out, the video shows. “Press, guys, press. Press. OK. Press, press. Hard pass. Press. OK. Press. I’m press,” Walker shouts. Walker was chased out of the park, and turned off his livestream as an officer continued to come towards him, even as the reporter continued to wave his pass.</p><p data-block-key=\"6u76d\">In a Yahoo News <a href=\"https://news.yahoo.com/night-of-rage-on-pennsylvania-avenue-as-protesters-clash-with-secret-service-in-front-of-the-white-house-190027102.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=tw\">story</a> he published later that day, he described the incident and said officers from both the Secret Service and Park Police forced identified members of the press out of the park across from the White House, shouting: “Get the f*** out of the park!”</p><p data-block-key=\"yldsc\">Mike Balsamo, who covers the Justice Department and federal law enforcement for The Associated Press, also was present as the officers chased reporters out of the park.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">US Park Police just told the crowd, including credentialed reporters to “get the fuck out of the park right now” as fellow officers sprayed a crowd of protesters with pepper spray</p>— Mike Balsamo (@MikeBalsamo1) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MikeBalsamo1/status/1266632390757187584?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=\"7ojjz\">Neither the Secret Service nor the U.S. Park Police provided comment on the incident in response to an e-mailed request.</p><p data-block-key=\"uqna8\">A few hours earlier, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/yahoo-news-correspondent-hit-in-washington-dcs-lafayette-park/\">Walker was hit</a> by an individual, which interrupted his livestream.</p><p data-block-key=\"4wz6a\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020. 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 United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"6xmdu\">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 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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"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
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"Other Incident"
],
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"Hunter Walker (Yahoo News)",
"Mike Balsamo (The Associated Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Rubber bullets crack windshield on FOX 9 new vehicle",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rubber-bullets-crack-windshield-fox-9-new-vehicle/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T17:09:47.553872Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-03T13:57:44.988257Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-03T13:57:44.886282Z",
"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=\"2q8zw\">A vehicle used by FOX 9, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Fox affiliate, was hit with two rubber bullets, which cracked its windshield, on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis, according to tweets from two network reporters, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DawnAtFOX9/status/1266910636916781060\">Dawn Mitchell</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AmyHockert/status/1266911510862979073\">Amy Hockert</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"zspjr\">The incident occurred as the crew was reporting about ongoing protests in Minneapolis relating to the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis police custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"9neib\">Hockert tweeted around 9:30 p.m. that two rubber bullets hit the car and that everyone was OK.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Please go home, they mean business, our crew just got two rubber bullets to the car. They are OK. And they are allowed to be there. <a href=\"https://t.co/1lAPlp3XWC\">pic.twitter.com/1lAPlp3XWC</a></p>— Amy Hockert (@AmyHockert) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AmyHockert/status/1266911510862979073?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=\"37uu9\">Mitchell tweeted that the Minneapolis Police Department fired the bullets. The two reporters appeared not to be with the crew at the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"dmoxr\">Hockert could not be reached for comment via email. Christina Palladino, a FOX 9 reporter who was part of the crew in the car, according to Mitchell’s tweet, could not be reached via email. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CPalladinoFox9/status/1266911930717016064\">tweet</a> about the incident, Palladino wrote “we are all good!”</p><p data-block-key=\"nuwzj\">FOX 9 did not return CPJ’s voicemail requesting comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"mnva9\">The MPD did not return CPJ’s emailed request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "vehicle"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [
"KMSP-TV"
],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
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"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
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},
{
"title": "Officer in Minneapolis points weapon at public radio reporters",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/officer-minneapolis-points-weapon-public-radio-reporters/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-01T17:06:20.223632Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:40:13.299811Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:40:13.211452Z",
"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=\"jet8l\">An officer brandished a weapon at two public radio reporters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, even after they identified themselves as press, just after midnight on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"jsxdg\">Protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"qvqzx\">American Public Media reporters Madeleine Baran and Samara Freemark had spent much of the evening covering the protests outside the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct when they decided to head back to their car and go home, Freemark told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"mfxb9\">As they attempted to cross Nicollet Avenue, a formation of law enforcement officers appeared, blocking them from crossing the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"544r9\">Freemark described the situation as initially being calm, but suddenly “there was a switch that flipped.” An officer suddenly appeared next to Freemark and Baran and shoved a weapon inches from their faces while shouting, “Get the fuck out of here,” Freemark recounted. She said she was not sure exactly what type of weapon it was, but that it did not resemble a pistol and seemed designed to fire crowd control ammunition.</p><p data-block-key=\"zl7yn\">In a tweet recounting the experience, Baran wrote, “A Minneapolis police officer pointed a weapon at me at @sfreemark’s heads, while we were standing on Nicollet and 32nd covering the protests.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sv9ka\">“I yelled that I’m a journalist. He did not lower his weapon, so we ran. Calling it a night,” she wrote.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A Minneapolis police officer pointed a weapon at me at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sfreemark?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sfreemark</a>’s heads, while we were standing on Nicollet and 32nd covering the protests. I yelled that I’m a journalist. He did not lower his weapon, so we ran. Calling it a night.</p>— Madeleine Baran (@madeleinebaran) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/madeleinebaran/status/1266610933071138816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ax2x4\">Freemark and Baran were unable to reach their car and had to walk home, Freemark said. An interview request sent to Baran was not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"fherm\">Minneapolis was under an 8 p.m. curfew that evening, but journalists were expressly exempt from it.</p><p data-block-key=\"osnq5\">Freemark said that the police line they encountered included officers from multiple agencies, and she was unsure which agency the officer who pointed the weapon was from.</p><p data-block-key=\"8epja\">An email sent to the Minneapolis Police Department inquiring about this incident was not returned as of press time. Bruce Gordon, director of communications for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, replied that before he could comment he would need to know if the incident in question involved a State Patrol trooper.</p><p data-block-key=\"087yb\">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/RTS39PTB.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"z3zep\">Minnesota State Patrol officers clear an area near the Minneapolis Police Department's Fifth Precinct on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Madeleine Baran (American Public Media)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Yahoo News correspondent hit in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/yahoo-news-correspondent-hit-in-washington-dcs-lafayette-park/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-30T02:35:19.094148Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:16:34.204730Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:16:34.121235Z",
"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=\"1l0l6\">An individual at a protest hit a White House correspondent in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park in the early morning hours of May 30, 2020, interrupting footage the journalist was streaming live from his phone to Periscope.</p><p data-block-key=\"xaogx\">In his <a href=\"https://www.pscp.tv/w/1lDGLgzQRozKm?t=7\">livestream</a>, Yahoo News correspondent Hunter Walker narrated the scene around him on the evening of May 29 and into the early morning of May 30: “The situation has become extremely heated in the last few minutes. Again, this is Yahoo News White House Correspondent Hunter Walker. We are in front of the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue, where protesters have taken down some of the barricades and are just repeatedly clashing with Secret Service and U.S. Park Police who have plastic riot shields and riot helmets,” Walker said on the livestream, before his phone was knocked out of his hand, cutting off the livestream.</p><p data-block-key=\"l9v92\">In the video, an unidentified individual verbally accosts Walker, telling the reporter to go away and accusing him of saying racist comments. Walker identified himself as a journalist and asked the individual, “What racist things did I say?" before the video cuts out.</p><p data-block-key=\"659h3\">Walker was able to recover his phone and resume live streaming. “After a brief interruption, someone hit me and threw my phone — one of the protesters here — I am back live in front of the White House,” he said in a <a href=\"https://www.pscp.tv/w/1LyGBNWbrZoGN\">subsequent clip</a> posted to Periscope. “I’m doing fine, guys, I’m doing great, no worries.”</p><p data-block-key=\"n9p49\">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=\"nlxd5\">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>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Hunter Walker (Yahoo News)"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with projectile during LA protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-projectile-during-la-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-29T22:42:29.819130Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:50:55.447119Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:50:55.368912Z",
"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=\"h5ewg\">While on assignment for Reuters, freelance photojournalist Kyle Grillot was struck by an unknown crowd-control munition when Los Angeles police officers fired projectiles at demonstrators during protests on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"jfy66\">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=\"yepnx\">Grillot was documenting protests in Los Angeles as they continued past the city’s 8 p.m. curfew. Grillot told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was at the intersection of Hope Street and Olympic Boulevard, preparing to document the police advance toward protesters in the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"vgl7d\">“I positioned myself safely on a corner and held up my LAPD press badge,” Grillot said.</p><p data-block-key=\"32mq7\">As officers opened fire on the demonstrators with crowd-control munitions, Grillot said he realized that his position was actually putting him in danger and moved behind an electrical box.</p><p data-block-key=\"3pxxi\">“That’s when I felt it hit my thigh,” he said, adding that he believes it was a rubber bullet that struck him. “I ran around the corner and continued to take photos, continuing to try to make my press badge as visible as possible.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c0m89\">Grillot told the Tracker that beyond a bit of bruising, he was not seriously injured and none of his equipment was damaged. While he does not believe he was deliberately targeted, Grillot said that the officers were firing indiscriminately.</p><p data-block-key=\"d524p\">“I’m left wondering what I could have done to make it any more apparent that I was working press,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"xje5i\">The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"x56ue\">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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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ebdkb\">Photojournalist Kyle Grillot was hit with a projectile fired by a Los Angeles police officer the day he captured this image. Grillot was on assignment for Reuters to cover protests in the city.</p>",
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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",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Kyle Grillot (Reuters)"
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},
{
"title": "Photographer shoved by police amid Louisville protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-shoved-police-amid-louisville-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-27T13:44:31.915135Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:42:55.248470Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:42:55.162079Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3r5tr\">Photographer Max Gersh was shoved by police with batons while covering protests in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkrrl\">The Associated Press <a href=\"https://apnews.com/ac63cb2f81e1adfba583451aee9115bf\">reported</a> that recent protests in Louisville have centered around the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, both of whom were Black. Taylor was shot eight times in her Louisville home in mid-March by narcotics police who broke down her door. Floyd died on May 25, after a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, kneeled on his neck for several minutes during an arrest. Video of Floyd’s death has sparked protests across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"blng3\">Gersh, a photographer with the Commercial Appeal, a daily newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, had been sent to Louisville to help with the Louisville Courier-Journal’s coverage of protests in the city (both papers are part of the Gannett newspaper chain). At around 11:50 p.m., Gersh and a group of reporters from the Courier-Journal and other outlets were walking down an empty block near the Fourth Street Live Entertainment district when a flank of police officers came marching down the street, occupying the total width of the block, Gersh told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Gersh was wearing a neon reflective vest that said “Press” and had his press ID around his neck on a lanyard.</p><p data-block-key=\"8gonv\">Gersh said that he and the other reporters backed up against a building to stay out of the way but were told by the officers to “get moving” and clear the area. The journalists began to leave, with the officers moving behind them.</p><p data-block-key=\"lca2w\">Suddenly, Gersh told the Tracker, the officers began to jog, forcing the journalists in front of them to break into a run. Gersh, slowed down by his heavy photography equipment, was falling somewhat behind the rest of the journalists when he said several officers began shoving him with batons and telling him to move faster. Gersh said he told the officers, “You don’t need to shove me,” but they kept pushing him along.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Side note: Cops straight shoved <a href=\"https://twitter.com/pd_cameraman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@pd_cameraman</a> twice with their batons while we ran. <a href=\"https://t.co/FJDniuHC0X\">https://t.co/FJDniuHC0X</a></p>— Natalie Neysa Alund (@nataliealund) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nataliealund/status/1266942943551725569?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=\"h9p0q\">When the journalists reached the corner, they turned to move into another intersection, where the group of officers eventually arrived. Gersh said no reason was given as to why they needed to clear the empty street.</p><p data-block-key=\"r7nr0\">Gersh continued to cover the protests. The following night, while taking photographs of law enforcement, he said a police officer yelled at him unprovoked, “You guys are just as bad as the protesters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"isihx\">“We’re just doing our jobs,” he replied.</p><p data-block-key=\"el3vs\">The Louisville Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ksowd\">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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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Gersh_assault.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"6fz6k\">While covering May 30, 2020, protests in Kentucky, photojournalist Max Gersh documents Louisville Metro Police Department officers clearing the street, including media.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Kentucky",
"abbreviation": "KY"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Max Gersh (Commercial Appeal)"
],
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}
]
