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{
"title": "Journalists detained, one arrested covering protest against San Francisco curfew",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-detained-one-arrested-covering-protest-against-san-francisco-curfew/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-05T21:52:00.921787Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:35.392755Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:35.275894Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Francisco",
"longitude": -122.41942,
"latitude": 37.77493,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"99k6x\">Police arrested freelance journalist Sakura Sato as she covered a protest against a citywide curfew in San Francisco, California, on June 2, 2020, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ek1vo\">The curfew was imposed as the city struggled to manage protests 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=\"7qeav\">After another <a href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Together-our-voices-are-stronger-Hundreds-15312639.php\">day of protests</a> against police violence, nearly 20 protesters led by the Democratic Socialists of America arrived at City Hall to protest the curfew, DSA member Hope Williams told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. After recruiting more participants at City Hall, the group <a href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11822543/civil-liberties-advocates-raise-concerns-about-curfews-imposed-across-bay-area\">marched</a> to the Hall of Justice to perform a peaceful sit-in after the 8 p.m. curfew.</p><p data-block-key=\"lif0l\">Sato covered the march on her <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IAmSakuraSF/status/1268031100208574467\">social</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IAmSakuraSF/status/1268017523238170624\">media</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IAmSakuraSF/status/1268043847210156032\">accounts</a>, she told the Tracker. The dual crises of the Floyd protests and the coronavirus pandemic had recently inspired her to pursue a career in journalism, she said. But she was not on assignment for an outlet that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"xlntm\">San Francisco police followed the march and formed a cordon around the protesters after they arrived at the Hall of Justice, Sheraz Sadiq, a producer for local NPR and PBS affiliate KQED who was also covering the march, told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"fiuun\">Sato and Sadiq were both stuck inside the cordon as they reported on the sit-in, now about 30 people strong. Around 9:30 p.m., police warned over a megaphone that the protesters were in violation of curfew and ordered them to disperse, Sadiq said. But protesters, ignoring the warnings, responded with chants like “I don’t see no riot here. Why are you in riot gear?”</p><p data-block-key=\"9z3xj\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SherazSadiq1/status/1268051221224419328\">video</a> tweeted by Sadiq just before 10:30, police can be seen arresting the protesters one by one. Protesters cheer in support each time it is the next protester’s turn to stand, put their hands behind their back and walk away in the custody of the San Francisco Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"36t7w\">Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Sadiq’s KQED colleague who was reporting from outside the cordon, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FitzTheReporter/status/1268050069527203840\">tweeted</a> a photo of the arrests. Sato can be seen observing police take away a protester.</p><p data-block-key=\"xnkda\">Shortly thereafter, Sato was also arrested. She told the Tracker that a group of officers approached her, said she was under arrest and asked if she would resist. She responded that she was a journalist. She was placed in zip ties anyway and taken to a transport vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"vuiwa\">“I said I am a member of the press, and they ignored that,” Sato said.</p><p data-block-key=\"i76l4\">The city’s <a href=\"https://sfmayor.org/article/mayor-london-breed-and-public-safety-officials-announce-curfew-san-francisco-begin-tonight-8#:~:text=Breed%2C%20in%20consultation%20with%20the,Monday%2C%20June%201%2C%202020.\">curfew order</a> excluded “authorized representatives of any news service, newspaper, radio or television station or network, or other media organization.”</p><p data-block-key=\"72mqr\">“The thing that really upset me was that she was obviously functioning as a reporter,” protest organizer Williams said. “There was no reason why she should’ve been arrested alongside us. It’s insane to me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7c5gq\">Footage from the protest filmed by the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FitzTheReporter/status/1268041685742673920\">KQED</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SherazSadiq1/status/1268048423535603712\">journalists</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DSA_SF/status/1268044059223879680\">protesters</a> show Sato always standing apart from the protesters, observing and documenting, never participating.</p><p data-block-key=\"kxj9g\">“The police in San Francisco in my experience are loath to make allowances for citizen journalists or for journalists in training,” Fitzgerald Rodriguez, who is also the vice president of the Northern California chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists, told the Tracker. “They tend to only respect a credentialed journalist or a journalist with a SFPD-issued press pass.”</p><p data-block-key=\"boojg\">Sato had not yet acquired press credentials. Michael Applegate, the executive officer of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, said Sato had just joined the Guild Freelancers. The union expedited sending her a press card after her arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"2wpfw\">Police officers also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kqed-journalist-briefly-detained-another-journalist-arrested-covering-sit-against-san-francisco-curfew/\">briefly detained Sadiq</a> after the protesters and Sato were in custody, Sadiq and Fitzgerald Rodriguez told the Tracker. Sadiq, who had a KQED press ID, was released after officers verified his credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"2c07s\">Sato told the Tracker she began to feel sick as soon as she sat down in the police transport vehicle. The zip ties constricted the blood flow to her wrists, and she began to feel weak.</p><p data-block-key=\"cqe3v\">Williams, who was also arrested and placed in the van, said that the protesters asked the officers to take Sato out first when they arrived at Pier 50 for processing.</p><p data-block-key=\"1a8fd\">Sato was given a citation on charges of violating curfew and resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer or peace officer. An officer warned her that if she was arrested again for the same reason, she could be put in jail, she said. Her possessions, which had been confiscated upon her arrest, were returned to her, and she was released after several hours in custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"dfmue\">Williams said the protesters were released on the same charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"8s71i\">Rachel Marshall, a spokesperson for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, said Sato’s case was discharged. She said Boudin “deeply values the First Amendment—including its protection of the press,” adding that Boudin supports the protests against police brutality and will not prosecute peaceful activity.</p><p data-block-key=\"gnzyf\">As of June 19, Sato said she had not heard official confirmation that her case was dropped.</p><p data-block-key=\"brwdr\">A SFPD spokesperson said the department was reviewing body camera footage but did not respond to specific questions about Sato's arrest and Sadiq's detention by press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"spvyo\">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/Sato_CreditFitzgerald_Rodriguez_K.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1re28\">Freelancer Sakura Sato, left with backpack, watches as San Francisco police take protesters into custody shortly before her own arrest on June 2, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "San Francisco Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sakura Sato (Freelance)"
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},
{
"title": "KATV reporter detained while covering Little Rock protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T14:09:57.876319Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:14.490545Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:14.392809Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Little Rock",
"longitude": -92.28959,
"latitude": 34.74648,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"g80j8\">Kaitlin Barger, a digital reporter with KATV, the ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas, was detained by law enforcement while covering protests in the city on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ew6o\">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=\"wa7py\">After several nights of demonstrations in Little Rock, protesters again marched through the city on June 2. Barger, partnered with <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-journalist-detained-while-livestreaming-little-rock-protests/\">Paige Cushman</a>, another KATV journalist, followed the march, which passed by the Governor’s Mansion and ended at the Pulaski County Courthouse. In an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Cushman described the march as peaceful.</p><p data-block-key=\"llce1\">At about 10 p.m., two hours past the<a href=\"https://katv.com/news/local/little-rock-tightens-curfew-after-protests-turn-chaotic-threats-reported\"> curfew</a> the city’s mayor had set earlier in the day, a couple hundred protesters had assembled near the courthouse when a small number of them started throwing water bottles at a police car and kicking the car, Cushman said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7agoh\">Suddenly, she said, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies emerged, telling the protesters to disband and steering them away from the courthouse. Cushman said that officers were telling people to leave, but weren’t allowing them a pathway to do so.</p><p data-block-key=\"vyvi7\">Barger and Cushman were caught in a group being ushered toward the Arkansas River. According to Cushman, they informed multiple officers that they were journalists. Under the terms of the <a href=\"https://www.littlerock.gov/media/6956/20-05-clr-emergency-declaration.pdf\">curfew</a>, people, including members of the media, who were out in order to do their jobs were permitted to be on the streets.</p><p data-block-key=\"4g3ys\">Cushman<a href=\"https://business.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2967856710001006&ref=watch_permalink\"> livestreamed</a> the march on Facebook. Once the group of protesters was on a pedestrian bridge, police blocked both sides, Cushman explained in the livestream. Police can be seen in the video ordering everyone to get on the ground, and an officer can be heard telling them they were under arrest for violating curfew and “whatever else we can think of.” About 20 people were on the bridge, Barger told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"hjess\">While sitting on the bridge, the two reporters spoke to an officer, identifying themselves as journalists. The officer can be heard on video responding, “I don’t know you.”</p><p data-block-key=\"upfli\">They told officers that under the rules of the curfew, they were allowed to be out because they were working. “We’re on the clock,” Barger told the officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"h6kil\">After a few minutes, one officer asked if there were TV reporters present. Cushman and Barger identified themselves again and were released. Cushman said the police appeared to have received a phone call letting them know that reporters were on the bridge.</p><p data-block-key=\"jeobv\">Another journalist, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editor Josh Snyder, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-democrat-gazette-journalist-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/\">was also detained</a> on the bridge but was not released at the same time as the KATV reporters, according to Cushman.</p><p data-block-key=\"7alh0\">The <a href=\"https://business.facebook.com/KATVChannel7/videos/2967856710001006/?v=2967856710001006\">livestream</a> shows law enforcement agents in a variety of uniforms. Cushman said it was unclear what authority was responsible for detaining them. Arkansas State Police, the Little Rock Police Department and the National Guard were all present that evening, according to Cushman.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ot9n\">Cushman and Barger were carrying credentials that clearly identified them as KATV journalists. However, they were not wearing any of the station’s logoed gear, a decision Cushman made after protesters had been hostile toward journalists, including <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-assaulted-air-amid-little-rock-protests/\">assaulting one KATV reporter</a>, during previous days of demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"kengo\">Bill Sadler, a spokesperson for the Arkansas State Police, said in an email that the journalists were embedded in a group of protesters that police say were destroying public and private property. He said the reporters had not told police that they planned to be with the group. Sadler said police cordoned off the group and ordered them to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ijq0\">“Only then were voices heard in the group ... claiming to be news reporters,” Sadler told the Tracker. “Once the scene was secure, and guns were removed from two individuals, police did assist the reporters in being separated from the group as they requested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d0pek\">When Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was asked <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=TpW5KrbhQGM&feature=emb_logo\">during a press conference on June 3</a> about the detention of the journalists during the protests in the capital city, he said that police need to protect journalists and that journalists have an “important” job to do.</p><p data-block-key=\"1une9\">“They should not be arrested, but they have to be identified, and when they’re identified as a journalist, obviously, they should go about their business,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mv9dn\">A spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department said that the department did not detain any journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"cxz45\">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/Barger_detain_0602_AK.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"iv4vw\">KATV reporter Kaitlin Barger and a colleague were detained while covering protests in Little Rock on June 2, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Arkansas State Police",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
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"name": "Arkansas",
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"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
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"Kaitlin Barger (KATV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "KATV journalist detained while livestreaming Little Rock protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-journalist-detained-while-livestreaming-little-rock-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T14:02:48.564452Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:48:53.317871Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:48:53.228144Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Little Rock",
"longitude": -92.28959,
"latitude": 34.74648,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"krf3r\">Paige Cushman, a journalist with KATV, the ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas, was detained by law enforcement while covering protests in the city on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"07sni\">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=\"dyv11\">At about 10 p.m., two hours past the<a href=\"https://katv.com/news/local/little-rock-tightens-curfew-after-protests-turn-chaotic-threats-reported\"> curfew</a> that Little Rock’s mayor had set earlier in the day, a couple hundred protesters had assembled near the Pulaski County Courthouse. According to Cushman, a small number of them started throwing water bottles at a police car and kicking the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"lzttc\">Suddenly, she said, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies emerged, telling the protesters to disband and steering them away from the courthouse. Cushman said that officers were telling people to leave, but weren’t allowing them a pathway to do so.</p><p data-block-key=\"6xna0\">Cushman and KATV colleague <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/\">Kaitlin Barger</a> were caught in a group being ushered toward the Arkansas River. According to Cushman, they informed multiple officers that they were journalists. Under the terms of the <a href=\"https://www.littlerock.gov/media/6956/20-05-clr-emergency-declaration.pdf\">curfew</a>, people, including members of the media, who were out in order to do their jobs were permitted to be on the streets.</p><p data-block-key=\"d3j1j\">Cushman<a href=\"https://business.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2967856710001006&ref=watch_permalink\"> livestreamed</a> the march on Facebook. The video shows that at one point, after Cushman identified herself as a journalist and asked where she should go, a line of officers began to move forward, apparently herding the protesters in one direction.</p><p data-block-key=\"8k1zh\">“You’re out here illegally. Move,” one officer can be heard saying.</p><p data-block-key=\"lcqod\">“No, we’re not. We’re authorized to be here because we’re working,” Cushman said.</p><p data-block-key=\"le6ze\">Once the group of protesters was on a pedestrian bridge, police blocked both sides, Cushman explained in the livestream. Police can be seen in the video ordering everyone to get on the ground, and an officer can be heard telling them they were under arrest for violating curfew and “whatever else we can think of.” About 20 people were on the bridge, Barger told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"49ztm\">After a few minutes, one officer asked if there were TV reporters present. Cushman and Barger identified themselves again and were released. Cushman said the police appeared to have received a phone call letting them know that reporters were on the bridge.</p><p data-block-key=\"ij0wh\">Another journalist, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editor Josh Snyder, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-democrat-gazette-journalist-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/\">was also detained</a> on the bridge but was not released at the same time as the KATV reporters, according to Cushman.</p><p data-block-key=\"0sf5q\">The video shows law enforcement officials in a variety of uniforms. Cushman said it was unclear what authority was responsible for detaining them. Arkansas State Police, the Little Rock Police Department and the National Guard were all present that evening, according to Cushman.</p><p data-block-key=\"v0u5c\">Cushman and Barger were carrying credentials that clearly identified them as KATV journalists. However, they were not wearing any of the station’s logoed gear, a decision Cushman made after protesters had been hostile toward journalists, including <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-assaulted-air-amid-little-rock-protests/\">assaulting one KATV reporter</a>, during previous days of demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"y7duy\">Cushman said she was grateful for Facebook Live, because the video she streamed of the night gave “such an unadulterated view” of what happened. While Cushman said she didn’t feel targeted by police during the arrest, she was surprised by how the law enforcement officers responded to the journalists with their badges.</p><p data-block-key=\"poy24\">“The lack of listening kind of surprised me,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b5jrl\">Bill Sadler, a spokesperson for the Arkansas State Police, said in an email that the journalists were embedded in a group of protesters that police say were destroying public and private property. He said the reporters had not told police that they planned to be with the group. Sadler said police cordoned off the group and ordered them to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"dae1m\">“Only then were voices heard in the group ... claiming to be news reporters,” Sadler told the Tracker. “Once the scene was secure, and guns were removed from two individuals, police did assist the reporters in being separated from the group as they requested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"k3c5r\">When Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was asked <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=TpW5KrbhQGM&feature=emb_logo\">during a press conference on June 3</a> about the detention of the journalists during the protests in the capital city, he said that police need to protect journalists and that journalists have an “important” job to do.</p><p data-block-key=\"ik28u\">“They should not be arrested, but they have to be identified, and when they’re identified as a journalist, obviously, they should go about their business,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"n1fo0\">A spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department said that the department did not detain any journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"mpt7w\">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/Paige_Cushman_1_by_Brent_Renaud.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"unnl1\">KATV journalist Paige Cushman was detained while covering protests in Little Rock on June 2, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Arkansas State Police",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Paige Cushman (KATV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Arkansas Democrat-Gazette journalist detained while covering Little Rock protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-democrat-gazette-journalist-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T13:53:37.502620Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:45:33.219300Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:45:33.122131Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Little Rock",
"longitude": -92.28959,
"latitude": 34.74648,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"isz3m\">Arkansas Democrat-Gazette deputy online editor Josh Snyder was detained by police while covering protests in Little Rock on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"9rpms\">Protests in Arkansas began four days earlier as demonstrations erupted across the country, sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died when a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than 8 minutes during an arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"le5bp\">Snyder was covering demonstrations in Little Rock on the evening of June 2 when he was caught up in a group of protesters detained by police on a pedestrian bridge, <a href=\"https://katv.com/news/local/4th-night-of-protests-at-arkansas-state-capitol\">according to KATV</a>. Police detained the group at around 10 p.m., two hours after a curfew went into effect.</p><p data-block-key=\"ke0kt\">Snyder was <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/arkansasonline/videos/3148425058553610/\">livestreaming the protests</a> on the Democrat-Gazette’s Facebook page. In his video, a group of protesters can be seen being led by police to a pedestrian bridge, and Snyder identified himself as press to officers he passed. As they arrived, Snyder shouted out “press!” but no law-enforcement officers appeared to notice, and police ordered the group of protesters to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ih9n\">At one point in the video, Snyder takes a call from a colleague, telling them, “I think I’m being arrested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jijm2\">Several protesters are visible in the video around him, also on the ground. After more than 10 minutes, he can be heard identifying himself as a journalist to an officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"98nlq\">“I just wanted to give a heads up, I’m press, I don’t know if anybody heard that during all the commotion,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2sjak\">The officer said that he would need to speak with a different officer. A short time later, after several other people can be seen being led away with their hands zip-tied behind his back, police appear in the video to let others in the group, including Snyder, disperse.</p><p data-block-key=\"r5vjz\">Snyder referred the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to Democrat-Gazette Managing Editor Eliza Gaines for comment on the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"tuqj2\">“I honestly think that the police did not hear him,” Gaines said, noting it was very loud.</p><p data-block-key=\"qfhjs\">Gaines said editors had verified with the city earlier in the day that reporters would be exempt from the curfew. Gaines said Snyder was carrying credentials and showed them to police after he had made his presence known.</p><p data-block-key=\"6kj28\">In response to the incident, Gaines contacted the city the following day to establish a point of contact in case other reporters were detained. She said the city was “very responsive” and immediately gave a contact’s phone number for editors to call if it happened again.</p><p data-block-key=\"gxeay\">Two other journalists, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-journalist-detained-while-livestreaming-little-rock-protests/\">Paige Cushman</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/\">Kaitlin Barger</a> of the local ABC affiliate KATV, also were detained on the bridge while they were streaming on Facebook Live.</p><p data-block-key=\"mcgja\">Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said in an emailed statement that the journalists were “embedded” with a group of protesters who police say were damaging public and private property, and didn’t notify police that they would be with the group. According to Sadler, police were told that at least one person among the protesters had a handgun.</p><p data-block-key=\"1o1fz\">Sadler said police became aware of the reporters after the group had been “cordoned off” and ordered to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"shxct\">“Only then were voices heard in the group...claiming to be news reporters,” he said. “Once the scene was secure, and guns were removed from two individuals, police did assist the reporters in being separated from the group as they requested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2ig6w\">Gaines disputed Sadler’s characterization of Snyder as “embedded” with protesters. “He was covering the protests,” she said in an email.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ovq9\">In its report on the incident, KATV said the journalists “repeatedly identified themselves as reporters, showed their credentials and complied with officers' orders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kgxmo\">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 and others while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Arkansas",
"abbreviation": "AR"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
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},
{
"title": "NYPD officer assaults British photojournalist, breaks camera",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nypd-officer-assaults-british-photojournalist-breaks-camera/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-23T03:13:42.190502Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T21:12:21.913923Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T21:12:21.766985Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dow4m\">Photojournalist Jae Donnelly was assaulted by a police officer while documenting protests in New York City on June 2, 2020. His camera and lens were also damaged in the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"21kpq\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"zp6b6\">Donnelly, who works for the U.K.-based Daily Mail, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting peaceful protests on the Upper West Side at approximately 9:30 p.m. An 8 p.m. curfew was in place that night, though members of the media were <a href=\"https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/executive-orders/2020/eeo-118.pdf\">exempt</a> as “essential workers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"owl6f\">He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was wearing his foreign press pass and had a helmet strapped to his backpack, though he hadn’t used it given how peaceful the protests had been for the previous three hours.</p><p data-block-key=\"qce0k\">The protest was progressing down Ninth Avenue and had just passed near the Midtown North Police Precinct on 54th Street when everyone started running south, Donnelly <a href=\"https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8385147/Photojournalist-tells-beaten-cops-covered-peaceful-BLM-march-NYC.html\">wrote</a> in an account for the Daily Mail.</p><p data-block-key=\"s9v1c\">“I looked back and behind the running crowd, the tail end of the protests, a bunch of NYPD officers were picking off anybody they could get their hands on and arresting them,” Donnelly said.</p><p data-block-key=\"l9gzu\">The final photograph Donnelly captured was of a highly decorated officer coming toward him with a wooden stick taken from a protester.</p><p data-block-key=\"bfq8l\">“I remember trying to get away as he came at me, while explaining, ‘I’m media,’” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ecfje\"><a href=\"http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/view/e926a86d1e7642ee8b3eb5cf97fcb52e?subClipIn=00:00:00&subClipOut=00:01:51\">Footage captured by The Associated Press</a> shows a second officer charging at Donnelly from his left and striking him over the arm and head with a baton. Donnelly then spins around and appears to hold out his press pass. Donnelly told the Tracker that he was identifying himself again as a photojournalist for the Daily Mail.</p><p data-block-key=\"lh3ve\">The officer is then seen charging and striking Donnelly again.</p><p data-block-key=\"nxrab\">“He hit me with such force that I had no control over how I landed,” Donnelly wrote. The next thing he knew he was on the ground on the opposite side of the street, his cheekbone in pain and his DSLR camera and lens smashed.</p><p data-block-key=\"dl41x\">Donnelly told the Tracker that he is sure that the officer deliberately chose to assault him.</p><p data-block-key=\"hp2tx\">“There was absolutely no way he could not have seen me holding up my press pass and shouting that I’m media,” Donnelly said. “He made a decision, and that was to harm me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7intr\">Donnelly said that he tried to find a high-ranking NYPD officer to speak to about the incident. When he asked officers congregating around the precinct how to file a complaint, they told him to call 911 and speak to Internal Affairs.</p><p data-block-key=\"427sa\">“I’ve never felt in fear doing my job but what I was on the receiving end of Tuesday night is setting a really dangerous precedent,” he wrote in his account.</p><p data-block-key=\"e8qm8\">When asked for comment, an NYPD spokesperson directed the Tracker to the “30-minute mark” of <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6eUFc_kltc\">a press briefing</a> held by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on June 3.</p><p data-block-key=\"vygon\">Around that point in the recording, Shea says: “The only thing that I might add on the point of the press: We’re doing the best we can, the difficult situation. We 100 percent respect the rights of the press. Unfortunately we’ve had some people purporting to be press that are actually lying, if you can believe that. So sometimes these things take a second—maybe too long—to sort out.”</p><p data-block-key=\"il4fj\">Donnelly told the Tracker that he has been unable to work since the incident due to the damage to his equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"8q51p\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS3A8XG.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"wqh5d\">NYPD officers detain protesters for violating curfew during demonstrations in Manhattan on June 2, 2020. Photojournalist Jae Donnelly was covering protests in the city that day when an officer charged and struck him repeatedly.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:21-cv-06610",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "law enforcement",
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2023-09-08 00:00:00+00:00) Judge voids First Amendment settlement with NYPD",
"(2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD",
"(2021-08-05 16:42:00+00:00) British photojournalist sues NYPD for assaulting him, damaging his camera",
"(2023-09-05 15:11:00+00:00) Journalists reach 'historic' settlement with NYPD in First Amendment suit"
],
"case_statuses": [
"settled"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jae Donnelly (Daily Mail)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist released after waiting two nights in custody for arraignment",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-released-after-waiting-two-nights-custody-arraignment/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-16T16:13:18.140814Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:44:59.419294Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:44:59.315006Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"i7owz\">Anna Slatz, a reporter for the Canadian news website Rebel News, was arrested while reporting protests in New York, New York, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ajs96\">Slatz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she’d traveled to the U.S. to cover the protests that had spread throughout the nation after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. Rebel News featured her coverage on a special page, <a href=\"http://www.stopantifa.com/\">stopantifa.com</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"avjsv\">Slatz first reported from protests outside the White House in Washington, D.C. She said in a<a href=\"https://www.rebelnews.com/rubber_bullets_in_dc_mounted_police_push_back_protest_after_warnings\"> June 2 report</a> that she was nearly arrested by a charging police officer, but he passed her by after she yelled out that she was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"1jaed\">On June 2, she was following a couple thousand protesters<a href=\"https://twitter.com/YesThatAnna/status/1267961005927211018\"> march</a> through Manhattan when she stopped to film a chaotic scene at a Zara clothing store around 9 p.m., she told the Tracker. The glass <a href=\"https://twitter.com/YesThatAnna/status/1267985169488777216\">entrance</a> was shattered. Some were stealing. Others were throwing clothes in the air. One protester body-slammed someone emerging from the store with stolen goods. And then the police swept in making mass arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"4qoe7\">In<a href=\"https://www.rebelnews.com/nypd_ignored_looters_arrested_bystanders_including_me\"> video</a> of her arrest published by Rebel News after her release, Slatz was soon confronted by several officers screaming for people to go home. The video shows Slatz amid a group of people, including green-hatted National Lawyers Guild legal observers, being forcefully ushered off the block.</p><p data-block-key=\"00pc8\">An officer pushed Slatz hard against her chest with his baton, she told the Tracker. An officer then grabbed her by the throat and shoved her into the street, she said. The video is unclear, but a hand of an officer can be seen reaching out toward Slatz. She shrieks as the footage shakes violently, then stumbles into the crosswalk.</p><p data-block-key=\"82gpu\">An officer approaches and waves at her to keep moving, the video shows. She crosses to the other side of the street, where another officer orders two officers to arrest her. They don’t immediately react to the order, so the officer repeats it more aggressively.</p><p data-block-key=\"dcm1n\">“No! No! Media is exempted! Media is exempted!” Slatz yells in the video. An officer pulls out handcuffs as Slatz pleads, “Stop, stop, stop!” Then the video cuts out.</p><p data-block-key=\"3vs99\">The officers brought her to the ground, breaking her glasses, she<a href=\"https://twitter.com/YesThatAnna/status/1269380409365757953\"> reported</a> after her release.</p><p data-block-key=\"0hiy2\">In the face of the unrest, New York had imposed an 8 p.m. <a href=\"https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/executive-orders/2020/eeo-119.pdf\">curfew</a>, which excluded essential workers, including <a href=\"https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-2026-continuing-temporary-suspension-and-modification-laws-relating-disaster-emergency\">news media</a>. Slatz told the Tracker she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist. But as a new reporter for Rebel News, she had yet to receive a hard press credential from the outlet, though she had a printed copy of it, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"pb2ef\">She also said that the NYPD had stopped issuing press credentials. On June 6, Mayor Bill de Blasio <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1269383306702917633\">tweeted</a> that “being in a crisis is no excuse” for the NYPD to stop processing applications for press credentials. He said he directed the NYPD to expedite applications.</p><p data-block-key=\"wwdbf\">Slatz was taken to Brooklyn Central Booking for processing, she told the Tracker. She was placed in a small cell with some 20 other women, packed “back to chest like sardines” without masks. She was told she would be given a summons and released.</p><p data-block-key=\"9drjn\">Instead, she was transferred to Manhattan Central Booking around 3 a.m. She would remain there without soap, running water, or a bed until her release on June 4, she said. Other women in her cell had been held even longer.</p><p data-block-key=\"ynt3g\">Slatz managed to call her employer on the first night of her arrest, who hired several lawyers, including Michael Weinstock, a New Yorker currently running for Congress.</p><p data-block-key=\"ltky6\">Weinstock filed papers declaring himself Slatz’s lawyer, but due to a likely clerical error, the court appointed a public defender to represent Slatz during her arraignment on June 4, Weinstock and Slatz told the Tracker. The precautions necessary for the coronavirus and the sheer number of recent arrests severely strained the system, Weinstock said.</p><p data-block-key=\"h0nbd\">Slatz said she was released on a charge of obstructing traffic. Her next court date was scheduled for Sept. 3, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"nxhn7\">The NYPD and Mayor de Blasio’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The Manhattan district attorney <a href=\"https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-vance-declines-to-prosecute-protest-arrests/\">announced</a> in a press release on June 5 that his office would not prosecute unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct arrests. But Slatz told the Tracker on June 10 that her charges had not been officially dropped.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mdd8\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"akpzs\"><i>This article was amended to remove a misstatement about the duration of the penalty carried by an obstruction of traffic charge and to use clearer language about Slatz's scheduled court appearance.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lkzcy\">Rebel News reporter Anna Slatz flashes a peace sign shortly after her June 4 release from Manhattan Central Booking.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-06-04",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
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},
"updates": [
"(2020-06-12 18:12:00+00:00) Case dismissed as part of District Attorney’s policy to not prosecute low-level protest charges"
],
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"tags": [
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],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
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"Assault"
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},
{
"title": "NYPD shoves AP photojournalist, preventing protest coverage",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nypd-shoves-ap-photojournalist-preventing-protest-coverage/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-14T03:55:40.992887Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:44:32.497549Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:44:32.419747Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ezkf6\">Two journalists for The Associated Press were assaulted by law enforcement officers and ordered to leave the scene of protests in New York, New York, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"myvyz\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"z5yev\">The AP <a href=\"https://apnews.com/1d2d9e4afdd822b27bfcce570e0cbdb5\">reported</a> that photojournalist Maye-E Wong and video journalist Robert Bumsted were documenting protests in lower Manhattan shortly after the 8 p.m. curfew took effect. Members of the media were <a href=\"https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/executive-orders/2020/eeo-118.pdf\">exempted</a> from the order as “essential workers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e1yrm\">In a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1foAAYPb7kk&feature=youtu.be\">video</a> captured by Bumsted, more than half a dozen officers can be seen confronting the journalists and ordering them to clear the street along with all the demonstrators in the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"xx40o\">“Thank you. Have a good day. Go the fuck home,” one officer can be heard saying.</p><p data-block-key=\"m9nhb\">Bumsted, who declined to comment, can be heard responding that they are essential workers and are therefore exempt from the curfew. The AP reported that both were wearing press credentials and repeatedly identified themselves as media.</p><p data-block-key=\"199h6\">An officer responds, “I don’t give a shit.” Another can be heard repeatedly shouting, “Who are you essential to?”</p><p data-block-key=\"afcc1\">The AP reported that officers repeatedly shoved both journalists toward Bumsted’s nearby car, separating them from each other. At one point, officers pinned Bumsted against his car.</p><p data-block-key=\"ga6i1\">In the video, an officer can be heard telling Bumsted, “You need to get in your car and get out of here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"desib\">Bumsted responds that he needs the keys, which Wong was carrying, so the officers allow her to approach the vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"31fl8\">As Bumsted appears to get into his car, he can be heard saying, “Don’t be like that. Respect the press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oxwd0\">The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"53gy5\">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/RTS3A8FO.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"kj0wz\">Demonstrators gather after curfew in lower Manhattan on June 2, 2020. Although media is exempt from curfew orders, two journalists with The Associated Press were forced by law enforcement to stop documenting the protests and leave the area.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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"Assault"
],
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"May-E Wong (The Associated Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Broadcast photojournalist attacked while covering Madison protest aftermath",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-photojournalist-attacked-while-covering-madison-protest-aftermath/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:51:34.939968Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T22:50:51.007739Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T22:50:50.915322Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Madison",
"longitude": -89.40123,
"latitude": 43.07305,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gayzz\">A TV photojournalist and reporter were assaulted on-air while reporting on the aftermath of protests in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ul8hx\">NBC15 News photojournalist Curt Lenz and reporter Amelia Jones were on State Street in downtown Madison, reporting live for the local station’s morning news after a third night of protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.</p><p data-block-key=\"0nqmo\">In a <a href=\"https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/NBC15-photojournalist-reporter-attacked-live-on-air-during-morning-show-570953951.html\">video clip</a> from the news program from that morning, Lenz’s camera is turned toward Jones, who is holding a microphone and about to deliver a report. Then suddenly the camera pans to show a man on a bicycle approaching, before the live news feed cuts off.</p><p data-block-key=\"m6its\">According <a href=\"https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/newsroom/incidentreports/incident.cfm?id=26575\">to a report</a> from the City of Madison Police Department, the suspect had been going through looted goods from a nearby 7-Eleven. Right after the camera panned, the report said that the suspect charged toward Lenz and the camera, throwing bottles, then grabbing Lenz and “vigorously shaking him and his camera” before leaving the scene on a bicycle.</p><p data-block-key=\"s2e3i\">While neither Lenz nor Jones could be reached for comment by the time of publication, the incident was confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker by NBC15 management.</p><p data-block-key=\"l5zlr\">After a chase, Madison police captured and arrested 40-year-old Michael E. Campbell, for “battery, disorderly conduct, resisting/obstructing, and on a probation hold,” according to the police report.</p><p data-block-key=\"s937f\">According <a href=\"https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/NBC15-photojournalist-reporter-attacked-live-on-air-during-morning-show-570953951.html\">to a news report</a> on the incident from NBC15, Jones and Lenz were described as “shaken” but okay after the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"6wq2r\">The news story said that just prior to the assault, Lenz had been recording people at a 7-Eleven store that had been looted. The suspect saw Lenz and informed him he did not want to be recorded.</p><p data-block-key=\"rjb2b\">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": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "Wisconsin",
"abbreviation": "WI"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-05-21 00:00:00+00:00) Man sentenced for attack on photojournalist at Wisconsin protest"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Curt Lenz (WMTV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Broadcast reporter struck with pepper balls while covering Buffalo protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-struck-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-buffalo-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:44:15.768668Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:50.862316Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:50.772489Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Buffalo",
"longitude": -78.87837,
"latitude": 42.88645,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mornz\">A news crew from WIVB in Buffalo, New York, was struck by crowd-control munitions fired by police while covering protests in the city on June 1, 2020, the same night a Buffalo protester was tackled and forcibly arrested by police while giving an on-camera interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"h4a1l\">The demonstrations that evening were part of a wave of protests resulting from a viral video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"dire1\">June 1 was <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/06/01/us/ap-us-america-protests-officers-struck.html?searchResultPosition=20\">a particularly chaotic night in Buffalo</a>. At one point, an SUV carrying two people who had been shot drove through a line of law enforcement officers, two of whom suffered injuries and were taken to a hospital. Blocks away from that incident, police deployed tear gas to clear the streets. In the midst of that, WIVB reporter Dave Greber and photographer Brad Berchou were caught in a volley of pepper ball fire from police. One of the projectiles hit the camera lens, but it was not damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"p1h8s\">In an interview with WIVB, Greber said that he did not believe he and Berchou were targeted because they were journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"fb13m\">“I think they were firing at anything that moved. And we happened to be moving,” he said. “I would hope, to be honest with you, that they didn’t know who we were. It would be a real shame that if they identified us as media positively, and then pulled the trigger.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s42s8\">At a press conference, Buffalo police captain Jeff Rinaldo said that any harm journalists suffered during the protests from police was incidental.</p><p data-block-key=\"h7xu1\">“We try as hard as we can to make sure that members of the media have access to these events. But when situations like this unfold, when we’re trying to disperse large crowds, there is the potential for media members to become part of the situation,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"w9u1b\">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": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Dave Greber (WIVB-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Independent photojournalist arrested for curfew violation in Los Angeles",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photojournalist-arrested-curfew-violation-los-angeles/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-10T14:39:12.552200Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:26:59.914874Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:26:59.826668Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xmmd1\">Independent photojournalist <a href=\"https://aaronguyleroux.com/\">Aaron Guy Leroux</a> was arrested while covering protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"hq6xg\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1fb8\">Leroux told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was walking west on Sunset Boulevard with a colleague approximately 40 minutes after the Los Angeles County’s 6 p.m. curfew — which explicitly <a href=\"https://lasd.org/lacounty-third-curfew/\">exempted</a> credentialed members of the media — went into effect. He said that two Los Angeles Police Department officers had already checked his press pass and allowed him to continue reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"5irwd\">As they rounded the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street, where LAPD officers were arresting demonstrators, an officer asked if they were press, and they said they were.</p><p data-block-key=\"4tfsq\">“As we were exiting the scene, one last LAPD officer asked again, ‘You press?’’’ Leroux said. “I said, ‘Yes sir.’ He took a look at my credentials then grabbed my elbow and said casually, ‘You’re gettin’ arrested.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"m3mq7\">“I spent the next three hours getting arrested, searched, transferred, processed and cited for ‘curfew violation,’” Leroux told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"rf136\">Leroux noted that his camera bag was thoroughly searched by the officers, but he does not believe any of his photos were deleted. His colleague — whose identity could not be verified as of press time — was also arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"wx78w\">At around 9:45 p.m Leroux was released from police custody with a citation for curfew violation, a photograph of which he shared with the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"kbrjl\">The LAPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"qrxyu\">On June 8, <a href=\"https://da.lacounty.gov/media/news/district-attorney-jackie-lacey-will-not-file-charges-curfew-violations-failure-disperse\">Los Angeles County District Attorney</a> Jackie Lacey announced that she will not prosecute citations for violating curfew or failing to disperse, while <a href=\"https://www.lacityattorney.org/post/feuer-takes-restorative-non-punitive-approach-outside-the-court-system-for-peaceful-protesters\">Los Angeles City Attorney</a> Mike Feuer said he would resolve cases involving peaceful protesters in a “restorative approach” outside of the court system.</p><p data-block-key=\"f8ztf\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"7jny0\"><i>A previous version of this article misspelled Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer's name.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Aaron Guy Leroux (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Broadcast reporter attacked while covering Madison protest aftermath",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-attacked-while-covering-madison-protest-aftermath/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-11T18:44:10.178161Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:27.615485Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:27.538160Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Madison",
"longitude": -89.40123,
"latitude": 43.07305,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7fx7p\">A TV reporter and a photojournalist were assaulted on-air while reporting on the aftermath of protests in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"geqci\">NBC15 News reporter Amelia Jones and photojournalist Curt Lenz were on State Street in downtown Madison, reporting live for the local station’s morning news after a third night of protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.</p><p data-block-key=\"m1oaz\">In a <a href=\"https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/NBC15-photojournalist-reporter-attacked-live-on-air-during-morning-show-570953951.html\">video clip</a> from the news program from that morning, Lenz’s camera is turned toward Jones, who is holding a microphone and about to deliver a report. Then suddenly the camera pans to show a man on a bicycle approaching, before the live news feed cuts off.</p><p data-block-key=\"8edxi\">According <a href=\"https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/newsroom/incidentreports/incident.cfm?id=26575\">to a report</a> from the City of Madison Police Department, the suspect had been going through looted goods from a nearby 7-Eleven. Right after the camera panned, the report said that the suspect charged toward Lenz and the camera, throwing bottles, then grabbing Lenz and “vigorously shaking him and his camera” before leaving the scene on a bicycle.</p><p data-block-key=\"qt525\">While neither Jones nor Lenz could be reached for comment by the time of publication, the incident was confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker by NBC15 management.</p><p data-block-key=\"trhox\">After a chase, Madison police captured and arrested 40-year-old Michael E. Campbell, for “battery, disorderly conduct, resisting/obstructing, and on a probation hold,” according to the police report.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffzu7\">According <a href=\"https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/NBC15-photojournalist-reporter-attacked-live-on-air-during-morning-show-570953951.html\">to a news report</a> on the incident from NBC15, Jones and Lenz were described as “shaken” but OK after the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"kvae3\">The news story said that just prior to the assault, Lenz had been recording people at a 7-Eleven store that had been looted. The suspect saw Lenz and informed him he did not want to be recorded.</p><p data-block-key=\"hx6eo\">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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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Wisconsin",
"abbreviation": "WI"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-05-21 00:00:00+00:00) Man sentenced for attack on reporter at Wisconsin protest"
],
"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": [
"Amelia Jones (WMTV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "NBC Bay Area reporter detained by police while covering Oakland protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc-bay-area-reporter-detained-police-while-covering-oakland-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-12-01T20:58:13.299843Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:52:44.662316Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:52:44.557661Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Oakland",
"longitude": -122.2708,
"latitude": 37.80437,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"evyls\">NBC Bay Area reporter and anchor Terry McSweeney was handcuffed and temporarily detained by police while filming an arrest during a protest in Oakland, California, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"9r8b2\">Protests in Oakland were held for several days in early June amid a national wave of demonstrations against racism and police brutality in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people at the hands of police.</p><p data-block-key=\"22l9x\">McSweeney and an NBC Bay Area videographer were covering the demonstration as protesters started to march from City Hall to the Oakland Police Department, McSweeney told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The videographer followed protesters on foot and McSweeney drove a station van up the street to meet him, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jwsxp\">As McSweeney turned onto 11th Street from Broadway, he came up behind a van that was stopped in the middle of the street, while police detained two people on the sidewalk next to the vehicle. McSweeney said he began recording the scene on his cellphone from inside the van.</p><p data-block-key=\"2j7ec\">McSweeney said an officer came up to the van — which was clearly marked as belonging to the NBC Bay Area news station — tapped on the hood, and told him to leave. McSweeney said he told the officer he was with the media, but the officer again directed McSweeney to leave and said he would be arrested if he didn’t. When McSweeney responded that he believed he had a right to be there, the officer told him to get out of the van.</p><p data-block-key=\"3zqjq\">The officer took McSweeney’s phone and put his wrists in handcuffs, McSweeney said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ouqkz\">He asked the officer why he was detaining him, and the officer replied, “I told you to move.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ej6t4\">The officer who detained him then asked another police officer to walk McSweeney up to a street corner about a block away, according to McSweeney.</p><p data-block-key=\"7drks\">McSweeney said the second officer asked if he was OK and offered to loosen the cuffs. After stepping away for a moment, the officer removed the handcuffs and again walked away. McSweeney said he waited at the corner for about 10 minutes on his own, before the second officer returned and told him he could go. Police returned McSweeney’s phone, and he drove away.</p><p data-block-key=\"z7mxs\">McSweeney said he immediately called NBC Bay Area’s news director to alert his colleagues to the incident, and the news station has been in contact with the Oakland Police Department. He didn’t file an official complaint with the department about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"gp7jq\">Oakland Police Department Public Information Officer Johnna Watson told the Tracker the department was made aware of the incident shortly after it happened, and said it was a concern for the department and the relationship between police and journalists. She said the department reviewed the incident and communicated with McSweeney and newsroom supervisors at NBC Bay Area about it, and met with other media outlets in the region about media policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"vz8hk\">“We fully support the journalism and the reporting of journalists. It is really important for us to allow the access to ensure that our media is able to report on what is going on. We want to have that access and that reporting without any barriers,” Watson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqebo\">Watson said the vehicle stop McSweeney came across was associated with the investigation into the <a href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/authorities-identify-federal-officer-killed-oakland-during-george-floyd-protest-n1220516\">shooting death of a federal agent in Oakland on May 29</a>, and was considered a “high risk” situation. She said no officers were disciplined related to McSweeney’s detention, however, the department did go over media policy training with officers involved with protests after the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"pyki8\">McSweeney said he was skeptical about the police department’s comments that officers needed more training, noting that the department deals frequently with protest coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"u1ayo\">“There was no misunderstanding whatsoever,” McSweeney said. “I told him exactly who I was, who I was with, he knew who I was with and he understood that. And he detained me anyway and took me away from the scene.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i1lru\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country. <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> Find these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Oakland 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,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Terry McSweeney (KNTV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Detroit News reporter assaulted by police while documenting protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-news-reporter-assaulted-by-police-while-documenting-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:48:45.722838Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:49:10.695606Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:49:10.605942Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Buffalo",
"longitude": -78.87837,
"latitude": 42.88645,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xvdvv\">Detroit News reporter Jordyn Grzelewski was assaulted by police officers and forced to the ground while covering protests against police violence in Detroit, Michigan, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ooxet\">Grzelewski told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she had been following protesters as they marched through downtown that evening. As the city’s 8 p.m. curfew approached, Grzelewski was reporting along Gratiot Avenue between Conner Street and Outer Drive, <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2697075327285301\">documenting the scene on Facebook Live.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"4tapc\">In the video, a line of police officers in riot gear can be seen marching along the street and ordering protesters to disperse or be subject to arrest. Grzelewski was standing on the sidewalk between protesters and the police when an officer approached her.</p><p data-block-key=\"ph0ye\">“They told me that I was in their way, grabbed my hands and started to put them behind my back and take me to the ground,” Grzelewski said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vkncz\">In the video, an officer can be heard telling her to get down, to which Grzelewski replies that she is a member of the press. The officer asks for her press pass, and she says she has it in her hand. She is then released by the officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"4mxwk\">Press passes had been issued daily to journalists in the city and were printed with a brightly colored background.</p><p data-block-key=\"fez10\">Grzelewski said that the assault was over quickly, but she was still prevented from doing her job.</p><p data-block-key=\"qf7fm\">“In all, it was just, you know, a few seconds, but it happened,” she said. “It was a short encounter and they did not detain me in any lengthy way but they did attempt to do so.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b2fcd\">Grzelewski said an officer then directed her and other members of the media to get back from the street where protesters were being arrested and detained. She said they were “shepherded” into the parking lot of a nearby Family Dollar.</p><p data-block-key=\"kvyw5\">“They kept telling us to get back, and I said something like, ‘I’m just trying to do my job.’ And he was very insistent, saying, ‘No, you have to stand back,’” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ubpb4\">Grzelewski continued her livestream from the parking lot, documenting as officers arrested or attempted to arrest protesters. Grzelewski confirmed that reporters were not detained, and were free to leave the scene entirely through the other end of the parking lot, but had to remain there in order to continue to report on the protest and arrests underway.</p><p data-block-key=\"zdl38\">“Certainly it felt like I could not get closer to where the arrests were taking place, because the police were basically ordering us to stay away from the area,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"rrr2v\">The Detroit Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"7p70b\">Protests in the city that day 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. 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=\"5ya5a\">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": "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": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"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": [
"Jordyn Grzelewski (Detroit News)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Photojournalist arrested, equipment seized while covering protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-equipment-seized-while-covering-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2023-02-24T18:01:25.061601Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:38:08.981505Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:38:08.873015Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Atlanta",
"longitude": -84.38798,
"latitude": 33.749,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cfnx4\">Freelance photojournalist Sharif Hassan was arrested and his equipment seized while covering protests in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 1, 2020, according to a lawsuit filed on his behalf in November 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"c8q4b\">Protests against police violence broke out across the country in the summer of 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"b55og\">On May 30, then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms <a href=\"https://citycouncil.atlantaga.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=3673\">issued a curfew order</a> for the subsequent three days. The order, which had no explicit exception for members of the media or other essential workers, ordered residents off the streets between 9 p.m. and sunrise.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">City of Atlanta curfew continues at 9:00 p.m. tonight and Thursday night. An 8:00 p.m. to sunrise curfew is effective Friday (6/5), Saturday (6/6) & Sunday (6/7). Exceptions apply to people seeking medical help, working, first responders & homeless. Call <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ATL311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ATL311</a> for details. <a href=\"https://t.co/RZifP9dFOQ\">pic.twitter.com/RZifP9dFOQ</a></p>— City of Atlanta, GA (@CityofAtlanta) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CityofAtlanta/status/1268222515400368129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cfnx4\">According to his <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.gand.296639/gov.uscourts.gand.296639.1.0_2.pdf\">lawsuit</a>, Hassan — whose work has been published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Magazine and National Geographic Adventure, among others — arrived at The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change near downtown Atlanta in the late afternoon. He then photographed the planned protest as the crowd marched toward the CNN Center.</p><p data-block-key=\"cvsk1\">Officers with the National Guard, Atlanta Police Department and FBI were stationed downtown, according to court filings by the city of Atlanta.</p><p data-block-key=\"ecgmj\">Shortly before the curfew went into effect, a line of APD officers began pushing the crowd north on Centennial Olympic Park Drive, followed by a line of National Guardsmen, Hassan’s lawsuit states. Hassan and other members of the press walked behind the line of APD officers and ahead of the National Guard.</p><p data-block-key=\"22rdt\">As the demonstrators and police passed through an intersection, an unidentified man ran down the side street and was pursued by officers who arrested him. Hassan followed and began photographing from a safe distance, according to his suit. Without being given any directions or an order to disperse, two officers approached Hassan and made him lie face-down on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"e10eo\">According to <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.gand.296639/gov.uscourts.gand.296639.30.0.pdf\">disclosures</a> filed by the city, Hassan was directed to leave or face arrest but refused to do so. The filing also asserts that Hassan did not identify himself as a journalist to the arresting officers, nor did he provide “media credentials or any other paraphernalia that would identify him as such.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c21nh\">Hassan’s suit states that he identified himself as a member of the press when officers zip-tied his hands behind his back and told him that he was under arrest for violating the curfew order.</p><p data-block-key=\"8r4o2\">Hassan’s camera, at least two lenses and two loose memory cards were seized by police. The photojournalist was held overnight at the Atlanta City Detention Center. Hassan was released in the late afternoon on June 2, but his camera and lenses were not returned until a week later.</p><p data-block-key=\"f1c81\">One of Hassan’s attorneys told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in February 2023 that the two SD cards Hassan had been carrying in his pocket were never returned to him, and police have neither acknowledged that they are still in custody nor provided explanation. Hassan was not available for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"bvafp\">According to the suit, Hassan appeared for three hearings beginning in September 2020. At the final hearing in January 2021, prosecutors dropped the charge against him for what they described as evidentiary reasons.</p><p data-block-key=\"akkte\">Attorneys filed the lawsuit on Hassan’s behalf against the city of Atlanta and three APD officers in November 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"el5da\">“Hassan’s arrest, detention, and prosecution have chilled him from documenting political protest events due to concern that he will again be wrongfully arrested,” the lawsuit states. “By failing to explicitly exclude basic newsgathering from the facial scope of the Atlanta Curfew Orders, the City, without factual basis, deprived Hassan and other working members of the media of their First Amendment press freedoms while the public lost its eyes and ears on events of significant importance.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dbb32\">According to court filings reviewed by the Tracker, Hassan and the city are engaged in settlement discussions as of early 2023.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS3A1CR.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"dmgse\">National Guard troops were part of the law enforcement response to protests in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, on June 1, 2020. Photojournalist Sharif Hassan was arrested, his equipment seized while documenting the demonstrations against police brutality.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Atlanta Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-06-02",
"detention_date": "2020-06-01",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:21-cv-04629",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"status_of_seized_equipment": "returned in part",
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "law enforcement",
"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,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
},
{
"quantity": 2,
"equipment": "camera lens"
},
{
"quantity": 3,
"equipment": "storage device"
}
],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Georgia",
"abbreviation": "GA"
},
"updates": [
"(2023-05-08 15:36:00+00:00) Atlanta agrees to pay photojournalist $105,000 to settle lawsuit following 2020 arrest, equipment seizure"
],
"case_statuses": [
"settled"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sharif Hassan (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Photographer struck in face with officer’s baton while documenting protests; lawsuit filed against NYPD",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-struck-in-face-with-officers-baton-while-documenting-protests-lawsuit-filed-against-nypd/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-18T14:02:46.749071Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:06:27.640493Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:06:27.522264Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pewnm\">Documentary and news photographer Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi was assaulted by a baton-wielding New York Police Department officer while she was photographing police beating a young man in lower Manhattan on June 1, 2020, according to a federal lawsuit.</p><p data-block-key=\"od0qc\">Alhindawi is one of five news photographers who filed a <a href=\"https://nppa.org/news/news-photographers-file-civil-rights-lawsuit-against-new-york-city-police-department\">federal lawsuit</a> on Aug. 5, 2021, “seeking to hold the New York Police Department [NYPD] accountable for its violation of their First Amendment rights.” The suit is being led by the National Press Photographers Association, of which four of the journalists are members, in partnership with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.</p><p data-block-key=\"tdddu\">According to the <a href=\"https://nppa.org/sites/default/files/Gray%20v%20City%20of%20New%20York%20et%20al%20-%20Complaint%20-%20Filed%208-5-2021.pdf\">complaint</a>, Alhindawi was photographing NYPD officers beating a young man inside a Foot Locker store at 440 Broadway that had been broken into, “taking a position near the store window and to the left of the security gate,” alongside several other photographers. When the photographers were directed by officers to move back from the window, they complied and shifted to the other edge of the sidewalk.</p><p data-block-key=\"vo20u\">“Alhindawi was staring down at the tilted-up view screen of her camera, focusing on getting her shot,” when at least two NYPD officers charged toward the group of photographers, according to the complaint. One swung a baton at Alhindawi, “striking her in the face and splitting her lip open.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cc3ro\">“This is an unprovoked assault. It's one thing to order or request someone to move back,” Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel to the NPPA, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “It's another thing to physically assault someone for no apparent reason.” Osterreicher confirmed Alhindawi was carrying a camera and wearing a Frontline Freelance Register credential.</p><p data-block-key=\"0ph8e\">Alhindawi and the New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS3A29V_-_Reuters_-_Caitlin_Ochs.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"h3gxw\">Police after a New York protest on June 1, 2020, following the killing of George Floyd. Journalist Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi was photographing police beating a man during that day’s protest when an officer hit her in the face.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:21-cv-06610",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"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": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2023-09-08 00:00:00+00:00) Judge voids First Amendment settlement with NYPD",
"(2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD",
"(2023-09-05 15:13:00+00:00) Journalists reach 'historic' settlement with NYPD in First Amendment suit"
],
"case_statuses": [
"settled"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Student journalist pepper sprayed, threatened with arrest during Columbus protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-pepper-sprayed-threatened-with-arrest-during-columbus-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:25:20.469791Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-03-10T22:03:30.599016Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-03-10T22:03:30.537048Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Columbus",
"longitude": -82.99879,
"latitude": 39.96118,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yi1m0\">Three journalists from The Lantern, the Ohio State University student newspaper, were pepper sprayed and threatened with arrest by police officers while covering protests in Columbus, Ohio, on June 1, 2020. The three students clearly and repeatedly identified themselves as members of the media before the assault, according to interviews with the journalists and video footage of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9wd3\">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 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=\"wmu2r\">On the night of June 1, Lantern editors Sarah Szilagy, Max Garrison and Maeve Walsh were covering peaceful protests that had moved from the Ohio Statehouse in downtown Columbus toward the Ohio State University campus. About 20 minutes after a 10 p.m. curfew went into effect, the protesters reached the intersection of North High Street and Lane Avenue on the edge of campus.</p><p data-block-key=\"l8lug\">Up until this point, the journalists had not noticed a police presence. A few minutes after reaching the intersection, however, police cars suddenly arrived and stopped behind the protesters, Walsh and Garrison told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Szilagy, the Lantern’s campus editor, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"r7r6b\">Police officers got out of their cars, walked swiftly through the crowd, and began using pepper spray to disperse the protesters, they said. The three journalists, who were standing behind a concrete barrier on the sidewalk, somewhat removed from the protesters in the street, remained on the scene as the protesters left, Walsh and Garrison told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"wee2a\">The journalists were then approached from multiple directions by officers ordering them to “go home” because of the curfew, according to an <a href=\"https://www.thelantern.com/2020/06/lantern-journalists-targeted-by-police-pepper-sprayed/\">account</a> of the incident Garrison wrote for The Lantern. They continued to film and identify themselves as press, holding their press passes in the air, Walsh said. The officers responded that they “don’t care” and threatened to arrest the journalists if they didn’t disperse.</p><p data-block-key=\"3tgmt\">Another group of officers approached and “got very close to us,” according to Garrison, forcing them to step back. Garrison said one officer pushed him. Another shot pepper spray at the group from point-blank range, hitting him on the arm and Szilagy in the eyes, Garrison said. Walsh was not directly hit, but said the gas made her cough.</p><p data-block-key=\"g8pqx\">In a video of the incident The Lantern posted to Twitter, the journalists are pepper sprayed after repeatedly identifying as media who are “exempt from curfew.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hi everyone: this was me. I was sprayed in the face after we identified ourselves and presented our press passes multiple times. Media are exempt from curfew. Media are exempt from curfew. <a href=\"https://t.co/DAIDudVpud\">https://t.co/DAIDudVpud</a></p>— Sarah Szilagy (@sarahszilagy) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sarahszilagy/status/1267645179567263746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 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=\"te81h\">Adam Cairns, a staff photographer with the Columbus Dispatch, witnessed the attack. Cairns told the Tracker that he had been standing near the edge of the intersection with the student journalists, but turned to walk away before another officer came around the corner and shot pepper spray at the journalists. “[I] will attest that they were screaming at the cops that they were media,” Cairns <a href=\"https://twitter.com/atomicphoto/status/1267661446411943936\">posted to Twitter</a>. “Police, despite clearly seeing press credentials, did not care. I crossed Lane at that point and missed the pepper spray.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here is a photo of <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheLantern?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheLantern</a> journalists showing their press IDs to police moments before being pepper sprayed <a href=\"https://t.co/Mvr4TLT83F\">pic.twitter.com/Mvr4TLT83F</a></p>— Adam Cairns (@atomicphoto) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/atomicphoto/status/1267675830882369536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 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=\"dd5ri\">The three journalists turned to flee but were followed by an officer who fired pepper spray at their backs before they turned into an alley, according to Garrison. They then sought refuge nearby at the house of their editor, Sam Raudins, where they spent several hours recovering. None of them returned to the protests that night. “They basically just censored us,” Szilagy <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/06/03/ohio-state-student-journalists-told-police-they-were-media-then-police-sprayed-them/\">told The Washington Post</a>, “and made us incapable of covering other things that happened that night.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mdtgz\">In the hours following the attack, Raudins sent an email to the Columbus Division of Police reporting the incident. “This was not our team getting caught in the crossfire; this was a direct interaction between CPD and The Lantern,” she wrote in the letter posted to Twitter.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our editor-in-chief <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sam_raudins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sam_raudins</a> emailed <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ColumbusPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ColumbusPolice</a>, reporting how officers threatened to arrest and then pepper-sprayed our reporters after our reporters identified themselves as members of the news media. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/columbusprotest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#columbusprotest</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/UXaSYC9bVQ\">pic.twitter.com/UXaSYC9bVQ</a></p>— The Lantern (@TheLantern) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheLantern/status/1267654250072588288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 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=\"0w19m\">In a press conference the following day, Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan was asked about the police officers’ treatment of journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"5d4mx\">“There’s no malice involved, there’s no intent, it’s just a very chaotic situation,” Quinlan <a href=\"https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/watch-mayor-ginther-chief-quinlan-hold-briefing-discuss-columbus-protests-2020-jun/530-d7f35334-ca71-40fb-9508-6ca49a458c8f\">said</a>. “And in that regard, I’d ask the public to have some patience and please comply, and we’ll work it out afterward. But please don’t stand there and argue; move along and comply and we’ll fix this after the fact so nothing bad happens.”</p><p data-block-key=\"64o5x\">Quinlan also said, “we are dealing with imperfect human beings in imperfect situations. Mistakes will happen and we will take action to correct them and make sure that we do not allow our mistakes to be repeated.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ixud4\">When asked specifically about the incident involving the Ohio State student journalists, Quinlan said the reporters were not easily recognizable as news media, but the department had launched an internal affairs investigation of the officers, the <a href=\"https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200602/columbus-police-to-investigate-officers-who-pepper-sprayed-ohio-state-student-journalists?rssfeed=true\">Dispatch reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"62fwi\">“We are aware of the incident in question and it is currently under investigation per our use of force policy,” Sergeant James Fuqua, public information officer, said in response to the Tracker’s request for a status update.</p><p data-block-key=\"2p5dn\">The Columbus Division of Police did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"d6b8v\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=111\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"student journalism"
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{
"title": "Telemundo bureau chief hit with projectile, tear gassed during protests in DC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/telemundo-bureau-chief-hit-with-projectile-tear-gassed-during-protests-in-dc/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:32:15.108494Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:55:14.565098Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:55:14.486801Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"vb9jb\">Multiple journalists for the Spanish-language outlet Telemundo reported being hit with projectiles while covering protests near the White House on June 1, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"2uraj\">The protests that day were part of a wave of demonstrations resulting from a viral video showing a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a 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=\"cboxu\">The Telemundo journalists — bureau chief Lori Montenegro, senior Washington correspondent Cristina Londoño Rooney and cameraman Edwin López — reported being hit with projectiles as law enforcement officials attempted to disperse protesters half an hour before the district’s 7 p.m. curfew on June 1 and as President Donald Trump addressed the nation from the Rose Garden, nearby.</p><p data-block-key=\"tlvm0\">Emailed requests to the Telemundo journalists for interviews were not returned as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"qi3ig\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/luisfemiami/status/1267615162355388417\">video</a> posted shortly before being hit, Londoño described “a very tense atmosphere” and how tear gas was “already starting to make our throats itch.” She wondered if “protesters are aware that the president will be addressing the nation any time.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1utwb\">After the attack, the Colombian journalist posted a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=731606084241442\">video</a> in which she detailed the journalists’ injuries, stating that Montenegro had been hit on the back and that her throat was sore after breathing air filled with tear gas; that López had been hit on his right arm and ribs; and that law enforcement had used “long weapons that were pointing at us” to push them out of the area close to the White House.</p><p data-block-key=\"hziq8\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CristiLondono/status/1269111643012808704/photo/1\">tweet on June 5</a>, Londoño shared pictures of her wounds and bruises, writing, “The White House also said rubber bullets were not used. Can anyone tell me what this looks like?”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">La Casa Blanca negó que usaron gases lacrimógenos o balas de goma para dispersar a los manifestantes y periodistas el lunes. Sentí los gases y el <a href=\"https://twitter.com/washingtonpost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@washingtonpost</a> ahora los confirma. Y esto ¿Me pueden decir esto qué es? <a href=\"https://t.co/CkjEIPSwqu\">pic.twitter.com/CkjEIPSwqu</a></p>— Cristina Londoño Rooney (@CristiLondono) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CristiLondono/status/1269111643012808704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 6, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jqhha\">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. Park Police said in a <a href=\"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/uspp/6_2_20_statement_from_acting_chief_monahan.htm\">statement</a> on June 2 that its officers and other assisting law enforcement partners had not used tear gas that day, though multiple outlets, including the <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/park-police-spokesman-acknowledges-chemical-agents-used-on-lafayette-square-protesters-are-similar-to-tear-gas/2020/06/05/971a8d78-a75a-11ea-b473-04905b1af82b_story.html\">Washington Post</a>, have reported that “chemical agents” were deployed. Regarding this particular incident, Park Police did not respond to our request for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"d4xty\">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",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
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"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Des Moines Register reporter hit with pepper spray in face after repeatedly identifying as press",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/des-moines-register-reporter-hit-pepper-spray-face-after-repeatedly-identifying-press/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-21T16:05:13.527942Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-01-06T19:27:06.818535Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-01-06T19:27:06.704437Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Des Moines",
"longitude": -93.60911,
"latitude": 41.60054,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ugm8i\">In the chaos following a dispersal order by the Des Moines police at a June 1, 2020, protest, a police officer pepper sprayed Des Moines Register reporter Katie Akin, hitting her in the eye and ear. A video she took of the incident shows her repeatedly identifying herself as press while fleeing from a clash between police and protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"xp396\">The June 1 protest was one of a series in Des Moines that began after the May 25 death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a white police officer. As the protests continued, on May 31 the Polk County, Iowa, Board of Supervisors implemented a 9 p.m. curfew <a href=\"https://www.kcrg.com/2020/05/31/polk-county-announces-curfew-following-weekend-violent-protests/\">due to</a> “the violent outbreak of civil unrest” in Des Moines. Protesters defied the curfew, Akin told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in a phone interview, but their demonstrations remained “pretty orderly.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fzps4\">Akin’s tweets created a timeline of the protest that congregated at the state capitol just before 11 p.m on June 1, where several hundred protesters <a href=\"https://twitter.com/katie_akin/status/1267669618988105729\">confronted</a> 50 police officers lined up at the top of the steps. At 11:30 p.m., Akin tweeted that the crowd heard a police officer <a href=\"https://twitter.com/katie_akin/status/1267676241848606722?s=20\">announce</a> an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"e5u4d\">Akin told Tracker that she and fellow Des Moines Register reporter Shelby Fleig chose a grassy spot off to the side to separate themselves from the clash while still being able to record the confrontation between police and protesters. She said she and Fleig each had press badges and “tried to stay out of the way.”</p><p data-block-key=\"smaz5\">At 11:40 p.m., Akin <a href=\"https://twitter.com/katie_akin/status/1267677417872777218\">tweets</a>, “Shelby and I are safely to the side (hopefully). A protester near us said the police said it’s the final warning. Crowd holds their hands up. A tense moment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vc41g\">Two videos posted by Akin document the police line moving down the capitol steps to confront the protesters. The videos, which Akin shot from some distance to the side of the protests, also show more officers arriving from different directions, as police begin clearing the crowd using pepper spray and flash bang canisters. In the first video, as protesters flee the scene, Akin also begins to move away, passing by police officers as she goes. Several police officers lower their batons and let her pass as she yells repeatedly “I’m press,” “I’m with the Des Moines Register,” and “I’m going.” Akin identifies herself as press 17 times in 30 seconds.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here’s the advance. Shelby and I are safe with an editor now. <a href=\"https://t.co/S2MphcXuSF\">pic.twitter.com/S2MphcXuSF</a></p>— Katie Akin (@katie_akin) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/katie_akin/status/1267693240985190400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 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=\"yhw0s\">The second video shows some of the same footage of Akin fleeing the scene past police officers. Then one officer, holding a red spray can, runs up to her as she is yelling, “I’m with the Des Moines Register, I’m going, I’m going.” The officer yells, “Get the fuck out of here,” and sprays Akin with the canister. She continues running away, eventually is reunited with reporter Fleig, and says that she was hit with pepper spray and can’t see out of her eye.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here’s me getting pepper sprayed. <a href=\"https://t.co/YlDnLezPLR\">pic.twitter.com/YlDnLezPLR</a></p>— Katie Akin (@katie_akin) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/katie_akin/status/1267694434847731713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 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=\"ugkct\">The following morning, Gov. Kim Reynolds <a href=\"http://www.iowapbs.org/video/story/36610/iowa-gov-kim-reynolds-press-conference-june-2-2020-11-am\">held a news conference</a>, where Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens answered a few questions about the protests. Bayens said law enforcement’s response to the protests had been defined by “restraint, restraint, restraint,” adding that law enforcement did not have “any desire to see anyone that is there in a peaceful capacity or as a member of the media to get caught up with [pepper spraying and all] that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"izkly\">A Des Moines Register <a href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2020/06/02/des-moines-police-pepper-spray-journalist-iowa-george-floyd-protest-des-moines-register-reporter/3126478001/\">article</a> from the next day reported that Executive Editor Carol Hunter asked Des Moines police to conduct an internal review of the incident. Akin said she gave a statement to police shortly after that but has not heard any updates since.</p><p data-block-key=\"004ao\">The morning podcast 1460 KXNO Morning Rush, located in Des Moines, has a weekly segment called “Ask 5-0 anything,” in which police officer Paul Parezik answers callers’ questions. During the June 2 program, Parezik, who is seen as an informal spokesperson for the Des Moines police, <a href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-5-0-anything-tuesday-hour-2/id986077468?i=1000476531613\">reflected that</a> members of the media “have to step to the side and get out of the mix” when dispersal orders are given. He also spoke on the necessity of having clear credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"gfi03\">Akin said that she and Fleig both had clear credentials. As for getting “out of the mix,” Akin — whose videos were shot a clear distance from the protesters — told the Tracker she “can’t think of a way that I could be close to the action and seeing what was going on without getting squeezed into it.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"j28ou\">Des Moines Register reporter Katie Akin caught on camera the moment a police officer pepper sprayed her in the face as she was moving out of the way of police on June 1, 2020.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Iowa",
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{
"title": "Australian correspondent assaulted by police amid crackdowns in DC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-assaulted-police-chaotic-crackdowns-dc/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-29T14:24:13.665893Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:53:54.023331Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:53:53.895498Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dl60o\">A news crew for Australia’s 7News was assaulted by law enforcement while covering protests against police violence in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2020, a chaotic day for demonstrations throughout the nation’s capital.</p><p data-block-key=\"byxi5\">Correspondent Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers were reporting live on-air amid a group of protesters facing a police line when officers rushed the crowd. An officer wearing riot gear can be <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sunriseon7/status/1267592137735991296?s=20\">seen pushing</a> Myers with a shield and hitting his camera. As Myers and Brace fled the scene, an officer can be seen swinging a baton at Brace.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Watch the shocking moment <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/7NEWS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#7NEWS</a> reporter <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AmeliaBrace?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AmeliaBrace</a> and our cameraman were knocked over by a police officer LIVE on air after chaos erupted in Washington DC. <a href=\"https://t.co/R8KJLnfxPN\">pic.twitter.com/R8KJLnfxPN</a></p>— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sunriseon7/status/1267587976986427393?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=\"e14q7\">“They were quite violent and they do not care who they’re targeting at the moment,” Brace told in-studio anchors during a <a href=\"https://7news.com.au/sunrise/on-the-show/scary-moment-as-sunrise-reporter-caught-up-in-us-violence-c-1073136\">subsequent report for 7News</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"0r5ua\">“We were trying to move on. The last thing we ever want is to get in the way, but there was just no opportunity,” she continued. “There was really no choice but to try to hide in that corner, hoping that they pass by ... as you can see in those pictures, they did not.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i3qus\">Brace also told the anchors that a rubber bullet hit her “on the backside” and that another round struck Myers on the neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"qyar3\">7News did not respond to requests for comment or make its journalists available for interviews.</p><p data-block-key=\"h48ya\">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. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia did not respond to requests for comment on these incidents as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"7pcho\">Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"osss6\">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/RTS3A19R.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"nbuk3\">Law enforcement officers rush protestors and observers in Lafayette Park and near the White House on June 1, 2020, in Washington, D.C., to clear a path for the president.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [
"(2023-05-24 11:17:00+00:00) Investigation finds that officers used excessive force against Australian correspondent, photojournalist"
],
"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",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Amelia Brace (7News Australia)"
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},
{
"title": "Independent journalist arrested while covering LA protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-arrested-while-covering-la-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-20T16:11:22.603129Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:57:35.893815Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:57:35.794845Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lqcsc\">Independent journalist Jeff Weiss was arrested while covering protests in Los Angeles on June 1, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"6i8ad\">Weiss was covering the protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement for Los Angeles Magazine. He declined an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, but referred to his <a href=\"https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/los-angeles-protests-essay/\">written first-person account</a> and answered follow up questions via email.</p><p data-block-key=\"9e7ad\">According to his article, Weiss was heading home from other local protests shortly after the citywide 6 p.m. curfew when he encountered a group protesting in the middle of Sunset Boulevard near the Palladium.</p><p data-block-key=\"x4zjt\">Weiss wrote that the police moved in on the protesters without ordering them to disperse or giving a warning.</p><p data-block-key=\"ihr3n\">“Consider it white privilege or journalistic entitlement, but a part of me dumbly believed that the cops wouldn’t actually arrest me,” Weiss wrote. “In theory, that whole enshrined in the Constitution combo of ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘freedom of the press’ should have had me covered.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s8l95\">When an officer approached him and zip-tied his wrists, Weiss said he told the officer that he was a journalist. Weiss and others who had been arrested were held on the street for about an hour. The arresting officer asked Weiss for his press pass, and Weiss explained that he didn’t have one.</p><p data-block-key=\"rjpje\">Press passes are a “particularly antiquated bastion of a bygone era,” Weiss told the Tracker in an email. Many journalists will never be on staff at a publication, and therefore not receive one, he said. Some publications don’t issue press passes to journalists on their staffs, Weiss said.</p><p data-block-key=\"lg94c\">“It's a farcical conceit that police can use every form of surveillance technology — whether it's facial recognition or getting warrants to search social media accounts — but can't do a two second Google [search] to verify a journalist's information before arresting them,” Weiss said.</p><p data-block-key=\"g66xx\">The officer who arrested Weiss told him that he believed that Weiss is a journalist, according to Weiss’s magazine account. But the officer told Weiss, “it’s out of my hands. Nothing I can do.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bjte1\">Weiss also spoke to a police lieutenant to explain that he was a journalist, according to the article. “I tell him that I’m a journalist and a writer and besides, really, this is really a first amendment freedom of speech thing anyway, and none of these violations will actually hold up in a court,” Weiss wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"k3j6l\">The lieutenant responded, “Well, what are you? A writer or a journalist?” Weiss wrote that he did not continue to argue with the lieutenant.</p><p data-block-key=\"fue40\">Weiss was transported with others who had been arrested to a processing facility set up by the Los Angeles Police Department. After waiting several hours, Weiss received a citation for violating curfew. He was required to sign a document promising to appear in court before March 2021. He was released shortly before 11 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"ovwrb\">Police confiscated Weiss’s phone, which he had been using to take notes, during his arrest, Weiss told the Tracker. He wrote that his phone was returned with the rest of his belongings after he was processed and released.</p><p data-block-key=\"7bx58\">On June 8,<a href=\"https://da.lacounty.gov/media/news/district-attorney-jackie-lacey-will-not-file-charges-curfew-violations-failure-disperse\"> Los Angeles County District Attorney</a> Jackie Lacey announced that she would not prosecute citations for violating curfew or failing to disperse. <a href=\"https://www.lacityattorney.org/post/feuer-takes-restorative-non-punitive-approach-outside-the-court-system-for-peaceful-protesters\">Los Angeles City Attorney</a> Mike Feuer said he would resolve cases involving peaceful protesters in a “restorative approach” outside of the court system.</p><p data-block-key=\"gzrfc\">Weiss told the Tracker he received communication from the city that the charges against him were dropped.</p><p data-block-key=\"ilduh\">The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ytwpb\">The 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/Screenshot_2020-10-20_Jeff_Weiss_.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"foti5\">Independent journalist Jeff Weiss posted a screenshot of his June 1 arrest in Los Angeles to his Instagram account.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"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,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jeff Weiss (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Russian reporter assaulted by police in chaotic June 1 crackdowns in DC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/russian-reporter-assaulted-by-police-in-chaotic-june-1-crackdowns-in-dc/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:38:05.345715Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:56:47.252712Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:56:47.160780Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"49psi\">Nicole Roussell, a reporter for Sputnik, a Russian state-owned outlet, was struck by multiple crowd-control munitions, shoved and pepper sprayed by law enforcement while covering protests against police violence in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2020, a chaotic day for demonstrations throughout the nation’s capital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ah8d9\">Roussell told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she had been filming what she described as peaceful protests near the White House and Lafayette Square when police in riot gear began to fire rubber bullets and mace at the crowd, brandish their batons and use their shields to shove people.</p><p data-block-key=\"lbpv7\">Rousell said she did not come out unscathed: She told the Tracker she got hit with rubber bullets, with her employer sharing <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1267811305953492995\">images of her injuries</a> on Twitter; caught in the mace, despite yelling, “I’m press! I’m press!” to police, holding up her press badge and donning a reflective orange vest at the time; and, at a moment when police advanced on the crowd, had an officer push her with his shield, causing her to fall and hit her elbow, ribs and leg on the ground.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">PHOTOS | Nicole sustained wounds from rubber bullets that were fired by US police, while she had on press credentials and vocally stated she was part of the press covering the protests<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydProtests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackOutTuesday?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BlackOutTuesday</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/XulcUeVitf\">https://t.co/XulcUeVitf</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/3PziHUzJgr\">pic.twitter.com/3PziHUzJgr</a></p>— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1267811305953492995?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 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=\"d9sgc\">The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation <a href=\"https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/4145285\">issued a statement</a> on the incident the following day, writing, in part, “We regard the deliberate attack on Nicole Roussell, a producer at the Sputnik News Agency, in Washington on June 1, 2020, as an unfriendly step on the part of the US authorities, as well as a flagrant violation of their international legal obligations to ensure the safety of journalists and their unhindered work.”</p><p data-block-key=\"deuat\">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. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia also did not respond to requests for comment on these incidents as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"0jvxm\">Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"yite5\">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": "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": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Nicole Roussell (Sputnik)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Portland: While reporting on protests in the city, journalists tear gassed, threatened",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/portland-while-reporting-protests-city-journalists-tear-gassed-threatened/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-15T15:29:09.582839Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:02:02.657724Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:02:02.431084Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": true,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"khzc0\">George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, ignited a sweeping assembly of protesters across the United States — and the globe — a staggering, monthslong outcry for police reform and racial justice. In many moments peaceful, in many others bracingly violent, journalists of all stripes took to documenting these demonstrations. At times, to do the job meant to expose oneself to the effects of riot-control agents, to face harassment from individuals or law enforcement officials, to fear for your safety or have your reporting interrupted.</p><p data-block-key=\"rsv87\">In <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-25&date_upper=2020-12-31&city=Portland&state=Oregon&tags=Black+Lives+Matter\">Portland, Oregon</a>, the protests have been particularly acute, not only in their <a href=\"https://apnews.com/b57315d97dd2146c4a89b4636faa7b70\">duration</a>, but also their <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/us/portland-federal-legal-jurisdiction-courts.html\">intensity</a>. Not coincidentally, the journalists who’ve documented the unfolding events have seemingly faced a heightened level of risk, most notably in their interactions with local and federal law enforcement. In response, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">filed a class-action lawsuit</a> in June “on behalf of journalists and legal observers who were targeted and attacked by the police while documenting protests.” The suit 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 or impede their work. A judge later expanded the ban to federal officers, who were a heavy presence in the city until Oregon Governor Kate Brown negotiated a phased withdrawal with the Trump administration in late July. While an appeals court later issued a temporary stay on that order, the federal ban was <a href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/ninth-circuit-rules-federal-agents-cant-target-journalists-at-portland-protests/\">reinstated</a> in early October.</p><p data-block-key=\"git01\">Below is a roundup of incidents involving journalists in Portland getting tear-gassed, threatened or somehow impeded in their work in the city beginning summer of 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"umip1\">A full accounting of incidents in which members of the press have been assaulted, arrested or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the nation can be found <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>. To learn more about how the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents and categorizes violations of press freedom, visit pressfreedomtracker.us.</p><h4 data-block-key=\"vrpaf\">June 2020</h4></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5oetu\"><b>June 2, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"25fgi\">According to a <a href=\"https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/06/02/28499376/live-updates-protesting-the-death-of-george-floyd-in-downtown-portland-night-five\">live blog from Portland Mercury</a>, the city’s alt-weekly, that began around 6 p.m. and closed at 12:15 a.m. with the note “Due to the dangerous situation and loss of control exhibited by the Portland Police, we have pulled our reporters off the street for the night. It’s simply too dangerous for them to be out there right now. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and update you tomorrow,” several journalists were struck with tear gas while covering protests, including the Mercury’s two on-the-ground reporters that evening, <b>Alex Zielinski</b> and <b>Blair Stenvick</b>. Both <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alex_zee/status/1268034020035592192\">Zielinski</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BlairStenvick/status/1268035305644257280\">Stenvick</a> confirmed the gassing on their individual Twitter accounts. Their experience that evening was also <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf\">cited</a> in a <a href=\"https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/protests/aclu-of-oregon-files-class-action-lawsuit-against-portland-police-city/283-e23931b9-4987-4307-bf6b-a1ceb0a9e6bb\">lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Oregon</a>, which stated: “Ms. Zielinski was in the middle of the crowd, while Stenvick was towards the back. Neither was near the fence surrounding the Justice Center. [...] The police issued a warning to protesters to stay away from the fence. To underscore the point, officers on the other side of the fence shot tear gas at protesters near the fence. Had officers merely shot gas at protesters closest to the fence, the reporters might not have been injured. However, the police had decided to create a gas trap by shooting tear gas from the rear and sides of the crowd as well. This gas trap, by design, snared not only protesters agitating near the fence, but many other peaceful protesters far from the fence with no desire to get involved. And, of course, it also caught all three reporters, as well as Plaintiff [Kat] Mahoney. Because they had been inundated with tear gas, neither Ms. Zielinski nor Stenvick was able to report on the protests for the rest of the night.” A <b>freelance photojournalist</b> and one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU’s suit, stated in a declaration: “On June 2, I was reporting on the protests when the police used tear gas in the area near me. My throat locked up and I became unable to see. I needed assistance to leave the area and immediately sought medical attention.” The journalist requested anonymity for their safety and privacy.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tear gassed. <a href=\"https://t.co/vAkqCR8lvb\">pic.twitter.com/vAkqCR8lvb</a></p>— Alex Zielinski (@alex_zee) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alex_zee/status/1268034020035592192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tear gas hurts a lot but fades quickly <a href=\"https://t.co/h1YlKEPaFf\">pic.twitter.com/h1YlKEPaFf</a></p>— Blair Stenvick (@BlairStenvick) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BlairStenvick/status/1268035305644257280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1shzy\"><b>June 5, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"lkc4k\"><b>Bea Lake</b>, a stringer for iHeartRadio, was nearly rammed by a red pickup truck that drove through a crowd of protesters around 1:30 a.m. When the stringer, who has asked to remain anonymous, tried to capture the truck’s license plate, police threatened her with crowd-control weapons, according to the ACLU’s class-action <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf\">lawsuit</a>. Portland-based journalist Robert Evans, a reporter for investigative news site Bellingcat and host of a podcast for iHeartMedia, told the Tracker that the stringer was marked as press, but he didn’t know whether she was targeted for being a journalist because it was dark. “I can’t know if the people who targeted her did so because they thought she was press or because they thought she was a protester, but she felt targeted by the person in the vehicle certainly,” said Evans, who wasn’t with her at the time of the incident. The truck and its driver haven’t been identified.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Last night a member of my crew was almost rammed by a red truck (newish, likely Ford) with an American flag flying from each end of the back. The police aimed their guns at her when she tried to get its plate #.<br><br>If any member of the crowd filmed this, please let me know.</p>— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1269399061775306752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 6, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"y3bsu\"><b>June 7, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"8lt1y\">Sometime after midnight, photojournalist <b>Alex Milan Tracy</b> was threatened with arrest while filming the arrest of two people after a protest at Chapman Square downtown had been broken up. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AlexMilanTracy/status/1269577129265524736\">video</a> captured and tweeted by Tracy, he can be heard clearly stating that he is press and that he is retreating from the area. “Despite being a good distance away, the police threatened to arrest me simply for filming them,” Tracy said in a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-06-30_-_tracy_decl_0.pdf\">declaration</a> for the ACLU lawsuit that led to the PPB’s <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a> not to arrest or harm journalists or legal observers. “I immediately held up my credentials and one of my two cameras clearly stating that I was press as I moved back and complied with their orders.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An officer shouts "You were standing taking photos..." as two people hiding behind a car are arrested. Another officer threatens me with arrest as I clearly state I am press as I move back and comply with orders. <a href=\"https://t.co/fwTStAsceO\">pic.twitter.com/fwTStAsceO</a></p>— Alex Milan Tracy (@AlexMilanTracy) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AlexMilanTracy/status/1269577129265524736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 7, 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=\"pbvij\"><b>June 16, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"pdwti\">Oregon Public Broadcasting journalists <b>Sergio Olmos</b> and <b>Jonathan Levinson</b> were threatened with arrest while covering police dispersing a protest outside the Multnomah County Justice Center that had been declared an unlawful assembly. They were filming a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1272792445265178624\">small group</a> of protesters being herded down a street by police when an officer told them they had to leave the area even if they had press credentials. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1272796206071087105\">video</a> posted on Twitter by Olmos, when Levinson responds, “We’re moving,” the officer says, “You’ve been given warnings, so if you don’t move faster, you’re gonna go to jail.” Soon after, the police prevented Levinson from recording or reporting on an arrest, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf\">declaration</a> he provided for the ACLU lawsuit against the PPB.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Portland police officer “your asked to disperse, wearing the press does not give you the right to be here”<br><br>Reporter <a href=\"https://twitter.com/_jlevinson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@_jlevinson</a>: “we’re moving”<br><br>Police: “you’ve been given warnings, so if you don’t move faster your gonna go to jail”<br><br>“So you want us to run?”<br><br> “yes I do” <a href=\"https://t.co/I9zrFRnwhf\">pic.twitter.com/I9zrFRnwhf</a></p>— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1272796206071087105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 16, 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\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"hwd81\"><b>Tracy</b> was also threatened with arrest while filming the same arrest that Levinson was prevented from covering. In his own <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-06-30_-_tracy_decl_0.pdf\">declaration</a> for the ACLU lawsuit against the PPB, Tracy said he was threatened by an officer he identified as Ken Le “after a few officers charged ahead out of formation to make arrests” in the early hours of the day. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AlexMilanTracy/status/1272805156225048578\">video</a> captured and tweeted by Tracy, the officer can be heard saying, “Get out of here now or you’re going to go to jail, you understand? I don’t care if you’re press.” After some additional back-and-forth, Tracy can be heard saying, “Please threaten me one more time. I’m sure the ACLU would love to see this,” before complying and backing away. When asked about the incident, Sergeant Kevin Allen of the PPB told the Tracker that “there is an active civil lawsuit, so I cannot comment on any action involving journalists.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A few officers sprint forward to make an arrest and as I document I am threatened with arrest. <a href=\"https://t.co/nVRcwvEmXi\">pic.twitter.com/nVRcwvEmXi</a></p>— Alex Milan Tracy (@AlexMilanTracy) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AlexMilanTracy/status/1272805156225048578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 16, 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\"><h4 data-block-key=\"rz93x\">July 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"zses0\"><b>July 18, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"4dg3g\">Federal law enforcement officers fired tear gas and flash-bangs toward independent videojournalist <b>Mason Lake</b>. At around 2:30 a.m., Lake was standing with a group of other journalists he didn’t know at Southwest Madison Street between Southwest Third and Fourth avenues downtown, across from the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse and Multnomah County Justice Center. A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BoopTroopEugene/status/1284607393884565506\">video</a> of the incident shows journalists, including Lake, standing and filming while tear gas canisters and flash-bang grenades land on the street. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MasonLakePhoto/status/1284644072854962177\">Another video</a>, posted by Lake on Twitter, shows a group of federal officers turning onto Southwest Madison Street from Southwest Third Avenue as protesters hurry away from them. Then, flash-bang grenades go off and tear gas spreads on the street. Lake said he felt targeted by the officers because he was clearly marked as a member of the press, with the word “press” also written on his helmet, and was at the front of the demonstration with no protesters close to him. “They were attacking press pretty openly,” he said.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I got LIT UP last night! New riot gear paid for itself already. The feds were ABSOLUTELY targeting media & press. <br>I was not the only one. Let me tell you something, nothing turns your blue pants brown like militarized police pointing at you!!! <br>😳😳😳 <a href=\"https://t.co/PEYLIMdDOd\">pic.twitter.com/PEYLIMdDOd</a></p>— Mason Lake Media (@MasonLakePhoto) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MasonLakePhoto/status/1284644072854962177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 19, 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\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"tspkh\"><b>Olmos</b> said he was unlawfully ordered to disperse by police who were breaking up a protest that began at the Justice Center, despite the PPB <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreeing</a> in the ACLU lawsuit not to impede journalists from covering demonstrations. At 2:38 a.m., Olmos <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1284422362868285442\">tweeted</a> that an “officer told me to ‘go home’ another said ‘get the fuck out’, I pointed to my credentials and said ‘press’, the officer said ‘I don’t care.’ But they drove off without saying anything else.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A PBB officer told me to “go home” another said “get the fuck out”, I pointed to my credentials and said “press”, the officer said “I don’t care.” But they drove off without saying anything else.</p>— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1284422362868285442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 18, 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\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"ce7j5\">Journalists <b>Griffin Malone</b> and <b>Cory Elia</b> were threatened by a PPB officer while filming an arrest that night. Elia, an editor at Village Portland and host of a KBOO podcast, told the Tracker that he and about a dozen other legal observers and reporters were following a police line from at least 20 feet behind as they dispersed protesters west and north from Southwest Salmon Street and Southwest Third Avenue, a block from the Justice Center. As the officers reached the north side of Pioneer Square, an officer approached the press, raised his pepper spray can and ordered them not to follow or approach. “These threats by him triggered a response from a few people in that group, including myself, to say that we were not a threat to them and just observing,” Elia said. Malone, a freelance journalist, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GriffinMalone6/status/1284430958142210147\">tweeted</a> about the incident at 3:12 a.m., saying, “Officers shove protester who’s trying to leave. Then threatened<a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheRealCoryElia\"> @TheRealCoryElia</a>, me, and 10+ other legal observers / press for filming.” The accompanying video shows a PPB officer pushing a protester. Someone off camera says, “Don’t hit him, don’t you hit him. Don’t you fucking hit him.” After an officer turns around and says, “Stay off my line,” the person off camera responds, “Yeah, we’ll stay off your line if you don’t fucking hit him.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Officers shove protestor who's trying to leave. Then threatened <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheRealCoryElia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheRealCoryElia</a>, me, and 10+ other legal observers / press for filming <a href=\"https://t.co/ME3vKMcyp2\">pic.twitter.com/ME3vKMcyp2</a></p>— Griffin - Live from Portland (@GriffinMalone6) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GriffinMalone6/status/1284430958142210147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 18, 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\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"408xt\">Shortly after that incident, <b>Malone</b> was separated from the group. As he attempted to catch up, an officer approached him. “I yelled ‘Press!’ and he yelled ‘Nope!’ and then something else, and he just started running at me,” Malone told the Tracker, adding that he ran half a block around a corner to get away. He <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GriffinMalone6/status/1284431942075600896\">tweeted</a> about the incident at 3:16 a.m., saying, “Pretty sure this isn’t legal.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Got lost from the rest of press group officer ran up to me, I yelled press and he yelled "nope" and started running at me. Pretty sure this isn't legal.</p>— Griffin - Live from Portland (@GriffinMalone6) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GriffinMalone6/status/1284431942075600896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 18, 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=\"qqsag\"><b>July 22, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"bblt1\">Independent journalist <b>Teebs Auberdine</b> said she was sprayed at least three times with a chemical irritant sprayed by federal agents. Auberdine, a freelance video journalist who streams footage of protests, was covering a protest outside the federal courthouse downtown. “They were macing people or pepper spraying people through the fence at the front line fairly targeted, relatively short range,” she told the Tracker. Auberdine went to a medical tent and got wipes to get rid of the pepper spray, but she said that the combination of three rounds of pepper spray and wipes had created a sticky residue, covering their clothes and skin. She was also unable to operate a phone or gimbal device, a stabilizing stick used in video recording.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tonight I was coated in mace by the feds three times to the point I had to leave cause everything about me was sticky. I *just* did laundry today too...<br><br>Any tips on things I can do or buy to increase the number of macings before I need to leave and shower??</p>— Teebs (@TeebsGaming) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TeebsGaming/status/1286224046586175493?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 23, 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=\"h12uj\"><b>July 26, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"mseo2\"><b>Olmos</b> posted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1287304522553950208\">footage</a> on Twitter of protests outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse and Multnomah County Justice Center downtown. In the clip federal officers can be seen attempting to disperse the crowd. One directly addresses Olmos and tells him to “get the fuck out of here,” in violation of the <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">TRO</a>.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Federal officer drags protester to the floor, pushes journalist, and says “get the the fuck out of here” to press <a href=\"https://t.co/P6m9SCjERs\">pic.twitter.com/P6m9SCjERs</a></p>— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1287304522553950208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 26, 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=\"3kg61\"><b>July 30, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"45ekz\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MathieuLRolland/status/1288797766001385472\">footage posted</a> by independent photojournalist Mathieu Lewis-Rolland, a line of federal officers can be seen in a line with a group of protesters and clearly marked members of the press. Lewis-Rolland captioned the footage, in part, “Feds ambush and assault press.” At the beginning of the clip, a loud bang can be heard as the frame turns toward the back of the crowd. Approximately seven seconds into the footage, an officer can be seen deploying pepper spray into the crowd, distinguished by its red-orange hue, and the group — including what appears to have been at least half-a-dozen individuals wearing “PRESS” markings — retreats from the line of officers.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Feds ambush and assault press; Mace and arrest protester who is on their knees w hands in the air. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AthulKAcharya?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AthulKAcharya</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ACLU_OR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ACLU_OR</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DontShootPdx?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DontShootPdx</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/5d9eem84q9\">pic.twitter.com/5d9eem84q9</a></p>— Mathieu Lewis-Rolland (@MathieuLRolland) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MathieuLRolland/status/1288797766001385472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"jxod7\">August 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"an6y8\"><b>Aug. 1, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"n67yd\">Portland-based independent journalist <b>Garrison Davis</b> was covering the dispersal of a protest from the Penumbra Kelly Building on East Burnside Street after an unlawful assembly <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1289788967060004865\">was declared</a>. Continuing to film as police pressured the crowd through residential streets, Davis’ camera goes askew as an officer grabs his arm. “As I’m walking on the sidewalk, holding my press pass, an officer grabs my arm. I decide to run,” Davis <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1289798246617948162\">tweeted</a> at 10:40 p.m. After the camera stabilizes, he can be heard yelling, “Press! Federal injunction!” Shortly after, when the police form a riot line, one of them yells at Davis, “Keep moving!” In a video he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1289803452084654081\">tweeted</a>, Davis can be heard citing the <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-temporary-restraining-order-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">temporary restraining order</a> that resulted from the ACLU lawsuit and eventually led to the PPB agreement not to harm or impede journalists.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The police form a riot line, they tell press to leave the area, we were on the sidewalk. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/blacklivesmatter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#blacklivesmatter</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/protest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#protest</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/pdx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pdx</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Portland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Portland</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oregon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Oregon</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BLM?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BLM</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/acab?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#acab</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandProtests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PDXprotests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PDXprotests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandStrong?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandStrong</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/ixMA27i7k1\">pic.twitter.com/ixMA27i7k1</a></p>— Garrison Davis (@hungrybowtie) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1289803452084654081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 2, 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\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"jztp9\">A little later that evening, an officer approached <b>Davis</b> and <b>Evans</b>. “If you get any closer than this, I’m going to pepper-spray you,” the officer can be heard saying in a video that Davis <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1289806231914205186\">tweeted</a> at 11:12 p.m. He then instructed Davis and Evans not to come up behind the officers as the police line advanced. “They walked up behind us and said if you approach police you’re going to be sprayed,” Davis told the Tracker. Minutes later, Davis and Evans witnessed journalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-shoved-and-maced-police-officers-during-portland-protest/\">Jake Johnson</a> get shoved and maced by police.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A cop walks up close to me and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@IwriteOK</a> and threatens us with pepper spray. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/blacklivesmatter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#blacklivesmatter</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/protest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#protest</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/pdx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pdx</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Portland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Portland</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oregon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Oregon</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BLM?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BLM</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/acab?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#acab</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandProtests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PDXprotests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PDXprotests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandStrong?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandStrong</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/gFabrZ9bAL\">pic.twitter.com/gFabrZ9bAL</a></p>— Garrison Davis (@hungrybowtie) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1289806231914205186?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 2, 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=\"q4nw9\"><b>Aug. 5, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"ovbxc\"><b>Davis</b> and <b>Evans</b> said they were unlawfully ordered by police to disperse following a protest at the East Precinct that was declared an unlawful assembly, despite the PPB <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a>. Davis told the Tracker that after the police dispersed the protesters, they “held the line” in a residential street with no sidewalk and told the press to get off the street. In a video <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1291253340765138944\">tweeted</a> by Evans around 11 p.m., he can be heard referring to the <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-temporary-restraining-order-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">temporary restraining order</a>, saying, “The TRO does not give you the right to disperse us from the street, sir.” In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1291259492231913473\">footage</a> that Evans captured a moment earlier, an officer can be heard saying, “It’s not a dispersal because it’s closed.” In the accompanying tweet, Evans says, “Here we see, from a bit earlier, how the police tried to justify their illegal dispersal. They claim it is NOT a dispersal, but a road closure. So they can legally force journalists off. I do not think this would hold up in court. Which is probably why they left.” Davis told the Tracker that a resident told the press and protesters to stay off his lawn, adding that the police were laughing “because they’re telling people to stay on the lawn, but they’re also saying if you go on the lawn you’ll be arrested.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here we see, from a bit earlier, how the police tried to justify their illegal dispersal. They claim it is NOT a dispersal, but a road closure. So they can legally force journalists off.<br><br>I do not think this would hold up in court. Which is probably why they left. <a href=\"https://t.co/7kLa5BnhUY\">pic.twitter.com/7kLa5BnhUY</a></p>— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1291259492231913473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 6, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"t2mh4\"><b>Aug. 6, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"i27bl\">Freelance journalist <b>Laura Jedeed</b>, a contributor to Willamette Week and Portland Monthly, said Portland police threatened to arrest her and other journalists while she was covering the same protest as <b>Davis</b> and <b>Evans</b> at the East Precinct. After the police fired tear gas at demonstrators outside the center shortly after midnight, protesters moved a few blocks away, Jedeed told the Tracker. She said that at around 12:40 a.m., the police “pulled up in a riot van and pointed at everybody and said, ‘You’re all under arrest.’” However, nobody was arrested, and the police soon drove away, said Jedeed, who <a href=\"https://twitter.com/1misanthrophile/status/1291278892385230849\">tweeted</a> about the incident.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A cop tells us we're all under arrest<br><br>Then the line loads up on their riot van and leaves<br><br>I live in a Tom and Jerry cartoon</p>— Laura Jedeed (Misanthrophile) (@1misanthrophile) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/1misanthrophile/status/1291278892385230849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 6, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kx9bg\"><b>Aug. 7, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"wec6k\">The Portland police announced just after midnight on Aug. 6 that they were closing off a quarter-mile stretch of Southeast 106th Avenue, stretching between Southeast Washington Street and Southeast Cherry Blossom Drive, including to members of the press. The announcement, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PortlandPolice/status/1291639464486252544\">tweeted</a> by the PPB at 12:37 a.m., said, “Any persons including members of the press who violate this order will be subject to arrest.” It cited the city of Portland Code 14C.30.010, “Authority to Restrict Access to Certain Areas.” But the code also states that “in consideration of the law enforcement and emergency services needs involved, provision shall be made for reasonable access to such areas by members of the media for the purpose of news gathering and reporting.” In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GriffinMalone6/status/1291639501790445569\">video</a> from the area posted by <b>Malone</b> on Twitter at the same time, the announcement could be heard. “Is this legal?” he asks in the tweet.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Anyone who doesn't leave the area is subject to arrest "to reiterate this order applies to the press"<br><br>Is this legal? <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AthulKAcharya?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AthulKAcharya</a>? <a href=\"https://t.co/BZ7rwjN5fT\">pic.twitter.com/BZ7rwjN5fT</a></p>— Griffin - Live from Portland (@GriffinMalone6) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GriffinMalone6/status/1291639501790445569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 7, 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=\"ys6uk\"><b>Aug. 9, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"i5svb\">Independent photojournalist Mathieu Lewis-Rolland was blocked by police from covering a protest, in violation of the court order, and threatened with arrest. Video reviewed by the Tracker shows an officer stopping Lewis-Rowland and telling him that he could not proceed up a street because a riot had been declared. Referencing the court order, Lewis-Rolland responds that police cannot order journalists to disperse, but the officer continues to threaten him with arrest if he continues. “I don’t care if you’re wearing ‘press’ on your helmet or not, you are not allowed to go down there,” the officer says. “If you do go down there you will be subject to arrest.” When Lewis-Rolland says that the threat violates Judge Michael Simon’s order, the officer responds that Lewis-Rolland is subject to the same laws as everyone else.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gi5el\"><b>Aug. 12, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"mns98\">Freelance journalist <b>Alissa Azar</b> said she was maced while covering a protest downtown near the Multnomah County Justice Center and the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse. “Just got maced,” Azar <a href=\"https://twitter.com/R3volutionDaddy/status/1293804848907825152\">posted on Twitter</a> just past midnight. About an hour later, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/R3volutionDaddy/status/1293999365061668864\">she tweeted</a> that her face still burned from the mace. While Azar <a href=\"https://twitter.com/R3volutionDaddy/status/1293823543650611201\">wrote</a> that she wasn’t sure who was responsible for the macing, another journalist who goes by the name India H. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/udaniyadv/status/1293934349360873473\">tweeted</a> that a protester maced them. “It was a protestor who was macing the cops. We got caught in it,” India H. said in the post. Azar didn’t respond to the Tracker’s inquiries for more information on this incident.</li></ul><p data-block-key=\"ua5nm\"><b>Aug. 14, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"eiuze\">Portland-based freelance journalist <b>Suzette Smith</b> said she was blocked by police from covering a protest, despite the PPB <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a>. Smith, a former editor for the Portland Mercury, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/suzettesmith/status/1294495554227941376\">tweeted</a> around 9:45 p.m.: “Just tried to walk up to the group of protesters and a police officer blocked me from covering, saying ‘M’am, I’m not having this conversation. For the last eight weeks I’ve had press throwing things at me and calling me names. So you will have to go around the block.’” Smith continued to cover the demonstrations throughout the night and into the next morning, documenting protesters as they moved through North Portland and the police declared an unlawful assembly. Around 10:20 p.m., she tweeted, “This press person was just hit with a potato, thrown by protesters,” sharing the image of a broken potato. Half an hour later, she posted a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/suzettesmith/status/1294511501382782977\">video</a> of police officers telling journalists to “back up” at least five feet as they arrested someone. “With the PPB having just said they’ll observe the TRO, press are allowed to observe this arrest until one officer tells the other to keep them back,” she wrote in the tweet, referring to the <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-temporary-restraining-order-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">temporary restraining order</a> that resulted from the ACLU suit.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just tried to walk up to the group of protesters and a police officer blocked me from covering, saying “M’am, I’m not having this conversation. For the last eight weeks I’ve had press throwing things at me and calling me names. So you will have to go around the block.”</p>— Suzette Smith (@suzettesmith) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/suzettesmith/status/1294495554227941376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 15, 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=\"mdozo\"><b>Aug. 15, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"blrdq\">A Portland-area photo and video journalist who works under the name <b>Daniel V. Media</b> filmed police officers pushing journalists covering the protests and telling them to get back. Around 8:40 a.m. the next morning, he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/danielvmedia/status/1295022750197616640\">posted</a> some of the footage in a tweet that read: “Portland police tell press that talking to officers is illegally engaging them. They shove press for not being on the sidewalk even though they were, they then tell them to ‘be press’ on a different sidewalk. They assaulted legal observers and press following orders all night.” The accompanying clip shows officers pushing journalists on two separate occasions.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Portland police tell press that talking to officers is illegally engaging them. They shove press for not being on the sidewalk even though they were, they then tell them to "be press" on a different sidewalk. They assaulted legal observers and press following orders all night. <a href=\"https://t.co/lDHNxvVMIw\">pic.twitter.com/lDHNxvVMIw</a></p>— Daniel V. Media (@danielvmedia) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/danielvmedia/status/1295022750197616640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 16, 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\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"0ty3t\">Freelance journalist <b>Justin Yau</b>, a student at the University of Portland whose work has been featured by the Daily Mail and The New York Times, said he was maced by police officers while covering a protest in North Portland. Yau told the Tracker he was on a block near Rosa Parks Way in a neighborhood where the streets extend into bridges across the freeway. The crowd bottlenecked as police funneled them onto the bridge. An individual started yelling at police, telling them that if they kept pushing people might fall off the bridge. Officers then sprayed the man with mace, catching Yau in the crossfire. “I was maybe two people behind [the man] and they got me on the left side of my face pretty good,” Yau said. Yau told the Tracker he refused to stop reporting that night, saying, “I felt like if I did that they would win.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ks5eg\"><b>Aug. 18, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"vx9p0\">Independent journalist <b>Cata Gaitán</b> was covering a protest at the Multnomah County Building. After protesters threw rocks into the building and started a fire in one of the offices, the Portland police declared a riot and began clearing protesters from the area. Around 11:05 p.m., Gaitán <a href=\"https://twitter.com/catalinagaitan_/status/1295965510752821253\">posted</a> footage on Twitter of what she described as “Getting chased by Portland police.” Later that night, she posted a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/catalinagaitan_/status/1295998131943825413\">video</a> of police officers threatening to arrest her if she doesn’t get on the sidewalk. An officer can be heard saying to Gaitán, “If you’re in the street again, you will go to jail. Period.” In the accompanying text, she wrote: “A different officer pulls on my left arm as I walk forward, then says: ‘Stay on the sidewalk.’”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">“If you’re in the street again, you’re going to jail. Period,” one officer says as a chase ends and I get back onto the sidewalk. <br><br>A different officer pulls on my left arm as I walk forward, then says: “Stay on the sidewalk.” <a href=\"https://t.co/xoxOmx1nKG\">pic.twitter.com/xoxOmx1nKG</a></p>— Cata Gaitán (@catalinagaitan_) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/catalinagaitan_/status/1295998131943825413?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 19, 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=\"qj0ah\"><b>Aug. 19, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"5ebw8\"><b>Evans</b> was covering a protest that began near the South Waterfront, where Portland police and what he believed to be Special Response Team officers were dispersing protesters from an ICE facility. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1296329744435130368\">video</a> Evans posted on Twitter at 11:14 p.m., an announcement can be heard that a riot had been declared and that press would have to leave along with the protesters. After briefly leaving the area, the protesters marched back, and another riot was declared. Evans <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1296340132081983488\">tweeted</a> audio of the announcement: “Failure to comply with this order may subject you to citation or arrest, and may subject you to the use of tear gas, crowd control agents and/or impact weapons.” In the post, he said that ordering press to disperse is “a violation of the Federal Restraining Order.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Portland Police have declared a riot. They are warning "media and press" that they are ordered to disperse. This is a violation of the Federal Restraining Order. <a href=\"https://t.co/BYVLPjrMtu\">pic.twitter.com/BYVLPjrMtu</a></p>— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1296340132081983488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 20, 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=\"axq03\"><b>Aug. 22, 2020 - Aug. 23, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"1ono5\"><b>Brendan Gutenschwager</b>, an independent videographer, was covering afternoon clashes downtown between right-wing groups including the Proud Boys and counterprotesters who support the Black Lives Matter movement. As the confrontation outside the Multnomah County Justice Center turned violent, he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1297269571380862976\">documented</a> on Twitter the two sides throwing smoke bombs and spraying each other with mace and pepper spray. “I’ve never had so much mace in my eyes in my life. Rough afternoon in Portland,” Gutenschwager <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1297274211119984640\">tweeted a</a>round 1:45 p.m. “My face burns. I think I prefer the tear gas,” he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1297282957174910976\">continued</a> about 40 minutes later, adding in another <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1297283664259084288\">post</a> that his clothes “got splattered with paint.”</li><li data-block-key=\"iu9w5\">Later that evening, Gutenschwager was filming again as BLM protesters converged on the Penumbra Kelly Building in southeast Portland. A little after midnight, police declared a riot and started clearing the area. Around 1 a.m., he posted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1297080844813766656\">footage</a> showing his camera going askew as he was briefly knocked down, injuring his hand, during a confrontation between protesters and police. Then, around 1:25 a.m., he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1297449336901574658\">tweeted</a>: “Police make another arrest, then run up on press trying to film.” In the accompanying footage, an officer can be seen running at someone in a vest marked “press” and aming a pepper spray canister at him, saying, “Get out of the street.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Police make another arrest, then run up on press trying to film <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandProtests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Portland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Portland</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandRiots?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandRiots</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/bFMiX6L3cK\">pic.twitter.com/bFMiX6L3cK</a></p>— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1297449336901574658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 23, 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=\"qqv5w\"><b>Aug. 25, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"yl3l4\">Portland journalist <b>Sarah Jeong</b>, an opinion writer for the New York Times and columnist for the Verge, said a flash-bang grenade was thrown toward her while she was covering a protest. At around 11:24 p.m., Jeong was standing to the side of a crowd of 20 to 40 people a couple blocks away from City Hall watching PPB officers slash the tires of a parked car that had protesters inside, she told the Tracker, adding, “Nothing had been happening to warrant use of crowd control.” Out of the corner of her eye, Jeong saw an officer crouch and throw a flash-bang grenade in her direction just as a protester also sprinted in her way. “The flash-bang ended up exploding right around my feet. I jumped to the side,” she said. “I wear sturdy leather boots when I’m out, but I could still feel the heat around my ankles,” Jeong said, noting that it was possible that the protester had taunted the officer and then run in her direction, but she wasn’t standing in a crowd when the flash-bang grenade went off. However, she doesn’t believe she was targeted for being press in this instance. Later that night, Jeong heard a PPB officer, while dispersing the crowd, tell a group that it didn’t matter if they were press, that they still had to leave the area, despite the injunction. “Really, the entire night was one long sustained incident of suppression of press,” Jeong said.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"zfjc0\">September 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"m2cts\"><b>Sept. 5, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"gqo05\"><b>Davis</b> was covering law enforcement officers disperse a crowd of protesters that had intended to march to the East Precinct. The police announced that the demonstration wouldn’t be able to proceed, Davis <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1302459229815500800\">tweeted</a> shortly after 9 p.m., and a riot was soon <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1302464651121233921\">declared</a>. As police were trying to clear protesters from a street near Ventura Park a couple of hours later, a smoke grenade landed within a group of fellow journalists where Davis was filming. He <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1302493754603913216\">tweeted</a> a video of the incident around 11:30 p.m., though it’s unclear who threw the grenade or whether the press was being targeted due to the amount of smoke. Davis <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1302494771768774656\">reported</a> that there was a mix of PPB and Oregon State Troopers dispersing the crowd.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Back by the park more teargas being used, smoke grenade lands right in a group of press. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/blacklivesmatter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#blacklivesmatter</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/protest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#protest</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/pdx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pdx</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Portland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Portland</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oregon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Oregon</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BLM?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BLM</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandProtest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandProtest</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/pdxprotest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pdxprotest</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/portlandpolice?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#portlandpolice</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/wmkecM5f8g\">pic.twitter.com/wmkecM5f8g</a></p>— Garrison Davis (@hungrybowtie) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1302493754603913216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 6, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"n3hr5\"><b>Sept. 6, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"9fuuj\">In the early morning hours, independent journalist <b>Jake</b> <b>Johnson</b> was harassed by police officers and threatened with arrest as he tried to comply with their orders to quickly disperse, having been hampered by a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-shoved-and-maced-police-officers-during-portland-protest/\">previous injury</a> incurred when an officer shoved him onto the hood of a car. Johnson told the Tracker that protesters were demonstrating in the southwest corner of Ventura Park when police formed a line and told everyone to disperse to the northeast. Johnson stayed to film arrests, but police officers ordered him to quickly leave the area, despite the PPB <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a>. “I’m pretty clearly labeled and in a well-lit area,” said Johnson, who wears a neon reflective vest labeled “press” in addition to a helmet labeled “press” on five sides. Footage Johnson<a href=\"https://twitter.com/FancyJenkins/status/1302521500105236480\"> posted</a> on Twitter shows police officers ordering him repeatedly to disperse more quickly. “If I catch you, you’re going to jail,” says one officer. In the interview, Johnson called the PPB’s decision to pursue press and protesters through dark sections of the park a “scandalous trap.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here I am getting menaced by the cops for doing what they told me to do. <a href=\"https://t.co/Vpwm04hCyz\">pic.twitter.com/Vpwm04hCyz</a></p>— Jake “wear a mask” Johnson (@FancyJenkins) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FancyJenkins/status/1302521500105236480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 6, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"c9gbb\"><b>Sept. 23, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"zadyl\"><b>Davis</b> was covering protests that <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/portland-protest-grows-downtown-on-eve-of-breonna-taylor-grand-jury-decision.html\">broke out in Portland</a> after a Kentucky grand jury decided to indict only one officer in the March shooting death of Breonna Taylor for wanton endangerment, while no officers faced charges for the killing itself. After a demonstration outside the Multnomah County Justice Center was declared a riot, both the Portland police and federal agents emerged to disperse the crowds. When PPB officers were getting ready to depart on the side of police vans, they ordered Davis and several other journalists present to disperse as well, despite the PPB <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreeing</a> in the ACLU lawsuit not to impede journalists. Around midnight, Davis <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1309025937179242498\">tweeted</a> a video of PPB officers telling the press to move back 30 feet from their vehicle. “We are on the sidewalk against a building,” Davis said in the accompanying caption. “Do you see 30 feet of room here for us to go?” asks someone off camera. “Then go somewhere else. Use your brain,” an officer says.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cops tell multiple people marked press to move back “30 feet.” <br><br>We are on the sidewalk against a building. Also police cannot disperse press due to the federal TRO that is still in effect for PPB. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandProtests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BLM?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BLM</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PDX?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PDX</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BlackLivesMatter</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/portland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#portland</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/TrTR3ZAS6U\">pic.twitter.com/TrTR3ZAS6U</a></p>— Garrison Davis (@hungrybowtie) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie/status/1309025937179242498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 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\"><h4 data-block-key=\"holqw\">October 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"jiz9r\"><b>Oct. 11, 2020</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"yhkid\">Freelance journalist Jedeed posted that she was threatened by a man with an assault rifle during a pro-police, pro-Trump rally in downtown Portland, on Southwest Alder Steet and Southwest 3rd Avenue. Video <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LauraJedeed/status/1315421716252782592\">published on Twitter by Jedeed</a>, where she also shows the press pass she was wearing, shows a man with a rifle carrying a Trump flag telling Jedeed to “get the fuck back” as she films him and other rally-goers. When Jedeed continues to follow and film, the man yells obscenities again at Jedeed.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It looks like the far-right portion of today is over, at least<br><br>I'm not a big selfie person: not my style. But I'm posting this one so you can see exactly what I looked like when I was threatened<br><br>I am not in bloc. I am wearing a press pass <a href=\"https://t.co/ub2em1TSVH\">pic.twitter.com/ub2em1TSVH</a></p>— Laura Jedeed, Professional Stocker (@LauraJedeed) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LauraJedeed/status/1315430097231310848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 11, 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=\"16s3n\"><i>Information in this roundup was gathered from published social media and news reports as well as interviews where noted. To read similar incidents from other days of national protests also in this category,</i> <i>go</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=protest%2CBlack+Lives+Matter&categories=Other+Incident&endpage=2\"><i>here</i></a><i>.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"vdob1\">While documenting July 18, 2020, protests in Portland, Oregon, videographer Mason Lake said federal law enforcement officers were aiming for the press. “They threw tear gas canisters and flash bangs right at us,” he said.</p>",
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{
"title": "Freelance photojournalist hit with projectiles, arrested while documenting protests in Worcester, Mass.",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-hit-projectiles-arrested-while-documenting-protests-worcester-mass/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-29T15:22:33.141668Z",
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"date": "2020-06-01",
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"city": "Worcester",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8c869\">Freelance photojournalist Richard Cummings was arrested and charged with failure to disperse and other charges while documenting a protest against police violence in Worcester, Massachusetts, on June 1, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"eyeka\">Cummings told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he went to the protest that day to photograph from a distance, but added he didn’t stay long before heading for the Main South neighborhood to continue work on a long-term documentary project on the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"lwpri\">Cummings said that at around 9:30 p.m. he noticed an escalated police presence, with officers from the Worcester Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police and the Clark University Police blocking roads and offloading vans filled with officers in riot gear.</p><p data-block-key=\"gigv4\">Cummings said he heard the officers screaming, as if “to get pumped up for something.” He added he didn’t understand what was happening, because the protest was elsewhere and he hadn’t seen any escalation there.</p><p data-block-key=\"4l8ja\">The Telegram & Gazette, Worcester’s daily newspaper, <a href=\"https://www.telegram.com/news/20200602/worcester-police-make-arrests-after-protest-in-main-south\">reported</a> that a group of people had gathered in the neighborhood after the peaceful protest in downtown had dispersed. A confrontation reportedly ensued with law enforcement after the group staged a “die-in” in a roadway.</p><p data-block-key=\"9640e\">According to Cummings, the officers moved in formation down Main Street, chanting, “Move back,” and firing tear gas and projectiles as some individuals threw rocks and shot fireworks toward them. He said several people were arrested, many of whom appeared to not have been the ones throwing objects.</p><p data-block-key=\"vqmki\">Cummings said he was struck twice by projectiles fired by police during the melee, once on his left shoulder and once on his right elbow. He told the Tracker he was unsure what type of projectiles they were.</p><p data-block-key=\"ecb4f\">Cummings said he then moved to stand next to a police formation near the intersection of Hammond and Main, figuring it was a safer place to photograph. He said he told an officer that he was a freelance photojournalist and that the officer directed him to stand on the sidewalk, which he did, continuing to document the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"bkppc\">Another officer, who Cummings said seemed to be in charge at the scene, asked Cummings what he was doing. Cummings said he was told it was all right to be where he was. A <a href=\"https://youtu.be/jRcPjfgLn0g\">recording</a> filmed by Cummings and published by the Telegram & Gazette appears to have captured this interaction.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ec2q\">In the video, an officer can also be heard saying of a protester, “I’m keeping eyes on him. I’d love to hit him with a pepper gun.”</p><p data-block-key=\"51wpj\">About 15 to 20 minutes later, Cummings said, he was suddenly grabbed by an unknown number of officers, who bent him over a brick wall with his arms behind his back. Cummings said an officer screamed he was going to break Cummings’ arms and called him a homophobic slur.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ymy5\">Cummings told the Tracker that he didn’t resist and pleaded with the officer to not break his camera. While a second officer took his camera, Cummings said, the officer who pinned and screamed at Cummings seized his cellphone.</p><p data-block-key=\"q70ls\">Both the Worcester Police Department and the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"f157g\">Cummings said he was then escorted to a police van, where he said he began to have a panic attack, in part due to the impact of exposure to pepper spray or tear gas and in part due to fear of contracting coronavirus in a confined space. He also said the metal handcuffs cut into his wrists.</p><p data-block-key=\"7bgl7\">“It was hell, pretty much for taking pictures on the sidewalk,” Cummings said. “I wasn’t being rude to any cops. I wasn’t yelling at any cops. I went there ... I didn’t show any side. I was just documenting it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"91b50\">Cummings was one of nearly 20 people arrested that night on charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and failure to disperse during a riot, the Telegram & Gazette <a href=\"https://www.telegram.com/news/20200821/lawyer-wants-charges-against-worcester-protesters-dismissed\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mduv\">Cummings told the Tracker that, on his release early the next morning, he noticed that videos on his phone appeared to have been deleted. He said that his phone didn’t have password protection, so its data would have been accessible. Cummings said that he was unable to recover any of the deleted footage.</p><p data-block-key=\"0daev\">Cummings’ legal team, who are representing multiple people arrested that night, said the phones of two other individuals had disappeared or been destroyed, the Telegram & Gazette <a href=\"https://www.telegram.com/news/20200630/two-arrested-at-june-1-protest-allege-police-improperly-seized-phones\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"oxn9x\">Cummings pleaded not guilty on Aug. 21, <a href=\"https://www.telegram.com/news/20200821/lawyer-wants-charges-against-worcester-protesters-dismissed\">according to</a> the Telegram & Gazette. A Worcester County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson told the Tracker that his next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 28. If convicted on all charges, Cummings faces up to a year in prison and fines totaling up to $800.</p><p data-block-key=\"32wxu\">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 the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"fx53w\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering demonstrations across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"arresting_authority": "Worcester Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-06-02",
"detention_date": null,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": "returned in full",
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"name": "Massachusetts",
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"(2021-03-08 12:31:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist still facing charges of failure to disperse after arrest during June protest",
"(2021-03-19 13:31:00+00:00) Final charge against photojournalist dropped based on insufficient evidence",
"(2020-11-20 13:54:00+00:00) Two of three charges against photojournalist arrested at Worcester protest dropped"
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{
"title": "Journalist shoved, hit with pepper spray during Washington, D.C., protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-hit-pepper-spray-during-washington-dc-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-29T15:05:09.404445Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:57:11.468701Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:57:11.390176Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"l94rl\">A journalist for the Washington Examiner said police shoved and hit him with pepper spray as he covered protests against police violence in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"vsczy\">Mike Brest, a reporter for the conservative news site and weekly magazine, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was following a group of protesters that evening as they marched from the White House down Lafayette Parkway into the northwest section of the city.</p><p data-block-key=\"396ij\">Metropolitan Police officers were enforcing a 7 p.m. curfew. At about 8 p.m., Brest and the group of protesters he followed reached the block of Swann Street between 14th and 15th Streets.</p><p data-block-key=\"cda92\">Police lines formed on both ends of the block, which is lined on both sides by townhouses — a maneuver <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">known as “kettling”</a> in which officers corral protesters and often make mass arrests. Journalists have reported that police in <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/buzzfeed-news-reporter-says-was-grabbed-shoved-law-enforcement-while-covering-protests-nyc/\">New York City</a>, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-detained-during-downtown-los-angeles-protest/\">Los Angeles,</a> San Francisco and other cities have employed the maneuver.</p><p data-block-key=\"iby8p\">Brest said he was near one of the police lines on Swann Street when he was shoved by an officer and pepper spray was fired at the crowd. He said he was hit by the spray after verbally identifying himself as a journalist and while carrying a bag bearing the word “PRESS.”</p><p data-block-key=\"l5xkt\">Brest said he was able to keep working after getting sprayed and remained at the scene for several hours more. “It was just hard to see for a short period of time afterwards,” Brest told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"l8rbg\">He said he didn’t believe law-enforcement officials targeted him as a journalist. Approximately 200 protesters had gathered on Swann Street after the curfew, but the scene was peaceful when police mobilized, Brest said.</p><p data-block-key=\"kteu0\">“I didn’t see anything that would have warranted such a reaction,” Brest said.</p><p data-block-key=\"xk02e\">He said he wasn’t sure which law enforcement agency deployed the pepper spray -- some officers at the scene were identifiable as clearly from the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, while others were dressed in unmarked camouflage fatigues and riot gear that obscured their faces.</p><p data-block-key=\"up27w\">Brest said he and protesters were kettled so tightly on the Swann Street block that he was concerned about transmission of COVID-19.</p><p data-block-key=\"or2aw\">“It should be noted that there are probably 200 protesters crammed into a half block of a D.C. street and probably another 75 law enforcement [officers] all close together,” Brest <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MikeBrestDC/status/1267631980998524928\">tweeted from the scene</a>. “No social distancing possible.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yay12\">Brest told the Tracker that he and most protesters at the scene wore masks.</p><p data-block-key=\"lcsnq\">“Considering COVID, that seemed like a very dangerous thing for law enforcement to do,” the journalist said. “They held people in this one block radius for between an hour or two hours before any arrests were made.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sqbzg\">Brest said he stayed in the area until around midnight. An officer led Brest to a supervisor who told the journalist he had to leave the area. He was escorted from the scene and wasn’t arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"5cg5y\">The Metropolitan Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"vn173\">Brest and other journalists reported that Rahul Dubey, a 44-year-old homeowner living on the block, opened his doors to offer refuge to protesters crowded in front of his home — a scene that <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/protesters-holed-up-in-northwest-dc-home-overnight-emerge-after-curfew-lifts/2020/06/02/843bbba8-a4d7-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html\">Dubey described as a “human tsunami”</a> to a Washington Post reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"vg1t5\">The DCist reported that Dubey opened his home to at least 50 protesters, who stayed inside until the curfew lifted at 6 a.m. on June 2.</p><p data-block-key=\"b6r1m\">Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ui0oe\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"tags": [
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{
"title": "June: While reporting from protests across the nation, journalists tear-gassed, threatened",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/june-1-while-reporting-protests-across-nation-journalists-tear-gassed-threatened/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-14T17:10:33.911820Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:41:53.529067Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:41:53.351003Z",
"date": "2020-06-01",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Multiple",
"longitude": null,
"latitude": null,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"chpy7\"><i>George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, ignited a sweeping assembly of protesters across the United States — and the globe — a staggering, monthslong outcry for police reform and racial justice. In many moments peaceful, in many others bracingly violent, journalists of all stripes took to documenting these demonstrations. At times, to do the job meant to expose oneself to the effects of riot-control agents, to face harassment from individuals or law enforcement officials, to fear for your safety or have your reporting interrupted. Below is a geographically organized roundup of such examples from around the U.S. in June 2020.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"03no7\"><i>A full accounting of incidents in which members of the press were assaulted, arrested or had their equipment damaged while covering these protests can be found</i> <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"><i>here</i></a><i>. To learn more about how the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents and categorizes violations of press freedom, visit</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/frequently-asked-questions/\"><i>pressfreedomtracker.us</i></a><i>.</i></p><h4 data-block-key=\"4rth8\">June 1, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"ab6jl\"><b>In Columbus, Ohio</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"9yqt8\">WOSU reporter <b>Paige Southwick Pfleger</b> and All Things Considered host <b>Clare Roth</b> were covering the protests in the downtown area when they saw reports on social media of an attack on three journalists from the Lantern, the Ohio State University student newspaper, Pfleger told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. By the time the WOSU reporters arrived at the intersection of North High Street and Lane Avenue at around 10:45 p.m., Pfleger said most of the crowd had dispersed. Pfleger said she saw one individual on the ground being arrested and a group of more than a dozen police officers. As the two journalists reached the intersection, Pfleger said several police officers approached them and told them to leave. Pfleger, who was holding her WOSU media badge in her hand to show the officers, replied that they had a right to be there as members of the media. According to Pfleger, the officer told them, “You have to go one block down. If I have to tell you again I’m going to hose you.” A different officer, who was about a foot away from the journalists, then raised a can of pepper spray at their eye level and told them to leave immediately, Pfleger said. As the women walked away from the scene, Pfleger said, the officer followed them for half a block and continued to threaten them with the pepper spray. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PaigePfleger/status/1267650894335623171\">video Pfleger posted to Twitter</a>, an officer can be seen following them with the pepper spray canister raised in his hand. Pfleger is heard saying, “I’m sorry, what was that threat? We’re members of the media, you have no right, and we’re walking away.” The officer then turned around and left. Roth also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ClareAliceRoth/status/1267651749512241152\">tweeted about the incident</a>. “Being threatened with a tear gas canister is a new one.” WOSU <a href=\"https://radio.wosu.org/post/columbus-police-try-new-tack-protesters-end-night-pepper-spray#stream/0\">published</a> an account of the incident the next day but did not seek an official response from the Columbus Division of Police, according to Pfleger. The Columbus Division of Police did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are on Ohio state’s campus. Despite being members of the media officers threatened to pepper spray us. <a href=\"https://t.co/ATguBBr95s\">pic.twitter.com/ATguBBr95s</a></p>— Paige Southwick Pfleger (@PaigePfleger) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PaigePfleger/status/1267650894335623171?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 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-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/PaigePfleger?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PaigePfleger</a> and I had a similar experience. Being threatened with a tear gas canister is a new one. “If you don’t back up in two seconds, I’m going to spray you.” <a href=\"https://t.co/cl6vUwQ1c9\">https://t.co/cl6vUwQ1c9</a></p>— Clare Roth (@ClareAliceRoth) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ClareAliceRoth/status/1267651749512241152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 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=\"u3618\"><b>In Washington, D.C.</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"swu0t\">In what the Washington Post <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/washington-dc-protest-white-house-george-floyd/2020/06/01/6b193d1c-a3c9-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html\">referred to</a> as “a massive show of force,” federal agents used tear gas and rubber bullets early in the evening to clear the way for President Donald Trump to visit a church for a photo op. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-06-01&date_upper=2020-06-01&city=Washington&state=District+of+Columbia&endpage=2\">Multiple journalists</a> reported being assaulted while covering the day’s ongoing protests as well as affected by the chemical irritants.</li><li data-block-key=\"q0fv6\"><b>Nadia Bilbassy-Charters</b>, Al Arabiya TV’s D.C. bureau chief, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nadia_bilbassy/status/1267626193504911360\">tweeted</a> around 9:15 p.m.: “Last scene from the streets of #WashingtonDCProtest outside the #WHITEHOUSE after 10 hours of live coverage, got tear gassed twice, exhausted but left the city in one piece #ICantBreathe #GeorgeFloyd #StJohnsChurch #DCProtests.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Last scene from the streets of <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/WashingtonDCProtest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WashingtonDCProtest</a> outside the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/WHITEHOUSE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WHITEHOUSE</a> after 10 hours of live coverage , got tear gassed twice, exhausted but left the city in one piece <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/ICantBreathe?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ICantBreathe</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloyd</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/StJohnsChurch?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#StJohnsChurch</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DCProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DCProtests</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/gmaoHRJ7RS\">pic.twitter.com/gmaoHRJ7RS</a></p>— Nadia.Bilbassy-Charters (@nadia_bilbassy) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nadia_bilbassy/status/1267626193504911360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 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=\"h0ivt\"><b>In Cincinnati, Ohio</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"mh5rd\">Cincinnati police arrested a man after he allegedly pointed a firearm from a car at a <b>media crew and its security guard</b> who’d been covering protests in the city, Lieutenant Steve Saunders, a Cincinnati Police Department spokesperson, told the Tracker. Saunders said that a minor was arrested as well. <a href=\"https://www.fox19.com/2020/06/01/live-updates-protests-continue-monday-crowd-heads-fountain-square/\">Local news reports</a> citing the police said four people in the vehicle were detained. According to court documents, Solomon Zellars, 18, was the arrestee and released on cash bond of $100,000. As of Sept. 11, 2020, he faces charges of carrying concealed weapons and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle. Saunders told the Tracker that police confiscated an AR-15-style rifle with a hundred-round magazine, and the police department’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CincyPD/status/1267636056326840322\">Twitter account shared a photo</a> of the firearm. Saunders told the Tracker the news crew was unaware a weapon had been pointed at them. But the <a href=\"https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/local/hamiltoncounty/2020/06/03/police-find-ar-15-gun-100-bullet-clip-car-cincinnati-protests/3123012001/\">Cincinnati Enquirer</a>, citing Saunders, reported that the TV crew had informed the police about the incident. The identity of the TV crew is not clear.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"kfkwp\">June 2, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"8l94t\"><b>In Seattle, Washington</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"539ax\">The ACLU announced on June 9 that it had filed an emergency lawsuit against the city on behalf of Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County and several individuals, arguing that “the use of chemical agents and projectiles for crowd control violate the First and Fourth Amendments.” <b>Nathalie Graham</b>, a staff writer at the Stranger, a biweekly alternative newspaper in Seattle, was among the plaintiffs. In her <a href=\"https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/graham-declaration\">declaration</a>, she relayed the following about the events of June 2: “I was working at The Stranger’s office at around 11:30 p.m. The office is on the third floor of a building that has a clear view of the intersection at 11th and Pine in Capitol Hill, which has become a daily protest site. That night, I was <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gramsofgnats/status/1268277760192966656\">recording</a> the demonstration from the fire escape. The vast majority of protesters below had been peaceful, although a few individuals had thrown water bottles, rocks, and at one point a traffic cone. Overall, the demonstration did not appear to be dangerous or out-of-control. The police made an announcement that I could not hear over a loudspeaker, and almost immediately afterwards removed their barricade so that officers on bikes could come streaming through into the crowd of protesters. They also started firing tear gas. I was seriously alarmed by the sudden escalation, and quickly retreated back inside my office, where I shut the windows. The ground below was so immersed in gas that I couldn’t see the road. Some of it began to seep in to my office, despite the closed windows, and I began to cough…. Later, while I continued to record events below from the window, the police directed a large spotlight at me. I don’t know whether they knew my building was the Stranger’s offices; this is common knowledge in the neighborhood, but our name is not displayed prominently on the street. Whether or not they knew that I was a journalist, I don’t understand why they fixed their light on me, and it made me nervous. To be honest, I was frightened—it gave me the impression that I was doing something wrong, even though I knew that I wasn’t. Despite my intimidation, I continued to record. Witnessing the aggressive, indiscriminate deployment of chemical agents and flash bang grenades by police at these protests has made me reconsider how I approach my assignments. There is a new element of trepidation, anxiety, and fear to my experience of being a journalist. I am determined to assert my rights and do my job, so I will continue reporting—but I would not be surprised if other journalists felt that their ability report from the ground was significantly impaired by these law enforcement tactics. They are deeply disturbing.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here’s the entirety of my stream when all hell broke loose last night: <a href=\"https://t.co/KbOCe6L7tE\">https://t.co/KbOCe6L7tE</a></p>— nathalie graham (@gramsofgnats) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gramsofgnats/status/1268277760192966656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-aligned_image\"><figure class=\"inline-media full-width\">\n \n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS3AA7E.width-828.jpg\" width=\"828\" height=\"569\" alt=\"REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson\">\n\n \n <figcaption class=\"inline-media__caption\">\n\t\t\t<p data-block-key=\"2oh3z\">Protesters arrive in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, on June 2, 2020.</p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<span\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"media-attribution\"\n\t\t\t\t> — REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson\n\t\t\t\t</span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t</figcaption>\n \n</figure>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zoylj\"><b>In Charlotte, North Carolina</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"kvlv6\">When asked about the “direct hit of some tear gas” he took on the night of June 2 while covering protests, <b>Ron Lee</b>, a reporter and videographer for WBTV, a CBS affiliate station based in Charlotte, told the <a href=\"https://www.wect.com/2020/07/17/reporters-covering-protests-tear-gas-rocks-emotions-with-jon-evans-podcast/\">podcast 1on1 with Jon Evans</a>, from sister station WECT, in nearby Wilmington: “It was just one of multiple hits we took while covering uptown protests…. They started off with one of their senior officers there, and I know him very well. He had what’s basically a pepper ball gun. If you’ve ever played paintball with your kid, that’s basically what they use but it’s filled with a cayenne pepper sauce. And that’s specifically to try to deter the instigators, the people who are the leaders of the demonstrations at that point. It’s kind of like a surgical strike. When that failed to disperse the crowd, they started to use items like these—this is an actual flash-bang grenade that I collected at the riot. For folks who can’t see it, it’s a cylindrical object made of metal. Probably about 2 inches high, about 3 inches deep. What this does, if you can imagine, it’s like an extremely loud firework…. These things will go off very close to crowds, which will do a very good job of dispersal. I’ve been in the business for 33 years, talked to riot police in multiple markets. The last thing they want to do is use gas, which comes in a canister like this. I also collected this at the riot scene. Gas is an uncontrollable beast. What I mean by that is that once deployed, you have no idea where the gas goes. You have no control over it. In a metropolitan area like Charlotte, the wind switches direction, gets in between those buildings, the gas could very easily come back on police officers, which many times it did. It also came back on the media. We took several hits, and I can tell you from first-hand experience, it is a very good deterrent to get you out of a particular situation…. We knew what it was immediately. There’s no question what it is. The problem is that when it’s deployed, it affects your eyesight first. It’s like this burning sensation, and then the optics around your eye start to burn uncontrollably, and then you inhale the gas. Well, your lungs immediately want to purge the gas from your system, so you start coughing. But when you cough, you’ve got to bring in a deeper breath, so that makes it much worse…. There was a crew next to me from a competing station, and they took it very hard. Both the photographer as well as the reporter were on all fours, almost vomiting, it was so bad. They actually had to have a person who referred to themselves as a ‘riot medic,’ who was actually part of the demonstration, come up and administer aid, give them some water, try to wipe the cayenne pepper sauce out of their eyes.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Video posted online moments after we were hit with gas covering the demonstrators tonight. <a href=\"https://t.co/7fOGzsJY36\">https://t.co/7fOGzsJY36</a></p>— Cam Man Ron Lee (@WBTVCamMan) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WBTVCamMan/status/1268033582175531015?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"q4b2y\">June 3, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"ai96w\"><b>In Oakland, California</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"icm98\"><b>Janelle Wang</b>, a weeknight news anchor for NBC Bay Area, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/janellewang/status/1268435157578465280\">tweeted</a> aerial footage of a demonstration a little before midnight, noting: “Having some fun at tonight's Oakland Protest. People doing the electric slide. Protesters out past curfew and a few pointing lasers at our news chopper, which is dangerous & a federal crime, but overall, a peaceful night.” According to <a href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/east-bay/multiple-lasers-pointed-at-nbc-bay-area-chopper-above-oakland-demonstration/2303255/?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_BAYBrand\">coverage</a> of the protest on NBC Bay Area’s website, the first laser was pointed at the helicopter just before 9 p.m., and in footage Wang posted on Twitter, at least four streaks of green light can be seen flashing up to the sky.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Having some fun at tonight's Oakland Protest. People doing the electric slide. Protesters out past curfew and a few pointing lasers at our news chopper, which is dangerous & a federal crime, but overall, a peaceful night. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nbcbayarea?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@nbcbayarea</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/Na7mXu9ZJa\">https://t.co/Na7mXu9ZJa</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydProtest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydProtest</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/vZjffhJgnH\">pic.twitter.com/vZjffhJgnH</a></p>— Janelle Wang (@janellewang) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/janellewang/status/1268435157578465280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 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=\"h8yl3\"><b>In New York, New York</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"lxpb7\">A New York police officer came up behind amNewYork reporter <b>Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech</b>, who’d been documenting protests against police violence in downtown Brooklyn, tapped her camera with his baton and asked why she hadn’t gone home yet, the journalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Mayor Bill de Blasio had imposed an 8 p.m. curfew the day before to try and control escalating unrest in the city. Essential workers — who, in New York, <a href=\"https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/EO202.6.pdf\">include</a> members of the media — were <a href=\"https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/executive-orders/2020/eeo-119.pdf\">exempt</a>. O’Connell-Domenech had been posting updates on her <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AODNewz/status/1268337782252019713\">Twitter feed</a> as she followed a crowd of protesters marching throughout Brooklyn. O’Connell-Domenech said that at around 10 p.m. she had fallen slightly behind the demonstrators. While trying to catch up, she said, she passed a line of three or four police officers. She told the Tracker that one of them approached her from behind and used his baton to tap the camera visibly sticking out of her messenger bag. The officer then asked why she had not yet gone home. O’Connell-Domenech said she directed the officer’s attention to the press pass hanging from her neck and he walked away. “He should have been able to see it dangling in front of my chest,” she said, “but it was dark out and I had a jacket on, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.” The New York City Police Department had not returned the Tracker’s request for comment as of press time. “I have never had an officer physically use his presence, his body size, to try to get me to back up from a situation,” O’Connell-Domenech said. “This was really my first experience with dealing with police officers in a hostile situation.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Night seven marching up Adams <a href=\"https://t.co/YPd6FC1L9U\">pic.twitter.com/YPd6FC1L9U</a></p>— Alejandra 🎅🏻’Connell-Domenech (@AODNewz) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AODNewz/status/1268337782252019713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 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\"><h4 data-block-key=\"rxkqx\">June 4, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"kl5a2\"><b>In New York, New York</b></p><p data-block-key=\"zhv2a\">A quartet of journalists, covering protests across New York City that had extended past the city’s 8 p.m. curfew, reported being told to go home by NYPD officers despite being exempt from the curfew and displaying proper identification.</p><ul><li data-block-key=\"qh3xm\"><b>Ben Verde</b>, a reporter for Brooklyn Paper, estimated on Twitter that at least 8,000 people had gathered at a vigil for George Floyd at McCarren Park in Brooklyn. After the vigil, the participants began to peacefully march to the south. According to Verde’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/verde_nyc/status/1268707785753219079\">Twitter thread</a> from that night, riot police showed up around 9 p.m., barricading the crowd in the intersection of Wythe Avenue and Penn Street. About 20 minutes later, Verde <a href=\"https://twitter.com/verde_nyc/status/1268714500049551366\">tweeted</a>: “And shit just changed. Cops charge the crowd, beating, arresting.” Shortly before 9:40, he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/verde_nyc/status/1268719180808884225\">reported</a>: “White shirt office[r] tells me ‘we gave you a chance to leave.’ I inform him curfew doesn’t apply to me, he charges me and says ‘you got a problem? I’ll take your fucking press pass.’” Verde told the Tracker in an email that he “ran in the other direction while [the officer] ran at me.” After he left the scene, he continued to report that night. Verde told the Tracker that someone filed a complaint about the interaction, but he declined to pursue it.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And shit just changed. Cops charge the crowd, beating, arresting. Here’s the moment. <a href=\"https://t.co/jVOqkb4T5c\">pic.twitter.com/jVOqkb4T5c</a></p>— Ben Verde (@verde_nyc) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/verde_nyc/status/1268714500049551366?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 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\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"ngpos\"><b>Julianne Cuba</b>, a reporter with Streetsblog NYC, told the Tracker in an email that she started reporting that night after hearing “many cop cars racing by and so went to go see what was happening.” She said that she biked past the 88th Precinct in Brooklyn, where federal agents, including those from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julcuba/status/1268730203142045696/photo/3\">idling</a> despite no protesters being nearby. Cuba said she was biking past the corner of Wallabout Street and Lee Avenue when an officer told her to go home. She told the Tracker that her NYPD-issued press badge was visible, and she held it up in response to the officer’s statement. Cuba reflected in her email that she thinks the officer targeted her either because she is a young woman or because of her press pass, or both. She doesn’t believe she could have been mistaken for a protester because she “wouldn’t have been a protester by [herself].” She explained how she later found the protesters and followed them to downtown Brooklyn. In a confrontation among police and protesters in which police were pushing everyone off a sidewalk, Cuba argued that she, as a credentialed reporter, had a right to be there. When the officers did not yield, she said she “walked away to not risk anything worse.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A cop just told me to go home with my NYPD press pass visible, meanwhile <a href=\"https://t.co/zceCjVQz8a\">pic.twitter.com/zceCjVQz8a</a></p>— Julianne Cuba (@Julcuba) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julcuba/status/1268720020344930304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 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\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"apahr\"><b>Caroline Haskins</b>, a reporter with BuzzFeed News, was following a large crowd of protesters in Manhattan. At 9:30 p.m., she <a href=\"https://twitter.com/caro1inehaskins/status/1268717703314972672\">posted</a> a video of the protesters playing music, dancing and chanting “Black Lives Matter.” Forty minutes later, the atmosphere had changed. On <a href=\"https://twitter.com/caro1inehaskins/status/1268726970331906051\">Twitter</a>, Haskins wrote: “Police descending on protesters who were completely peaceful. Completely chaos. People screaming. Police grabbed my arms and tried to cuff me but let me go when I showed my press pass,” adding, “There are so many officers here. One shouted ‘if you’re press you’d better have your badge our or else you’re getting collared.’” In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/caro1inehaskins/status/1268981891455160328\">Tweet</a> sent the following day, Haskins said: “Last night, police officers let me go and didn't arrest me when I showed a BuzzFeed press badge. But about 5 minutes later, an officer asked for press creds again. I showed my BuzzFeed badge and he said ‘That’s not an NYPD press pass, you need to leave,’” adding “NYPD DCPI has said that an outlet press badge is sufficient for anyone covering a protest. But NYPD officers are still telling reporters something else on the ground.” Haskins told the Tracker she complied and left shortly thereafter. “I think he was just trying to get us to leave and see if that would work,” she said. “It was unclear if he would have actually done anything or tried to arrest us if we didn’t move in two minutes like we did.” Haskins said she reached out to the NYPD for comment but did not receive a response. She later <a href=\"https://twitter.com/caro1inehaskins/status/1268981996308570112\">reflected</a> on Twitter: “Having a BuzzFeed badge was a determining factor in my safety. Organizers and freelancers don't have that safety.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There are so many officers here. One shouted “if you’re press you’d better have your badge our or else you’re getting collared.” <a href=\"https://t.co/xo9WpRtfOP\">pic.twitter.com/xo9WpRtfOP</a></p>— Caroline Haskins (@caro1inehaskins) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/caro1inehaskins/status/1268727209205907458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 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-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Even so, having a BuzzFeed badge was a determining factor in my safety. Organizers and freelancers don't have that safety</p>— Caroline Haskins (@caro1inehaskins) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/caro1inehaskins/status/1268981996308570112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 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\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"rg315\"><b>Daniel Moritz-Rabson</b>, a freelance journalist, told the Tracker in a phone interview of an incident of law enforcement in Brooklyn <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">kettling</a> a group of protesters and journalists for about 15 minutes that night. Around 10:30 p.m., he shared a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DMoritzRabson/status/1268732222942711808\">video</a> of the scene, writing, “Police just moved on protesters. A standoff followed. Swarms of cops now staring down protesters. We’re surrounded on both sides.” He subsequently told the Tracker: “And then after 15 minutes, where it seemed like the police were going to start whacking and arbitrarily arresting people, they opened what had been a wall of police and they were ushering people out.” Moritz-Rabson said he stepped through and joined a group of NYPD-credentialed reporters standing off to the side. Immediately after joining them, he said, an officer approached and asked for his press badge, which he did not have. He had previously exchanged emails with NYC Press Secretary Freddi Goldstein, who suggested he carry business cards to have some form of press identification. The officer rejected his offer to show her his business card. As Moritz-Rabson and others left, they were urged along by NYPD officers, who “reminded us that we could go home or be arrested,” according to a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DMoritzRabson/status/1268734725579051013\">tweet</a> by Moritz-Rabson. The NYPD <a href=\"https://rules.cityofnewyork.us/rule/31926/\">would hold a hearing about amending</a> the rules around press passes in August 2020. The department proposed revoking a journalist’s NYPD-issued press pass if they were either lawfully arrested or failed “to comply with a lawful order of a police officer.” Following a public hearing and broad censure of the proposed rule change, the city of New York <a href=\"https://council.nyc.gov/keith-powers/news/council-members-keith-powers-adrienne-adams-legislation-transfer-oversight-press-credentials/\">announced plans</a> to take the issuance of press credentials out of the NYPD’s jurisdiction.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">As we left, there were more cops waiting with batons. They kindly reminded us that we could go home or be arrested. Now there are many cop cars driving past and dozens of cops blocking certain streets near Barclays.</p>— Daniel Moritz-Rabson (@DMoritzRabson) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DMoritzRabson/status/1268734725579051013?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 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\"><h4 data-block-key=\"0wima\">June 9, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"7rrx1\"><b>In Ohama, Nebraska</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"3qvyx\"><b>Kent Luetzen</b>, a reporter for CBS affiliate KMTV, said he was threatened with arrest and repeatedly told to leave while covering a protest on June 9, 2020. Thousands of protesters gathered in downtown Omaha to honor a 22-year old Black man who was shot and killed by an Omaha business owner more than a week prior, according to KTIV. At the intersection of South 13th Street and Harney Street, Luetzen told the Tracker that National Guardsmen and Omaha police told him that he'd be arrested if he did not leave. "It's really hard to know what you're supposed to do in those moments," he said. "We went as far as we could without having to leave." While he and his colleagues continued reporting, he said they weren't able to see what was going on. Luetzen said he had his press credentials around his neck and a KMTV logo on his hat. When asked for comment about another incident, in which Luetzen was briefly detained on June 1, Lt. Sherie Thomas, a spokesperson for the Omaha Police Department, told the Tracker that Police Chief Todd Schmaderer had ordered “an overall review of the protests.” Thomas later said that the department sent “clear communication” to news outlets “to make sure employees had visible badges showing that they work for the media” and to “wear highly visible vests.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"4sewe\">June 12, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"w6gu2\"><b>In Miami, Florida</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"3vh5w\">A group of journalists, including Miami Herald reporter <b>David Ovalle</b>, were covering protests along I-95 when a Florida Highway Patrol commander approached, yelled that they weren’t allowed to cover the protest and accused them of inciting a riot. Ovalle told the Tracker that members of the media were standing in several groups removed from the protesters and taking pictures. Ovalle said that, since his phone was dying, he was snapping very few pictures and mostly taking notes in his notebook. At one point, he said, “an FHP commander, who was the only one not wearing a helmet and mask or anything” walked up to the protesters and media and motioned for them to clear off the highway. As the journalists trailed behind the dispersing crowd, Ovalle said, the FHP commander came up to them and yelled, “They’re allowed to be here. But you guys can’t fucking be here. You’re inciting them and if you come up here again, we’re going to arrest you for inciting a riot.” Ovalle said he and the other media were surprised and irritated because, as Ovalle put it, the commander “waited for everyone to leave to heap abuse on us,” adding, “It was the weirdest thing because all the frontline guys, they were all cool. I even chatted with a few police officers, some people I recognized. Everyone was like, ‘Be safe, wear a mask.’ I think it was just him. He seemed frustrated and just tired and cranky and decided to unload on us.” Ovalle said the journalists eventually walked away, and were yelled at by some protesters for leaving when the police told them to. NBC6 reporter <b>Jamie Guirola</b> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jamieNBC6/status/1271779719596453888\">responded</a> to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DavidOvalle305/status/1271598981555130368\">tweet</a> Ovalle had posted about the incident, writing, “@FHPMiami also wrongfully accused of me and my crew of leading protestors on the highway and inciting a riot. A discussion needs to take place with @FHPSWFL about our rights as journalists and roles in that situation.” One of the Herald’s editors later <a href=\"https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article243523097.html\">published</a> an editorial about the incident and wrote to the FHP’s public information officer. Ovalle told the Tracker that the officer responded with an apology, reiterated that the media had the right to cover the protests and attributed the commander’s actions to the tense situation that day.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">FHP big wig (looks like a commander of some sort) started yelling at me and some TV guys. “Media! They can protest. You cannot be up here! You’re inciting it! You come up here again and you will be arrested” <br><br>I was calmly taking notes, BTW, and watching.</p>— David Ovalle (@DavidOvalle305) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DavidOvalle305/status/1271598981555130368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 13, 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-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thanks for being there to witness it. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FHPMiami?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FHPMiami</a> also wrongfully accused of me and my crew of leading protestors on the highway and inciting a riot. A discussion needs to take place with <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FHPSWFL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FHPSWFL</a> about our rights as journalists and roles in that situation. <a href=\"https://t.co/Fc67B0cbjw\">pic.twitter.com/Fc67B0cbjw</a></p>— Jamie Guirola (@jamieNBC6) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jamieNBC6/status/1271779719596453888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 13, 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\"><h4 data-block-key=\"h4i2w\">June 14, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"c3gof\"><b>In Richmond, Virginia</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"vhyus\"><b>Brandon Jarvis</b>, a freelance reporter, was caught in pepper spray while covering protests in the Virginia capital. Demonstrators had gathered that night at Monroe Park around 9 p.m., assembling to protest the events of the previous evening, in which a police car drove into a crowd of protesters and nearly ran one person over. Demanding that the officers involved be fired, protesters marched to the police station. In an email to the Tracker, Jarvis described the protest as “tense but I don’t recall any damage being done to property. Emotions were high.” At 9:45, Jarvis noted on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Jaaavis/status/1272344437633486850\">Twitter</a>, “Someone just threw fireworks near the alley and police officers came running down the alley with what looks like paintball guns. The crowd fell back for a minute but is reforming.” Within a few minutes, Jarvis would tweet that cops had hurried to form a line in front of the station. Jarvis told the Tracker that he couldn’t remember if the Richmond Police Department ordered the crowd to disperse, as it often had during other protests he covered. There are no tweets from that night on the RPD’s Twitter account, which, according to Jarvis, frequently posted announcements of unlawful assembly. Jarvis said he saw officers suiting up and putting on masks, and watched as one officer spoke to each officer in the line. At this point, Jarvis said, he moved farther back to plan a quick and safe exit from the crowd if needed, as he could tell that the scene was escalating. As he was returning to the front of the crowd, he said, people started running, so Jarvis said he decided that the safest route was to walk sideways across the lot, around 20 feet from the police line. It was at this distance that Jarvis was hit with the pepper spray. Jarvis noted on Twitter that evening that field medics helped to wash out his eyes and that “I’m falling back now bec I’m out of water and medics were having to use a lot of theirs.” In a statement <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/RichmondPolice/posts/10158378820329361\">posted</a> the following day on Facebook, Richmond Police Chief William C. Smith said, “Organizers were intent on provocation and creating mayhem by throwing rocks and other objects at the officers on duty, who showed great restraint in response to these attacks.” The statement went on to read that “the escalating violence prompted multiple declarations of an unlawful assembly, which was broadcast to the crowd several times with instructions to disperse. After warnings were disregarded, a pepper spray fogger was deployed.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Pepper sprayed was just sprayed into the crowd people are on the ground coughing</p>— Brandon Jarvis (@Jaaavis) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Jaaavis/status/1272346899157266432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 15, 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\"><h4 data-block-key=\"frac3\">June 15, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"ujgt6\"><b>In Richmond, Virginia</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"10mbk\"><b>Andrew Ringle</b>, the executive editor of the Commonwealth Times, the independent student newspaper of Virginia Commonwealth University, was reporting on protests outside police headquarters when an officer rolled a flash-bang grenade that veered away from protesters and exploded next to him, according to video of the incident. In a phone interview with the Tracker, Ringle said that the protesters who’d congregated in front of the precinct that evening initially faced a stationary police line. Ringle said that police eventually began to move toward the protesters, who backed up until they were cornered against a brick wall in a parking lot. Ringle said he stood to the right of the protesters, holding his press badge issued by Capital News Service in front of him in an effort to distance himself from the protesters. A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aeringle/status/1272715201675223042\">video</a> Ringle posted on Twitter from that night shows the police firing explosives, including flash-bang grenades and tear gas, against the cornered crowd. At 10:15 p.m., according to the time stamp on the video on Ringle’s phone, protesters were yelling “Fuck you” at the police line when an officer threw a flash-bang grenade toward the protesters. In the video, the canister can be seen curving away from the protest line and toward Ringle, exploding near him. Ringle told the Tracker that the officer who threw the canister looked surprised when it veered away from protesters and landed at his feet. According to Ringle, one of the officers yelled at protesters to “please back up, there is tear gas in the air” after the explosion. The crowd was unable to comply because they were already against the wall in the parking lot, according to Ringle. Ringle said that the officers continued to use “chemical agents” against the protesters, who <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aeringle/status/1272716877287088129\">held out umbrellas</a> to shield themselves and Ringle. Ringle said he left the protest scene after nearly 30 minutes, and continued to report for several hours after the incident. He tweeted an update at 10:20, saying that he was “<a href=\"https://twitter.com/aeringle/status/1272715627153817601\">currently shaking</a>” but safe. Two weeks after the protest, the Richmond police chief <a href=\"https://vpm.org/news/articles/15312/richmond-police-chief-says-officers-lacked-training-written-policies-on-use-of\">revealed</a> in a City Council Public Safety Committee meeting that the department lacked consistent and universal training when it came to using non-lethal dispersal methods.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Video from Richmond police headquarters last night: I was showing my press badge to these officers before one rolled a flash bang directly toward me and a group of protesters. <a href=\"https://t.co/hdMuBpfnn4\">pic.twitter.com/hdMuBpfnn4</a></p>— Andrew Ringle (@aeringle) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aeringle/status/1272880751793582080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 16, 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\"><h4 data-block-key=\"bsua6\">June 21, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"dupsr\"><b>In Compton, California</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"z9azw\">At least half a dozen journalists — <b>Josie Huang</b>, of KPCC and the LAist; freelancer <b>Aarón Cantú</b>; <b>Brittny Mejia</b>, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times; <b>Emily Valdez</b>, a reporter the news radio station KNX; and LA Taco reporters <b>Brian Feinzimer</b> and <b>Memo Torres</b> — reported or appeared to be caught in tear gas and other riot-control agents while covering a protest of the death of 18-year-old Andres Guardado, who’d been fatally shot by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies three days earlier. A little before 3 p.m., Huang <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1274822384067866624\">tweeted</a> that protesters were beginning to march from the auto body shop where Guardado had been shot to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department station in Compton, some 3 miles away. As the crowd approached the station an hour later, it had <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1274839989101096960\">grown</a> to number in the hundreds. At 5:13 p.m., Mejia <a href=\"https://twitter.com/brittny_mejia/status/1274858072008056832\">tweeted</a> a video of Guardado’s father, Christopher, speaking outside the Compton Courthouse, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/brittny_mejia/status/1274858350463692801\">noting</a> a minute later that scene appeared to be escalating, writing, “Protest for #AndresGuardado, deputies now appear to be shooting non lethal projectiles. Lot of booms and smoke.” She <a href=\"https://twitter.com/brittny_mejia/status/1274867612275494913\">later explained</a> that organizers had told the crowd to disperse because “something was happening around the corner between a small crowd of protesters and deputies.” In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aaron_con_choco/status/1274856515808026624\">photo</a> posted by Cantú a few minutes earlier, seven officers could be seen in an alley near the courthouse. Two minutes later he tweeted, “They just shot some kind of explosive at close range. People calling for medic.” In a video <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aaron_con_choco/status/1274858749774008320\">posted</a> shortly thereafter, he and the crowd of protesters can be seen frantically running away as the officers began to liberally fire what Cantú would later <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aaron_con_choco/status/1274909401363537920\">identify as</a> the non-lethal ammunition: rubber bullets, pepper balls and smoke gas. Huang tweeted similar footage, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1274859269284704256\">showing</a> 12 visible officers and protesters <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1274859389921267713\">fleeing</a> a barrage of tear gas and flash-bang fire. A few minutes later, she <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1274860188898430976\">wrote</a>, “Just got teargassed. So did dozens others worse than me. I stood with protestwrs [sic] holding my press badge.” A little before 5:30 p.m., Mejia also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/brittny_mejia/status/1274861703797239808\">tweeted</a> that her eyes were watering from the crowd-dispersal devices. Around 5:45 p.m., Feinzimer <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bfeinzimer/status/1274866211881287680/photo/1\">shared</a> photos showing how “@KNX1070 reporter @EmilyValdezKNX and demonstrators are treated by community medics for exposure to pepper balls shot by @LASDHQ.” Feinzimer also told the Tracker in an email that both he and his colleague Memo Torres had been caught near separate flash-bang grenades, noting that he also breathed in some pepper ball gas and got some in his eyes. Torres <a href=\"https://twitter.com/el_tragon_de_LA/status/1274893344502509568\">tweeted</a> a picture later that evening showing his hat splattered with what he thought was residue from either pepper balls or tear gas.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"und\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/AndresGuardado?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AndresGuardado</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/mdq5ARyHFM\">pic.twitter.com/mdq5ARyHFM</a></p>— Aarón Cantú (@aaron_con_choco) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/aaron_con_choco/status/1274858749774008320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 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-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"und\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://t.co/YZ9mNda48q\">pic.twitter.com/YZ9mNda48q</a></p>— Josie Huang (@josie_huang) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1274859389921267713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 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\"><h4 data-block-key=\"7bx1h\">June 23, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"2xp1o\"><b>In Phoenix, Arizona</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"6013w\"><b>Bob McClay</b>, a reporter for KTAR News 92.3, was documenting demonstrations in north Phoenix where protesters and police were facing off at the intersection of Cave Creek Road and East Sharon Drive. “I have been told if I keep taking pictures I will be part of unlawful assembly and will be subject to arrest,” McClay <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BobMcClay/status/1275583269019381760\">wrote</a> on Twitter. McClay was not placed under arrest.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The scene outside dream city church @ Cave creek and Sharon Cave Creek and Sharon. I have been told if I keep taking pictures I will be part of unlawful assembly and will be subject to arrest. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KTAR923?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KTAR923</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/BrhBcz4YkR\">pic.twitter.com/BrhBcz4YkR</a></p>— Bob McClay (@BobMcClay) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BobMcClay/status/1275583269019381760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 24, 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\"><h4 data-block-key=\"3p03q\">June 29, 2020</h4><p data-block-key=\"83x2v\"><b>In Graham, North Carolina</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"auvvr\">The nation’s racial reckoning renewed outcry in Graham about a Confederate monument outside the county courthouse. Sheriff Terry Johnson’s office released a statement on June 24 <a href=\"https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/local/alamance-co-sheriff-issues-statement-about-graham-confederate-statue/83-07808685-3455-417e-9ef9-01684efac572\">saying</a> that he was legally obligated to protect the county’s property where the statue sits, and two days later, the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office issued a <a href=\"https://www.wxii12.com/article/alamance-county-sheriff-graham-no-longer-issuing-protest-permits/32985881\">blanket refusal</a> to grant protest permits, writing, “[N]o permits to protest in the city of Graham, NC to include the Alamance County Courthouse have been granted, nor will be granted for the foreseeable future.” The ACLU of North Carolina called the action explicitly unconstitutional in a letter <a href=\"https://www.acluofnorthcarolina.org/sites/default/files/06.26.2020_alamance_letter_.pdf\">co-penned</a> with Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Emancipate NC on June 26. On the morning of June 29, the mayor of nearby Burlington <a href=\"https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article243868472.html\">announced</a> his support for relocating the monument, so that afternoon, News & Observer reporter <b>Tammy Grubb</b> and videographer <b>Julia Wall</b> made their way to the courthouse to see if any protesters had gathered, Wall explained in a phone interview with the Tracker. Wall said that she and Grubb “were just hanging around, sitting and talking, kind of waiting to see if we saw anybody [when] one protester showed up,” advocating for the monument to be taken down. The News & Observer’s coverage of the day’s events included a video of an officer <a href=\"https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article243868472.html\">approaching</a> the protester a few minutes after she’d arrived and telling her that she couldn’t protest on the property and that if she stayed, she would be arrested for loitering. The protester <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TammyGrubb/status/1277745944323411970\">moved</a> across the street and stood in front of her car, soon striking up a conversation with the reporters. According to the News & Observer, two officers soon approached the protester in her new spot. One, a sergeant, said that “anyone standing out here” would be arrested and charged with a failure to disperse if the group didn’t leave immediately. The group in question included the lone protester, Grubb, Wall and two bystanders. Wall told the Tracker that she and Grubb reminded him that they were press and that he couldn’t threaten them with arrest for protesting. She also said that another officer came up shortly thereafter and talked to the protester about putting her sign away. The group moved to sit on a brick wall in a square across the street from the courthouse so they weren’t technically standing on the sidewalk anymore. At this point, Wall told the Tracker that “a sheriff's deputy came up who was a lot cooler-headed and was like, ‘You guys are fine. We’re not going to arrest you. It’ll be OK. We just want people to not obstruct the sidewalk.’ Though there wasn’t any foot traffic. But basically, cooler heads prevailed.” In July, the Graham City Council <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7002519-Executed-Parade-and-Demonstration-Ordinance.html\">repealed</a> the article in the city’s ordinances about restricting demonstrations.</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">No answer from Graham police about why we’re all going to be arrested for for standing on the sidewalk. <a href=\"https://t.co/QlvwCP8IMj\">pic.twitter.com/QlvwCP8IMj</a></p>— Tammy Grubb (@TammyGrubb) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TammyGrubb/status/1277747772649766912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 29, 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=\"vsnjw\"><i>Information in this roundup was gathered from published social media and news reports as well as interviews where noted. To read similar incidents from other days of national protests also in this category,</i> <i>go</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=protest%2CBlack+Lives+Matter&categories=Other+Incident&endpage=2\"><i>here</i></a><i>.</i></p></div>",
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