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{
"title": "Unicorn Riot reporter threatened, shoved by Minnesota State Police",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unicorn-riot-reporter-threatened-shoved-by-minnesota-state-police/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-29T15:05:16.847096Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:49:15.228186Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:49:15.118825Z",
"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=\"hdopm\">Jenn Schreiter, a reporter for the nonprofit media collective Unicorn Riot, was threatened and shoved by a state patrol officer while covering the fourth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early hours of May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"zx8oz\">Protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"tazhi\">Schreiter told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker over text that she and her colleague Niko Georgiades were interviewing a local businessman just after 3 a.m. on the 30th when Minnesota State Patrol officers in riot gear and carrying assault rifles approached them and shouted, “Get inside or go to jail!”</p><p data-block-key=\"giw69\">“We hurried into the restaurant and one officer shoved me with his baton then slammed the door,” Schreiter said.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Clip from our stream earlier shows when Minnesota state police in riot gear & SWAT w assault rifles pushed UR off an empty street, threatening our reporters w arrest. At the time were were interviewing Louis Hunter about his restaurant, Trio Plant Based, which he's been guarding. <a href=\"https://t.co/bSnnks4Vxg\">pic.twitter.com/bSnnks4Vxg</a></p>— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1266652249650016257?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=\"5tquq\">Schrieter told the Tracker that both she and Georgiades have been reporting each night with their press badges visible and helmets branded with Unicorn Riot.</p><p data-block-key=\"17kxc\">The journalists remained inside the restaurant until the state patrol officers had left the intersection of Lake Street and Lyndale Avenue. The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to an emailed request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"6gfak\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jenn Schreiter (Unicorn Riot)"
],
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{
"title": "Vice News reporter pushed to the ground, pepper sprayed amid Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-news-reporter-pushed-to-the-ground-pepper-sprayed-amid-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-07T16:43:00.942438Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:00:32.330955Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:00:32.238636Z",
"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=\"qfc3f\">Police attacked dozens of journalists with rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray on May 30, 2020, during protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"qv2py\">Protests began in Minnesota on May 26, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"plgnw\">At about 11 p.m., police pushed Vice News reporter Michael Anthony Adams to the ground and pepper-sprayed him while he was identifying himself as press and displaying his credentials, as seen in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MichaelAdams317/status/1266938990298574848\">series of videos</a> shot by Adams. Vice News producer Roberto Daza witnessed the incident and confirmed events to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Police just raided the gas station we were sheltering at. After shouting press multiple times and raising my press card in the air, I was thrown to the ground. Then another cop came up and peppered sprayed me in the face while I was being held down. <a href=\"https://t.co/23EkZIMAFC\">pic.twitter.com/23EkZIMAFC</a></p>— Michael Anthony Adams (@MichaelAdams317) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MichaelAdams317/status/1266945268567678976?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=\"4bxh7\">The Vice News team, including Adams, Daza, co-producer Amel Guettatfi and cameraperson Daniel Vergara, were filming a report about police and state troopers storming a local business as its owners were trying to protect the property from looters, Daza told CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"9i8cn\">Daza said that, several hours earlier in the evening, state troopers fired a non-lethal round that struck him in the back.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ywf7\">More than three dozen journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Minneapolis&date_lower=2020-05-30&date_upper=2020-05-30\">assaulted, arrested or had equipment damaged</a> while covering protests that night. The Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota State Police, and Minnesota National Guard did not reply to emailed requests for comment about these incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"jjgi5\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
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"Assault"
],
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"Michael Anthony Adams (Vice News)"
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{
"title": "Police tear gas, fire projectiles at journalist on assignment for New York Times",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-tear-gas-fire-projectiles-at-journalist-on-assignment-for-new-york-times/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-14T15:04:06.378956Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T00:06:29.612498Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T00:06:29.509570Z",
"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=\"48k9h\">Police officers shoved, threatened and shot projectiles at two freelance journalists while they reported for the New York Times on protests in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020, according to interviews with the journalists and videos of the incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"7euhf\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"xnqbf\">Journalists Katie G. Nelson and Mike Shum told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they were reporting in the Fifth Precinct of Minneapolis for the Times as an 8 p.m. curfew came into effect.</p><p data-block-key=\"pclgp\">As seen in a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2882143978738897\">video</a> from local ABC affiliate KSTP, a line of state police formed to the south of the station on Nicollet Avenue. “Please disperse or you will be arrested,” a loudspeaker blares. Within seconds of the warning, the police appear to use flash bang grenades and tear gas. They then begin to advance.</p><p data-block-key=\"ab8bk\">The video shows a line of State Patrol troopers, in maroon pants and helmets, and what appear to be Department of Natural Resources conservation officers in green pants and helmets approaching a group of journalists huddled on the side of the street. As previously reported by the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-target-dozens-journalists-covering-protests-minneapolis-tear-gas-pepper-spray-rubber-bullets/\">Tracker</a>, State Patrol troopers pepper sprayed the group at close range as the journalists identified themselves as press.</p><p data-block-key=\"9mz1b\">Nelson and Shum had gas masks, but a third person working with them didn’t, Nelson said, so she escorted this person to safety as Shum stayed to film.</p><p data-block-key=\"5arc9\">Shum reunited with Nelson and they continued to report on the dispersal of protesters near the Fifth Precinct police station. About an hour later, the team was filming a couple of people approaching a police line with their hands up near a Kmart a few blocks from where Shum was shoved, Nelson said. A Minneapolis Police officer about fifty feet away pointed a projectile launcher at them, Nelson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"01zyg\">Nelson said she yelled that they were press, adding there was no question they looked like journalists given their large cameras, ballistic helmets and protective vests.</p><p data-block-key=\"r02ow\">In a video filmed shortly after that Nelson provided to the Tracker, Minneapolis police officers in a line start ordering people to move. Nelson can be heard warning Shum, “Mike, Mike, Mike, they’re gonna push us. Keep shooting Mike.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9ptrq\">Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder told the Tracker he couldn’t comment on the incident. He added that “every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mz2ow\">Late into the night, Nelson and Shum were driving a couple of blocks off Lake Street on their way to 38th and Chicago, where protesters had created a memorial on the site of Floyd’s killing.</p><p data-block-key=\"2pz11\">Nelson turned the car onto a road blocked by a police checkpoint, the journalists told the Tracker. Nelson said the police shined a bright light at them. Blinded, she slowed the car down. Nelson said she yelled that they were press through the open windows of the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"c666l\">Nelson said the police yelled “Go home” and “We don’t care” in response.</p><p data-block-key=\"iso19\">Nelson pulled a U-turn and drove away as the journalists heard the pinging of projectiles hitting her car. They said they believe the car was hit with pepper balls.</p><p data-block-key=\"kljyd\">“I start coughing and it’s really hard to see. My eyes are watering. It felt very close to tear gas,” Nelson said. “I was just like, we gotta get out of here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bm6o2\">At around the same time, unidentified law-enforcement officers fired projectiles at the car of a television crew for France’s TF1 and arrested them, the Tracker previously <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/french-television-correspondent-arrested-curfew-violation-minneapolis/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"gj5wc\">It isn’t clear which law enforcement agency fired the projectiles at Nelson’s car. Protesters, journalists and even law-enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">dozen</a> different agencies joined the law-enforcement effort in Minnesota, often wearing similar looking uniforms.</p><p data-block-key=\"ij209\">Nelson’s car wasn’t damaged and the journalists were uninjured. However, Nelson told the Tracker on Aug. 13 that a doctor diagnosed recurring eye inflammation as a result of tear gas exposure.</p><p data-block-key=\"wp911\">DNR spokesman Chris Niskanen said the department respects the freedom of the press but “disagrees with [the Tracker’s] characterization of events.” He didn’t specify why. Niskanen added he couldn’t comment further on the incident because it “may be subject to ongoing litigation initiated against the state of Minnesota by multiple media members.”</p><p data-block-key=\"71lw8\">Nelson and Shum have joined a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/aclu-mn-sues-law-enforcement-over-attacks-journalists-covering-george-floyd-protests\">lawsuit</a> seeking class-action status filed by the ACLU of Minnesota against Minneapolis and state officials concerning the treatment of journalists covering the Floyd protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"69zud\">The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to the Tracker’s emailed list of questions. In a May 31 <a href=\"https://youtu.be/DK-Ua2TlCHw?t=1240\">press conference</a>, the Chief of the State Patrol, Col. Matt Langer, praised the law-enforcement effort during a dangerous and unpredictable night while also saying: “We are never perfect.”</p><p data-block-key=\"n1nht\">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/MPLS_demos_KNelson20.950a4306.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"7fyh4\">Nelson told the Tracker this Minneapolis police officer pointed a projectile launcher directly at her and her reporting partner, Mike Shum, on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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},
"updates": [
"(2024-02-08 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists get nearly $1M settlement over Minneapolis BLM protest attacks",
"(2022-02-08 11:57:00+00:00) Journalists reach settlement agreement with Minnesota State Patrol, rest of suit ongoing"
],
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"ongoing",
"settled"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Katie G. Nelson (The New York Times)"
],
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},
{
"title": "CBS News sound engineer struck in arm by rubber bullet while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cbs-news-sound-engineer-struck-in-arm-by-rubber-bullet-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-07T16:37:02.353206Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:58:13.782159Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:58:13.656653Z",
"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=\"jk9m0\">A member of a CBS news crew was struck with a rubber bullet while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"lz76a\">Protests began in Minnesota on May 26, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"w160h\">Shortly after the 8 p.m. curfew began, police fired a rubber bullet that hit John Marschitz, a CBS sound engineer, in the arm, according to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MikeGeorgeCBS/status/1266919447970942986\">tweets</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MikeGeorgeCBS/status/1266916104951214080\">from</a> CBS correspondent Michael George.</p><p data-block-key=\"oqvpl\">“We were not standing within 500 feet of any protesters at the time, and we had credentials displayed and cameras out,” George wrote.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is the moment Minneapolis Police fired on our CBS News crew with rubber bullets. As you can see, no protesters anywhere near us- we all were wearing credentials and had cameras out. Our sound engineer was hit in the arm. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/cbsnews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#cbsnews</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/UAy7HYhGnL\">pic.twitter.com/UAy7HYhGnL</a></p>— Michael George (@MikeGeorgeCBS) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MikeGeorgeCBS/status/1266919447970942986?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=\"gw6s0\">Marschitz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the news crew had retreated down the street and into the parking lot where the team's car was parked after police began deploying tear gas into the crowd. The protesters kept moving in the opposite direction, and were several hundred feet away when officers began shooting crowd-control munitions at the news crew.</p><p data-block-key=\"nqcyw\">"My colleagues and I were fired upon without warning and [were] clearly identifiable as journalists," Marschitz said. "We were no threat to law enforcement and in no way impeding them from doing their job. Then they just began firing rubber bullets at us."</p><p data-block-key=\"yofm4\">One of the rounds struck Marschitz in the arm; a second round struck a light on one of the team's cameras, but did not damage the equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"v1ny5\">When asked whether he felt police targeted the crew, Marschitz said, "I don't think they cared, they just shot at us."</p><p data-block-key=\"hm4j1\">Marschitz told the Tracker in November 2021 that his arm still hurts where he was struck more than 17 months later.</p><p data-block-key=\"sda4o\">More than three dozen journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Minneapolis&date_lower=2020-05-30&date_upper=2020-05-30\">assaulted, arrested or had equipment damaged</a> while covering protests that night. The Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota State Police, and Minnesota National Guard did not reply to emailed requests for comment about these incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"rcgmu\">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><p data-block-key=\"wtwfl\"><i>Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect comment from John Marschitz received via email on June 15, 2020, and via call on Nov. 8, 2021.</i></p></div>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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{
"title": "Fox 13 photojournalists attacked, van damaged in Utah protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-13-photojournalists-attacked-van-damaged-utah-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-21T14:50:44.361452Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:23:07.086497Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:23:06.948129Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Salt Lake City",
"longitude": -111.89105,
"latitude": 40.76078,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pub0d\">A photojournalist for Fox 13 News was attacked while covering protests in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"as3q6\">Fox 13 correspondent Sydney Glenn <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SydneyGlennTV/status/1266893355423657986\">wrote</a> on Twitter that she, her unnamed colleague and a photojournalist from another station were assessing damage to the Fox 13 news vehicle when a crowd attacked the two photojournalists. She also shared an image of her colleague, who appeared to have abrasions on his right arm and calf.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This. Is. Unacceptable. Tonight a group of protestors attacked my co-worker.. a very talented photojournalist as we were assessing the damage to our <a href=\"https://twitter.com/fox13?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@fox13</a> news car after it was smashed. A kind photojournalist from another station was helping and attacked as well. <a href=\"https://t.co/ic3bDOOBle\">pic.twitter.com/ic3bDOOBle</a></p>— Sydney Glenn (@SydneyGlennTV) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SydneyGlennTV/status/1266893355423657986?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=\"onmiy\">In the image posted by Glenn, the van appears to have a shattered windshield. It is unclear what, if any, injuries the second photojournalist sustained, which the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-attacked-during-protest-salt-lake-city/\">Tracker has documented here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"nwky5\">Glenn did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s calls or emails requesting comment. When emailed for comment, Fox 13 News Director Marc Sternfield said, “At the request of those involved, we are not releasing additional information about the incident.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cuvi1\">The Salt Lake Tribune <a href=\"https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/05/30/rally-protests-death/\">reported</a> that the group Utah Against Police Brutality had organized a car caravan protest, but individuals took to the streets when there were not enough vehicles to fit all the demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"q57iq\">Following looting and vandalism, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced an 8 p.m. curfew. Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) officers were joined by police from 13 cities and up to 200 National Guardsmen.</p><p data-block-key=\"ps0za\">Detective Greg Wilking of the Salt Lake City Police Department confirmed to the Tracker that the two photojournalists were “roughed up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c1mig\">“There were so many things happening that day that we didn’t even break the incident with the journalists down into a separate report,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"6le8z\">The SLCPD did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for additional information about the incident or whether arrests were made in connection with the assault or vehicle damage.</p><p data-block-key=\"r75j7\">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 these incidents <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist attacked during protest in Salt Lake City",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-attacked-during-protest-salt-lake-city/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-21T14:44:53.903545Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:22:48.005723Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:22:47.917504Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Salt Lake City",
"longitude": -111.89105,
"latitude": 40.76078,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"l11dq\">A photojournalist was assaulted while assisting a Fox 13 News crew during protests in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"fy4em\">Fox 13 correspondent Sydney Glenn <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SydneyGlennTV/status/1266893355423657986\">wrote</a> on Twitter that she, her unnamed colleague and a photojournalist from another station were assessing damage to a Fox 13 news vehicle when a crowd attacked the two photojournalists. The Tracker has documented the assault of the Fox News 13 photojournalist and damage to the outlet’s vehicle <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-13-photojournalists-attacked-van-damaged-utah-protest/\">here</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This. Is. Unacceptable. Tonight a group of protestors attacked my co-worker.. a very talented photojournalist as we were assessing the damage to our <a href=\"https://twitter.com/fox13?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@fox13</a> news car after it was smashed. A kind photojournalist from another station was helping and attacked as well. <a href=\"https://t.co/ic3bDOOBle\">pic.twitter.com/ic3bDOOBle</a></p>— Sydney Glenn (@SydneyGlennTV) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SydneyGlennTV/status/1266893355423657986?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=\"13dyu\">Glenn did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s calls or emails requesting comment. When emailed for comment, Fox 13 News Director Marc Sternfield said, “At the request of those involved, we are not releasing additional information about the incident.”</p><p data-block-key=\"paxyo\">The Salt Lake Tribune <a href=\"https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/05/30/rally-protests-death/\">reported</a> that the group Utah Against Police Brutality had organized a car caravan protest, but that individuals took to the streets when there were not enough vehicles to fit all the demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"z9a8z\">Following looting and vandalism, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced an 8 p.m. curfew. Salt Lake City Police Department officers were joined by police from 13 cities and up to 200 National Guardsmen.</p><p data-block-key=\"ijiju\">Detective Greg Wilking of the SLCPD confirmed to the Tracker that two photojournalists were “roughed up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"g7p3q\">“There were so many things happening that day that we didn’t even break the incident with the journalists down into a separate report,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"maymb\">The SLCPD did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for additional information about the incident or whether arrests were made in connection with the assault or vehicle damage.</p><p data-block-key=\"i2dd7\">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 these incidents <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Window of Indianapolis Star newsroom shattered during protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/window-indianapolis-star-newsroom-shattered-during-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-20T14:20:23.232922Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:00:39.594736Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:00:39.502536Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Indianapolis",
"longitude": -86.15804,
"latitude": 39.76838,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"bie8j\">A window on the door of the Indianapolis Star was shattered during protests against police violence in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"i5e98\">At 10:23 p.m., Indianapolis Star investigative reporter Ryan Martin <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ryanmartin/status/1266918225029353472?s=20\">posted</a> on Twitter that the front door of the Star’s newsroom had been broken. The damage to the newspaper’s office in downtown Indianapolis came as violence and damage to other city businesses was reported.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"und\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://t.co/0tp6NHWF5S\">pic.twitter.com/0tp6NHWF5S</a></p>— Ryan Martin (@ryanmartin) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ryanmartin/status/1266920242569195520?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=\"64yim\">The protests, sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25, had been peaceful during the day, but tension grew in the evening, <a href=\"https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/indianapolis/2020/05/30/indianapolis-police-protests-chief-randal-taylor-speaks-tear-gas-arrests-downtown-unsafe/5297312002/\">the Star</a> reported. At around 9 p.m., police declared the remaining protest an unlawful assembly and told demonstrators to disperse. Soon after, the Star reported, police began using tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"qgb3p\">In a tweet at 9:49 p.m., Martin wrote that it was “getting really tense down here,” and mentioned broken glass and shouting.</p><p data-block-key=\"8tzqu\">Less than an hour later, he posted that the door window had been broken. “Chaotic stuff happening outside,” he wrote. A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ryanmartin/status/1266920242569195520?s=20\">photo he shared on Twitter</a> showed that the pane of glass had been smashed, scattering shards throughout the entryway.</p><p data-block-key=\"cddrp\">Martin told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that someone had spray-painted the wall outside near the damaged door. He didn’t know how the window had been broken.</p><p data-block-key=\"y94vx\">The intent of the damage was unclear. “To the average person, that door and wall could be mistaken for an entrance to Circle Centre Mall; not a newsroom entrance,” Martin wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"ldyhx\">Indianapolis Star Senior News Director Ginger Rough didn’t respond to requests for additional comment. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department didn’t respond to an inquiry about the damage.</p><p data-block-key=\"y9nxg\">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=\"bn2ih\">The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Swiss journalist shot at with crowd-control munitions amid Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/swiss-journalist-shot-at-with-crowd-control-munitions-amid-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-14T15:23:11.681722Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:07:43.942669Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:07:43.865561Z",
"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=\"mm7vb\">While covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, three Swiss journalists were shot at with crowd-control munitions shortly after the 8 p.m. curfew went into effect on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"cbpuk\">Journalists were specifically exempt from the curfew by Gov. Tim Walz’s order. The curfew followed protests 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=\"fr1fa\">Shortly after 8:30 p.m. in Minneapolis, officers fired foam rounds at the journalists after they held up their press passes and yelled that they were members of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"wfpj4\">Massimiliano Herber, the Washington-based television correspondent for RSI (Radiotelevisione svizzera), an Italian-language channel of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, told the Tracker in an interview that he and videographer Jean-Pascal Azaïs had been reporting on protests downtown with Gaspard Kühn, a Washington-based correspondent for RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse), the public broadcaster’s French-language channel. Neither Azaïs nor Kühn could be reached for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"vhk1u\">Police had begun to throw tear gas and shoot foam rounds at protesters, according to Herber. Some of the tear gas wafted toward the Swiss journalists, stinging their eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"z1p5m\">As the journalists attempted to reach their car, he said, they found police lines on either end of the block, preventing them from moving.</p><p data-block-key=\"8lsaq\">Standing in the middle of the road, the journalists held up their press passes issued by the U.S. Congress and shouted, “Media! Media! Press!” toward the police and asked if they could pass by to reach their car. Azaïs was holding a small video camera. They had taken a couple steps forward, Herber said, when the officers told them to “back up”. The officers then began to shoot at the journalists, firing off four or five foam rounds, all of which missed the journalists, Herber said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2pb4q\">They were able to flee to the safety of a nearby parking lot, but when they tried to move, the officers again opened fire, firing two to three foam rounds, Herber said. Eventually, with the help of a local resident, they found a safe route back to their car.</p><p data-block-key=\"qnvaf\">The officers in the area were from the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol, Herber said, but he was not sure who fired the rounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"aupro\">The broadcaster filed a complaint about the matter with the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland on June 1, Herber said.</p><p data-block-key=\"qw6bs\">Requests for comment on these incidents sent to the Minnesota State Patrol and the Minneapolis Police Department were not returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"2bvcd\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Reuters photographer hit by pepper ball while covering protests in Minneapolis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reuters-photographer-hit-pepper-ball-while-covering-protests-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-14T15:56:25.471812Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:22:10.849343Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:22:10.746636Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jbjlm\">Lucas Jackson, a staff photographer for Reuters at the time, was hit by law enforcement with a pepper ball while covering protests against police violence in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"i7o68\">Jackson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and other photojournalists had been documenting people throwing firecrackers at the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct and breaking into nearby local businesses on the night of May 29 and into the morning of May 30. At roughly 1 a.m. on May 30, he said, officers began to fire tear gas at protesters who had gathered in the street outside a Wells Fargo bank on Nicollet Avenue.</p><p data-block-key=\"gcjym\">As the photographers were taking pictures of the crowd dispersing, Jackson said, officers started to fire less lethal weapons at their group. Jackson was hit with a large-caliber rubber bullet on the rear end, leaving a “massive” bruise, he said. Photographer Philip Montgomery was hit in the chest, Jackson said, as were other journalists in their group. Montgomery did not respond to emails seeking comment on the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"crx4l\">Jackson and the group left the scene and walked back to their cars, only to find that their tires had been punctured, an incident the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tires-slashed-officers-pierce-journalists-car-tires-in-minneapolis/\">Tracker has documented here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"e4b4q\">Spokespeople for both the Minneapolis Police Department and the City of Minneapolis declined to comment, telling the Tracker in separate emails that the “incident is part of ongoing litigation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7o6hv\">Jackson told the Tracker that he and his fellow photographers had been standing on the sidewalk, off to the side from the protesters, when the police started to fire the less lethal weapons. “We were all carrying cameras and wearing helmets, so it was fairly obvious we were not generic protesters,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7s04d\">In addition to his photographic equipment and helmet, Jackson said he was wearing his press credential and a gas mask, and that other journalists in the group were wearing vests that said “press” in big letters. “I don’t know if we were specifically targeted, but they knew that we weren’t protesters and they still shot at us,” Jackson said. “It’s the only place I’ve been where I’ve had the police specifically aim at me with their less lethal stuff.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rjm5n\">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. They 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 on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"fii0c\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"Lucas Jackson (Reuters)"
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},
{
"title": "NBC10 journalists attacked during live coverage of protests — earpiece stolen",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc10-journalists-attacked-during-live-coverage-of-protests-earpiece-stolen/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-12T18:41:05.582367Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:21:51.971921Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:21:51.871202Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Rochester",
"longitude": -77.61556,
"latitude": 43.15478,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ltjm8\">A TV reporter and photojournalist with the Rochester, New York, NBC affiliate were assaulted by unknown men while covering a protest on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"3kduv\">Reporter Andrew Hyman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering the protests for News10NBC in Rochester alongside station photographer Jack Diamond when the incident occurred.</p><p data-block-key=\"m1jm8\">Hyman said that a man approached him, took out a phone and began recording while asking the reporter questions about his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.</p><p data-block-key=\"20g19\">Hyman said he declined to provide direct answers to the queries, which appeared to agitate the individual.</p><p data-block-key=\"wdxr1\">“I was just trying to be an unbiased journalist,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"63xyy\">At that point, several other individuals approached Hyman. One of the individuals grabbed an earpiece that Hyman had plugged into a smartphone to broadcast coverage of the demonstrations to Facebook Live, Hyman said. He said he didn’t get a good look at the person who took the earpiece.</p><p data-block-key=\"kl654\">Hyman said five or six men — all wearing masks — spotted the exchange and approached his location. A scuffle ensued. Hyman said the men pushed him a few times but he managed to flee the area without injury.</p><p data-block-key=\"mqvst\">The reporter said he looked back and noticed that Diamond was not with him. Diamond had been tackled to the ground. Other individuals at the scene helped the cameraman to his feet, Hyman said. The Tracker has <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-tackled-colleague-assaulted-while-covering-protests-new-york/\">documented Diamond’s assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"xu3c0\">After regrouping with Diamond, the two NBC10 journalists continued coverage of the protest and broadcast their reporting to Facebook Live.</p><p data-block-key=\"mk1e0\">Neither sought medical attention. Hyman did not report the loss of his equipment to police. He said that police reached out to him after <a href=\"https://www.whec.com/news/news10nbc-reporter-photographer-attacked-during-protest/5745850/\">NBC10 posted video of the incident</a> online and told him they “wanted to look into” the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"mhc6t\">Hyman said he gave police raw footage that shows the person who made the initial contact with him, but he had not received any updates from authorities as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"8lf8p\">The Rochester Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on Hyman’s case.</p><p data-block-key=\"jyr0t\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
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"name": "New York",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"robbery"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist tackled, colleague assaulted, while covering protests in New York",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-tackled-colleague-assaulted-while-covering-protests-new-york/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-12T18:36:12.517442Z",
"last_published_at": "2020-10-12T18:42:28.408960Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2020-10-12T18:42:28.339490Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Rochester",
"longitude": -77.61556,
"latitude": 43.15478,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Unknown individuals physically assaulted two journalists covering protests on May 30, 2020 in Rochester, New York, allegedly tackling one of the correspondents to the ground.</p><p>Jack Diamond, a photojournalist for News10NBC in Rochester, was covering a demonstration alongside his colleague, reporter Andrew Hyman, at about 5 p.m. in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park.</p><p>The rally attracted hundreds of attendees and was mostly peaceful, <a href=\"https://www.whec.com/news/news10nbc-reporter-photographer-attacked-during-protest/5745850/\">Hyman told News10NBC</a> for its report on the assault on him and Diamond.</p><p>A group of police at the scene began firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd. Thereafter, Hyman said an individual approached him, asking him questions about his support for the Black Lives Matter movement, recording the exchange with a smartphone.</p><p>Hyman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the inquisition attracted the attention of five or six men passing nearby. One of the men snatched Hyman’s earpiece, which was connected to a smartphone he was using to cover the demonstrations. Then the others began shoving him. The Tracker has <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc10-journalists-attacked-during-live-coverage-of-protests-earpiece-stolen/\">documented Hyman’s assault and the damage to his equipment here</a>.</p><p>“I was just out of it,” Hyman told the Tracker, noting that his assailants were all wearing masks. “I couldn’t see their faces.”</p><p>As the reporter tried to flee from the scuffle, he looked back and saw that some individuals had tackled Diamond and took him off his feet.</p><p>But then two or three other individuals who were not involved with the tackle helped the photojournalist to his feet and he was able to escape without injuries or damage to his equipment, Hyman said.</p><p>“In the parking lot across from the Public Safety Building, News10NBC Photojournalist Jack Diamond and I were both grabbed by a group,” Hyman told News10NBC. “I had my earpiece taken, and Jack was tackled. We were not hurt, just shaken up.</p><p>Hyman told the Tracker that neither journalist sought medical attention following the attack. He said that the Rochester Police Department contacted him about the incident but as of his Aug. 18 interview with the Tracker he had not received additional information about possible charges against the assailants.</p><p>Diamond and the Rochester Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p></div>",
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"name": "New York",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"targeted_journalists": [
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{
"title": "North Carolina reporter assaulted, knocked out while covering mall looting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/north-carolina-reporter-assaulted-knocked-out-while-covering-mall-looting/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-08T14:49:57.353605Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:21:32.154312Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:21:32.055021Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Fayetteville",
"longitude": -78.87836,
"latitude": 35.05266,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"upysy\">A reporter for the Fayetteville Observer said he was hit, knocked unconscious and kicked while he and a colleague livestreamed the looting of stores in a North Carolina shopping mall on the night of May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"f8kqf\">A group of people <a href=\"https://www.wral.com/looting-fires-vandalism-mark-protests-over-death-of-george-floyd-in-raleigh-fayetteville/19121290/\">broke into the Cross Creek Mall</a> about six miles west of downtown Fayetteville following protests earlier that day against police violence in the city’s downtown. Demonstrations had erupted nationwide days before, following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, while he was in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"k6sve\">Paul Woolverton, a senior state reporter for the Observer, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he headed downtown to start reporting on the protests at around 7 p.m. This was shortly after people had <a href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/arrest-made-arson-fayetteville-s-historic-market-house\">set fire to the Market House</a>, a historic downtown Fayetteville building that was once the site of <a href=\"https://www.wral.com/protesters-break-into-set-fire-at-historic-building-in-fayetteville/19122012/\">a market for enslaved people</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"92p2i\">Woolverton said the Market House was still burning when he arrived downtown, where he saw people acting aggressively toward TV camera people nearby. He said he wore press credentials in full view on a lanyard around his neck, and that he was carrying a notebook, pens, cellphone and selfie stick. While downtown, he ran into colleague Melody Brown-Peyton, and the two decided to stick together. Downtown Fayetteville would later be closed to all traffic, so the pair drove in Brown-Peyton’s car to the Cross Creek Mall, where they heard that looting was taking place. They stopped at Woolverton’s home on the way to get his camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"37cnl\">Woolverton and Brown-Peyton parked across the street from the mall and walked over to it. They saw a group of white men with pickup trucks and long guns, and saw people running out of a J.C. Penney store with dresses and other merchandise.</p><p data-block-key=\"cuzln\">“It was kind of ‘Mad Max’<i>-</i>looking,” Woolverton said.</p><p data-block-key=\"sy16z\">Woolverton was struck and knocked unconscious just after 11 p.m.. by an unknown male assailant, <a href=\"https://www.fayobserver.com/story/news/2020/05/31/fayetteville-observer-reporter-assaulted-during-looting-at-cross-creek-mall/112306126/\">Brown-Peyton told</a> the Fayetteville Observer. He was livestreaming on Facebook at the time and <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2535999873377550&ref=watch_permalink\">video from the scene</a> cuts off a few seconds before he was hit. Woolverton said he was trying to be careful about raising the phone because he was aware that it would attract attention. He remembers hearing the man who attacked him say “Don’t be taking no pictures,” before he grabbed Woolverton’s selfie stick and phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"mvpmb\">“My memory is him grabbing at my cellphone, me yelling at him, struggling with him upright,” Woolverton said. “My next memory is waking up and a police officer next to me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cncuy\">Brown-Peyton told him the attacker got into a pickup truck and drove away. She also told Woolverton that he was lying down with his eyes rolling back.</p><p data-block-key=\"104up\">“I have no memory of the conversation,” Woolverton said. “I didn’t know my phone number, I didn't know why I was at the mall or how I got there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rwly8\">Brown-Peyton contacted Woolverton’s editor and his girlfriend, and they went to the hospital. Brown-Peyton told Woolverton the assailant was struggling to get hold of Woolverton’s camera, but he couldn’t because of the strap. The attacker also kicked Woolverton when he was unconscious on the ground. Woolverton’s camera bag was ripped and his camera was slightly scuffed.</p><p data-block-key=\"9svoy\">On the morning of May 31, 2020, Woolverton <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FO_Woolverton/status/1266993893406629892\">tweeted</a>: “Got a knot on my head, scrapes, bruises from head to foot and a concussion. The looters at Cross Creek Mall didn’t like that I was shooting video (see their activities on the<a href=\"https://twitter.com/fayobserver\"> @fayobserver</a> Facebook page). I am told I was kicked and punched but don’t remember that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"feqov\">Woolverton filed a police report after the incident, but police didn’t identify the suspect. The Fayetteville Police Department didn’t respond to a request for updates on the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"3lupw\">Woolverton said he didn’t know whether he had been targeted for being a journalist. “I think he just saw a guy with a camera.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mt72d\">He told the Observer that this was the first time anyone had attacked him while he was doing his job in 30 years as a journalist, and that he felt lucky his colleague was by his side.</p><p data-block-key=\"sp7ed\">“I was trying to be situationally aware, but it came really fast out of the blue. A big lesson is don't go alone,” Woolverton said. “Thank God Melody was there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hfh4r\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/IMG_2611_2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lxsk3\">In North Carolina, Fayetteville Observer senior reporter Paul Woolverton was knocked unconscious while livestreaming looters on May 30, 2020. He was treated for a concussion and other injuries.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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{
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"equipment": "equipment bag"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "North Carolina",
"abbreviation": "NC"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Paul Woolverton (The Fayetteville Observer)"
],
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"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Reporter struck with crowd-control munitions while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-struck-with-crowd-control-munitions-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-07T16:49:26.361898Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:03:46.769093Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:03:46.569868Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eyol5\">Los Angeles Times correspondent Molly Hennessy-Fiske was one of more than a dozen journalists fired at with crowd-control munitions and pepper spray while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"26oax\">Protests began in Minnesota on May 26, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"axu95\">Half an hour after the 8 p.m. curfew began, Minnesota state patrol officers fired pepper spray and rubber bullets at a group of at least 20 journalists including Hennessy-Fiske and LA Times photographer Carolyn Cole, according to Cole’s account of the incident <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-06-01/they-came-toward-us-firing-pepper-spray-and-rubber-bullets\">in the LA Times</a> and <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2882143978738897\">social media</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mollyhf/status/1268317400904208384\">posts</a> by the journalists.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You can hear me and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Carolyn_Cole?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Carolyn_Cole</a> attacked in this video; see me scaling a wall at the end. I stand corrected: <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MnDPS_MSP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MnDPS_MSP</a> did shout something at us: "Move!" Hence, I replied "Where do we go?" Thanks <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ryanraiche?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ryanraiche</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/MinneapolisUprising?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MinneapolisUprising</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Minneapolis?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Minneapolis</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/1fT36u03kZ\">https://t.co/1fT36u03kZ</a></p>— Molly Hennessy-Fiske (@mollyhf) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mollyhf/status/1268317400904208384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mg49n\">Cole wrote that many of the journalists were wearing clearly marked press vests, and that Hennessy-Fiske loudly identified the group as journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"a1x8w\">More than three dozen journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Minneapolis&date_lower=2020-05-30&date_upper=2020-05-30\">assaulted, arrested or had equipment damaged</a> while covering protests that night. The Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota State Police, and Minnesota National Guard did not reply to emailed requests for comment about these incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"gtzwg\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"mszyp\">Minnesota State Patrol troopers on guard following a protest against the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 29, 2020. Troopers shot Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske with a crowd-control munition at a protest the following day.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "0:21-cv-01282",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-05-25 00:00:00+00:00) Los Angeles Times reporter sues Minnesota State Patrol following assault at protest",
"(2024-04-05 14:43:00+00:00) LA Times reporters reach $1.2 million settlement with Minnesota State Patrol"
],
"case_statuses": [
"settled"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Molly Hennessy-Fiske (Los Angeles Times)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "VICE Media producer, crew arrested while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-producer-crew-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-29T18:27:47.139822Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:04:10.981247Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:04:10.898031Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hevog\">Dave Mayers, a producer for VICE Media, and three colleagues were arrested on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"gu9s5\">The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"2jci3\">Mayers told the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that he was reporting on protesters in downtown Minneapolis with three VICE journalists — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-reporter-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Alzo Slade</a>, Jika González, and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-producer-arrested-crew-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Ellis Rua</a> — prior to their arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"qlq9e\">The journalists were following a protest at about 8:10 p.m. when several state troopers pulled up in front of them, Mayers said. “They pop out of their cars and they have state trooper body armor on and tear gas launchers and stuff. They cut the protest off from being able to head downtown.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yjzn3\">Mayers said that he and González, a VICE producer, were filming the line of officers when the troopers started firing tear gas toward the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"fdo3a\">“It was unprovoked,” Mayers said. “It was a very peaceful protest and didn’t seem like it was going to be confrontational in any way and it turned confrontational very, very quickly. It was the police that ratcheted it up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8l61c\">Mayers said he heard a state trooper tell a colleague to get one of the protesters just before the troopers shot tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"8shco\">Mayers said he saw a yellow tear gas canister hit a person who was standing in front of a correspondent from another network. Once the crew decided that the state troopers were shooting tear gas indiscriminately, they ran down a narrow side street and put on their masks. Yellow and white gas swirled in the air. Mayers said he saw the troopers advancing from the main street.</p><p data-block-key=\"pvjuu\">“One of the police looks down [the side street] at us and points a gun at us and says, ‘Get down, get down, get down,’” said Mayers, who used police interchangeably with state troopers and other law enforcement. Slade’s microphone was still on. Mayers was wearing an earpiece that connected to the microphone and was able to hear Slade clearly.</p><p data-block-key=\"sk36w\">“At this moment, I was terrified,” Mayers said, noting that the crew included three Black men and González, who’s Latina.</p><p data-block-key=\"cjfzb\">As the state troopers approached, the crew yelled that they were members of the press. The state troopers looked at Slade’s VICE-issued press pass, handcuffed him with zip ties and took him to a police van, Mayers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"z1603\">“They looked at my ID and I asked, ‘What are we being arrested for?’” Mayers said. “They didn’t really answer, and did the same thing.” The state troopers handcuffed Mayers with zip ties too.</p><p data-block-key=\"ahkr3\">“We shouldn’t have looked like anything other than press,” Mayers said. “We had tens of thousands of dollars of camera equipment on us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"45c8l\">The detention took place near Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in downtown Minneapolis, according to the citation that was later issued.</p><p data-block-key=\"cf8zf\">Police took Mayers’ camera, put it in a plastic bag, removed his gas mask, and led him into the police van next to Slade, Mayers said. The van, he said, was in the middle of a street where tear gas had just been released. Mayers and Slade were both coughing from the gas that hung in the air.</p><p data-block-key=\"zwsgi\">They waited in the van for about an hour before moving, Mayers said. The van was partitioned with Rua, a VICE camera operator, later joining Slade and Mayers. González was on the other side of the van with a woman who was not a journalist, Mayers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b8mxl\">The journalists were transported to the Hennepin County Jail. Their gear was brought there in plastic bags, Mayers said. They waited in the police vehicle while the police determined their charges. Law enforcement included officers from Hennepin and a second county, the journalist said.</p><p data-block-key=\"t996n\">Police then took the journalists out of the vehicle and into the jail where each crew member was fingerprinted and photographed, Mayers said. While they were fingerprinted, their plastic zip ties were replaced with metal cuffs, Mayers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"eaodm\">The journalist said he didn’t see any other people being processed aside from the VICE crew and the woman who was arrested with them though there were about 50 police in the facility, Mayers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ehnj8\">Each member of the VICE crew was charged with violating curfew, according to the journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"fw072\">After about four hours, the journalists were released and their equipment was returned without damage, Mayers said. The crew walked back to their hotel because their vehicle was in the opposite direction, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"xo8cu\">Mayers said that a VICE lawyer told the crew their charges would be dismissed. Weeks later, the crew members received a court summons in the mail.</p><p data-block-key=\"i2oc9\">The journalist received a letter dated August 4, 2020, from the Deputy City Attorney for the city of Minneapolis stating that the charges were dismissed, a copy of which was seen by CPJ.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "VICE Media producer arrested with crew while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-producer-arrested-crew-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-29T18:14:21.215703Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-11-18T20:08:40.169161Z",
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"date": "2020-05-30",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Ellis Rua, a camera operator for VICE Media, and three colleagues were arrested on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests, Rua told the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p>The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p>Rua said that he and the VICE crew — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-reporter-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Alzo Slade</a>, Jika González, and Dave Mayers — were spending time with protesters at a food distribution center when they decided to follow a protest that was starting up so they could get B-roll.</p><p>Police appeared in front of the group of protesters and the journalists, obstructing their way forward, and began firing tear gas, Rua said. Law enforcement emerged from vehicles labeled as belonging to Minnesota State Troopers. They were wearing riot gear that also identified them as state troopers, according to Mayers.</p><p>When law enforcement started firing tear gas, Rua suggested the crew find a corner to put on their gas masks. Rua didn’t think the state troopers would arrest journalists with press passes. But the troopers approached the journalists and told them to get on the ground, Rua said. The group complied.</p><p>One of the officers said he would need to speak to his commander. The officer spoke with someone by phone, and then told the journalists that they were under arrest, Rua said.</p><p>“I was quite surprised,” Rua said. “We did identify ourselves as press, but they still proceeded to arrest us.”</p><p>The detention took place near Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in downtown Minneapolis, according to the citation that was later issued.</p><p>Rua was carrying a gas mask with canisters, a helmet, and a camera. The rest of the crew had other equipment including two Sony Fs7 cameras and multiple lenses, according to Rua.</p><p>Initially law enforcement used plastic ties to secure the wrists of all four crew members, Rua said. First Slade, then Mayers, and then González were walked to a police vehicle, while Rua was left waiting in the side street for what he said felt like 15 to 30 minutes before he was also brought to the vehicle.</p><p>The journalists were then taken to a police building where the plastic zip ties were replaced with metal handcuffs and they were fingerprinted, Rua said. The journalists were not allowed to make a phone call or read their Miranda rights at any point during their detention, Rua said.</p><p>Each of the journalists was given a citation for breaking curfew from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department, the journalist said. They were expected to appear in court in late October.</p><p>Eventually, Rua and Mayers were notified that the charges against them have been dropped. As of late September, Slade and González were still waiting for a similar notification.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "VICE Media producer arrested while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-producer-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-28T21:10:36.724890Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-11-09T17:13:29.412611Z",
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"date": "2020-05-30",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zy5ud\">Jika González, a producer for VICE Media, and three colleagues were arrested on May 30 in Minneapolis, for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"5qnq7\">The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ke8ac\">González told the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that she was reporting on protests in downtown Minneapolis with VICE film crew members <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-reporter-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Alzo Slade</a>, Ellis Rua, and Dave Mayers. The crew was following protesters when police began forming a line to block the protest’s progression, González said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ctl95\">“We stayed to get a few shots of police forming the line, and then the first thing of [an irritant] was launched,” said González, who referred to police when she meant Minnesota State Troopers. The crew ducked into a side alley off of the main avenue, the journalist said.</p><p data-block-key=\"12u1h\">“We were thinking that police had established that line and were going to stay there because this march was very peaceful,” González said. Law enforcement then came around the corner and started yelling at the journalists to get on the ground, and they complied, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jq7k7\">González said she could see Slade and Mayer but Rua was behind her. Her colleagues were lying on the ground. González said she was kneeling on the ground with her hands up. Her mask was on halfway.</p><p data-block-key=\"kzdum\">González said that an officer approached Slade, who said they were press. The state trooper glanced at his press badge before taking him away.</p><p data-block-key=\"bh491\">Troopers took Mayer and then González to a holding vehicle that was partitioned by gender. González was held with a woman who was not a journalist, she said. Rua was then brought to the other side of the vehicle to join Mayer and Slade.</p><p data-block-key=\"uxrvt\">The detention took place near Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in downtown Minneapolis, according to the citation that was later issued. The Tracker documents all <a href=\"http://pressfreedomtracker.us/arrest-criminal-charge/\">arrests</a> separately.</p><p data-block-key=\"n9hj9\">González said her hands were ziptied. A trooper removed her gas mask and ignored her request for a medical mask, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"z6q8q\">Troopers put the journalists' equipment — including several cameras and microphones — into bags and took them along with the journalists to the precinct. Troopers also confiscated the crew’s cellphones, González said.</p><p data-block-key=\"z46tb\">“There was no way protesters would be carrying all of those cameras,” González said.</p><p data-block-key=\"3p484\">When they got to the precinct, law enforcement deliberated over what citation they should use to process the journalists, according to González. At no point was the team read their Miranda rights, the journalist noted.</p><p data-block-key=\"jh7l8\">González said she again requested a surgical mask and was given one by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"t0nt8\">Eventually, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office charged the journalists with violating curfew, according to the citation viewed by CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rxk2\">As the police were walking González out of the precinct, she said one of the officers mentioned thinking that they weren’t supposed to arrest “you guys,” meaning journalists. González said another officer responded, “Well, now you can put it on your resume.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uiyil\">The crew’s equipment, including their cellphones, was returned during their release and no footage was deleted, González said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5g8df\">According to <a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2020/05/30/journalists-report-being-fired-on-gassed-in-minneapolis-george-floyd-protests/\">news reports</a>, the media was exempt from curfew the night the VICE crew was arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"241cb\">About a week after the arrest, González received via mail a court summons from the Hennepin County District Court for October 26, according to a copy of the summons that was seen by CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"v1lnv\">A VICE spokesperson told CPJ that the Commissioner for the Department of Corrections has said the charges will be dropped.</p><p data-block-key=\"sjpi0\">But as of late September, González told CPJ that she had not yet received any notification of dropped charges.</p></div>",
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"(2020-08-11 22:21:00+00:00) Charges dropped against VICE Media producer arrested while covering Minneapolis protests"
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{
"title": "Journalist says was knocked to the ground, kicked while covering LA demonstrations",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-says-was-knocked-ground-kicked-while-covering-l-demonstrations/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-18T16:52:20.992070Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-02T14:39:00.317383Z",
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"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"880v8\">A Los Angeles police officer shoved and kicked the writer and publisher of West Hollywood news outlet Wehoville while he covered a local protest against police violence on May 30, 2020, according to the journalist and the outlet’s <a href=\"https://www.wehoville.com/2020/05/30/a-curfew-declared-for-weho-because-of-george-floyd-demonstrations/\">reporting of events</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"3js83\">Wehoville’s Henry Scott told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on that Saturday afternoon he was walking south on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood at the intersection with Beverly Boulevard. As protesters moved east down Beverly Boulevard he walked along with them.</p><p data-block-key=\"u5tf2\">Scott told the Tracker he took notes and photographs as he followed the crowd toward a parking lot on Third Street west of Fairfax Avenue where demonstrators were holding signs and chanting.</p><p data-block-key=\"onblt\">“On the street, a police car had been set on fire,” Scott said. “A line of police officers wearing riot helmets and carrying batons and rubber bullet rifles stood at the edge of the parking lot watching the demonstrators, who were peaceful.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q3j1f\">Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department began advancing toward the protesters. Scott told the Tracker that he wasn’t wearing any press credentials, but identified himself as a journalist when they drew close. He also asked an officer — whose helmet identified him as Rodriguez — whether they were moving people out of the parking lot and why. Scott said he hadn’t heard a dispersal order.</p><p data-block-key=\"66ehh\">Scott said the officer didn’t answer but suddenly knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the ribs on his left side. Scott had been taking video of that officer and others shoving demonstrators and shooting rubber bullets at their feet earlier that afternoon, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jnl8i\">Two others — <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-journalists-covering-protests-los-angeles-assaulted/\">multimedia journalist Lexis-Olivier Ray</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-police-baton-while-covering-la-demonstrations/\">visual journalist Chava Sanchez</a> — also reported being assaulted by LAPD officers in the same intersection while covering afternoon clashes between demonstrators and police.</p><p data-block-key=\"v01jt\">The LAPD didn’t respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"vj1pl\">“It took me six weeks to completely recover from that assault,” Scott told the Tracker, “which for the first few weeks left me in pain that required taking anti-pain medication and made it nearly impossible for me to bend over and very difficult to get out of bed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bclsw\">Scott said that he didn’t seek medical treatment because of concerns about catching COVID-19.</p><p data-block-key=\"tdy2h\">The protest in L.A. was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"o7n1p\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these demonstrations across the country. Find<a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "California",
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{
"title": "Three Raleigh newsrooms damaged during protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/three-raleigh-newsrooms-damaged-during-protests-may-30/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-10T13:01:33.310704Z",
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"date": "2020-05-30",
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"longitude": -78.63861,
"latitude": 35.7721,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3h9xr\">The offices of INDY Week, The News & Observer, and ABC11 in downtown Raleigh, N.C. were damaged during protests in the city on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"816kg\">Alternative weekly newspaper INDY Week reported extensive damage to its newsroom, while ABC11 and The News & Observer newspaper both had windows smashed as protests stretched late into the night.</p><p data-block-key=\"s6jvt\">The protests in Raleigh echoed demonstrations across the country sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"8cb3f\">The newsrooms in Raleigh were damaged late in the first major day of protesting in the city. Demonstrations had been peaceful through the day, but late in the evening, after police began using tear gas to disperse crowds, a small group of people began destroying property in the city’s downtown.</p><p data-block-key=\"ixxxt\">INDY Week Raleigh news editor Leigh Tauss told U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she had returned to the office while covering the protests to wash her face off and get some water, after she had been caught up in tear gas. She was in the back of the ground-floor office near the water cooler, shortly before 10 p.m., when she heard the window shatter, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"gz6qg\">She sank down to the floor and called her editor, before she moved out toward the front of the office and saw a brick had been thrown through the window, she said. She posted about the damage <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeighTauss/status/1266911866959339521?s=20\">on Twitter</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ol5t3\">Tauss said she tried to leave the office then, but when she stepped outside, there was more tear gas in the street so she came back inside. She was in the hallway when she heard someone enter the office and ducked into the basement to hide. After waiting for a few minutes, she got a text from another journalist who was outside and who told her it was clear for her to leave. She posted on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeighTauss/status/1266915505903984640?s=20\">Twitter</a> at that point that it appeared that someone had tried to take water, but no computers were missing.</p><p data-block-key=\"o6kmv\">Later that night, according to Tauss, somebody entered the office and caused more extensive damage. Large windows were entirely smashed. Couches in the office were set on fire, setting off the sprinkler system. While other equipment was damaged by the water, her desktop computer went missing, she said.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I’m devastated. We are a progressive newspaper. Last night I was inside when the first brick was thrown <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Raleigh?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Raleigh</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/MJvPdscyqf\">pic.twitter.com/MJvPdscyqf</a></p>— Leigh Tauss (@LeighTauss) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeighTauss/status/1267085577419186178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"odj1g\">The three offices were just some of many businesses damaged in the city. According to <a href=\"https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article243135136.html\">an article in the News & Observer</a>, “nearly every” business in Raleigh’s downtown area was damaged overnight.</p><p data-block-key=\"tkw5n\">A spokesperson for the Raleigh Police Department said police were aware of damage to INDY Week and the News & Observer. There haven’t been any arrests related to the incidents, according to the department.</p><p data-block-key=\"hniy5\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"apfq7\">INDY Week Raleigh news editor Leigh Tauss was washing off tear gas in the North Carolina newsroom when the vandalizing began. “I’m devastated,” she said the next day posting the damage — burned furniture, water damage and stolen equipment.</p>",
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{
"title": "Reporter struck with pepper balls during live broadcast on Omaha protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-struck-pepper-balls-during-live-broadcast-omaha-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-02T15:29:42.560303Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:20:53.015760Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:20:52.932204Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Omaha",
"longitude": -95.94043,
"latitude": 41.25626,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gapui\">Jessika Eidson, a reporter for CBS-affiliate KMTV, was hit by projectiles fired by police while reporting live on protests in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 30, 2020, according to footage of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ytqe\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"kvph3\">Eidson was reporting on the second night of protests in Omaha, which had moved as the night progressed from 72nd and Dodge Streets to downtown, according to Eidson’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1266880732963770374\">tweets</a> and other <a href=\"https://omaha.com/news/local/person-shot-to-death-in-old-market-as-tear-gas-fills-streets-during-second-night/article_28f8d39e-e4bc-5377-8568-44a75fc99368.html\">news reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"tkw0l\">Shortly before 10:30 p.m., Eidson <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1266932043021238282\">tweeted</a> protesters had gathered near the police headquarters, where she observed tear gas and fireworks.</p><p data-block-key=\"6esay\">Eidson then went live on air to report from the scene near Howard and South 12th Streets. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1267057057640955906\">video</a> of the incident, Eidson says her crew got a “very painful” whiff of tear gas earlier. She reports she just saw a man throw something at police, just as a bang from a firecracker can be heard. The video feed cuts to a view of the city.</p><p data-block-key=\"2a1ux\">Almost immediately Eidson exclaims, “OK, we gotta go though! I just got hit!” Eidson <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1267057058945404928\">tweeted</a> that Omaha Police shot at her and her colleague with <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1266951026030120961\">pepper balls</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"b0x2s\">It isn’t clear whether Eidson’s crew was targeted by police. “We were several feet away from any officer or protester,” Eidson tweeted. “We had a large tripod, camera and bright light showing we were doing a newscast when I was directly struck twice.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rnb1o\">At a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/3NewsNow/videos/920763531669271\">press conference</a> earlier that night, Chief of Police Todd Schmaderer said police deployed tear gas and pepper balls after the protest was declared an unlawful assembly. Lt. Sherie Thomas, a spokesperson for the Omaha Police Department, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the department was conducting an ongoing review of the protests, but didn’t comment specifically about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"j14pl\">Eidson and KMTV didn’t respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"r2gg7\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JessikaEidsonTV/status/1266951026030120961\">video</a> update from her home an hour after the incident, Eidson says she and her cameraman were both safe, but she had a large welt on her leg where she was hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"fdut4\">“I’m doing OK. I have little bit of a cough right now,” she says in the video. “I think I'm going to go inside and maybe drink some milk and see if that helps.”</p><p data-block-key=\"amqyw\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Nebraska",
"abbreviation": "NE"
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{
"title": "Tires Slashed: Officers pierce journalists’ car tires in Minneapolis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tires-slashed-officers-pierce-journalists-car-tires-in-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-28T17:54:36.958055Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:49:56.811702Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:49:56.730541Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": true,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"c8p5t\">Law-enforcement officers punctured the tires of news crews and journalists as they reported on multiple days of protests in Minneapolis, according to news reports and an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0uho\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"y3tyk\">According to <a href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/anti-racism-police-protest/2020/06/videos-show-cops-slashing-car-tires-at-protests-in-minneapolis/\">Mother Jones</a>, officers punctured the tires of all vehicles in a Kmart parking lot on May 30 and again on a highway overpass on May 31 after those areas briefly turned into police staging grounds.</p><h4 data-block-key=\"zjf1t\">May 30, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"ge9rp\">At least three journalists and one news team — <a href=\"https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1266987126467461120\">Andrew Kimmel</a> of AuraNexus; freelance photojournalist <a href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/anti-racism-police-protest/2020/06/videos-show-cops-slashing-car-tires-at-protests-in-minneapolis/\">Philip Montgomery</a>; Lucas Jackson, a staff photographer for Reuters at the time; and a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/phil_leblancSRC/status/1266932590465949697\">Radio-Canada news crew</a> that included reporter Philippe Leblanc — reported returning to their respective vehicles after covering protests near the Fifth Precinct to find the tires slashed. Kimmel <a href=\"https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1267203570522304513\">reported</a> that four CNN vehicles also had their tires slashed.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This tow truck driver has been here all day. He later told me four <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CNN</a> vehicles had their tires slashed here as well. There was an entire row of press vehicles that all had to be towed. <a href=\"https://t.co/LG40yxlrde\">pic.twitter.com/LG40yxlrde</a></p>— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1267203570522304513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1zdv2\">Jackson told the Tracker that while he and Montgomery were walking away from their parked cars that evening, police officers from the nearby Fifth Precinct shone flashlights on the photographers. Both put their hands in the air and identified themselves as members of the media, Jackson said. When they returned to their cars in the early hours of May 30, their tires had been punctured. They drove to a nearby parking lot, where they changed Montgomery’s tire (Montgomery did not respond to emailed requests for comment as of press time). Jackson, who didn’t have a spare tire, drove his vehicle to his hotel and called a tow truck the next day.</p><p data-block-key=\"fbce3\">While he didn’t witness the incident, Jackson told the Tracker he believed officers were responsible because they had been the only people in the area when the photographers had parked their vehicles. Additionally, he said, on several occasions over the following days he had seen officers engaging in similar acts. When police officers “left their precincts to expand their security perimeters, they would puncture vehicle tires” along the way, he said. Spokespeople for both the Minneapolis Police Department and the city of Minneapolis declined to comment, telling the Tracker that the “incident is part of ongoing litigation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"anyil\">WCCO reporter Jeff Wagner tweeted about the tire slashings that night, noting in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Jeff_Wagner4/status/1266945900951330817\">follow up tweet</a> that he couldn’t confirm whether law enforcement was responsible for the damage.</p><p data-block-key=\"we5cj\">“If I tried walking up to the officers to ask, I would have been shot at w/ tear gas or a rubber bullet,” he wrote. “They were yelling at us to leave the premises.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ucaub\">The Tracker is documenting <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">several hundred incidents</a> of journalists being assaulted, arrested, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. More than 30 press freedom aggressions in Minneapolis and St. Paul affecting 60 journalists have been documented since May 26. You can read them <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-26&date_upper=2020-05-31&state=Minnesota&endpage=10\">here</a>.</p><h4 data-block-key=\"frk9z\">May 31, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"09lq4\">Luke Mogelson, who was on assignment for the New Yorker magazine, told the Tracker that he parked his car on the shoulder of the South Washington Avenue overpass spanning I-35W in downtown Minneapolis on his way to cover protests at the nearby U.S. Bank Stadium on May 31. Other cars were parked in the same fashion, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mpk1b\">Many protesters dispersed at the arrival of an 8 p.m. curfew, but others marched to I-35W in the direction of Mogelson’s car, he said. Protesters “found themselves suddenly trapped: in both directions, a few hundred feet away, a wall of police obstructed the highway,” Mogelson wrote in an account in the <a href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/22/the-heart-of-the-uprising-in-minneapolis\">New Yorker</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"expf1\"><a href=\"https://youtu.be/sP7hM_sdpkQ?t=4160\">Video</a> published by Canada’s Global News shows officers from at least three agencies deploying on the far end of the South Washington Avenue overpass as a crowd runs away. After officers form a perimeter on the block, several puncture the tires of a red car and then Mogelson’s silver rental car. The other cars that were parked near Mogelson’s car had apparently left before the video was filmed after curfew, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"xl30p\">Lt. Andy Knotz, a spokesperson for the Anoka County Sheriff, told the <a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/officers-slashed-tires-on-vehicles-parked-during-mpls-protests-unrest/571105692/\">Star Tribune</a> that Anoka County deputies punctured the tires on May 31 under orders of the state-led <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">Multi-Agency Command Center</a>, which was coordinating the law enforcement response to the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"iy67i\">Minnesota Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bruce Gordon told the <a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/officers-slashed-tires-on-vehicles-parked-during-mpls-protests-unrest/571105692/\">Star Tribune</a> that piercing tires was “not a typical tactic,” but “vehicles were being used as dangerous weapons and inhibited our ability to clear areas and keep areas safe where violent protesters were occurring.”</p><p data-block-key=\"71glu\">In a June 9 <a href=\"https://www.anokacounty.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2691\">press release</a>, the sheriff’s office said the order was given to deflate the tires of the “illegally abandoned vehicles” for the safety of law enforcement and protesters in the area, adding they “could have been used as deadly mobile weapons as seen on previous days.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4ta9f\">“That argument doesn’t really hold water,” Mogelson told the Tracker, explaining that his vehicle couldn’t have been a threat because it was surrounded by so many law enforcement officers in every direction.</p><p data-block-key=\"kdmgz\">Earlier that afternoon, a tanker truck drove through thousands of protesters marching on I-35W less than half a mile from where Mogelson parked his car, according to <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/semi-truck-george-floyd-protesters.html\">news reports</a>. The driver was arrested and <a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/trucker-who-rolled-into-35w-protest-released-without-charges/570957332/\">released</a> pending investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"h0iz5\">In the Global News video, Anoka County deputies wearing dark brown pants with a stripe puncture the tires with the assistance of another wearing a full camouflage uniform.</p><p data-block-key=\"tzviq\">Lt. Knotz of the sheriff’s office told the Tracker he was uncertain which law enforcement agency’s officer was clad in the camouflage uniform. Gordon of the Department of Public Safety didn’t respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"bsa6x\">Capt. Melanie Nelson, a spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard, told the Tracker it wasn’t involved in the incident. A couple of days before the tire slashing, the Minnesota National Guard <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MNNationalGuard/status/1266400955786039298\">tweeted</a> that “not everyone you see in camouflage” is a guardsman.</p><p data-block-key=\"1g6tf\">Mogelson told the Tracker he approached law enforcement officers from several local and state agencies, identified his car to them, and asked them not to tow it. He said he believed in retrospect that his tires were already punctured, but he didn’t realize it at the time. When he returned later to retrieve his car, he said a couple of officers laughed when he learned all four of his tires were punctured.</p><p data-block-key=\"0diwo\">Mogelson left his vehicle and found a ride to continue reporting at a memorial for George Floyd, he said. The protesters he had followed were corralled at a gas station near the highway, he said. Police across the country have been using <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">a maneuver called kettling</a> to hem in crowds at demonstrations. About 150 protesters in Minneapolis that day were arrested, according to Mogelson’s New Yorker article and other <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq6wzFo59jg\">news</a> <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyezyOrBEXk\">reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"xzqi2\">Mogelson later filed a report with Minneapolis police to make an insurance claim, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7xf0m\">Mogelson said he didn’t want to focus too much attention on the car. “It seems pretty clear they did not know it was my car when they slashed the tires,” he said. “A lot of journalists that were there in Minneapolis were physically abused, harassed and attacked.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lk2y5\"><i>Information in this roundup was gathered from published social media and news reports as well as interviews where noted.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"f9hls\">Minneapolis police slash a car’s tires on Washington Avenue by the I-35W highway on-ramp during demonstrations on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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{
"title": "Syracuse police shove photojournalist to ground, damaging his camera equipment",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/syracuse-police-shove-photojournalist-ground-damaging-his-camera-equipment/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-27T14:44:11.998249Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:55.310007Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:55.224203Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Syracuse",
"longitude": -76.14742,
"latitude": 43.04812,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"e45lv\">A photojournalist with Syracuse.com and the Post-Standard newspaper was shoved to the ground by a police officer while covering protests in Syracuse, New York, on May 30, 2020, video of the incident shows. The journalist suffered scrapes and bruises and two of his camera lenses were broken.</p><p data-block-key=\"fej0h\">The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"k1r0w\">News photographer Dennis Nett was covering the protests in downtown Syracuse on the night of May 30 with two other photographers and two reporters. John Lammers, senior director of content at Advance Media New York, the parent company for the news outlets, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. At 9:37 p.m., a group of riot police moved to clear the area in front of the Public Safety Building on South State Street of protesters who had broken windows at police headquarters and the nearby criminal courts building, syracuse.com <a href=\"https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/syracuse-police-officer-shoves-news-photographer-to-the-ground-during-protest-video.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ba03p\">In a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KDW8_8dVXg\">video</a> of the incident recorded by Nett’s camera, the line of officers are seen advancing yelling “move back, get back.” One officer is seen gesturing at Nett and then breaking away from the line of officers, charging towards the journalist, and knocking him to the ground. In a separate <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLCsXa99LpY\">video</a> of the incident, Nett can be seen stumbling and then falling over from the assault. The photographer suffered cuts and bruises to his elbow and hip, syracuse.com <a href=\"https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/syracuse-police-officer-shoves-news-photographer-to-the-ground-during-protest-video.html\">reported</a>. Lammers told the Tracker that two of Nett’s lenses were damaged from the fall, but that “Dennis kept working with a busted lens and a skinned up elbow and hip.” One of the lenses has been repaired and another isn’t yet repaired due to a Nikon parts shortage, a representative from syracuse.com/The Post-Standard told the Tracker on Aug. 26.</p><p data-block-key=\"el1aj\">Nett was wearing a press identification card around his neck and had cameras slung from both shoulders, syracuse.com reported. A witness to the incident, Clifford Ryans, told the outlet that he was clearly identifiable as a journalist. “They couldn’t say they didn’t know he was a reporter because he had all the cameras on his person and he was taking a picture as they did it,” Ryans <a href=\"https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/syracuse-police-officer-shoves-news-photographer-to-the-ground-during-protest-video.html\">told syracuse.com</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"n3sf2\">Nett didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"z2ay2\">After conducting a review of the incident, Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner said the officer, whom he identified as Sgt. Todd Cramer, had acted with “reasonable and necessary” force and wouldn’t be disciplined, syracuse.com <a href=\"https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/syracuse-police-chief-defends-sergeant-who-shoved-photojournalist-at-protest-no-discipline.html\">reported</a> on June 12.</p><p data-block-key=\"tnhb5\">In a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLCsXa99LpY\">video</a> of a press conference posted by syracuse.com, Buckner is shown saying that Nett “didn’t comply with the instructions that we clearly gave him and that put him in harm’s way.” According to the report by syracuse.com, Nett told police in an interview about the incident that he “recalled hearing commands from officers a few seconds before he was shoved…[and] was preparing to move.” Buckner said Cramer “did not know, at that moment, that Nett was a journalist,” according to the website’s report.</p><p data-block-key=\"oyprv\">Tim Kennedy, president of Advance Media New York, said in a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLCsXa99LpY\">statement</a> that the company was disappointed with the announcement. “Dennis Nett was working in the public service and posed no threat to police. He didn’t deserve to get shoved to the ground, in a way that was neither necessary nor reasonable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gzjmk\">Lammers told the Tracker there have been no further developments related to the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"caz39\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Police push, fire projectiles at journalists on assignment for New York Times",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-say-police-pushed-one-over-wall-fired-projectiles-them-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-21T13:57:45.751152Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-11T14:46:49.889350Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-11T14:46:49.729116Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"p0tpv\">Police officers shoved, threatened and shot projectiles at two freelance journalists while they reported for the New York Times on protests in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020, according to interviews with the journalists and videos of the incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"uy9vh\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ri0s\">Journalists Mike Shum and Katie G. Nelson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they were reporting in the Fifth Precinct of Minneapolis for the Times as an 8 p.m. curfew came into effect.</p><p data-block-key=\"zbqvt\">As seen in a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2882143978738897\">video</a> from local ABC affiliate KSTP, a line of state police formed to the south of the station on Nicollet Avenue. “Please disperse or you will be arrested,” a loudspeaker blares. Within seconds of the warning, the police appear to use flash bang grenades and tear gas. They then begin to advance.</p><p data-block-key=\"nptu5\">The video shows a line of State Patrol troopers, in maroon pants and helmets, and what appear to be Department of Natural Resources conservation officers in green pants and helmets approaching a group of journalists huddled on the side of the street. As previously reported by the Tracker, State Patrol troopers pepper sprayed the group at close range as the journalists identified themselves as press.</p><p data-block-key=\"qkra1\">Nelson and Shum had gas masks, but a third person working with them didn’t, Nelson said, so she escorted this person to safety as Shum stayed to film.</p><p data-block-key=\"0d032\">Shum and the other journalists fled from the advancing police. Several journalists attempted to turn west off Nicollet Avenue on West 31st Street, but found themselves trapped in an alcove on the corner of a building with no exit. They could either go back into the tear-gas clouded street or try to climb over a wall, Nelson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"uwe5t\">NBC journalist and producer Ed Ou filmed inside the alcove, his head bleeding from an unknown weapon or projectile and his vision blurred by tear gas and pepper spray, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc-producer-group-journalists-targeted-assault-state-patrol/\">he told the Tracker</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"v3m4d\">Ou’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/edouphoto/status/1267981849537609728\">video</a> shows several journalists climbing over the wall as Shum rounds the corner, several officers right behind him. The officers appear to be wearing green and tan DNR uniforms. As Shum attempts to scale the wall with his large camera, an officer pushes him from behind.</p><p data-block-key=\"inqrg\">Shum said he heard the officer order him to “get the fuck out of here,” before shoving him. “I was pushed hard enough where I sort of lost control and fell on my shoulder and arm,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"q8h3h\">He added he rolled through the fall and suffered superficial injuries as he tried to protect his camera and body.</p><p data-block-key=\"vm5aw\">L.A. Times photographer Carolyn Cole wrote in an <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-06-01/they-came-toward-us-firing-pepper-spray-and-rubber-bullets\">account</a> of the incident that an officer also “lifted me up onto the wall and I fell to the other side.” Cole, who said she <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/la-times-photographer-targeted-with-pepper-spray-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">suffered cornea damage</a> from the State Patrol pepper spraying her at close range, was helped to the hospital by local residents.</p><p data-block-key=\"8bkn7\">DNR spokesman Chris Niskanen said the department respects the freedom of the press but “disagrees with [the Tracker’s] characterization of events.” He didn’t specify why. Niskanen added he couldn’t comment further on the incident because it “may be subject to ongoing litigation initiated against the State of Minnesota by multiple media members.”</p><p data-block-key=\"t6se4\">Nelson and Shum have joined a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/aclu-mn-sues-law-enforcement-over-attacks-journalists-covering-george-floyd-protests\">lawsuit</a> seeking class-action status filed by the ACLU of Minnesota against Minneapolis and state officials concerning the treatment of journalists covering the Floyd protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"k94rg\">The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to the Tracker’s emailed list of questions. In a May 31 <a href=\"https://youtu.be/DK-Ua2TlCHw?t=1240\">press conference</a>, the Chief of the State Patrol, Col. Matt Langer, praised the law-enforcement effort during a dangerous and unpredictable night while also saying: “We are never perfect.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q71yc\">Shum reunited with Nelson and they continued to report on the dispersal of protesters near the Fifth Precinct police station. About an hour later, the team was filming a couple of people approaching a police line with their hands up near a Kmart a few blocks from where Shum was shoved, Nelson said. A Minneapolis Police officer about fifty feet away pointed a projectile launcher at them, Nelson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4w807\">Nelson said she yelled that they were press, adding there was no question they looked like journalists given their large cameras, ballistic helmets and protective vests.</p><p data-block-key=\"oorzo\">In a video filmed shortly after that Nelson provided to the Tracker, Minneapolis police officers in a line start ordering people to move. Nelson can be heard warning Shum, “Mike, Mike, Mike, they’re gonna push us. Keep shooting Mike.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gkp07\">Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder told the Tracker he couldn’t comment on the incident. He added that “every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”</p><p data-block-key=\"534k5\">Late into the night, Nelson and Shum were driving a couple of blocks off Lake Street on their way to 38th and Chicago, where protesters had created a memorial on the site of Floyd’s killing.</p><p data-block-key=\"b5yoh\">Nelson turned the car onto a road blocked by a police checkpoint, the journalists told the Tracker. Nelson said the police shined a bright light at them. Blinded, she slowed the car down. Nelson said she yelled that they were press through the open windows of the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"nntwh\">Nelson said the police yelled “Go home” and “We don’t care” in response.</p><p data-block-key=\"vg6pq\">Nelson pulled a U-turn and drove away as the journalists heard the pinging of projectiles hitting her car. They said they believe the car was hit with pepper balls.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ko35\">At around the same time, unidentified law-enforcement officers fired projectiles at the car of a television crew for France’s TF1 and arrested them, the Tracker previously <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/french-television-correspondent-arrested-curfew-violation-minneapolis/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ocly4\">It isn’t clear which law enforcement agency fired the projectiles at Nelson’s car. Protesters, journalists and even law-enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">dozen</a> different agencies joined the law-enforcement effort in Minnesota, often wearing similar looking uniforms.</p><p data-block-key=\"wznrs\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=111\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/MPLS_demos_KNelson8.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"zvtkg\">Freelance journalist Mike Shum looks back as a police line advances in Minneapolis’ Fifth Precinct shortly before police push him over a wall on May 30, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "0:20-cv-01302",
"case_type": "CLASS_ACTION",
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [
"withdrawn"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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{
"title": "VICE Media reporter arrested while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-reporter-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-18T17:57:05.972781Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:38.711431Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:38.620861Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"bu81p\">Alzo Slade, a reporter for VICE Media, and three colleagues were detained and fingerprinted by police on May 30 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests, according to Slade.</p><p data-block-key=\"qgahw\">The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ftt5h\">Slade told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was reporting on protests in downtown Minneapolis with three other VICE journalists when they encountered a long line of police in riot gear forming a wall to block the street. Slade said that the police began spraying tear gas and pepper spray. He realized that the crew — producers and camera operators Jika Gonzalez, Elis Rua, and Dave Mayer — needed to turn away to put on the gas masks they were carrying.</p><p data-block-key=\"ur4za\">“We didn’t go into a peaceful protest wearing gas masks and flak jackets because visually that just says that you’re expecting trouble and that you’re looking for trouble,” Slade said.</p><p data-block-key=\"iwyg2\">The journalist said that he and his colleagues ducked into an alleyway and turned around to see that riot police had followed them.</p><p data-block-key=\"m0pf1\">“We immediately announced that we’re press, but they told us to get down on the ground,” Slade said. “We comply 100 percent. We get down on the ground and as a police officer walks toward us, I hold my credentials up and I say ‘I’m press, we’re press, sir!’,” Slade said.</p><p data-block-key=\"o2wdw\">A police officer then proceeded to use zip ties to secure Slade’s hands behind his back while his gas mask was still on, he said. The other crew members also had their hands zip tied behind their back.</p><p data-block-key=\"i6p22\">“It is important to note that in this crew, there are four people and three of us are Black men,” Slade said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tdgb0\">Slade said that the officer, a Minnesota State Trooper, then asked to see his credentials. He managed to show the officer, despite having his hands tied behind his back. The journalist said he was then passed to another officer who placed Slade and his crew into a wagon in the middle of the street that was still thick with teargas and pepper spray. Police removed his gas mask while Gonzalez was sent to another part of the police wagon with other women.</p><p data-block-key=\"o9yvy\">“One of the crew asks for masks; they tell us we’re going to get masks when we get down to the station,” Slade said. Instead, he said, they sat in the van for about 25 minutes.</p><p data-block-key=\"4j9ge\">At the station, Slade said they waited for officers to figure out their case number before each crew member was fingerprinted.</p><p data-block-key=\"vb13o\">“They gave us [each] a citation and VICE’s attorney immediately contacted the state of Minnesota and filed grievances,” Slade said. “The state of Minnesota assured us that [the citations] would not go on our record and that [they] would be dropped.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ktlfn\">About a week later, Slade and the other VICE crew members received a notification in the mail with a court date, Slade said. The notice said failure to appear would result in a bench warrant.</p><p data-block-key=\"laimf\">The Commissioner for the Department of Corrections has since confirmed to VICE that the dismissals are forthcoming, according to a VICE spokesperson, who corresponded with CPJ via email.</p><p data-block-key=\"6s0x5\">According to <a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2020/05/30/journalists-report-being-fired-on-gassed-in-minneapolis-george-floyd-protests/\">news reports</a>, the media was exempt from curfew the night the VICE crew was arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"rloid\">“What added insult to injury is that we lost a night of coverage,” Slade said. “We were not able to cover the protests that night. We were not able to cover the aggression by law enforcement that night, so that’s really what kind of stung just as much.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8o3k1\">The Minneapolis Police and Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ulbfw\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39P2K.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"tvikx\">Minneapolis law enforcement officers and protesters are seen amid tear gas on May 30, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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"(2020-08-11 22:02:00+00:00) Charges dropped against VICE Media reporter arrested while covering Minneapolis protests"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Alzo Slade (Vice News)"
],
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},
{
"title": "WGN news van vandalized in Chicago during protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wgn-news-van-vandalized-chicago-during-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-14T19:07:42.058406Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:05:54.633712Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:05:54.553169Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"z9cuz\">A van for television network WGN News was vandalized by unidentified individuals during protests in Chicago, Illinois, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"pdy14\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"5vwd0\">A spokesperson for WGN said the van was in Chicago’s downtown near the Wrigley Building when the incident occurred. “Our truck was parked seemingly out of harm’s way—but then the protests spread to that area,” spokesperson Gary Weitman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email. “No specific groups were involved—one person started spray-painting, and then others joined in."</p><p data-block-key=\"zgps4\">Weitman said no crew member was hurt in the incident, but declined to elaborate on details of the incident’s timing or location.</p><p data-block-key=\"1p2ya\">Mark Guarino, the Chicago correspondent for the Washington Post, told the Tracker that he saw the van, which had been covered in graffiti and crude language, driving north on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago at around 6:30 p.m. on May 30. A few minutes later he posted an image of the van to Twitter.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Chicago's very own <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WGNNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WGNNews</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/AUrfsju2LR\">pic.twitter.com/AUrfsju2LR</a></p>— Mark Guarino (@markguarino) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/markguarino/status/1266877222884904960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dbiht\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/WGN_news_van_0530_Il.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"08i04\">The WGN news van as seen on Michigan Avenue in Chicago on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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"name": "Illinois",
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"Black Lives Matter",
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{
"title": "WDEL journalist’s phone stolen during Facebook Live stream",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wdel-journalists-phone-stolen-during-facebook-live-stream/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-13T20:47:03.704771Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:05.636536Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:19:05.539075Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Wilmington",
"longitude": -75.54659,
"latitude": 39.74595,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5k01e\">Radio journalist Mike Phillips had his employer-issued iPhone stolen by an unknown person while covering protests in Wilmington, Delaware, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"zwzf8\">Protesters took to the streets of Wilmington and cities across the United States following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes during a May 25 arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"v8797\">Phillips had been reporting on demonstrations on May 30 for radio station WDEL alongside fellow correspondent Sean Greene.</p><p data-block-key=\"lql4e\">Phillips told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protests had been mostly peaceful throughout the day but that during the evening hours he observed some individuals smashing storefront windows and stealing merchandise.</p><p data-block-key=\"tuf8r\">Phillips said that Greene had been broadcasting via Facebook Live with an iPhone at around 6 p.m. when an unknown individual punched him and stole the device.</p><p data-block-key=\"b7lc3\">Phillips said that at the time of Greene’s assault, which the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-punched-during-protest-delaware-iphone-stolen/\">Tracker is documenting here</a>, he had also been broadcasting to Facebook Live. In <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/36402300821/videos/293874228438350\">Phillips’ video</a>, individuals can be seen removing items from a building, which Phillips can be heard describing as “the looting of a store” in downtown Wilmington.</p><p data-block-key=\"6ozkv\">During Phillips’ broadcast, an unknown individual wrenched the phone from his hands and made off with the device. Phillips’ phone continued to record video after it was taken from him, and an individual can be heard laughing as they run away from the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"r9z7f\">“It was disheartening that I couldn’t keep doing my job that night,” Phillips said.</p><p data-block-key=\"nsh4k\">Phillips later reported the theft of the phones to Wilmington police on behalf of WDEL. As of press time, Phillips said that neither his nor Greene’s phone had been recovered and no arrests had been made in connection with the alleged thefts.</p><p data-block-key=\"fempv\">Aside from incidents on May 30, Phillips said WDEL reporters haven’t faced altercations during subsequent coverage of the demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"u96eg\">“We have covered plenty of stuff since then and have had no incidents whatsoever,” Phillips said.</p><p data-block-key=\"c62hr\">Though Greene was injured in the field, Phillips said he hasn’t feared for his safety while covering the Wilmington protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9foa\">“Despite what happened to Sean, I didn’t feel unsafe,” Phillips said. “It was more of a crime of opportunity, if you want to call it that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2szin\">A spokesperson for the Wilmington Police Department declined to comment on the incident or confirm whether there was a continuing investigation into Phillips’ report, citing restrictions on releasing such information under Delaware’s Victims’ Bill of Rights.</p><p data-block-key=\"31ps1\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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}
],
"state": {
"name": "Delaware",
"abbreviation": "DE"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
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],
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]
