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{
"title": "Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist shoved to the ground by LAPD",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pulitzer-prize-winning-photojournalist-shoved-ground-lapd/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-17T12:17:12.071463Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:07:44.408284Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:07:44.322419Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8nyln\">A Los Angeles Police Department officer shoved freelance photographer Barbara Davidson to the ground, breaking a camera lens, while she covered a protest in the city on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"tg031\">The protest was part of a wave of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital. The officer has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who were present face felony charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"b2qan\">The demonstrators were taking a left turn on foot from West Third Street onto South Fairfax Avenue when a police line advanced. An officer yelled at Davidson to leave. “I said ‘Sir, I’m a journalist’ and they just kept on screaming,” Davidson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. She also showed them the badge identifying her as a journalist, but it made no difference in their demeanor toward her.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ud5x\">The LAPD didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"uzm83\">“I realized in that moment that I wasn’t going to win this debate,” said Davidson, a Pulitzer-prize winning photographer who is currently <a href=\"https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/barbara-davidson/\">a Guggenheim fellow</a>. “I turned to walk away, and as I turned to walk away he shoved me with his baton and I went flying.” Davidson was wearing a helmet.</p><p data-block-key=\"icz2p\">Fellow freelance journalist Jason Ryan witnessed the incident. “They wouldn’t even give her a minute to get up,” he told the Tracker. At 5:06 p.m. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Photospice/status/1267155396541550593\">Davidson tweeted a photo of herself</a> with the caption, “I got pushed from behind by the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/911LAPD\">@911LAPD</a> after I told them I was a journalist. I was hit so hard that I went flying before crashing to the ground and hitting the back of my head on a fire hydrant. Protesters picked me up preventing me from being crushed by the ‘line’.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I got pushed from behind by the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/911LAPD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@911LAPD</a> after I told them I was a journalist. I was hit so hard that I went flying before crashing to the ground and hitting the back of my head on a fire hydrant. Protesters picked me up preventing me from being crushed by the "line" <a href=\"https://t.co/Hbp1M6RskL\">pic.twitter.com/Hbp1M6RskL</a></p>— barbaradavidson (@Photospice) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Photospice/status/1267155396541550593?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=\"kwcgg\">Davidson said she had the symptoms of a concussion but had to delay seeing her doctor due to COVID-19. The lens of her Hasselblad camera was damaged in the fall and needed to be shipped to New Jersey for repair at her own expense.</p><p data-block-key=\"wtv8e\">Davidson has covered Los Angeles for 13 years and said she never had an encounter like that with an officer. “I was specifically targeted because I was a journalist and that’s why I decided to speak up,” she told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"3q0ky\">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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{
"quantity": 1,
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}
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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"Barbara Davidson (Freelance)"
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},
{
"title": "Columbus Dispatch photographer hit with projectile while covering protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/columbus-dispatch-photographer-hit-projectile-while-covering-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-17T11:57:29.013655Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:55:42.282863Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:55:42.168824Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Columbus",
"longitude": -82.99879,
"latitude": 39.96118,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"x6e7v\">Adam Cairns, a staff photographer for the daily Columbus Dispatch, was hit with a projectile while covering protests in Columbus, Ohio, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"k9zzm\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"2lgcg\">On the night of May 31, Cairns and his colleague Dean Narciso left the Dispatch office and walked half a block to the intersection of Broad and High streets adjacent to the Ohio state capitol building where protesters had gathered. At around 9:45 p.m., shortly before a 10 p.m. curfew went into effect, Cairns observed a large police presence moving into formation in the middle of the intersection, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. As the officers lined up, he said he saw something that resembled a water bottle thrown at the police. Immediately, and without warning, according to Cairns, police began shooting projectiles and pepper spray to disperse the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"dl2my\">Cairns and Narciso were standing at a distance from the group of protesters who had congregated. They turned to leave the scene. At that moment, Cairns told the Tracker, he was struck on the back of his right ear and cheek by what appeared to be a wooden bullet, knocking his safety glasses off his head. Narciso was not hit, according to Cairns. The men returned to the Dispatch office and Cairns said he did not resume photographing the protests until the following night. The projectile left a welt on his cheek for several hours and a scratch on his ear, he said. His equipment was not damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"6334p\">In a photograph taken by Cairns shortly before he turned away and was hit, a police officer can be seen aiming in his direction.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Police open fire with non-lethal rounds to disperse protesters from Broad/High as curfew neared <a href=\"https://t.co/lYxdzwXGDF\">pic.twitter.com/lYxdzwXGDF</a></p>— Adam Cairns (@atomicphoto) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/atomicphoto/status/1267279781063798784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"he5rz\">In an <a href=\"https://www.dispatch.com/opinion/20200602/from-editor-police-target-protesters-journalists-even-as-they-retreat?fbclid=IwAR3RujZ08_IdGxiWZiLPXFqAjoo0AWEzhStH84TEFCDOrJcGcTzGt2Ea3Mg\">editorial</a> for the paper, Dispatch Editor Alan D. Miller wrote of the photograph, “It’s unclear whether it was that officer’s bullet that grazed Cairns’ ear and cheek… It’s unclear whether the officer who fired at Cairns was targeting a journalist. But there was no mistaking Cairns for a protester, given the camera equipment and press credentials he was carrying.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mdv8b\">Cairns told the Tracker “it’s really hard to say” whether he was targeted by law enforcement. “As I look back on it, there was nobody else in the area other than me with cameras pointed at them,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2408x\">The Columbus Division of Police did not immediately respond to phone and emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"d4wiv\">In his editorial, Miller wrote that when asked in a press conference two days later about police treatment of journalists covering the protests, Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan responded, “There’s no malice involved, there’s no intent. ... We ask the public to have some patience and please comply, and we’ll work it out afterward. Please don’t stand there and argue; move along and comply and we’ll fix this after.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3o3e7\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Cairns_assault_0531_OH.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"3nob6\">Soon after taking this photograph for Ohio's Columbus Dispatch, staff photographer Adam Cairns was hit with a projectile on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Ohio",
"abbreviation": "OH"
},
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"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "San Diego student journalist hit with tear gas, projectiles while covering protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/san-diego-student-journalist-hit-tear-gas-projectiles-while-covering-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-15T17:10:20.472580Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:55:05.341047Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:55:05.255022Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Diego",
"longitude": -117.16472,
"latitude": 32.71571,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dgu1w\">Journalist JoseLuis Baylon was hit by tear gas and projectiles while covering a San Diego protest on May 31, 2020. Baylon is a columnist for East County Californian and his campus newspaper The SWC Sun, but was covering the protest as an independent reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"5wlwg\">The protest was part of a wave of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital. The officer has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who were present face felony charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"ct94g\">The protesters were standing in front of Spreckels Theatre at 121 Broadway in downtown San Diego facing a line of San Diego Police Department officers, Baylon told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. At 3:19 p.m. the SDPD <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SanDiegoPD/status/1267219071168155649\">tweeted</a>, “Unlawful assembly order being given in the area of Broadway. We are asking everyone to disperse immediately due to the escalation of violence by the protestors.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d0l8z\">Baylon was standing on a ramp in front of a business near the police line. “At one point the officers started putting on their gas masks and then the crowd started saying to themselves ‘hey, watch out, they’re getting ready.’ A lot of people didn’t know, but those that got the word started moving back,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"nm7fw\">At 3:10 p.m. Baylon recorded a video that appears to show SDPD firing pepper balls and flash-bang grenades at the protesters. In the recording Baylon says, “We’re all coughing, it’s everywhere.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qtyoo\">At 3:41 p.m. Baylon <a href=\"https://twitter.com/plutotoplato/status/1267224695239131137\">tweeted</a> a video that he began recording at 3:19 p.m. Tear gas appears to blow back toward where Baylon is standing. He ducks behind a railing and moves away from the street, eventually taking shelter among overturned patio tables and pouring milk in his eyes. A badge identifying him as press is visible on a lanyard around his neck. “As we’re crawling to get out, we’re still shot,” Baylon said of the video. “I’m nowhere near where the protesters were.”</p><p data-block-key=\"azx6n\">The camera bag that Baylon was wearing prevented the pepper balls from physically harming him, he told the Tracker. A photograph shows residue from the pepper balls on Baylon’s bag.</p><p data-block-key=\"n3vby\">The video lasts one minute and forty-eight seconds, Baylon estimates he was in the line of fire for forty seconds of that. The SDPD repeated the same crowd-clearing tactics throughout the afternoon. SDPD didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"q4rt2\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"gx40q\">Journalist JoseLuis Baylon shows pepper balls and residue on his camera bag from covering a protest in downtown San Diego on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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{
"title": "Detroit News journalist captures her own detention on livestream",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-news-journalist-captures-her-own-detention-livestream/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-14T12:05:56.385277Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:36.097477Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:35.969023Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
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"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7wd25\">Detroit police briefly detained Detroit News reporter Christine MacDonald as she covered protests against police violence in Detroit, Michigan on May 31, 2020, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"di9ru\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"3324x\">Detroit braced for the third night in a row of protests on May 31. MacDonald told the Tracker she volunteered to help that night in part because the newsroom was short-staffed due to furloughs. For the first time in her career, she grabbed a gas mask from the newsroom.</p><p data-block-key=\"4sh7s\">MacDonald followed hundreds of protesters marching through the city, but the situation grew tense as an 8 p.m. curfew fell, she said. Around 9 p.m., police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to <a href=\"https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/05/31/detroit-protests-police-curfew-sunday/5301174002/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot\">news reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"z3u8b\">About thirty minutes later, MacDonald saw a couple people running in Grand Circus Park near Woodward Avenue, she said. A police officer tackled one of them to the ground. MacDonald filmed the apparent arrest by <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/DetroitNews/videos/855231228320197\">livestreaming</a> from her phone. She filmed from a distance to not interfere.</p><p data-block-key=\"dgt8b\">Suddenly without warning, the livestream picks up the sound of ratcheting handcuffs from behind. A voice asks, “Who are you with?” MacDonald was being detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"mj4jc\">“It happened very quickly. There was no conversation,” MacDonald said. “As soon as I noticed someone behind me is when I felt my hands being brought to the back.”</p><p data-block-key=\"91j2g\">She told the Tracker she tried to follow a colleague’s advice on what to do if detained: check your ego, identify yourself, and try to sort it out.</p><p data-block-key=\"rxepu\">MacDonald identified herself as a journalist and said she had her press credentials around her neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"l87w4\">“I had that gas mask on but I could still talk,” MacDonald said. “It wasn’t like he couldn’t hear me. He could hear me through that mask.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f7bt1\">The officer escorted MacDonald to his patrol car on Woodward Avenue and told her to stand at the front of the vehicle, MacDonald said.</p><p data-block-key=\"52hxu\">MacDonald’s livestream, obscured by her handcuffed hands reflecting the blue and red of police lights, continued to broadcast as the officer checked her credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"9mvhm\">On the way out of the park, the officer asked someone else who had a camera if MacDonald was with him, she told the Tracker. The person said no.</p><p data-block-key=\"rbwcx\">Eli Newman, a reporter and producer for NPR-affiliate WDET, told the Tracker he was walking with a group of about a half-dozen journalists for safety when he saw a woman in a gas mask walking handcuffed to a police vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"mm64g\">The group was not immediately sure if she was a journalist or not, Newman said. But Newman thought he recognized MacDonald. So he shouted to confirm and she nodded her head. Realizing she was a colleague, the journalists tried to vouch for her with the police officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"8liue\">A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MKurlyandchik/status/1267269219789529090\">video</a> filmed by Detroit Free Press journalist Mark Kurlyandchik shows the police officer examining MacDonald’s credentials hanging around her neck. Someone off camera says “We all know her!”</p><p data-block-key=\"zitn6\">Newman said he believed the journalists’ intervention helped ensure her release. MacDonald said the officer did not acknowledge the journalists, but they were vocal and he was likely aware that they were filming the interaction.</p><p data-block-key=\"h45hr\">The officer asked MacDonald twice if she planned to go home after her release due to curfew, she told the Tracker. MacDonald said she would continue reporting as she was exempt from the curfew.</p><p data-block-key=\"k9u43\">The officer told MacDonald that he believed her and joked about helping the police out next time by tripping people running away after throwing bottles at them, MacDonald told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"tgztr\">The officer released MacDonald less than three minutes after he detained her.</p><p data-block-key=\"gd02q\">It is not clear why the officer immediately handcuffed MacDonald before interacting with her. MacDonald told the Tracker that she had identified herself as a journalist to police prior to the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"xbryx\">“There was no reason to detain me,” MacDonald said. “Earlier in the night, officers asked me who I was and when I responded who I was, they had no problem leaving me to my job, but this officer didn’t even have a conversation with me before putting the cuffs on.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0rtob\">MacDonald said she did not ask the officer to identify himself, and the Detroit police did not respond to a request for comment about the detainment.</p><p data-block-key=\"16a4l\">Speaking about MacDonald and other incidents involving journalists that night, Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood, also a department spokesperson, told <a href=\"https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2020/05/31/detroit-news-reporter-detained-other-journalists-say-they-were-shoved-detroit-officers-during-protes/5304445002/\">Detroit News</a>, “we take every allegation seriously” and “the vast majority of the men and women in the department do get it right.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bvf55\">After May 31, the Detroit police began issuing daily, color-coded press passes to journalists to facilitate the identification of journalists in protests, MacDonald and Newman told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"8pcpf\">MacDonald debriefed with the other journalists following her encounter with police. “My editor is yelling at me because my hand was in front of the camera,” she said in her still-broadcasting livestream. “Well yeah, because I was arrested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tj9mt\">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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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cvl91\">Detroit News reporter Christine MacDonald stands handcuffed in a gas mask as a Detroit police officer verifies her credentials on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Christine MacDonald (The Detroit News)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist shoved by police while filming arrests in Ohio",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-police-while-filming-arrests-ohio/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T02:36:49.829310Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:00:51.334925Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:00:51.241898Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Cincinnati",
"longitude": -84.51439,
"latitude": 39.12711,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3guvd\">Nick Swartsell, news editor for CityBeat Cincinnati, was shoved by officers while filming an arrest during protests in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"768dn\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"wqxul\">Shortly after 10 p.m. Swartsell was with a group of reporters who were attempting to document the mass arrest of people he believed to be protesters on Green Street in the neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine. Police officers refused to let the journalists get close enough to see what was happening and told them “You don’t need to see this,” Swartsell told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. On Twitter, he wrote that he was threatened with arrest if he argued further.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hearing roughly 150 people being arrested on Green. I have not been allowed to get within a distance at which I can observe. Threatened w arrest if I argue further.</p>— Nick Swartsell (@nswartsell) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nswartsell/status/1267274480130416640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"y0adl\">After moving a block away from the mass arrests, Swartsell said the journalists witnessed police officers near the intersection of Elm and Liberty streets arresting a woman on the street for violating curfew. The woman repeatedly asked the group of journalists to film her arrest. When the journalist began to film, a group of police officers started pushing them away with their shields and ordered them to leave immediately, Swartsell said.</p><p data-block-key=\"x97ht\">In videos posted to Twitter of the incident, Swartsell, as well as the other journalists, can be heard yelling repeatedly “We’re press,” as the officers pushed into the group with their shields.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This woman asked her arrest be filmed. This is response we got. <a href=\"https://t.co/VUeOqxsZQf\">pic.twitter.com/VUeOqxsZQf</a></p>— Nick Swartsell (@nswartsell) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nswartsell/status/1267278442975944710?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nant7\">One officer in the video is then heard telling the journalists that their identification needs to be more prominently visible. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SarahBrookbank/status/1267278438924259328\">tweet</a> about the incident, Enquirer journalist Sarah Brookbank said she had her press badge in her hand.</p><p data-block-key=\"5k5qg\">“That was a little disturbing to me, we were not right up on them, obviously we weren’t trying to do anything other than film it and we weren’t close enough to disrupt anything and they still pushed us pretty far back,” said Swartsell.</p><p data-block-key=\"wqqfy\">The Tracker reached out to the Cincinnati Police Department for comment, but did not receive a reply.</p><p data-block-key=\"nnqvb\">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 all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Ohio",
"abbreviation": "OH"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Nick Swartsell (Cincinnati CityBeat)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Las Vegas Review-Journal struck by projectiles amid protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/las-vegas-review-journal-struck-by-projectiles-amid-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-01T03:50:12.956803Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:00:25.585304Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:00:25.506059Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Las Vegas",
"longitude": -115.13722,
"latitude": 36.17497,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pqt9x\">Two journalists with the Las Vegas Review-Journal were hit with crowd-control munitions while covering a protest in Las Vegas on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"f6tnh\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"mv8nl\">The journalists, Shea Johnson and Blake Apgar, had recorded a roughly hour-long video following the demonstrations. Aside from some protesters yelling at the police, it was a very peaceful demonstration, Johnson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The mood of the protest then became more agitated as dusk to dark.</p><p data-block-key=\"qutk6\">The journalists were walking with a group of protesters away from members of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department at about 8:45 p.m. when they were hit with pepper balls.</p><p data-block-key=\"eedua\">Officers moved the crowd aggressively, Johnson said. They warned demonstrators that failure to disperse would result in a misdemeanor charge. Officers moved the crowd south on Las Vegas Boulevard near Mandalay Bay. They moved the crowd at walking speed and then shot off the projectiles to move people faster, Johnson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tc91m\">Johnson described the incident as “jarring” but told the Tracker that he and Apgar were not targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"cyiiz\">“We were walking in a group so I don’t see any way we would have been targeted as journalists,” said Apgar, the Review Journal’s North Las Vegas and Henderson reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"xdali\">Both Johnson and Apgar ended up in an apartment complex parking lot cornered by the police, unable to walk toward their vehicle. They continued to live tweet and eventually they were able to leave the scene, they said.</p><p data-block-key=\"an386\">The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"vvh12\">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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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
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"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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{
"title": "Journalist detained covering downtown LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-detained-covering-downtown-l-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-30T03:12:27.156813Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:35:07.578189Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:35:07.497088Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"03ivj\">Freelance journalist Aaron Cantú was detained <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-detained-during-downtown-los-angeles-protest/\">alongside his reporting partner</a> while attempting to document protests against police violence in Los Angeles, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"4bx5c\">Protests that began in Minneapolis on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"vxxcm\">Cantú — who has written for The Nation, the Santa Fe Report, The Intercept and others — told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and Teen Vogue columnist Kandist Mallett were walking in downtown LA at around 6:30 p.m., looking for protesters when they turned onto Figueroa Street from Olympic Boulevard.</p><p data-block-key=\"d2n4x\">“We saw a group of young protesters running down the street towards us and that’s when we kind of walked over toward them because that seemed to be where some action was happening,” Cantú said. A group of Los Angeles police officers were behind the protesters, which he said wasn’t unusual.</p><p data-block-key=\"ap7es\">“But then we noticed that police behind us on the other side of the street had started to close in,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"4fbtm\">The officers encircled Cantú, Mallett and 30 to 40 protesters in a tactic <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">called “kettling,</a>” and ordered all of them to sit down.</p><p data-block-key=\"3yvws\">“Kandist was very vocal about her press pass, about both of us being members of the press,” Cantú said. He added that while he had his camera on his shoulder, he wasn’t wearing a press pass.</p><p data-block-key=\"s3w7n\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aaron_con_choco/status/1267185931414409217\">tweet</a> about the incident, Cantú wrote, “I’ve found that having [a press pass] makes functionally little difference in how cops target journalists, though now it appears it might actually make it worse.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gvmnr\">The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"sbhfj\">In a video of the incident Mallett shared with the Tracker, at least 50 police officers can be seen in lines approaching from up the street. Cantú can be heard calling out, “We’re press! We just came around the corner; we got sandwiched in between.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q8guw\">An officer responds, ordering them to sit down. Cantú complies, and says, “OK. We’re trying to leave though. We haven’t done anything illegal.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kz0f3\">Cantú said that when police began making arrests he was the first zip-tied because he and Mallett were the closest to the line of officers.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So, this happened yesterday evening. After coming home, taking a breath and sleeping on it, I'm doing a thread on what happened. This is also a thread with some thoughts on US police crushing freedom of the press, which unfortunately I've experienced firsthand in the past. <a href=\"https://t.co/NJ6ShfaIvg\">pic.twitter.com/NJ6ShfaIvg</a></p>— Aarón Cantú (@aaron_con_choco) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aaron_con_choco/status/1267185920995807233?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=\"xg0qc\">“Two or three of them grabbed me, lifted me up — I was sitting on the curb — and basically pushed me against a chain link fence and tied my zip ties,” he said. Cantú added that Mallett was able to dissuade the officers from zip-tying her while she continued to tell them that they were journalists and pulled up their bylines and information on her phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"hi33c\">After taking down both Cantú and Mallett’s information, an officer cut off Cantú’s zip ties and a supervisor told the pair that they could stay or leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkkex\">“And we decided to leave,” Cantú said. “It was probably within an hour of the curfew starting, and one of the officers who arrested me said that we had to be inside. I didn’t know if that was true or not, as we’re members of the media, but obviously they didn’t really seem to care.”</p><p data-block-key=\"smiq3\">A curfew was in place that night beginning at 8 p.m., and while the <a href=\"https://www.lacity.org/sites/g/files/wph1221/f/Mayor%20Order%20Curfew%2005-30-20%20REVISED_0.pdf\">order</a> didn’t explicitly exempt journalists, city and county officials <a href=\"https://laist.com/2020/05/31/reporters_injured_protests_police.php\">had confirmed with outlets</a> that they’d be able to cover the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"6vlx3\">He added that they were detained for about 20 minutes, and were gone from the apartment they share for approximately an hour.</p><p data-block-key=\"iiz6u\">Cantú was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-aaron-cant%C3%BA-arrested-trump-inauguration/\">arrested</a> while covering protests at the inauguration of President Trump in Washington, D.C., in January 2017, and was indicted on eight separate felony counts. The charges, which could have brought up to 75 years in prison if Cantú had been convicted, were dropped in July 2018. Cantú and<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-alexei-wood-arrested-inauguration-protest/\"> freelance journalist Alexei Wood</a>, who was also arrested during the inauguration protests, have filed a lawsuit against seeking damages against Washington, D.C. and its police department.</p><p data-block-key=\"7cupc\">“My aversion to risk is greater now than it was then, and I still ended up in a similar kettling situation, which I found very strange,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"u67vo\">The day after his detention, Cantú <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aaron_con_choco/status/1267185938481860609\">tweeted</a>: “My J20 [Jan. 20] prosecution ‘[told] reporters to stay home & avoid the risk of prosecution rather than to go to newsworthy events.’ That’s what I did last night. After being outside less than an hour, I was arrested. I went home after release. It felt cowardly.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ffj1y\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
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"tags": [
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"kettle",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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},
{
"title": "Freelance photographer hit with rubber bullets in Detroit, officer charged",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photographer-hit-with-rubber-bullets-in-detroit-officer-charged/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-29T15:26:22.179663Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-11-08T16:31:10.125162Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-11-08T16:31:10.017984Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"a4mxl\">Freelance photojournalist Seth Herald was on assignment for Agence France-Presse covering demonstrations in Detroit, Michigan, when he was struck alongside other photographers by crowd-control munitions fired by police on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"mdk1y\">The protests that evening were in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"bju95\">Herald, along with <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-photographers-hit-rubber-bullets-detroit-officer-charged/\">Matthew Hatcher,</a> on assignment for Getty Images, and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/mlive-photographer-hit-with-rubber-bullets-in-detroit-officer-charged/\">Nicole Hester</a>, a staff photographer for MLive, encountered at least two officers while trying to return to their car in the Kennedy Parking Garage downtown around midnight, according to Herald and Hatcher.</p><p data-block-key=\"zlxmq\">The photographers told the Committee to Protect Journalists — a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — that they put their hands in the air and identified themselves as members of the press. They said they thought the police signaled that they could cross the street when the officers opened fire.</p><p data-block-key=\"nwzgh\">Hatcher sent pictures to CPJ that showed his injuries: a busted, bleeding lip and welts on his nose, forehead and torso. Hester was hit with as many as a dozen pellets in the face, arms, legs and chest, leaving welts and narrowly missing an eye, according to the <a href=\"https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/05/mlive-photographer-among-journalists-fired-upon-with-pellets-by-detroit-police-officer-during-protest-coverage.html\">article</a> by her employer.</p><p data-block-key=\"tmpio\">After police fired on the journalists, Herald told CPJ, he asked one of the officers if he believed in freedom of the press. The officer answered that he didn’t know, Herald said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ewhq\">According to the MLive article, one of the officers told Hester: “Maybe you’ll write the truth some day, lady!”</p><p data-block-key=\"ngdax\">The three journalists then continued to the parking garage and passed another group of officers. One told them that if he saw their faces again, he would lock them up, according to MLive and interviews with Herald and Hatcher.</p><p data-block-key=\"iyes8\">The trio arrived to find the parking garage locked and had to leave their car overnight, walking several blocks to get a ride-share home, Hatcher told CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"edaer\">On July 20, Detroit Police Corporal Daniel Debono was charged with three counts of felony assault for shooting non-lethal rounds at Hester, Herald and Hatcher, <a href=\"https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/07/charges-issued-against-detroit-police-officer-accused-of-shooting-rubber-pellets-at-3-photographers-covering-protests.html\">according to MLive</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9qunf\">In the article, the vice president of content for MLive Media Group said that they “are pleased that the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office investigated this thoroughly, and that this is moving forward toward justice."</p><p data-block-key=\"um8d5\">The Detroit Police Department did not respond to phone or emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"rdaq0\">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/AP20153104370273.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"y5fqo\">Detroit police launch tear gas canisters at protesters on May 31, 2020, during a demonstration over the death of George Floyd. The day before, photojournalist Seth Herald was hit with rubber bullets while documenting a protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-10-28 10:17:00+00:00) Judge dismisses charges against Detroit police officer who hit photojournalist",
"(2023-03-16 00:00:00+00:00) Detroit police officer who fired rubber bullets at photojournalist to stand trial",
"(2024-10-21 00:00:00+00:00) Case dropped against Detroit officer who shot rubber bullets at photojournalists"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Seth Herald (Agence France-Presse [France])"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist detained during downtown Los Angeles protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-detained-during-downtown-los-angeles-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-30T03:08:37.138059Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:34:35.480587Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:34:35.400794Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5e4hw\">Kandist Mallett, a freelance journalist and columnist for Teen Vogue, was detained <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-detained-covering-downtown-l-protest/\">alongside her reporting partner</a> while attempting to document protests against police violence in Los Angeles on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"l922s\">Protests that began in Minneapolis on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"1n96g\">Mallett told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she and freelance journalist Aaron Cantú were walking in downtown L.A. around 6:30 p.m., looking for protesters, when they turned onto Figueroa Street from Olympic Boulevard.</p><p data-block-key=\"0022w\">“We were just trying to figure out where the crowd was,” Mallett said. “All of a sudden we see all of these cops come from behind them, the cops start running out from their cars and then, as we turn to look, we already see that there are cops behind us and that we’ve been kettled,” she said, referring to <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">a police maneuver</a> used to hem in protesters. Approximately 30 to 40 demonstrators were trapped in the kettle as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"7w1ce\">In a video of the incident Mallett shared with the Tracker, at least 50 police officers can be seen in lines approaching from up the street. Cantú can be heard calling out, “We’re press! We just came around the corner; we got sandwiched in between.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ba7sp\">Mallett told the Tracker, “I have my press pass, so I just hold it up and shout, ‘Press! We’re press!’ And they just ignore us.” Police then ordered everyone in the so-called kettle to sit.</p><p data-block-key=\"rrtt8\">“My partner is worried that I’m going to get shot and tells me to sit down, so I sit,” Mallett said. “And then the supervisor at the scene walks by so I tell him that we’re press, and he says, ‘You’re the least of my priorities right now.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"kx36u\">The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"1uhz6\">Mallett said that when officers began making arrests, Cantú was the first one they took because the two of them were the closest to the line of officers.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So, this happened yesterday evening. After coming home, taking a breath and sleeping on it, I'm doing a thread on what happened. This is also a thread with some thoughts on US police crushing freedom of the press, which unfortunately I've experienced firsthand in the past. <a href=\"https://t.co/NJ6ShfaIvg\">pic.twitter.com/NJ6ShfaIvg</a></p>— Aarón Cantú (@aaron_con_choco) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aaron_con_choco/status/1267185920995807233?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=\"602zl\">Cantú told the Tracker that two or three officers lifted him up from the curb, pushed him against a chain link fence and zip-tied him, but that Mallett was able to dissuade them from similarly zip-tying her hands.</p><p data-block-key=\"10usg\">Mallett said that she tried to convince the officers that they were journalists, and Googled examples of their published work when asked for evidence.</p><p data-block-key=\"agwhu\">“I started filming, and as soon as I did the supervisor changed his tone,” Mallett said. “It was like, ‘We’re not going to hold you guys, we’re not going to arrest you,’ and to me, ‘I’m not going to put you in zip-ties.’ But we were detained and not able to leave.”</p><p data-block-key=\"nc9e3\">After about 20 minutes, officers took down both Cantú and Mallett’s information and removed the zip ties from Cantú’s wrists.</p><p data-block-key=\"hau31\">“They asked us if we wanted to stay, but both of us were pretty shaken up and we just wanted to get out of there,” Mallett said. In total, she said they were gone from the apartment they share for only an hour.</p><p data-block-key=\"orh7q\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"Black Lives Matter",
"kettle",
"protest"
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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},
{
"title": "Radio journalist arrested, cited for failure to disperse during Philadelphia protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/radio-journalist-arrested-cited-failure-disperse-during-philadelphia-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-28T23:31:48.862734Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:06:46.555835Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:06:46.458679Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Philadelphia",
"longitude": -75.16362,
"latitude": 39.95238,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"p1gqb\">Avi Wolfman-Arent, a reporter for WHYY, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate, was arrested and charged with failure to disperse while covering a protest in the city on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"lb7g6\">The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"uxs3y\">Wolfman-Arent told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting a relatively small protest of 50 to 75 people as they walked from Philadelphia Police Department headquarters in the neighborhood of Old City at around 4:30 p.m.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Im a reporter with <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WHYYNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WHYYNews</a> in Philly. Yes, I was just arrested. A very brief explanation below: <a href=\"https://t.co/5u5h4A7erS\">pic.twitter.com/5u5h4A7erS</a></p>— Avi Wolfman-Arent (@Avi_WA) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Avi_WA/status/1267229543166889985?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=\"7bzx9\">After a few skirmishes with protesters, police reportedly gave a dispersal warning: Wolfman-Arent said in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Avi_WA/status/1267229543166889985\">video</a> posted to Twitter that he did not hear it, and that his back was turned as he tried to send a tweet.</p><p data-block-key=\"5pfy7\">“They started advancing really quickly,” he said in the video, “and I was tackled from behind by an officer on the steps of the Curtis Publishing Building in Philadelphia near Sixth and Walnut [streets].”</p><p data-block-key=\"t91lz\">Wolfman-Arent told the Tracker that though he identified himself as a member of the press, he was arrested alongside at least a dozen protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"q6gis\">“It felt unprovoked,” he said. “It wasn’t crowd control. It wasn’t some kind of potentially chaotic situation. The demonstration had just started and there were almost no people there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dm1xj\">WHYY <a href=\"https://whyy.org/articles/whyy-reporter-arrested-while-covering-philadelphia-protest/\">reported</a> that police confiscated the recorder and boom microphone Wolfman-Arent was carrying and transported him to the Philadelphia Police 22nd-23rd Precinct. His equipment was returned upon his release at around 5:50 p.m., and he was cited for failure to disperse.</p><p data-block-key=\"2pqjy\">All told, Wolfman-Arent said, he was in police custody for approximately an hour.</p><p data-block-key=\"85awu\">Sandra Clark, WHYY’s vice president of news and civic dialogue, said that Wolfman-Arent’s arrest, after he clearly identified himself as a journalist, was “completely unacceptable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5o4yc\">“We have a duty to serve the public and that means seeking truth and accountability, and representing diverse perspectives and experiences,” she said. “We aren’t going anywhere.”</p><p data-block-key=\"razrd\">A police spokesperson told WHYY that the department was aware of the allegation and had opened an Internal Affairs investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"6j4yw\">Neither Mayor James Kenney nor the Philadelphia Police Department responded to the Tracker’s requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"g47tc\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total 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": "Pennsylvania",
"abbreviation": "PA"
},
"updates": [
"(2020-07-08 13:27:00+00:00) Charges dropped against radio journalist arrested during protest"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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{
"title": "Minnesota State Patrol officers threaten reporter for German outlet",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minnesota-state-patrol-officers-threaten-reporter-for-german-outlet/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-25T20:08:41.330294Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:40:11.218909Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:40:11.126168Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"rq21k\">A Deutsche Welle news team was threatened and aimed at with a weapon by Minnesota State Patrol troopers while documenting protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after curfew went into effect on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"x508u\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"nzpny\">At 8:08 p.m., eight minutes after curfew — from which members of the media were <a href=\"http://news.minneapolismn.gov/2020/05/31/curfew-starts-8-p-m-sunday-night-stay-in-your-home/\">specifically exempted</a> — DW cameraman Maximilian Förg and correspondent Stefan Simons were standing near a fence running alongside Interstate 35W in Minneapolis. State police officers stood in a line on the highway, where two hours earlier a truck had plowed into a crowd of protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"xky2m\">As Simons began his live shot, several members of the Minnesota State Patrol, clad in tan riot gear, bounded up the hillside towards the journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"i5mo2\">“Hey, we’re press, guys, from D.C.,” Simons shouted. “We’re all press here.” Despite this, at least one officer in riot gear pointed his gun at him through the fence.</p><p data-block-key=\"ig3k2\">"Come on guys we have permission to be out here! Stop it!” Simons continued, as the officer continued to train his weapon at him. “Sir, the governor of Minnesota exempts press,” he said, referencing the curfew.</p><p data-block-key=\"4q0mb\">Simons and Förg cut their live shot short, got into their car, and drove away. Video of the encounter aired live on DW, and was later <a href=\"https://www.dw.com/en/dw-team-in-minneapolis-met-with-police-hostility/av-53648098\">posted</a> on the website.</p><p data-block-key=\"5kbnw\">Simons told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that just prior to the live shot, officers had fired off canisters of tear gas in their direction, followed by several rounds of projectiles. “We all took cover behind my car,” he said. Other members of the media were present in the vicinity, Simons said, but he did not know their names or outlets.</p><p data-block-key=\"uzw4n\">State police had already cleared protesters off the highway when they turned their attention to the press, DW's Simons said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jv4rn\">When Simons and Förg drove away, the officers fired some sort of projectile at their vehicle, which pinged the door but did not damage it, Simons said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2flrn\">A day prior, on May 30, police <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN8ISwuiX68\">fired projectiles</a> at Simons and his crew and threatened them with arrest. That incident was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-target-dozens-journalists-covering-protests-minneapolis-tear-gas-pepper-spray-rubber-bullets/\">captured separately</a> by the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"m2flc\">The attacks garnered the attention of German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who told reporters at a <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protests-06-02-20/h_a387d67883dc0c680ac3bd2e5d8a47f9\">press conference</a> in Berlin on June 2 he would be reaching out to the U.S. government about the matter. Deutsche Welle is an international English-language news station funded by the German government.</p><p data-block-key=\"fgl62\">"With regard to the incidents involving Deutsche Welle, of which we have also been made aware, we will contact U.S. authorities to find out more about the circumstances," Maas <a href=\"https://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-take-up-dw-reporter-incident-with-us/av-53658672\">said</a>. "We remain firmly committed: Journalists must be able to carry out their task, which is independent coverage of events, without endangering their safety."</p><p data-block-key=\"salsj\">"Democratic states under the rule of law have to meet the highest standards when it comes to protecting freedom of press," Maas said.</p><p data-block-key=\"97h9i\">A request for comment emailed to the Minnesota State Patrol was not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"udm0j\">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=\"utmcx\">Minneapolis officers line up across I-35W on May 31, 2020, the sixth day of demonstrations in the city.</p>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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{
"title": "Reporter detained, zip tied and searched while covering San Francisco protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-detained-zip-tied-and-searched-while-covering-san-francisco-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-23T02:42:15.048081Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-05-16T13:04:35.474189Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-05-16T13:04:35.382095Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Francisco",
"longitude": -122.41942,
"latitude": 37.77493,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wz1fb\">Leonardo Castañeda, reporter for The (San Jose) Mercury News and East Bay Times, was briefly detained by local police while covering a Bay Area protest on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"s8byw\">The protest was part of a wave of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"7w5p5\">The officer has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who were present face felony charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"6y4fp\">Castañeda told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the May 31 protest began at San Francisco City Hall. It was the first day of a citywide 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew that was lifted less than a week later.</p><p data-block-key=\"6f474\">Castañeda was following the main body of the protest group that remained after 8 p.m. as it continued to splinter off after encounters with law enforcement. Around 10 p.m. the protesters went down an alleyway called Stevenson Street, which connects 6th and 7th streets in San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood.</p><p data-block-key=\"gn9ad\">The San Francisco Police Department “was able to kettle them in and block off both entrances to the alleyway,” Castañeda told the Tracker. “And they immediately started clearing everyone that was inside that alley, which was by that point maybe 30 protesters just because the main group had been whittled down so much at that point.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rtzzc\">Castañeda identified himself as press and was put against the wall alongside the protesters. He said that his press pass was displayed on a lanyard over his jacket. San Francisco police officers searched his pockets and his backpack, but not his notebook or phone, Castañeda said. Then, officers instructed him to sit on the curb with the other protesters. His hands were zip tied behind his back by police officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"d49re\">“The police captain in charge of the operation that night came by and said, ‘I can see you’re press. We’re going to detain you but we’re not going to take you to the county jailhouse for processing,’” Castañeda said.</p><p data-block-key=\"n6lzq\">Castañeda captured audio from his detainment by recording a video from his cellphone, which was inside his jacket pocket. During the recording, which he provided to the Tracker, he repeatedly identifies himself as press and references his press badge.</p><p data-block-key=\"20y2n\">The certificate of release provided by the San Francisco Police Department lists Castañeda’s time in custody from 10:04 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. However, Castañeda estimates that 30 minutes passed between the time he was moved against the wall to when he walked out of the alleyway. A photo Castañeda <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeoMCastaneda/status/1267328644218683392\">tweeted</a> at 10:34 p.m. shows nearly a dozen protesters with their hands up on the sidewalks lining the alley as a line of 10 officers appear to advance.</p><p data-block-key=\"vjow2\">“Just got detained by<a href=\"https://twitter.com/SFPD\"> @SFPD</a> with a group of about 20 protesters. identified myself as press, got zip tied and searched and eventually released. gonna call it a night now, here’s the last shot i got,” the tweet reads.</p><p data-block-key=\"h6byq\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"b01jq\">A San Francisco Sheriff’s Deputy removes a barricade as the city-wide curfew begins on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "equipment bag"
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
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"targeted_journalists": [
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{
"title": "NBC journalist pepper-sprayed, detained at Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc-journalist-pepper-sprayed-detained-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-22T03:37:54.196463Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:00:03.261645Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:00:03.166084Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tk0gl\">NBC News journalist Simon Moya-Smith was pepper-sprayed and detained while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early hours of May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"q6jja\">Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.</p><p data-block-key=\"1vlq5\">Moya-Smith told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was following along with a group of about a dozen Native American and black protesters as they walked through the south side of Minneapolis shortly after 1 a.m. An 8 p.m. curfew order was in place that night, though members of the media were <a href=\"http://news.minneapolismn.gov/2020/05/30/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-curfew-in-minneapolis/\">explicitly exempt</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"58qpf\">Four or five Minneapolis police cruisers suddenly came upon the group and encircled them, Moya-Smith said. An officer in one of the vehicles shouted, “Go home! Go home!” to which one of the protesters responded, “We are! We are going home!”</p><p data-block-key=\"ts9i8\">An officer then jumped out of one of the cruisers and began pepper-spraying the protesters indiscriminately and ordering them to get on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"y34xx\">“As we’re all lying down, she comes around and just begins to spray as if she were in her backyard garden — individually, as if she were just spraying her plants,” Moya-Smith said.</p><p data-block-key=\"dgw2e\">He added that he, too, was sprayed while facedown, much of it hitting his back.</p><p data-block-key=\"23lob\">“It was a completely unnecessary use of force on the group. Everyone was complying,” Moya-Smith said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jave4\">Officers then came around to each of the protesters and asked for their IDs. When they came around to Moya-Smith, he told them that he had an ID in his wallet and that he was a reporter with NBC News. When they told him to wait as he was, Moya-Smith said he thought, “OK, so this is how this is going to go.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uxiqi\">“I’m sure one, two or maybe all of them knew that if they allowed me to exercise my First Amendment right as a reporter that I would immediately begin documenting the situation, and I think that is what they were trying to prevent,” Moya-Smith said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5yxdk\">Moya-Smith told the Tracker that multiple officers checked his press badge: One referred to him as “Mr. Journalist” when ordering him to roll over; another simply shrugged.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I was pepper-sprayed then arrested last night by Minneapolis PD even after identifying myself as a reporter MULTIPLE times:<br><br>Cop 1: *checks press badge as I’m on the ground*<br>Cop 2: “Roll on your side, Mr. journalist.”<br>Cop 3: *loads me in the car, sees my press badge and shrugs*</p>— Simon Moya-Smith (@SimonMoyaSmith) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SimonMoyaSmith/status/1267054164774916096?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=\"nuyzi\">Moya-Smith was loaded into one of the cruisers and transported to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct along with the demonstrators. When they arrived at the station, he said, it was chaotic and overwhelmed by the number of arrests that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"m091k\">While their arresting officer had decided to issue them citations outside the station and release them, another officer convinced him that there was still space to book them in the jail, Moya-Smith said.</p><p data-block-key=\"08h19\">When the officer came around to him to ask for his ID again, Moya-Smith said, “Yupp, and here’s my press badge.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6mbyg\">Moya-Smith said the officer seemed surprised and called over a commanding officer, who immediately said that he needed to be released. Officers dropped him off about half a block from where the National Guard was operating.</p><p data-block-key=\"sys9a\">“And as they were letting me go [the officer] said, ‘You’re going to tell everybody that we treated you nicely, right?’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’” Moya-Smith told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"amqb2\">Moya-Smith said that he was in police custody for a little over an hour and that he suffered no serious effects from the pepper spray other than a few coughing attacks.</p><p data-block-key=\"hdx49\">He noted that while covering the protests in Minneapolis he found that being a member of the press did not protect him from police tactics.</p><p data-block-key=\"id32s\">“They still come directly toward you. They still charge you. It’s not a situation where you can even be a fly on the wall and cover it,” Moya-Smith said. “It feels like more of a target than a badge.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b9vnk\">When asked for comment, a representative from the Minneapolis Police Department’s Records Information Unit told the Tracker that the MPD was not the arresting authority for Moya-Smith. The Minneapolis State Patrol did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"leybz\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total 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 all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39T7O.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"zfdpl\">State patrol officers stand guard in Minneapolis on May 31, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Minneapolis Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
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"Simon Moya-Smith (NBC News)"
],
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{
"title": "Freelance photographer detained by Buffalo police",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photographer-detained-buffalo-police/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-17T02:27:44.041869Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:59.556711Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:59.447860Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Buffalo",
"longitude": -78.87837,
"latitude": 42.88645,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xj98m\">Freelance photographer Andrew Jasiura was briefly handcuffed by police officers while reporting on protests in Buffalo, New York, on May 31, 2020. Jasiura said he was harassed and singled out because he is a freelancer rather than affiliated with a mainstream news outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"hbtyi\">The protests were part of a wave of demonstrations across the country following the May 26 release of a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead at the hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"w19d1\">Local officials in Buffalo had placed the area under <a href=\"https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/local_news/second-day-of-curfews-in-erie-county/article_e9312bb0-1272-50e0-97da-e0c4dc9d53c2.html\">a 9 p.m. curfew</a> following protests that had turned violent. Law enforcement dispersed crowds by using nonlethal weapons like pepper balls. Jasiura was reporting on those protests on May 30 when <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-fire-pepper-balls-photographer-buffalo-make-grab-camera/\">he was hit by pepper balls</a> and a police officer attempted to grab his camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4ezl\">On May 31, Jasiura was photographing protests again when the police checked his credentials and told him to go home because the curfew was set to go into effect. But he noticed that local news crews were not leaving.</p><p data-block-key=\"1lojw\">“So I went back out and stood next to them for a while, got a couple of pictures and then strayed off from the group to get a better angle,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “And the cops came back over and handcuffed me.” He also said that the officers pointed guns at his head and said, “Fuck your First Amendment.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">On Sunday, at exactly 8:01PM (8pm curfew) I had four M16S assault rifles pointed at my head by Buffalo SWAT. I asked why this was all happening to a member of the press with 1A protections to which they responded "fuck your first amendment" and put me in handcuffs</p>— DrewJazzyPhoto (@PhotoJazzy) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PhotoJazzy/status/1269057353892212743?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 6, 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=\"msdf2\">Shortly after Jasiura was cuffed, he heard an officer say over the radio that they should cut him loose. He was freed after about 10 minutes, during which time police ran his ID and checked his credentials. Jasiura said that none of the other journalists on the scene were subject to similar treatment.</p><p data-block-key=\"cxrgh\">The Buffalo Police Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"thdaf\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Andrew Jasiura (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Denver Post reporter struck in head, body with multiple projectiles during protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/denver-police-train-less-lethal-rifle-two-colorado-reporters-shortly-after-one-was-hit-projectiles/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-11T13:21:12.050701Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:59:42.782159Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:59:42.691525Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"u72ap\">Denver Post reporter Alex Burness was hit by a pepper ball and foam projectiles while covering protests in Denver, Colorado, on the evening of May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"5aeze\">The protests were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for 7 minutes and 46 seconds during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ka73j\">At around 8:40 p.m., Burness was reporting on Denver’s Colfax Avenue downtown when police deployed tear gas at protesters, a scene he described as “utter chaos.” He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was hit in the back by a pepper ball.</p><p data-block-key=\"3vp0x\">“I was wearing my press credentials but I would not say I was targeted,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"sy56d\">Burness followed protesters as they moved toward the headquarters of the Denver Police Department. Shortly after 10 p.m., police clad in riot gear began firing projectiles into the crowd, he said. Burness ran away from the clash, shouting “Press!” He said he was hit four times by projectiles, once in the temple, twice in his side, and once in his upper thigh. He was left with two “very big welts” on his side, and a small bump on his head.</p><p data-block-key=\"7pk58\">Burness, who does not believe he was being singled out when he was hit, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alex_burness/status/1267309462181875712\">posted</a> about the attack on Twitter, calling it the “most violent single moment I’ve covered over these four days.”</p><p data-block-key=\"x8udo\">Jack Healy, a New York Times reporter, posted a photo of Burness’s side with a newly forming bruise:</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 <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alex_burness?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@alex_burness</a>, Denver Post reporter. He screamed “Press” shortly before being hit as officers fired on protesters. <a href=\"https://t.co/bE4a7kGIoq\">pic.twitter.com/bE4a7kGIoq</a></p>— jack healy (@jackhealyNYT) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jackhealyNYT/status/1267308781794480131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k6ywa\">Later that night, an officer pointed a rifle directly at Burness and Esteban Hernandez, a Denverite and Colorado Public Radio reporter. Burness described the rifle as the type used to shoot less-lethal projectiles. The Tracker has documented those cases <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/denver-post-reporter-aimed-at-with-weapon-amid-protests/\">here</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/denver-police-train-a-less-lethal-rifle-at-colorado-public-radio-reporter/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4erc6\">A request for comment to the Denver Police Department was not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"lszdt\">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/burness_assault_0531_floyd.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"5i715\">New York Times correspondent Jack Healy captured on Twitter the fresh bruise forming on Denver Post reporter Alex Burness on May 31, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Colorado",
"abbreviation": "CO"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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},
{
"title": "Minneapolis reporter injured by broken glass after nonlethal round shatters car window",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-reporter-injured-broken-glass-after-nonlethal-round-shatters-car-window/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-11T03:52:00.027677Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-02T15:28:25.731300Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-02T15:28:25.623392Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"z6eaz\">Law enforcement officers fired a nonlethal round at a car driven by Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Ryan Faircloth, breaking the left passenger window and injuring him with glass shards, while he was covering protests in the city at about 12:15 a.m. on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"8w3ff\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"2lrd1\">Faircloth told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone interview that he was driving and arrived at a street blocked by National Guard and Minnesota State Police. He turned away from the police line, and then a marker round shattered the window, sending pieces of glass into the car, which cut him on his left forearm and brow.</p><p data-block-key=\"w6ed7\">He said he could not tell whether police or the National Guard troops fired the round, or whether they had fired other shots as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"wj248\">“I was taken aback,” Faircloth told CPJ. “I thought I was leaving the area [of the protests] and so my guard wasn’t up at all. And then everything shattered and all of a sudden I was bleeding.”</p><p data-block-key=\"997ro\">The Ford Focus he was driving is owned by the Star Tribune<i>,</i> and did not have any markings identifying it as a press vehicle, Faircloth said.</p><p data-block-key=\"bm35y\">Faircloth had tweeted earlier in the night that the car had been fired upon by law enforcement on another street, but said no damage was done then.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My colleague, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ChaoStrib?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ChaoStrib</a>, and I were driving near Lake Street and mistakenly turned down a street that was blocked off at the end. Before we had a chance to reverse, the Guard/ State Patrol fired <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/rubber?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#rubber</a> bullets at our car without warning. <a href=\"https://t.co/8yUVKz7rhA\">https://t.co/8yUVKz7rhA</a></p>— Ryan Faircloth (@RyanFaircloth) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RyanFaircloth/status/1266954131324928003?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>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39TSE.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ouye9\">Protesters and law enforcement at a rally in Minneapolis on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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"arrest_status": null,
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"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "law enforcement",
"border_point": 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": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "vehicle"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ryan Faircloth (Minnesota Star Tribune)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Freelance journalist detained while covering protests for The Washington Post in Atlanta",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-detained-while-covering-protests-washington-post-atlanta/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-05T05:04:59.400617Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:59:21.002303Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:59:20.919526Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Atlanta",
"longitude": -84.38798,
"latitude": 33.749,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"l142w\">Freelance reporter Haisten Willis was detained by officers with the Atlanta Police Department while covering protests in the city on assignment with The Washington Post on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"0c43x\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"6bg25\">Willis told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was on the street in downtown Atlanta about 30 minutes after the city’s 9 p.m. curfew went into effect, looking at his phone for continued protests on Twitter.</p><p data-block-key=\"mov9n\">“I heard and noticed a large number of police coming toward me,” Willis said.</p><p data-block-key=\"stkqq\">He stepped under a streetlight to be sure that the officers saw him, Willis said, and called out to identify himself as press.</p><p data-block-key=\"wm3ni\">Willis said one of the officers asked if he had a press pass, and he responded that he had a digital credential issued to him by The Post on his phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"9mgvw\">“That’s when things kind of went wrong,” Willis said.</p><p data-block-key=\"sug61\">Willis said the officer refused to allow him to pull up the press credential on his phone, saying that it wasn’t sufficient identification. He said the officer told him that he was under arrest. Officers then took Willis’ phone and a pen that he had been using to take notes, handcuffed him with zip ties and patted him down for weapons.</p><p data-block-key=\"3i2ey\">The detention was <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=275871367154904\">broadcast live</a> by a CBS46 news crew in the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"s5n8x\">Willis told the Tracker that when officers pulled his wallet out of his pocket, he told them he had business cards inside identifying him as a journalist. Officers examined the cards — which list his title as “freelance journalist” — and after a few minutes decided to release him, Willis said.</p><p data-block-key=\"gsk6i\">The officers removed the zip ties, and returned his phone and pen, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"3pswo\">A coalition of Georgia journalism organizations <a href=\"https://spjgeorgia.com/2020/06/01/spj-ga-aaja-and-aabj-condemn-detainment-of-journalists-in-atlanta-fight-for-freelancer-protections/\">released a statement</a> condemning Willis’ detention, and that of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff photographer Alyssa Pointer, who was detained by the officers with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources when covering protests on June 1, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"0emio\">“The detainments of Willis and Pointer were clear abridgments of press freedoms. The confiscation of equipment, cellphones and other supplies hinders the ability of reporters to uphold responsibilities granted by the First Amendment,” the statement reads.</p><p data-block-key=\"a0tm8\">The Atlanta Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"maqme\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_583.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"rme4s\">The detention of reporter Haisten Willis, on assignment with The Washington Post to cover protests in Atlanta, was broadcast live by CBS46.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Atlanta Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Georgia",
"abbreviation": "GA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Haisten Willis (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "NM student journalists fired upon with foam rounds, one struck by ricochet",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalists-fired-upon-foam-rounds-one-struck-ricochet-amid-albuquerque-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-05T04:55:29.996052Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:58:59.049212Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:58:58.953088Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Albuquerque",
"longitude": -106.65114,
"latitude": 35.08449,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3qzbg\">Andrew Gunn, a journalist for the student-run newspaper at the University of New Mexico, was hit by a ricochet foam-tipped munition when law enforcement officers fired into a small protest that Gunn and his colleagues were covering in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"fpih6\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"vfhd5\">Gunn, a senior reporter and copy editor for the <a href=\"https://www.dailylobo.com/\">New Mexico Daily Lobo</a>, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived in downtown Albuquerque at 1 a.m to document the protests, joining a group of colleagues.</p><p data-block-key=\"9kbvm\">Approximately 30 minutes later, Gunn said he was standing with photo editor Sharon Chischilly and reporter and photographer Liam DeBonis reporting on the protests when officers fired tear without warning.</p><p data-block-key=\"lmt7c\">Gunn said that all three journalists were clearly identified as media, with DeBonis wearing a helmet marked with the word “PRESS.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/LiamDebonis?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LiamDebonis</a> ‘s helmet is brilliant! <a href=\"https://t.co/j7e9HXlu83\">pic.twitter.com/j7e9HXlu83</a></p>— Sharon Chischilly (@Schischillyy) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Schischillyy/status/1267332759032197120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"n1yjf\">Gunn continued reporting via livestream <a href=\"https://twitter.com/agunnwrites/status/1267362795177181184\">on Twitter</a>. He said that shortly after he turned off the livestream just after 2 a.m., law enforcement fired foam rounds at protesters, and one ricocheted off the street and struck him in the back.</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/P1TICwVDHo\">https://t.co/P1TICwVDHo</a></p>— ᴀɴᴅʀᴇᴡ ɢᴜɴɴ 🏳️🌈 (@agunnwrites) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/agunnwrites/status/1267366148561133568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1yzx2\">Gunn said that two other colleagues, data editor Joe Rull and senior reporter Bella Davis, were standing with him also wearing press identification when the officers opened fire; Gunn said no one was injured.</p><p data-block-key=\"5mynj\">“Everyone is safe and unharmed, and things are quieting down, but I was quite shaken by the encounter along with my colleagues,” said Gunn, who provided a photograph of the munition to the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"88bn3\">Gunn said that these incidents followed similar ones earlier in the evening. Before Gunn arrived on the scene he said colleagues told him they were fired upon with <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bladvs/status/1267354155179339777\">tear gas</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/rulljoe/status/1267347317947953155\">foam rounds</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">had to run back because they shot something toward the crowd <a href=\"https://t.co/3BUJBSs5OY\">pic.twitter.com/3BUJBSs5OY</a></p>— Joe Rull (@rulljoe) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/rulljoe/status/1267347317947953155?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"94c8w\">Gunn said he saw officers with the Albuquerque Police Department, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department and the New Mexico State Police on patrol; he is not certain to which agency the officers firing the foam rounds or the tear gas belonged.</p><p data-block-key=\"8d2l2\">The Tracker contacted all three agencies but did not receive immediate responses from APD or the Sheriff’s Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"hvh8y\">The New Mexico State Police deferred comment to the Albuquerque Police Department, which it said was the lead agency in charge of managing the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ymbj\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/NM1_Bella_Davis.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"11fi7\">Student journalist Joe Rull picked up this foam-tipped munition shortly after he and colleagues from the New Mexico Daily Lobo were fired upon by law enforcement in Albuquerque, New Mexico.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "New Mexico",
"abbreviation": "NM"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Andrew Gunn ([University of] New Mexico Daily Lobo)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Sheriff’s deputies shoot reporter with pepper balls in California protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sheriffs-deputies-shoot-reporter-with-pepper-balls-in-california-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-05T04:39:04.909606Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:00:58.125770Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:00:58.037594Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "La Mesa",
"longitude": -117.02308,
"latitude": 32.76783,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wfnm9\">San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Andrew Dyer was shot with pepper balls while he was documenting protests in La Mesa, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7mlgc\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"npjd6\">Dyer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering a protest near City Hall at around 9:15 p.m., and was wearing a reflective orange vest with his press credentials and camera around his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ar8i\">He was standing to the side of a group of demonstrators when a protester threw a water bottle at a line of San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies. In response, the deputies opened fire on the crowd with what Dyer believes were pepper balls.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just got a couple of bean bags to my leg and side, identified myself as press, was told by unknown officer to get out of the way. A protester threw some kind of bottle at the line of officers. I'm wearing a bright orange vest. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sdut?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sdut</a></p>— Andrew Dyer (@SDUTdyer) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SDUTdyer/status/1266946769117577216?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=\"z3trn\">Dyer said two of the pepper balls hit him on his right side. He said he saw the deputies aim before firing, and believed that he had been targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"ou34s\">“Every time I saw deputies fire they shouldered the weapons and took aim,” Dyer said. “I’m also a large target.”</p><p data-block-key=\"o25on\">After he was hit, Dyer loudly identified himself as a member of the press, and said law enforcement then ignored him and continued to advance on the crowd. He added that he was bruised by the shots but was otherwise unharmed.</p><p data-block-key=\"21skl\">Neither the La Mesa Police Department nor San Diego County Sheriff’s Department could immediately be reached for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"poblu\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Andrew Dyer (The San Diego Union-Tribune)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Reporter pepper sprayed, arrested amid protests in Des Moines",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-pepper-sprayed-arrested-amid-protests-des-moines/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-05T04:23:42.382996Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:58:17.446053Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:58:17.337633Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Des Moines",
"longitude": -93.60911,
"latitude": 41.60054,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cz90t\">Police pepper-sprayed and arrested Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri while she was covering protests in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"bjejp\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"7v255\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/andreamsahouri/status/1267261446402052097\">video</a> recorded while in the back of a police transport vehicle, Sahouri said she was reporting on a demonstration at Merle Hay Mall when she was arrested.</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/Gm87U1d0Za\">https://t.co/Gm87U1d0Za</a></p>— Andrea May Sahouri (@andreamsahouri) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/andreamsahouri/status/1267261446402052097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ogtrz\">Shortly before 8 p.m., Sahouri <a href=\"https://twitter.com/andreamsahouri/status/1267256849344221188\">tweeted</a> that police deployed tear gas, forcing all the protesters to run into the street. Sahouri said in her recording that she and her boyfriend were running with protesters when he was struck by a tear gas canister.</p><p data-block-key=\"4uxtk\">“As I was seeing if his leg was O.K., police came closer and we went around the corner and I was saying, ‘I’m press. I’m press. I’m press,’” Sahouri said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ltqxd\">An officer responded, “I didn’t ask,” before spraying her twice in the face with pepper spray, the Register <a href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2020/05/31/register-reporter-arrested-while-covering-protest/5304560002/\">reported</a>. Officers then handcuffed her using zip ties, Sahouri said in the video.</p><p data-block-key=\"acanj\">In <a href=\"https://www.kcci.com/article/watch-des-moines-register-reporter-arrested-while-reporting-on-protests/32724701#\">footage captured</a> by KCCI 8 News, Sahouri can be seen sitting on a curb, hands cuffed behind her back.</p><p data-block-key=\"uvad7\">“I’m just doing my job as a journalist,” Sahouri said in her recording. “I’m just out here reporting as I see.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hluyz\">Sahouri was taken to the Polk County Jail, where she was charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts. She was released from police custody shortly after 11 p.m., the Register reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"opf7x\">The Des Moines Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"j9xnc\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_539.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"4grkm\">KCCI 8 News captured footage of reporter Andrea Sahouri's arrest on May 31, 2020 in Des. Moines, Iowa.</p><p data-block-key=\"15747\"></p>",
"arresting_authority": "Des Moines Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Iowa",
"abbreviation": "IA"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-03-10 13:46:00+00:00) Reporter acquitted of all charges following arrest during Des Moines protest"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Andrea Sahouri (The Des Moines Register)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "BuzzFeed News journalist detained while covering Santa Monica protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/buzzfeed-news-journalist-detained-while-covering-santa-monica-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-04T02:48:50.109279Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:06:51.048003Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:06:50.950032Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Santa Monica",
"longitude": -118.49138,
"latitude": 34.01949,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fzkha\">BuzzFeed News reporter Brianna Sacks was detained by Santa Monica police while documenting protests in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"gmm85\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"e00vr\">Sacks told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was documenting protests in downtown Santa Monica around 6:30 or 7 p.m. when police officers began arresting protesters for failing to disperse and for violating the city’s 4 p.m. curfew.</p><p data-block-key=\"yx7uo\">“[The officers] pulled me out of the crowd, took my phone away, put it in my backpack and placed me in zip-tie handcuffs,” Sacks said. “I explained to them that I was media several times and they told me to just give them a few minutes and hold still.”</p><p data-block-key=\"itqee\">Officers looked at her press badge several times, Sacks said. She said they did not tell her why she was being detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"iuela\">Sacks said she was detained for approximately 15-20 minutes before officers flagged down a sergeant who told them to release her and remove the zip ties. The sergeant also told her that upon her release she would have to leave the scene. She did not.</p><p data-block-key=\"1iopo\">The Santa Monica Police Department could not immediately be reached for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"euypn\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bri_sacks/status/1267277002282680322\">photos</a> published by Sacks on Twitter, her wrists appear bruised and irritated from the tightness of the zip ties.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Police also pulled me out of the crowd and put me in zip tie cuffs and I was able to convince them to let me go because I was media, which I know is pretty damn lucky <a href=\"https://t.co/EUXQ7T6bYR\">pic.twitter.com/EUXQ7T6bYR</a></p>— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bri_sacks/status/1267277002282680322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kk8eu\">“[The officers] were pretty reasonable and my experience was incredibly mild based on what other reporters have been enduring,” Sacks said.</p><p data-block-key=\"zrhq2\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Santa Monica Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Brianna Sacks (BuzzFeed News)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist arrested amid protests in Lincoln, Nebraska",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-amid-protests-lincoln-nebraska/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-03T21:20:02.882929Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:57:33.790975Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:57:33.702796Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Lincoln",
"longitude": -96.66696,
"latitude": 40.8,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dkr2w\">Lincoln Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker was thrown to the ground and arrested by law enforcement officers while reporting on protests in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7odwk\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"1jfbs\">Dunker told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/LincolnJournalStar/videos/1522034407976872/\">livestreaming</a> a protest in front of the City/County Building in downtown Lincoln for the outlet’s Facebook page. At approximately 8:35 p.m., officers with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office began to enforce the 8 p.m. curfew order announced that day, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5p68m\">“As law enforcement pursued the protesters away from the area, a deputy sheriff turned toward me and ordered me to leave,” Dunker said. “I was wearing a neon vest with ‘PRESS’ on it and had on my media credential. I told the deputy I had a constitutional right to be there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kosyu\">In a <a href=\"https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/watch-now-journal-star-reporter-detained-some-protesters-arrested-in-downtown-lincoln-after-curfew/article_9e01944e-3867-5d2e-b7bf-19165cb266cf.html\">video of the incident</a> published by the Journal Star, the deputy can be seen charging at Dunker without a word and tackling him to the ground. Dunker told the Tracker that his knee and elbow were scraped as two deputies pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him.</p><p data-block-key=\"odyrs\">“I asked them to return my phone, which had fallen onto the concrete parking lot where I was standing, and my hat, which they did,” Dunker said.</p><p data-block-key=\"r45uo\">Dunker said that another law enforcement officer told the deputy sheriff who had charged at him that officers were not supposed to arrest members of the media. He said the deputy disregarded this and instead continued to lead Dunker to an area where other arrestees were awaiting transport to jail.</p><p data-block-key=\"xrugv\">“A higher ranking member of the department told the police to check my identity and if I had any warrants before cutting me loose,” Dunker said. “Police promptly did and I was allowed to keep filming the protests for several more hours that evening.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fe3in\">Sheriff Terry Wagner with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"78a08\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screen_Shot_2020-06-03_at_5.05.44.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"yaj8r\">A screenshot from the livestream of Lincoln Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker of protests in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 31, 2020. Dunker was detained by police while reporting.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Nebraska",
"abbreviation": "NE"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
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{
"title": "DC police threaten Turkish VOA camera operator, team with batons",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/dc-police-threaten-turkish-voa-camera-operator-team-with-batons/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:07:29.777429Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:34:47.363852Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:34:47.285823Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8y1u7\">Police brandished batons and forcibly moved three journalists for Voice of America’s Turkish service — after they identified themselves as members of the press — while they covered protests against police violence in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2020, <a href=\"https://www.voanews.com/press-freedom/covering-us-protests-journalists-find-unexpected-threats\">according to a VOA report</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"hmn2o\">Camera operator Tezcan Taskiran and reporters Mehtap Yilmaz and Uzeyir Yanar were reporting that Sunday night on demonstrations near St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square, near the White House.</p><p data-block-key=\"jnnk8\">Yilmaz told VOA that at about 10:30 p.m., police officers at the scene raised batons and advanced on her, her colleagues and others standing in the area and ordered them to leave, despite the fact that Yilmaz’s colleagues were carrying video cameras and that the team identified themselves as journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"qm0ue\">“There was a harsh intervention of the police against journalists during the protests. Although we showed our press cards, we were drastically removed from the protests in front of the White House,” Yilmaz told VOA.</p><p data-block-key=\"59161\">A spokesperson for VOA declined to comment to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker on the incident. The agency also declined to make Taskiran, Yanar or Yilmaz available for interviews.</p><p data-block-key=\"omsag\">Yilmaz was one of several VOA journalists, some of whom have covered conflicts around the globe, who told the news service they were surprised by the violence they encountered at the hands of both police and demonstrators taking part in this year’s protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"wlgit\">It isn’t clear from Yilmaz’s published account of the May 31 incident which law enforcement agency approached the news crew.</p><p data-block-key=\"goy4v\">The same day that VOA journalists were forced from the area around St. John’s Church, fire was set to a nursery room in the basement of the church’s parish house. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which didn’t spread to other parts of the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"u45ld\">On June 1, St. John’s became the backdrop for a controversial photo op for President Donald Trump. National Guard troops used tear gas and pepper balls to clear protesters from the area before Trump posed for cameras while holding up a Bible.</p><p data-block-key=\"gzkkn\">Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"e6ww7\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Tezcan Taskiran (Voice of America)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Denver police train a less-lethal rifle at Colorado Public Radio reporter",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/denver-police-train-a-less-lethal-rifle-at-colorado-public-radio-reporter/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-18T18:29:09.297906Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:27:02.432258Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:27:02.336036Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ecmtz\">Esteban Hernandez, a reporter for Denverite and Colorado Public Radio, and another journalist were aimed at with a crowd-control weapon by law enforcement while covering protests in Denver, Colorado, on the evening of May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"tujad\">The protests were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, for eight minutes and 46 seconds during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"kv59w\">Hernandez ran into Denver Post reporter Alex Burness near the state capitol building, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/denver-post-reporter-aimed-at-with-weapon-amid-protests/\">Burness told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker</a>. The lights around the capitol were off, creating an “uneasy” atmosphere, Burness said. A large crowd of protesters had amassed on the north side of the building. Police moved toward protesters, firing tear gas. Burness and Hernandez decided to leave the area, heading away from the tear gas toward the capitol’s south side.</p><p data-block-key=\"3e6lv\">There, they encountered a line of officers standing across a two-lane street. Burness saw an opening that would have allowed them to leave the area without crossing the police line. Burness said both journalists loudly identified themselves as members of the press and were wearing press credentials, and Hernandez wore a neon yellow vest with ‘PRESS’ written on it in large letters.</p><p data-block-key=\"ncrvt\">Burness said one of the officers told them to turn back the other way, where the tear gas was coming from. Burness and Hernandez continued to shout “Press! Press! Press!” to get the officers to allow them to pass through the open area, but police refused. In a show of force, one lifted what Burness described as a rifle used to shoot less-lethal projectiles, and pointed it directly at the journalists. Burness said he has no doubt the officers knew they were members of the press, calling the incident “a flagrant disregard for our press rights.”</p><p data-block-key=\"76qho\">The two retreated back towards the capitol lawn, where they were engulfed in a cloud of tear gas. Burness, wearing ski goggles and an N95 mask, said he couldn’t see at more than five percent for several minutes. “It was very intense, extremely unpleasant, and crucially, totally unnecessary,” he said. Both <a href=\"https://twitter.com/EstebanHRZ/status/1267318923243986945\">Hernandez</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alex_burness/status/1267319325846917120\">Burness</a> tweeted about the incident. Reached via direct message on Twitter, Hernandez declined to comment.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">While <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alex_burness?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@alex_burness</a> and I were trying to walk around the Capitol, we identified ourselves as press <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DenverPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DenverPolice</a> still pointed rifles at us.</p>— Esteban L. Hernandez (@EstebanHRZ) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/EstebanHRZ/status/1267318923243986945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"n9szk\">Multiple law enforcement agencies were operating in the area at the time, Burness said, including the Colorado Army National Guard, Denver Police, the Colorado State Patrol and sheriffs’ departments from various counties across the state. Burness said he believes the officer who trained his gun at them was with the Colorado State Patrol.</p><p data-block-key=\"jv5h4\">The Tracker reached out to the Colorado State Patrol, which refused to comment on the incidents, saying they involved the Denver Police Department. A request for comment to the Denver Police Department was not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"i4vfi\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": 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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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Colorado",
"abbreviation": "CO"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Esteban Hernandez (Denverite & Colorado Public Radio)"
],
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"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Public radio reporters shot with pepper balls while covering Louisville protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/public-radio-reporters-shot-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-louisville-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-18T20:37:12.299898Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:29:52.522503Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:29:52.415635Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4t244\">Ryland Barton, the statehouse bureau chief for WFPL, was struck with pepper balls while covering protests in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"s3osu\">The protests were sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the March 13 death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville.</p><p data-block-key=\"a2nju\">Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear had deployed the National Guard to the city a day earlier, and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer instituted a citywide curfew, to begin at <a href=\"https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/metro-government/2020/05/30/mayor-fischer-sets-breonna-taylor-protest-curfew-calls-national-guard/5290690002/\">9 p.m.</a>, ahead of the May 31 protests, <a href=\"https://wfpl.org/at-least-33-arrested-in-third-night-of-louisville-protests/\">according to NPR affiliate WFPL</a>. It was the first time the National Guard had patrolled the streets in Louisville <a href=\"https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2020/06/02/breonna-taylor-protests-city-doesnt-often-call-national-guard/5307355002/\">since 1975</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"jaimq\">Just after 7:30 p.m. Barton tweeted that police had surrounded three-fourths of Jefferson Square Park, setting up a perimeter from which officers shot tear gas at protesters. Barton tweeted that there were also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RylandKY/status/1267250457967239178\">flash-bang grenades and pepper balls</a> deployed at the park. The crowd-control devices were deployed from the southwest corner of Liberty and Sixth streets as police moved forward, forcing protesters through the fog, <a href=\"https://wfpl.org/at-least-33-arrested-in-third-night-of-louisville-protests/\">according to WFPL</a><i>.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"c6qj9\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RylandKY/status/1267269439902416896\">one tweet</a>, Barton said he had been struck with pepper balls and gassed, and he described how police mocked him when he and his public radio colleague Jess Clark put their hands up.</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 told <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jess_m_clark?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@jess_m_clark</a> and me not to put our hands up when we walked by, saying it looked "ridiculous" and that we wouldn't be targeted if we weren't doing anything violent. I got hit with pepper balls and tear gassed earlier, definitely wasnt doing anything violent.</p>— Ryland Barton (@RylandKY) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RylandKY/status/1267269439902416896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"82gjv\">Barton “was struck in the leg with at least one pepper ball. We were crossing a street blockaded by a line of police in riot gear and they fired pepper balls at us,” his colleague Clark, education reporter for WFPL, told the U.S. Press Freedom tracker in an email. Barton couldn’t be reached for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"kqjvl\">“We were alone, not in a group... and I was carrying a boom mic — so it seems unlikely they didn't realize we were press,” Clark said.</p><p data-block-key=\"pxxei\">Just after 10 p.m., an hour past curfew, Barton <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RylandKY/status/1267276963737001985\">tweeted a picture</a> that he said showed officers shooting crowd-control munitions. He also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RylandKY/status/1267279215956803591\">tweeted a video</a> showing officers shooting pepper balls in the direction of the journalists, noting that both times the firing seemed to be without cause:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This group of police at 4th and Broadway. They just shot proper balls at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jess_m_clark?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@jess_m_clark</a> and I for crossing the street. Super unclear why. She's carrying a giant boom microphone. <a href=\"https://t.co/3lzdYaF0S6\">pic.twitter.com/3lzdYaF0S6</a></p>— Ryland Barton (@RylandKY) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RylandKY/status/1267276963737001985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"stic6\">Over the course of the night, dozens were arrested <a href=\"https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kentucky/articles/2020-05-31/dozens-arrested-in-third-night-of-protests-in-louisville\">according to a police spokesperson</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"kgxfl\">The Louisville Metro Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"p3pju\">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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