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{
"title": "Photographer says he was targeted by police with projectiles and tear gas during Portland protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-says-he-was-targeted-police-projectiles-and-tear-gas-during-portland-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-16T20:11:48.867487Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-03-12T16:26:55.247275Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-03-12T16:26:55.150711Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7ut0k\">Independent photographer Mathieu Lewis-Rolland said he was fired on by police and targeted with tear gas at close range while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"vyv23\">Lewis-Rolland, based in Portland, was covering one of the many protests that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man. A viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ebysq\">In Portland, protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Around 10:40 p.m. on May 31, Lewis-Rolland went to investigate a loud bang at the intersection of Southwest Salmon Street and Southwest Third Avenue, on the same corner as the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. Lewis-Rolland is a plaintiff in the case, which led to an <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a> by the Portland Police Bureau in July not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"3on33\">The intersection by the U.S. Courthouse was mostly clear of protesters when Lewis-Rolland arrived, according to his <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-06-30_-_lewis-rolland_decl.pdf\">case filing</a>. As he began photographing, an officer aimed a gun directly at him. Shortly after, the officer fired several projectiles toward him without warning, according to the filing.</p><p data-block-key=\"82uud\">The police also threw tear gas, according to the suit. “Mr. Lewis-Rolland was overcome by the effects of tear gas and was unable to continue documenting protests or police action at that location, but he attempted to continue operating his camera to the best of his ability while recovering from the effects of the tear gas,” says the complaint. “He was able to capture a visual cloud of gas hovering over the intersection he had just retreated from.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bp715\">Lewis-Rolland later posted a photo on <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218303968214256&set=pb.1342929165.-2207520000..&type=3\">Facebook</a> showing the officer just before he fired. “He could see I was holding a camera as well as I could see he was holding a gun,” Lewis-Rolland said in the post. He added that while he wasn’t injured, he felt shrapnel hit his body.</p><p data-block-key=\"y0twj\">About an hour later, he was photographing a protest around the corner from the first incident, at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Southwest Taylor Street, when a different officer threw a canister of tear gas designed for crowd control at his feet, according to the suit. The photographer was again momentarily incapacitated by the effects of the tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"m0zev\">When he started covering the protests on May 30, Lewis-Rolland wore a shirt and jeans and carried a Nikon camera with a telephoto lens, he <a href=\"https://cpj.org/2020/08/were-scared-shitless-out-here-four-reporters-on-covering-the-federal-response-to-portland-protests/\">told</a> the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, in a recent interview. “Before this I covered local music, festivals, local business editorials, landscapes, and weddings,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mdjd0\">Lewis-Rolland told CPJ that he later had a T-shirt printed with the word “press” on the front and back and received a press pass from the Portland Mercury. He couldn't be reached for further comment about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"c7egu\">The ACLU class-action complaint said that during the May 31 incident, Lewis-Rolland was “unmistakably present in a journalistic capacity” since he was carrying a “large Nikon D850 camera with a 70-200mm lens and a flash.”</p><p data-block-key=\"m7zm9\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"9pk2w\">Police at a protest in Portland, Oregon, on May 31, 2020, following the murder of George Floyd. Photojournalist Mathieu Lewis-Rolland was documenting the demonstration when he was hit with projectiles and tear gas fired by police.</p>",
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"name": "Oregon",
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"updates": [
"(2025-03-05 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists settle with Portland, Oregon, over 2020 protest violations"
],
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"settled"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"Mathieu Lewis-Rolland (Freelance)"
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{
"title": "Video journalist hit by thrown object during Boston protest; individuals try to steal camera",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-hit-thrown-object-during-boston-protest-individuals-try-steal-camera/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-11T17:56:24.514292Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:12:27.022531Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:12:26.931337Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
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"city": "Boston",
"longitude": -71.05977,
"latitude": 42.35843,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mj5ra\">Video journalist Jack Sorgi said he was hit on the head by what he believes was a frozen water bottle while filming protests in Boston, Massachusetts, on the night of May 31, 2020. Individuals also tried to prevent him from filming by blocking his camera and attempting to steal it.</p><p data-block-key=\"mb1kd\">The protests were held in response to 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=\"529n2\">Beginning around 11 p.m. on May 31, Sorgi, who owns and runs Boston Stringer Media, which sells video footage to news outlets, <a href=\"https://youtu.be/gowfvnEmEyc\">filmed a series of tense standoffs</a> between law enforcement and protesters in downtown Boston, the journalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email.</p><p data-block-key=\"qm0rv\">Sorgi said he believes he was hit accidentally by one of the individuals facing off against dozens of officers that evening. “Throughout the escalating demonstration people repeatedly threw objects (water bottles, fireworks, rocks and pieces of bricks),” he wrote to the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"sh3pi\">“I have no reason to believe I was targeted by any member of the crowd and was hit merely for being close to the police line where objects were being thrown.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3b819\">Sorgi said he was wearing a helmet emblazoned with the word “PRESS” and was not seriously injured.</p><p data-block-key=\"xh3bv\">Later that night, while Sorgi was filming people looting a store whose glass front had been shattered, a man held up his hand to block the lens, the journalist said. A few seconds later, another man came from behind him and tried to grab the camera, a Panasonic AG UX90, out of his hand.</p><p data-block-key=\"wfkli\">In a separate incident earlier that night, Sorgi was pepper-sprayed by police. The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-hit-pepper-spray-while-covering-boston-protests/\">that incident here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"eyn1t\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Sorgi_block_camera_0531_Boston.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"q31cx\">Jack Sorgi was filming protests for Boston Stringer Media on May 31, 2020, when a man blocked the camera and another tried to steal it. Earlier in the night the journalist was hit with a flying object as well as multiple rounds of pepper spray.</p>",
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"name": "Massachusetts",
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"Black Lives Matter",
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "Video journalist hit with pepper spray while covering Boston protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-hit-pepper-spray-while-covering-boston-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-11T17:46:39.284704Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:12:10.296989Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:12:10.210079Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
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"city": "Boston",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"bdvsl\">Jack Sorgi, a video journalist for Boston Stringer Media, which sells video footage to news outlets, was pepper-sprayed by police while filming protests in Boston, Massachusetts, on the night of May 31, 2020, according to Sorgi and video of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"wrlh2\">The protests were held in response to 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=\"zdkee\">Beginning around 11 p.m. on May 31, Sorgi <a href=\"https://youtu.be/gowfvnEmEyc\">filmed a series of tense standoffs</a> between law enforcement and protesters in downtown Boston, the journalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email. In one chaotic scene, with sirens blaring in the background, bottles of water and other objects can be seen being thrown at officers with bicycles. In another, the windshield of a squad car is damaged with what appears to be a trash can.</p><p data-block-key=\"ew7vd\">Later in Sorgi’s footage, canisters of colored smoke can be seen landing near protesters, some of whom appeared to then kick or throw the canisters back at police. Sorgi said he believes these were a mild form of tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"4f0nn\">For a time, Sorgi said, police remained mostly stationary. At one point in Sorgi’s footage, an officer can be heard using a bullhorn to tell the demonstrators to disperse. Shortly thereafter, Sorgi captured officers advancing toward the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"oo471\">According to Sorgi, officers started to use pepper spray after a protester approached them and gestured in a hostile manner. From that point on, Sorgi said, one or two officers would deploy pepper spray to the line of people closest to the front of the police line, where Sorgi was filming.</p><p data-block-key=\"rzjml\">Sorgi, who said he was wearing a vest, goggles and a helmet emblazoned with the word “PRESS,” told the Tracker that the first bursts of pepper spray didn’t affect him. But then, he said, police “deployed a different type of pepper spray” that seemed “to seep into my skin and burn much more intensely than the other sprays combined.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8f7sp\">“I was completely unable to see,” Sorgi told the Tracker. “I ran away shouting, ‘Press’ as I was unsure if the police were rushing the crowd.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tzvq2\">In Sorgi’s footage, the journalist can be heard shouting, “Water, water, water!” as he turns and runs from the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"tvr3b\">Sorgi said another photographer grabbed him and poured Gatorade in his eyes, which helped him to see slightly. Then, he said, a group of protesters took him by the arm and shepherded him into an alleyway, where he was then let into the back entrance of a hotel by a doorman. Sorgi said he sat in the hotel for about 25 minutes while the doorman brought him towels and water and some protesters stayed by his side. Sorgi said he then returned to the streets to continue filming.</p><p data-block-key=\"6i8n3\">Sorgi said the police generally seemed to be respecting journalists and that it was unlikely that he was targeted by those using pepper spray. He said he later contacted the Boston Police Department about the incident and that a representative denied that officers had targeted journalists and apologized that he was hurt by the pepper spray.</p><p data-block-key=\"k89c1\">The BPD did not immediately respond to an email from the Tracker seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"c6sqk\">Later in the evening, Sorgi was hit on the head by a bottle of frozen water and harassed by individuals who tried to take his camera. The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-hit-thrown-object-during-boston-protest-individuals-try-steal-camera/\">that incident here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"go93c\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Sorgi_pepper_spray_boston_0531.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"57743\">While filming protests on May 31, 2020, for Boston Stringer Media, Jack Sorgi captures the moment before he was caught in pepper spray for the sixth time. “I was completely unable to see,” he said.</p>",
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{
"title": "Videographer hit by police projectile during Portland protest on May 31",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-hit-police-projectile-during-portland-protest-may-31/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-01T16:05:33.417642Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:03:21.266837Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:03:21.174013Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
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"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"a9o37\">Independent journalist Mason Lake said he was shot by law enforcement officers with a projectile that injured his arm while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"4x673\">Lake, a videographer based in Portland, was filming one of the many protests that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man. A viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"dd5vg\">In Portland, protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Lake, who wasn’t wearing anything to identify himself as press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting protesters at Southwest Main Street and Southwest Third Avenue around the time the curfew was going into effect on May 31.</p><p data-block-key=\"woiyk\">Lake said law enforcement officers began using force against protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"4d84e\">“The police gave no announcement. They were shooting tear gas with no warning,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ej1wj\">Derek Carmon, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman, disputed Lake’s version of events. He told the Tracker that it is “not our practice to use any crowd-control device without warning. Multiple announcements were given in the area during that time frame.”</p><p data-block-key=\"svff9\"><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo8NgCky3kA\">Video taken</a> by Lake at around 8:05 p.m. shows protesters in a haze of tear gas. One of the law enforcement officers stationed at the Multnomah County Justice Center can be seen throwing a flash bang grenade at protesters, and an announcement can be heard warning that the officers will use force if the demonstrators don’t leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"rr9oj\">In <a href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zgQ-bR4Gad6KYZGxzXx15BrMX0a4DeXQ/view?usp=sharing\">another video</a> Lake sent to the Tracker, at around 8:10 p.m., he filmed demonstrators kneeling and chanting across from the Justice Center building. Somebody near Lake yells, “incoming!” Then the video goes askew as Lake yells in pain.</p><p data-block-key=\"pt43k\">When Lake recovers, he films his injured arm and says, “I just got shot by the Portland police.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bd3v0\">“It shoved my hand and left me with welts,” Lake told the Tracker. “I stayed for a little bit to keep recording, but the tear gas came on, and I had to leave and recover.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oru5e\">Lake said he believes he was hit by a “foam baton,” a projectile used by law enforcement officers for crowd control, due to the sound it made. The Tracker couldn’t independently verify what kind of munition was used.</p><p data-block-key=\"rx842\">He said both the Portland Police Bureau and Multnomah County Sheriff's Office policed protests that day. It isn’t clear which agency the officer who fired the shot works for.</p><p data-block-key=\"22pwt\">On June 6, Lake filed a lawsuit against the city of Portland over the alleged battery by the police that occurred on May 31, seeking up to $450,000 in damages. “Mr. Lake believes he was specifically targeted by City of Portland police officers because he was a photographer documenting police brutality,” the lawsuit states.</p><p data-block-key=\"rjbye\">Portland City Attorney Tracy Reeve told the Tracker she couldn’t comment on pending litigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"47roy\">In an emailed response to questions about Lake’s allegations, Carmon of the Portland Police said: “If it is Portland officers in the video who use force, they know that all uses of force are required to be documented in a police report and administratively reviewed per our policy to determine if they meet our standards. If there is a determination that something was out of policy, it would follow the process for investigation with [Independent Police Review]/[Internal Affairs] to determine if discipline is warranted.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oy8pg\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"5vcwy\"><i>Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect information gained from a copy of Lake's lawsuit against the city of Portland.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"tfzin\">Protests in Portland, Oregon, on May 31, 2020, against the police murder of George Floyd. Independent journalist Mason Lake said he was shot by law enforcement officers with a projectile while documenting the protests that night.</p>",
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"(2025-01-29 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist’s suit against police in Portland, Oregon, dismissed"
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{
"title": "Univision reporters hit with pepper ball rounds during Vegas protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/univision-reporters-hit-with-pepper-ball-rounds-during-vegas-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-18T18:59:27.822184Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:28:13.139818Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:28:13.036235Z",
"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=\"edvb4\">Univision reporters Fernando Rentería and Alexander Zapata said they were fired on with what they believed to be pepper ball rounds by police while covering the arrest of a civilian protester in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"12phs\">The protest that day was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police 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=\"n8jaq\">Zapata and Rentería had been <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/noticiasunivisionnevada/videos/253889532501939/UzpfSTM5NDg2OTg5ODA0NzM4ODo2NDIxNDkwNzMzMTk0Njg/\">streaming live on Facebook</a> as night fell on May 31, covering protests along the Strip. About an hour into their stream, the reporters can be seen making their way north on Las Vegas Boulevard when Zapata explains that tear gas had been fired on the crowd but that it was not very intense. Shortly thereafter, the reporters walked toward a group of officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Zapata can be heard saying, “It looks like they are arresting a civilian.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">➡️ Equipo de noticias de Univision en Las Vegas recibe balas de gomas de parte de la policía en medio de las protestas por la muerte de <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloyd</a>. <a href=\"https://t.co/zJV0YHXoa1\">pic.twitter.com/zJV0YHXoa1</a></p>— Univision Noticias (@UniNoticias) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/UniNoticias/status/1267415830632988674?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=\"4vlho\">In the video, reviewed by the Tracker, an officer can be seen moving toward the journalists. Several shots can be heard, after which Zapata can be heard groaning. He says on the livestream, “They have just shot us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"34lrl\">Zapata then said to his audience, “Police officers from Las Vegas just shot us. Police officers from Las Vegas Police Department are attacking the press. I repeat, my partner, Fernando Rentería, and I were hit by the police.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lltam\">Rentería told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, “I was hit by pepper bullets on my abdomen and one of my elbows. It wasn’t very painful but it’s unexpected, so it’s frightening, and since I wasn’t the only one hit and I heard people around me screaming, it was a very tense moment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xknih\">The LVMPD responded to requests for comment by emailing the Tracker <a href=\"https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Press%20Releases/PO%20132%2006-19-20.pdf\">two</a> <a href=\"https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Press%20Releases/PO%200128%2006-15-20.pdf\">press releases</a>. Neither addressed Zapata or Rentería specifically, or members of the media more broadly, nor did they address the use of particular munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ag8z\">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": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Fernando Rentería (Univision)"
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},
{
"title": "Public radio reporter pepper sprayed, knocked to the ground in Richmond",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/public-radio-reporter-pepper-sprayed-knocked-ground-richmond/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-21T15:35:45.060516Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:07:52.309188Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:07:52.208237Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Richmond",
"longitude": -77.46026,
"latitude": 37.55376,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wx9q7\">A Virginia public radio reporter was pepper sprayed and knocked to the ground by police officers while covering protests in Richmond on May 31, 2020. The journalist had identified himself as a member of the press before the assault, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ml1rx\">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=\"5lphq\">On the evening of May 31, VPM News reporter Roberto Roldan and photographer Crixell Matthews were covering protests that moved from the site of the Robert E. Lee Memorial toward the Virginia State Capitol building in downtown Richmond. A line of police officers formed behind protesters on East Broad Street. At around 9 p.m., after an 8 p.m. curfew had gone into effect, the line of officers fired tear gas into the crowd, Roldan told the Tracker.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cops are now firing tear cas at protesters from the back of the crowd. Now moving down Broad toward Shockoe.</p>— Roberto Roldan (@ByRobertoR) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByRobertoR/status/1267260825955438597?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=\"qqs2x\">Though they were not directly hit, Roldan and Matthews coughed and experienced sinus drip from the effects of the gas, said Roldan, who typically covers Richmond City Hall.</p><p data-block-key=\"bz33b\">Roldan helped Brian Palmer, a Richmond-based photographer <a href=\"https://richmond.com/news/local/lohmann-this-richmond-based-award-winning-photojournalist-and-the-great-grandson-of-slaves-views-the/article_2d635b6d-a2d7-5f68-bfaf-e8b04255c74d.html\">covering the protests</a>, rinse pepper spray out of his eyes, Palmer told the Tracker. When Palmer said he was feeling better, Roldan and Matthews decided to move on from what had become a “chaotic situation,” Roldan told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"5y3n3\">Then the two journalists turned off East Broad Street and walked around the corner to East Marshall Street to take cover. While walking on East Marshall they encountered a line of police officers who were blocking the street and not allowing anyone to advance, Roldan said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1oco8\">Seeking to leave the area, Roldan, who was wearing a reflective vest and his press badge around his neck, approached the line of police officers with his press badge in his hand and verbally identified himself as a member of the press, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"7t59f\">”As soon as I said ‘I’m with the press,’ an officer on the police line who had a tank of pepper spray in his hand released the pepper spray at us,” Roldan said. Roldan was hit across his face and hands, though protective glasses shielded his eyes, the journalist said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2v9cu\">Matthews told the Tracker that she was behind Roldan when the pepper spray was fired and hit with residual spray. “The spray mostly hit my arms with some of it hitting my face,” Matthews said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7wtjp\">Disoriented from the pepper spray, Roldan stopped and bent over at the waist in front of the line of officers. As he looked up, he said he saw a large police officer run toward him. The officer “shoulder-tackled” him to the ground, Roldan said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ngpk6\">Matthews helped Roldan off the ground and the two of them approached the police line again. This time they were permitted to pass. Roldan said he tried to explain to an officer on the other side of the line what had happened. The officer asked to see Roldan’s press badge, and then offered no response, Roldan said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vi0qe\">As they continued down East Marshall Street, Roldan and Matthews saw an officer who they recognized as the person who had shoved Roldan to the ground, the reporter said. Roldan said the officer refused to stop or respond when Roldan asked for his badge number. Roldan noted the numbers on the back of the officer’s helmet. He then posted to Twitter about the incident.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After showing my badge and yelling “I am with the press” a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RichmondPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RichmondPolice</a> officer sprayed pepper spray in my face and shoved me to the ground. Had “3397” on his helmet. I’m out. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/myVPM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@myVPM</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Richmond?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Richmond</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydProtests</a></p>— Roberto Roldan (@ByRobertoR) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByRobertoR/status/1267264167314182144?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=\"jttd9\">The two journalists then asked a VPM News editor who lived nearby to pick them up and drive them home. While in the car, Roldan said he received a telephone call from Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney who had seen his tweet. The mayor apologized for what had happened and said he would call for an investigation, Roldan said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tocr5\">The following day, Stoney confirmed he had spoken with Roldan and had ordered the investigation, according to <a href=\"https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/1-complaint-filed-against-richmond-police-over-handling-of-protestors\">news reports</a>. The mayor also tweeted, “There is NO reason this should have happened to a member of the press. No reason. It is absolutely unacceptable, and we are investigating the matter.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There is NO reason this should have happened to a member of the press. No reason. It is absolutely unacceptable, and we are investigating the matter.</p>— Levar M. Stoney (@LevarStoney) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LevarStoney/status/1267454494931066880?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=\"7xne5\">In a press conference on June 1, Police Chief Will Smith said the incident had been “<a href=\"https://richmond.com/news/local/at-least-125-press-freedom-violations-nationwide-have-been-reported-since-friday-two-were-in/article_101b7e73-ebbf-5348-9ca8-e567419b881b.html\">completely accidental</a>” and that the officer “was actually running, and sadly is not as agile as we would like. We weren’t throwing [Roldan] to the ground to effect arrest. It was really in a very tense moment and we were trying to affect other things.” Roldan told <a href=\"https://vpm.org/news/articles/13906/police-say-theyll-investigate-violence-against-vpm-reporter\">VPM news</a> that while he doesn’t know what the officer was thinking, “the tackle felt intentional.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ch6w0\">“My skin was definitely burning for a while after leaving the scene and getting back home,” Matthews told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"vxiex\">While her camera equipment was not damaged, there were “residual chemicals on at least the lens hood that I hadn't thought to wipe down,” Matthews said. “I realized it after those chemicals were reactivated by my sweat a few days later during a separate event when I had it sitting on my arm.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7bo7a\">The Richmond Police Department did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"19w3p\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"http://pressfreedomtracker.us/george-floyd-protests/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"xhbce\">Protesters rally around the memorial of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, in mid-June 2020.</p>",
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Virginia",
"abbreviation": "VA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Roberto Roldan (VPM News)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Australian news crew cameraman detained while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/australian-news-crew-cameraman-detained-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-21T14:05:51.296432Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:10:26.881088Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:10:26.792122Z",
"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=\"gi5l3\">Minneapolis police briefly detained a Nine News Australia news crew and security guard in the early hours of May 31, 2020, the outlet reported. Cameraman Adam Bovino and U.S. Correspondent Tim Arvier were covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"4p8cq\">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 U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"mzonk\">Arvier <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267178660500590598\">reported</a> that police and the Minnesota National Guard deployed throughout Minneapolis on the night of May 30 in an attempt to assert control. The Nine News crew documented protesters <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TimArvier9/status/1266910436215132169\">marching</a> in defiance of an 8 p.m. curfew as the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267062595778949120\">police pushed</a> back with less-lethal projectiles and tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"7namr\">The crew was driving to find a backdrop for a live interview when they heard gunfire and encountered a police roadblock, Arvier told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"nk4w0\">“We didn’t want to approach the roadblock, or drive up to it because obviously we’d seen numerous examples in the past 48 hours of how jumpy the police were,” Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"a4b36\">So Bovino stopped the car short of the roadblock and waited for the police to notice them, Arvier told the Tracker. As the police officers approached, the crew held their hands out the windows and shouted that they were press.</p><p data-block-key=\"wbu44\">Two officers seemed calm, Arvier said, but a third yelled at them to get out of the car and drew his firearm.</p><p data-block-key=\"98vz2\">“That’s when I hit record on my phone and held my phone up in my hand to record all this happening, just to have a record,” Arvier said. The crew tried to remain calm to avoid misunderstandings that could have escalated, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ff5hn\">The security guard, who the crew hired after observing street violence, informed the police that he had weapons in the car, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"57cpf\">In Arvier’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267062595778949120\">video</a>, a police officer warns other officers to not let the journalists and the security guard drop their hands because there are guns in the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"dmgra\">Arvier asks an officer in the video if it is okay to keep holding his phone in his raised hands. The officer responds, “You’re good.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9e9zh\">Bovino, who declined an interview because Arvier had already spoken with the Tracker, said in an email that the officer who drew a firearm handcuffed him. Officers escorted Bovino and the security guard in handcuffs to the curb.</p><p data-block-key=\"2h15t\">A third officer searched Arvier, who continued to film. Additional <a href=\"https://www.9news.com.au/national/usa-riots-minneapolis-george-floyd-black-man-death-police/ada0a989-1201-44a2-b9e9-ff2d4a04cb39?ocid=Social-9News\">footage</a> shows Arvier holding his credentials in one hand as he’s searched. As he is patted down, Arvier explains to the officer that he is wearing a bulletproof vest.</p><p data-block-key=\"h0isv\">In the video, an officer explains why the Nine News Australia crew was being treated carefully. “You can hear all the gunshots going off all around us. It’s like a warzone,” the officer said. “And here you guys are in bulletproof vests with a rifle in the car.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c7fpk\">Arvier was escorted to the curb, but he was not handcuffed like his colleagues. After the police checked their press credentials, the crew was released. Arvier said the crew was carrying press passes issued by the Los Angeles Police Department since their bureau is based in Los Angeles.</p><p data-block-key=\"zy3uw\">The police warned the journalists that it was dangerous to be out and advised them to return to their hotel for their safety, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"cle2j\">Arvier said they had been treated respectfully and he understood why the police would be anxious. But it was unclear why they had to be detained and handcuffed. They had previously been pulled over to have their credentials checked without issue, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"0lt5y\">“If it wasn’t for the one police officer there, I get the feeling that the other ones would’ve handled it a lot more calmly and we probably would have been fine like we were the first time we were pulled over,” Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"71des\">Minnesota Police Department spokesperson John Elder told the Tracker he was unable to comment about this and other incidents involving the press. He said, “Every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q004x\">The crew’s detention on May 30 was one of several incidents involving the police during the days of protests, Arvier told the Tracker. On the night of May 29 the crew was pinned down in a parking lot in the 5th Precinct as police confronted protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, Arvier said. They were trying to return to their car to send footage back to Australia, but the police line blocked their way. When the crew tried to approach the line while identifying as press, the police yelled at them to get back. Police eventually escorted Bovino to the team’s vehicle to retrieve the equipment they needed. The vehicle had a large dent that the journalists presumed came from a tear gas canister strike.</p><p data-block-key=\"55fgw\">On May 31, the crew was filming <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsSyd/status/1267431786893717504\">police push back protesters</a> near a highway, Arvier said. The crew positioned off to the side so that they could either fall back on the highway or behind police lines to stay safe, Arvier said. But Nine News footage shows Arvier and Bovino forced by police to run through tear gas. “That is ugly, ugly scenes,” Arvier said in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TimArvier9/status/1267254264679694336\">video posted to Twitter</a> as he struggled with the effects of the tear gas.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"uypp0\">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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"arresting_authority": "Minneapolis Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
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"Adam Bovino (Nine News Australia)"
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},
{
"title": "Univision journalists hit with pepper ball rounds during Vegas protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/univision-journalists-hit-pepper-ball-rounds-during-vegas-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-10T21:54:07.828247Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:19:32.164488Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:19:32.077095Z",
"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=\"9x2im\">Univision reporters Alexander Zapata and Fernando Rentería said they were fired on with what they believed to be pepper ball rounds by police while covering the arrest of a civilian protester in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"8fjv4\">The protest that day was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police 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=\"m7z56\">Zapata and Rentería had been <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/noticiasunivisionnevada/videos/253889532501939/UzpfSTM5NDg2OTg5ODA0NzM4ODo2NDIxNDkwNzMzMTk0Njg/\">streaming live on Facebook</a> as night fell on May 31, covering protests along the Strip. About an hour into their stream, the reporters can be seen making their way north on Las Vegas Boulevard when Zapata explains that tear gas had been fired on the crowd but that it was not very intense. Shortly thereafter, the reporters walked toward a group of officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Zapata can be heard saying, “It looks like they are arresting a civilian.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">➡️ Equipo de noticias de Univision en Las Vegas recibe balas de gomas de parte de la policía en medio de las protestas por la muerte de <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloyd</a>. <a href=\"https://t.co/zJV0YHXoa1\">pic.twitter.com/zJV0YHXoa1</a></p>— Univision Noticias (@UniNoticias) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/UniNoticias/status/1267415830632988674?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=\"4jcp8\">In the video, reviewed by the Tracker, an officer can be seen moving toward the journalists. Several shots can be heard, after which Zapata can be heard groaning. He says on the livestream, “They have just shot us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dpq1n\">Zapata then said to his audience, “Police officers from Las Vegas just shot us. Police officers from Las Vegas Police Department are attacking the press. I repeat, my partner, Fernando Rentería, and I were hit by the police.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ihwr3\">The LVMPD responded to requests for comment by emailing the Tracker <a href=\"https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Press%20Releases/PO%20132%2006-19-20.pdf\">two</a> <a href=\"https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Press%20Releases/PO%200128%2006-15-20.pdf\">press releases</a>. Neither addressed Zapata or Rentería specifically, or members of the media more broadly. Nor did they address the use of particular munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"9iqqi\">Zapata told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, “I believe no reporter or member of the press should become a victim of these kind of attacks from any kind of authority. Our job is to narrate the events that take place during situations like these. We are not standing up for any side. We just tell the community what is happening.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ffh7o\">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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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Alexander Zapata (Univision)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Primer Impacto reporter injured by rubber bullet during protests in Santa Monica",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/primer-impacto-reporter-injured-rubber-bullet-during-protests-santa-monica/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-10T19:26:29.071238Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:44.577791Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:44.498819Z",
"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=\"lcf13\">Paula Rosado, a reporter for Primer Impacto, a Spanish-language evening news program broadcast by Univision, was hit with a rubber bullet as she covered protests in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"rs7g9\">Demonstrations that day were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"g7497\">Rosado had been narrating a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/359772106595/videos/2555589674702920\">livestream on Facebook</a> in the late afternoon of May 31. A little over 12 minutes in, shots can be heard, followed by a loud scream from Rosado, who then said she’d been hit in the leg.</p><p data-block-key=\"3nqo1\">The assault occurred as law enforcement tried to disperse the demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets, Univision <a href=\"https://www.univision.com/shows/primer-impacto/el-momento-en-el-que-una-reportera-de-primer-impacto-fue-alcanzada-por-una-bala-de-goma-durante-las-protestas-en-los-angeles-video\">reported</a> the next day.</p><p data-block-key=\"983ae\">Rosado was taken to an area hospital. In a later <a href=\"https://www.univision.com/shows/primer-impacto/el-momento-en-el-que-una-reportera-de-primer-impacto-fue-alcanzada-por-una-bala-de-goma-durante-las-protestas-en-los-angeles-video\">video</a>, she compared the day’s events to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles in 1992, after four policemen had been acquitted of beating Rodney King.</p><p data-block-key=\"55dqr\">In her next on-air appearance, Rosado can be seen on crutches. She tells her audience: “We left a dangerous situation safe and sound, so that we could tell our story and do our job. We know we are not the only ones, but there’s an entire nation in conflict and we hope with the strict curfews, the city comes back to normal.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gjxiq\">Rosado, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Santa Monica Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"qrk5o\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Paula Rosado (Primer Impacto)"
],
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},
{
"title": "BBC videographer slammed by officer’s shield during DC protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/bbc-videographer-slammed-by-officers-shield-during-dc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-08T12:45:43.287587Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:27.081029Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:26.997085Z",
"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=\"mltgi\">Peter Murtaugh, a freelance videographer with the BBC, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was assaulted by a police officer while covering protests in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"rbhg2\">Murtaugh, who has filmed for the BBC for decades, was in the nation’s capital to document demonstrations held in response to a video of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkv45\">Murtaugh told the Tracker that at about 9 p.m. he had been on H Street in front of Lafayette Square, a short distance from the White House. Murtaugh said that some protesters had set debris on fire in the middle of the road and, in response, a line of officers in riot gear from the U.S. Park Police had advanced, clearing the street and securing the area. In a video Murtaugh shared with the Tracker, a woman can be seen approaching the officers and attempting to talk with them. An officer can be seen shoving her back with their shield, to which she responded by yelling, “We aren’t doing shit to you!” In the video, some objects, including what appear to be firecrackers, are tossed at officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"4lqkn\">While he was filming this altercation, Murtaugh said an officer rushed toward him and slammed their shield into him. Murtaugh said that he was clearly identifiable as a member of the media — his credentials were visible, and he was holding a large camera with a light atop it. The assault was captured by his camera and later posted to Twitter by Mutaugh’s colleague Aleem Maqbool:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This was before curfew and our cameraman <a href=\"https://twitter.com/p_murt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@p_murt</a> clearly a member of the press, a block away from the White House this evening... <a href=\"https://t.co/X7oQqZm8eW\">pic.twitter.com/X7oQqZm8eW</a></p>— Aleem Maqbool (@AleemMaqbool) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AleemMaqbool/status/1267319521486004225?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=\"7irez\">Murtaugh said his camera was not damaged and that he was not seriously injured or even knocked down. He said the officer returned to their place in the line without a word after the attack. Still, Murtaugh said he felt it was noteworthy because “this officer seemed as if he was intentionally gunning for me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"szu3c\">The videographer has covered a number of high-profile and combative protests in places like Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland. “I've been banged around by the police a little bit, but it’s never felt like it was intentionally directed at me as a journalist, and this one was,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"hzm6x\">Murtaugh also told the Tracker that he was struck by so many pepper balls in the course of the evening that his green flannel shirt was “white with powder” by the end of the night. He said, though, that he didn’t suffer any serious injuries; he’d been wearing a long-sleeved shirt, goggles, and a helmet.</p><p data-block-key=\"usp0v\">The U.S. Park Police did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"66kw2\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screen_Shot_2020-08-08_at_8.40.56.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1xg71\">A still image from the video taken by Peter Murtaugh while filming for the BBC in Washington, D.C. 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,
"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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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Peter Murtaugh (BBC News)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Australian correspondent detained while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/australian-correspondent-detained-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-21T14:07:42.292929Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:07.191296Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:07.086198Z",
"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=\"olikg\">Minneapolis Police briefly detained a Nine News Australia news crew and security guard in the early hours of May 31, 2020, the outlet reported. U.S. Correspondent Tim Arvier and cameraman Adam Bovino were covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"tsdc3\">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 U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"g0665\">Arvier <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267178660500590598\">reported</a> that police and the Minnesota National Guard deployed throughout Minneapolis on the night of May 30 in an attempt to assert control. The Nine News crew documented protesters <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TimArvier9/status/1266910436215132169\">marching</a> in defiance of an 8 p.m. curfew as the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267062595778949120\">police pushed</a> back with less-lethal projectiles and tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"lcrtr\">The crew was driving to find a backdrop for a live interview when they heard gunfire and encountered a police roadblock, Arvier told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ni7eg\">“We didn’t want to approach the roadblock, or drive up to it because obviously we’d seen numerous examples in the past 48 hours of how jumpy the police were,” Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ss07\">So Bovino stopped the car short of the roadblock and waited for the police to notice them, Arvier told the Tracker. As the police officers approached, the crew held their hands out the windows and shouted that they were press.</p><p data-block-key=\"1lvf7\">Two officers seemed calm, Arvier said, but a third yelled at them to get out of the car and drew his firearm.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ndhk\">“That’s when I hit record on my phone and held my phone up in my hand to record all this happening, just to have a record,” Arvier said. The crew tried to remain calm to avoid misunderstandings that could have escalated, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"dstah\">The security guard, who the crew hired after observing street violence, informed the police that he had weapons in the car, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mbdkk\">In Arvier’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267062595778949120\">video</a>, a police officer warns other officers to not let the journalists and the security guard drop their hands because there are guns in the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"b59yu\">Arvier asks an officer in the video if it is okay to keep holding his phone in his raised hands. The officer responds, “You’re good.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0v6cc\">The officer who drew his weapon searched Bovino and escorted him handcuffed to the curb, Arvier said. The security guard was brought by another officer to the curb handcuffed as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"l3oxo\">A third officer searched Arvier, who continued to film. Additional <a href=\"https://www.9news.com.au/national/usa-riots-minneapolis-george-floyd-black-man-death-police/ada0a989-1201-44a2-b9e9-ff2d4a04cb39?ocid=Social-9News\">footage</a> shows Arvier holding his credentials in one hand as he’s searched. As he is patted down, Arvier explains to the officer that he is wearing a bulletproof vest.</p><p data-block-key=\"gh7db\">In the video, an officer explains why the Nine News Australia crew was being treated carefully. “You can hear all the gunshots going off all around us. It’s like a warzone,” the officer said. “And here you guys are in bulletproof vests with a rifle in the car.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0iw68\">Arvier was escorted to the curb, but he was not handcuffed like his colleagues. After the police checked their press credentials, the crew was released. Arvier said the crew was carrying press passes issued by the Los Angeles Police Department since their bureau is based in Los Angeles.</p><p data-block-key=\"czt7u\">The police warned the journalists that it was dangerous to be out and advised them to return to their hotel for their safety, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ruoef\">Arvier said they had been treated respectfully and he understood why the police would be anxious. But it was unclear why they had to be detained and handcuffed. They had previously been pulled over to have their credentials checked without issue, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5opvm\">“If it wasn’t for the one police officer there, I get the feeling that the other ones would’ve handled it a lot more calmly and we probably would have been fine like we were the first time we were pulled over,” Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"66a5s\">Minnesota Police Department spokesperson John Elder told the Tracker he was unable to comment about this and other incidents involving the press. He said, “Every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cl2a0\">The crew’s detention on May 30 was one of several incidents involving the police during the days of protests, Arvier told the Tracker. On the night of May 29 the crew was pinned down in a parking lot in the 5th Precinct as police confronted protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, Arvier said. They were trying to return to their car to send footage back to Australia, but the police line blocked their way. When the crew tried to approach the line while identifying as press, the police yelled at them to get back. Police eventually escorted Bovino to the team’s vehicle to retrieve the equipment they needed. The vehicle had a large dent that the journalists presumed came from a tear gas canister strike.</p><p data-block-key=\"r0i1c\">On May 31, the crew was filming <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsSyd/status/1267431786893717504\">police push back protesters</a> near a highway, Arvier said. The crew positioned off to the side so that they could either fall back on the highway or behind police lines to stay safe, Arvier said. But Nine News footage shows Arvier and his cameraman forced by police to run through tear gas. "That is ugly, ugly scenes," Arvier said in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TimArvier9/status/1267254264679694336\">video posted to Twitter</a> as he struggled with the effects of the tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"rzaxf\">Arvier told the Tracker he recognized the risks the police were facing and did not feel bitter toward them. But he noted their attitude toward journalists seemed different than in previous protests he has covered.</p><p data-block-key=\"14qqi\">In other protests, “the cops just sort of let you work through it and we don’t get in their way and they don’t get in our way and everyone is fine,” Arvier said “But that certainly seemed to be a different state of affairs in terms of the police attitude in Minneapolis.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7jfs6\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Minneapolis Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"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": [
"Tim Arvier (Nine News Australia)"
],
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},
{
"title": "VICE News journalist hit by projectiles while covering protests in DC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-news-journalist-hit-projectiles-while-covering-protests-dc/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-06T18:29:47.842441Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:54:49.252172Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:54:49.148586Z",
"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=\"h1qnh\">VICE News journalist Todd Zwillich told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was hit in the head by multiple projectiles during a chaos-filled night of protests in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"41r2j\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"hiajm\">According to his Twitter feed, Zwillich had spent much of the evening of May 31 covering protests in Lafayette Park, near the White House. He told the Tracker that at around 11 p.m., the start of the city’s curfew, he’d been filming a line of law enforcement officials as they marched up 16th Street to clear protesters from the area, saying that the scene was not particularly crowded and that his credentials were visible.</p><p data-block-key=\"6twn0\">He said that shortly thereafter an officer aimed at him and fired two projectiles. On Twitter he posted that he’d been “hit with a rubber bullet,” but he clarified to the Tracker that he wasn’t sure what the projecticles were. He was hit in the head, though did not suffer serious injury.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Police moving protesters up 16th st. I just got hit in the head with a rubber bullet. My press credentials are out. I’m fine. <a href=\"https://t.co/x6PVf1MnDS\">pic.twitter.com/x6PVf1MnDS</a></p>— Todd Zwillich (@toddzwillich) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/toddzwillich/status/1267293699630866433?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=\"shn1w\">“I don’t know what they saw. I don’t know what they thought,” Zwillich told the Tracker. “I know what I was doing. But I don’t know how it was perceived.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wp5oi\">Zwillich said he was not certain which agency the officer was with. D.C. is notable for the <a href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/05/protests-washington-dc-federal-agents-law-enforcement-302551\">large number of different police forces</a> that operate within its borders. Requests for comment from the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police were not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"xja8p\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"d9jsl\">Law enforcement in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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"name": "District of Columbia",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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{
"title": "Photojournalist hit in head by projectile while covering Santa Monica protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-head-projectile-while-covering-santa-monica-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-04T22:24:51.501555Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:01:47.447453Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:01:47.343178Z",
"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=\"9rwyn\">Photojournalist Jason Ryan said he was hit in the head with what he believes was a rubber bullet while covering a protest in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"bjl1u\">The protest was part of a wave of demonstrations against police violence 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=\"euct5\">Ryan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was photographing protesters at the intersection of Colorado Avenue and Ocean Avenue. He began behind the police line, then moved to the side of the protesters to get a better shot. He said the police were using teargas, pepper balls, rubber bullets and flash bangs against the crowd. He didn’t hear them make any announcements before firing.</p><p data-block-key=\"tbgrw\">“They just started right into it,” said Ryan, who was covering the protests independently. Ryan was carrying several cameras and said he was wearing a yellow vest that said “Press” on it, with a badge also identifying him as a journalist pinned to one shoulder. He said he believes he was targeted for being a journalist, given how prominent his identifiers were.</p><p data-block-key=\"5632n\">The last photograph Ryan took before he was hit shows a line of officers almost entirely obscured by teargas. The timestamp on the photograph is 3:15 pm. Ryan told the Tracker that the rubber bullet narrowly missed his temple. “It was above my right ear, a couple of inches or an inch from my temple. Just above my right ear, there’s still a small knot,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1m21a\">Ryan added that the impact reactivated a prior issue with nerve pain in his face. One of his cameras, a Fujifilm X-T3, also required cleaning and repair after being damaged by a projectile.</p><p data-block-key=\"m033x\">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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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jason Ryan (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "WSJ reporter says NYPD hit him in face, shoved him to ground during protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wsj-reporter-says-nypd-hit-him-face-shoved-him-ground-during-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-30T15:03:05.078738Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:08:27.959536Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:08:27.870798Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"n6c4k\">Tyler Blint-Welsh, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, said he was hit in the face and shoved to the ground by police while he covered protests in Lower Manhattan on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ju9p7\">The protest in New York was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"iiiwd\">Blint-Welsh told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on the evening of May 31 he was walking his bike through a crowd a couple of blocks from Union Square, his New York Police Department-issued press credentials dangling from his neck. He saw police officers in riot gear and with Plexiglas shields a couple rows deep. Protesters faced down the police and refused to leave, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"zdvo9\">Blint-Welsh said that NYPD played a recording over and over, for about 15 to 20 minutes: “This protest is destructive and violent. We order you to disperse. If you do not disperse, you are subject to arrest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aoieq\">In response, the crowd began to chant, “This is a nonviolent protest!”</p><p data-block-key=\"xfohe\">Suddenly, Blint-Welsh said, the police rushed forward. People screamed and started to run, he said, but he decided it was better if he stayed apart, on a street corner. He left his bike and found himself in a group of people under some scaffolding.</p><p data-block-key=\"tvo0v\">Blint-Welsh said he told an officer, “I’m press!” and raised his hands in the air.</p><p data-block-key=\"cgzis\">Then, he said, an officer pushed his shield into the journalist’s face, hard, with a corner of the shield tearing his lip and breaking his glasses, which fell from his face. Blint-Welsh said his head was protected by his bike helmet.</p><p data-block-key=\"mdyjp\">The reporter said it felt dangerous to turn and walk away, but when the sidewalk widened, he was able to do so. Blint-Welsh said that’s when a police officer shoved him in the back and he fell, injuring his ankle.</p><p data-block-key=\"dvuuk\">He said he heard an officer yell, “Get ’em!” as if officers were going to jump on him.</p><p data-block-key=\"hjy91\">At about 11 p.m., Blint-Welsh posted about the assault on Twitter.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Lost my glasses and my ankle is in searing pain after NYPD hit me in the face multiple times with riot shields and pushed me to the ground. I was backing away as request, with my hands up. My NYPD-issued press badge was clearly visible. I’m just sitting here crying. This sucks.</p>— Tyler Blint-Welsh (@tylergabriel_) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/tylergabriel_/status/1267287516345925632?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=\"r8a28\">The New York City Police Department acknowledged a request to answer questions about the incident, but didn’t reply to further messages.</p><p data-block-key=\"z6iwe\">Blint-Welsh told the Tracker he sought medical attention and was given a medical boot to stabilize his foot.</p><p data-block-key=\"ax6rr\">A spokesman for the New York Police Department said police are looking into the allegation.</p><p data-block-key=\"rpkd3\">“The incident, sadly, is the latest of many across the country in recent days in which we have seen journalists injured, and in some cases targeted, and a reminder of the dangers we face covering the story,” <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/reports-of-violence-against-journalists-mount-as-u-s-protests-intensify-11591056337\">WSJ Editor in Chief Matt Murrray told staff</a> in an email. IAPE, the Journal’s staff union of which Blint-Welsh is a member, also <a href=\"https://www.iape1096.org/iapework/2020/6/1/iape-condemns-assault-by-nypd-officers-on-reporter-member\">released a statement</a> condemning the assault.</p><p data-block-key=\"18qd4\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39UPW.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"dimxf\">NYPD officers form a line near the Manhattan Bridge in the Manhattan borough of New York City on May 31, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Tyler Blint-Welsh (Wall Street Journal)"
],
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},
{
"title": "CNN journalist assaulted while covering DC protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-journalist-assaulted-while-covering-dc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-29T23:16:24.912055Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:19:04.352885Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:19:04.259761Z",
"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=\"2yruw\">Multiple journalists said they were assaulted by law enforcement during a chaos-filled night of protests in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2020, the third evening of widespread demonstrations in the nation’s capital after the death of George Floyd.</p><p data-block-key=\"pbr1u\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of 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=\"bl1q9\">Josh Replogle, a journalist with CNN, tweeted early the following morning that at one point the night before he’d been pinned by officers and struck with a baton by another. He tweeted: “I was supporting a CNN cam had my creds on police knew I was media,” adding “I’m hurt but ok.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">video of police hurting me in DC. I was supporting a CNN cam had my creds on police knew I was media. I was on the side out of the way trying to let cops pass me. police pinned me, an officer hits my knee with a baton while another officer had me pinned. I’m hurt but ok. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mkraju?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@mkraju</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/1alqVa3LK8\">pic.twitter.com/1alqVa3LK8</a></p>— Josh Replogle CNN (@Joshrepp) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Joshrepp/status/1267422952691294208?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=\"3u3py\">CNN did not respond to a request for comment on this incident as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"tyeqz\">D.C. is notable for the <a href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/05/protests-washington-dc-federal-agents-law-enforcement-302551\">large number of different police forces</a> that operate within its borders. Requests for comment from the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police were not returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"8pfmm\">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/RTS39U3S.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"gwmji\">A protester stands in front of law enforcement during a May 31, 2020, demonstration in Washington, D.C.</p>",
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"protest"
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "Minnesota State Patrol officers shoot at CBS news crew in Minneapolis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minnesota-state-patrol-officers-shoot-at-cbs-news-crew-in-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-18T20:46:40.726283Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:31:17.398600Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:31:17.319225Z",
"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=\"1xhc5\">CBS journalist Tim Horstman and his news crew were shot at with crowd-control munitions by law enforcement while documenting protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after curfew went into effect on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"6wllf\">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=\"b6ix3\">Shortly after the 8 p.m. curfew, Minnesota State Patrol officers aimed crowd-control weapons at a Deutsche Welle news crew near a fence running alongside Interstate 35W in Minneapolis. The crew cut their live shot short, got into their car, and drove away as the officers opened fire at the vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"cyi2i\">Horstman, a camera technician for CBS News, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was part of a news crew filming the protest from a nearby parking garage. He said the news crew was above the DW journalists when they were confronted by officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"9cmhq\">“We could hear them yelling that they were press,” Horstman said in a message on Twitter. “It was at that same time they [the law enforcement officers] were shooting at us in the garage above. We would peek over the ledge and they would shoot.”</p><p data-block-key=\"27v4w\">When asked if the news crew was specifically targeted, Horstman said the members of the crew were the only ones on that level of the garage when officers opened fire with 40mm rubber bullet rounds. He also shared images of the news crew appearing to crouch behind the external walks and columns of the garage and of one of the rubber rounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"m3e0q\">According to Horstman, none of the CBS journalists were struck by the munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"7fyp9\">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=\"cjeuq\">A request for comment emailed to the Minnesota State Patrol was not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"5a306\">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/Horstman-1.f82efa33.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1xb5z\">Journalists with CBS News take shelter in a parking garage in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 31, 2020, while covering demonstrations following the death of George Floyd.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
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"shot / shot at"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"targeted_journalists": [
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],
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},
{
"title": "Broadcast photojournalist hit with pepper balls and tear gas during Tulsa protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-photojournalist-hit-with-pepper-balls-and-tear-gas-during-tulsa-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-18T20:53:43.269300Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:31:52.783451Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:31:52.682202Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Tulsa",
"longitude": -95.99277,
"latitude": 36.15398,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tutcx\">Two journalists for KTUL, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s ABC affiliate station, were hit with pepper balls fired by police while covering protests against police violence on the night of May 31, 2020, according to social media and a <a href=\"https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/chief-franklin-says-police-not-targeting-media-during-protests/article_900c8ead-abc2-5a2f-9e22-35ad501bc548.html\">news</a> report.</p><p data-block-key=\"w10tn\">The Tulsa protests were part of national demonstrations that followed the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. May 31 was also the 99th anniversary of what’s known as the Tulsa race massacre, when a racist white mob killed hundreds of Black residents in the then-thriving Black business community.</p><p data-block-key=\"isuw7\">Photojournalist Jacob Aranda and reporter Ethan Hutchins were covering a standoff between police and protesters outside a gas station at the intersection of East 36th Street and South Peoria Avenue at around 10 p.m. Footage that <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=709626329854354&ref=watch_permalink\">streamed live</a> on the station’s Facebook page shows people milling about near the gas station, with flashing police lights down the road in the distance.</p><p data-block-key=\"ah88k\">“So something is happening here, we’re not exactly sure,” a female voice, presumably from the KTUL studio, says. “We do have three crews that are there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ay4bb\">As popping noises erupt, some projectiles can be seen flying through the air, leaving smoke trails. “We see something beginning,” she says.</p><p data-block-key=\"d9ehf\">“Hey, guys, A.J, pull back,” said Hutchins on the broadcast. “Kim, oh, Kim, I just got shot, excuse me, with a pepper ball,” a likely reference to Kim Jackson, the weekend anchor at KTUL who had been speaking.</p><p data-block-key=\"63qkr\">“Police officers have thrown a flash-bang, they have thrown a flash-bang, and my photographer and I, Jacob and I, have gotten hit with pepper balls,” said Hutchins, who declined to comment for this article. “The demonstrators have walked off now. We’ll toss it back to you real quick.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uli1d\">“We are seeing a lot of commotion right now and a lot of confusion,” Jackson says.</p><p data-block-key=\"9fdct\">A portion of the same broadcast later posted on the station’s Twitter account:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">⚠️VIEWER WARNING: This was a live, uncensored event⚠️ Tulsa police fired pepper balls and tear gas into a crowd of protesters overnight at 36th and Peoria. Channel 8's <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TylerButlerKTUL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TylerButlerKTUL</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ehutchinsnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ehutchinsnews</a> were live on air when it happened. <a href=\"https://t.co/2r9zTbSiXS\">pic.twitter.com/2r9zTbSiXS</a></p>— NewsChannel 8 | KTUL (@KTULNews) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KTULNews/status/1267388909937405952?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=\"qf4ha\">The footage changes to another reporter on the ground, Tyler Butler, in a mask, who says, “I see Ethan, he’s OK. They’re just catching their breath. As you can see, all that smoke there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yfziy\">“We saw a canister of tear gas that one of the protesters kicked backwards,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tewy6\">When contacted about this incident, Danny Bean of the Tulsa Police Department communications unit, described it as “a peaceful protest that escalated into an unlawful assembly” and that journalists were not targeted by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"dzjta\">The police response was “to agitators in certain crowds throwing objects at police officers and private property being vandalized. When this begins to occur officers will take action to disperse the crowd, including the use of pepper balls in some cases,” Bean wrote in an email. “At no point was Ethan, or any other member of the media, targeted by TPD. Ethan and his cameraman were inside of the crowd that was being dispersed where TPD introduced pepper balls.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3ou92\">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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"shot / shot at"
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"Assault"
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"Jacob Aranda (KTUL)"
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{
"title": "Getty photojournalist hit with rubber bullets in Detroit; officer charged",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-photographers-hit-rubber-bullets-detroit-officer-charged/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-29T17:54:55.930233Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-11-06T22:38:32.728047Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-11-06T22:38:32.518956Z",
"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=\"pdreb\">Freelance photojournalist Matthew Hatcher was on assignment for Getty Images 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=\"p6u86\">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=\"ejyud\">Hatcher, along with <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photographer-hit-with-rubber-bullets-in-detroit-officer-charged/\">Seth Herald</a>, on assignment for Agence France-Presse, 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=\"ox53c\">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=\"501xq\">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=\"rxrer\">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=\"015hp\">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=\"t7pg1\">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=\"gddm3\">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=\"aag4z\">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=\"k2uj8\">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=\"492cv\">The Detroit Police Department did not respond to phone or emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"8b66g\">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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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ypezl\">Protesters march in the street in Detroit, Michigan, on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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"name": "Michigan",
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"(2021-10-28 10:25:00+00:00) Charges dismissed against Detroit officer who hit Getty 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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"Assault"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist’s jaw broken at Washington, D.C., protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalists-jaw-broken-at-washington-dc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-29T01:43:39.569796Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:08:05.500563Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:08:05.404746Z",
"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=\"eflx8\">An unidentified assailant hit freelance photojournalist Matthew Rodier in the face, breaking his jaw, while the contributor to the Sipa USA agency covered protests on May 31, 2020 against police violence in Washington, D.C.</p><p data-block-key=\"vzw60\">May 31 was the third night of widespread demonstrations in the nation’s capital. The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since late May.</p><p data-block-key=\"dlelt\">The evening began peacefully, but tensions escalated as the night wore on. At around 10:30 p.m. Rodier was struck by a police officer’s baton, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Shortly afterward, he was reviewing video on his phone when a group of people approached him, saying, “that’s the police right there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"flnjt\">Rodier said he told them repeatedly that he was a journalist, but they demanded that he lift up his shirt to prove that he wasn’t a police officer. It isn’t clear why they accused him of being with law enforcement. Rodier said he didn’t have his usual press credentials because they had been stolen the day before by another protest attendee.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Was just attacked by protesters after accusations I was a cop. Jaw might be broken tooth is upside down, headed to hospital.</p>— Matthew Rodier (@mattrodierphot1) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mattrodierphot1/status/1267301479800541186?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=\"px0od\">“As I was doing that, I was struck by either a fist or a foreign object on the right side of my face,” Rodier told the Tracker. He added that a surgeon who reconstructed his jaw told him it had been broken in several places. Two other individuals intervened, took him to a first-aid provider and then to police officers, who eventually got him to a paramedic. Rodier said he was loaded into an ambulance and spent three nights in the hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"xykad\">The impact from his injuries will be long-lasting; Rodier underwent oral surgery to repair a cracked molar. “After that my jaw should be able to finally heal for the most part, although my surgeon recently told me I might not regain feeling in my lower lip and chin for up to a year, because they needed to move a nerve out of the way to do the surgery,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ri2cd\">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>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xgjcn\"><i>This article has been updated to clarify that it's not known why journalist Matthew Rodier was asked to lift his shirt or why he was accused of being with law enforcement.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"m43kn\">People march toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"protest"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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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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},
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"categories": [
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"Equipment Damage"
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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",
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"date": "2020-05-31",
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"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>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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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",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Adam Cairns (Columbus Dispatch)"
],
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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>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Baylon.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"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>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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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": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"JoseLuis Baylon (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"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",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"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>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Christine_MacDonald_by_Eli_Newman.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"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>",
"arresting_authority": "Detroit 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,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"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": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"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": [
"Christine MacDonald (Detroit News)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Ohio",
"abbreviation": "OH"
},
"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": [
"Nick Swartsell (CityBeat)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"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>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Blake Apgar (Las Vegas Review-Journal)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
}
]
