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{
"title": "San Antonio Express-News reporter hit by projectiles while covering protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/san-antonio-express-news-reporter-hit-by-projectiles-while-covering-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-15T20:14:59.630907Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:46:16.041513Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:46:15.952092Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Antonio",
"longitude": -98.49363,
"latitude": 29.42412,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"u7jie\">San Antonio Express-News reporter Mark Dunphy was hit by a crowd-control munition fired by law enforcement officers who were attempting to disperse protesters in downtown San Antonio, Texas, on the evening of June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"gsiiv\">Protesters had gathered in San Antonio and in cities across the U.S. to denounce the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died while being arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"x7ubt\">In San Antonio, demonstrators were marching towards the Alamo, a symbolic site where in 1836 a vastly outnumbered group of Texan settlers were besieged in the mission by 1,500 Mexican troops.</p><p data-block-key=\"voai7\">Dunphy and Spectrum News reporter Lena Blietz were on the scene as protesters gathered by a line of police officers wearing riot gear in front of Alamo Plaza, a commercial center next to the historic mission.</p><p data-block-key=\"1frww\">Blietz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protest was “super peaceful.” As some protesters took a knee and one addressed the crowd near the police line, Blietz said she thought she was about to witness officers and protesters embracing — something that had happened in Fort Worth, Texas, the previous night.</p><p data-block-key=\"48dae\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/LenaBlietz/status/1268034667770511362\">A video captured by Blietz</a> showed a man standing in front of riot police telling protesters, “put your hands up — let everybody know we’re not here for violence!”</p><p data-block-key=\"to8oc\">As he said that, there is a commotion alongside several bangs and the sound of crowd-control munitions being fired as people scramble to flee.</p><p data-block-key=\"mo7uw\">Dunphy, who was standing near Blietz when police moved to disperse protesters, was hit with a crowd-control munition.</p><p data-block-key=\"oapof\">“Caught one of them to the leg. Free Yin Yang tattoo, I suppose,”<a href=\"https://twitter.com/m_b_dunphy/status/1268029073558851585\"> Dunphy wrote on Twitter</a> alongside photos of a hand holding a wooden projectile and a dark welt on the back of his thigh.</p><p data-block-key=\"r6up6\">Blietz was also struck in the leg with a crowd-control munition. The Tracker has documented that case <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/spectrum-news-reporter-hit-by-police-projectile-amid-san-antonio-protest/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"mkik7\">In another tweet, Dunphy wrote that he saw a plastic bottle thrown at police shortly before officers began firing wooden rounds and using tear gas. In a video shared by Dunphy that night, dots from laser pointers aimed at police officers can be seen. Blietz can be seen standing directly in front of police, filming a protester’s address to the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"xgv58\">In a photo shared by Dunphy the day after he was hit, the welt caused by the wooden round had grown in size, turning purple and red.</p><p data-block-key=\"xrxe0\">After the incident, one of Dunphy’s colleagues at the Express-News tweeted that Dunphy had been hit by a wooden bullet fired by police and tagged San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg,<a href=\"https://twitter.com/JFreports/status/1268032683009024000\"> asking “are you okay with this?”</a></p><p data-block-key=\"kybb1\">“No, I’m not,” Nirenberg responded, “I am asking for more information on these projectiles.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">No, I'm not. <br><br>I am asking for more information on these projectiles. <a href=\"https://t.co/TCEEexVEXZ\">https://t.co/TCEEexVEXZ</a></p>— Mayor Ron | Get vax’d! 💪 (@Ron_Nirenberg) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Ron_Nirenberg/status/1268044774222843904?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=\"t6tqt\">Dunphy and the Express-News didn’t respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for the San Antonio mayor’s office also didn’t respond to the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"id0b2\">“It is my understanding that two local journalists were hit during the crowd dispersal,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said <a href=\"https://www.sanantonio.gov/SAPD/Press-Releases/ArtMID/7184/ArticleID/19022/Statement-from-San-Antonio-Police-Chief\">in a June 3 statement</a>. “Although this was unfortunate, this was certainly not the police department’s intent. During crowd control dispersal action officers cannot readily distinguish between peaceful protesters, media and agitators once the situation has reached a boiling point.”</p><p data-block-key=\"g0ftg\">McManus added that the police department was and would continue offering journalists the opportunity to cover protests from a “safe zone” behind the line of officers. The police chief advised journalists who cover protests from within crowds to leave if the situation becomes volatile.</p><p data-block-key=\"imah9\">A public information officer for the San Antonio Police Department said they had no additional statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"071o4\">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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{
"title": "Detroit Free Press reporter detained, pushed to ground while covering a protest for story on police tactics",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-free-press-reporter-detained-pushed-ground-while-covering-protest-story-police-tactics/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-15T19:38:35.861177Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-11-19T16:36:12.299065Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-11-19T16:36:12.236157Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Detroit Free Press reporter Darcie Moran had her hands zip-tied and was flung to the ground by Detroit police while reporting on protests in the city on June 2, 2020, the reporter told the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p>Moran said that she was working on a story about police tactics and observed police blocking a line of protesters on Gratiot Avenue and an armored vehicle coming up from behind the protesters.</p><p>Moran said she was standing on a grassy area with other reporters near the Family Dollar store at 10950 Gratiot Avenue while the protesters were in the streets. She stepped slightly away from the group to get a better glimpse of the protesters.</p><p>“All of a sudden there was a rush to my right and I can’t say exactly what happened because it was a little bit of a blur,” she said, stating that protesters might have run up to the curb between the grassy area and the street.</p><p>“What I do know is that police started coming up from the side and not from the spots that we had been facing,” she said. “I turned and as I go to lift up my press badge that’s hanging on my chest, I am pushed to the ground and they start putting me in zip ties,” she said.</p><p>Moran said she had a respirator on at the time and so wasn’t sure if police could hear her yell, “I’m media, I’m media!” Moran said her colleagues behind her were yelling that she was a member of the media and for police to release her once she was on the ground.</p><p>Moran’s colleagues <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o4DcpFLwuA&app=desktop&ab_channel=DetroitFreePress\">posted a video of the incident online</a>. “You can see in the video that he allows me to put my phone in my back pocket,” Moran said.</p><p>Another officer walked up and instructed his colleague to release Moran, the journalist said. Moran said that until she saw the video, she didn’t realize that her second hand was in the process of being zip-tied when the police officer intervened.</p><p>“What’s interesting about this is they had released media passes for these events two nights prior,” Moran said. “[I] had a giant one printed out and used duck tape to strap it on my back, so it was a very large sign that a number of people pointed out would have been visible as I was on the ground being zip-tied,” she told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p>Moran said that the officer who ended the confrontation helped her up from the ground, apologized and then found her later to apologize again. Moran said she had a scratch and some back and ankle pain the next day.</p><p>Detroit police did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
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"Darcie Moran (Detroit Free Press)"
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},
{
"title": "Videographer hit by police projectiles while filming Seattle protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-hit-police-projectiles-while-filming-seattle-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-13T20:01:53.384695Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:58.218470Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:58.135943Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Seattle",
"longitude": -122.33207,
"latitude": 47.60621,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jfb6j\">Independent videographer Alyse Gallagher said she was hit in the chest with a crowd-control projectile and targeted with pepper balls by police as she recorded a confrontation between law enforcement and protesters in Seattle on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"9nyrl\">The city was in its fourth night of large protests against police violence sparked by the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis. Gallagher, who posts footage of demonstrations on <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRamEAEfFNEs4fKgp5Z01Jg/videos\">her YouTube channel, AlyseUnleashed,</a> was filming the standoff at the intersection of Pine Street and 11th Avenue in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.</p><p data-block-key=\"2toq2\">Police fired tear gas after some people in the crowd threw objects at officers. Protesters retreated about half a block north, as did Gallagher, who stopped in a parking lot where she tried to clear her eyes of tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"k2w1p\">She said she intentionally stayed away from the protesters so she wouldn’t be seen as a potential target by law enforcement. Gallagher was carrying and using a camera but said she wasn’t wearing visible press identification and was “going lower profile” that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"wbj8n\">Unable to see and in pain from the tear gas, she put her camera down and reached for her bag to get a bottle of water to flush her eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffie8\">“That’s when I realized I had...flashlights trained on me and I’m like: They think I’m grabbing something,” she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"gxtyk\">She said police fired pepper balls at her. In the video she filmed that night, a white puff consistent with a pepper ball impact can be seen.</p><p data-block-key=\"6boc1\">“I’m not getting anything! I need water!” she shouted<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWAPTMi8LuE\"> in the video</a>. “I’m fucking press!”</p><p data-block-key=\"w2m1v\">Gallagher can later be heard waving off a protester offering help, saying she doesn’t want to be “too associated because they keep shooting shit at me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2yeml\">Less than two minutes later and still having trouble seeing, Gallagher was trying to untangle herself from her camera gear’s cables when she got hit in the chest by what she believes was a 40 millimeter crowd-control round containing a chemical irritant. “I just remember it hitting me in the chest and then like reeling backwards and then just screaming because I hit the ground hard enough that I recoiled. Like I could feel my chest bounce back.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d9fd1\">She said she doesn’t believe police targeted her for being a journalist, but is upset police used crowd-control weapons on her since she had clearly separated herself from the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"l34xs\">“That’s the one thing that kind of bothers me: You're going to shoot the one person who’s not behind the wall of shields? Where if you’re up to anything, that’s where you’re going to be?” she said. “I was by myself in that parking lot at that point.”</p><p data-block-key=\"colxf\">The Seattle Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"tess2\">Protests following the deaths of Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and against police brutality have continued in many U.S. cities for months. 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>",
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"name": "Washington",
"abbreviation": "WA"
},
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"shot / shot at"
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},
{
"title": "Colorado Springs TV reporter hit with pepper spray",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-springs-tv-reporter-hit-pepper-spray/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-14T16:02:55.425160Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:34.301931Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:34.219624Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "Colorado Springs",
"longitude": -104.82136,
"latitude": 38.83388,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6naf5\">Spencer Wilson, a reporter for local CBS affiliate KKTV 11, was pepper sprayed by police while covering a protest in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"k9158\">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=\"kq8zm\">Wilson had been covering the protest in front of the Colorado Springs police headquarters with a KKTV photographer, Jon Modic, all day, and broadcast much of the demonstrations on <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=329636514690916&ref=watch_permalink\">Facebook Live</a>. The pair were reporting from a barricade in front of the police headquarters, where about 75 people were protesting and about 40 police officers were standing on the other side, Wilson told the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"et7e2\">At around 10:30 p.m., an announcement came over a loudspeaker informing the crowd that the protest was no longer peaceful, and that protesters needed to leave. Wilson heard the same announcement while covering protests the previous night, June 1. On both nights, the announcement angered the crowd, Wilson said, and he saw bottles being thrown at police officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"i27ot\">At this point, Wilson was standing with Shawn Shanle, a photographer for FOX 21, and he began moving back as officers with riot shields moved toward the crowd. Wilson estimated no more than two minutes passed between the dispersal order and the police moving in on the crowd. Then, fireworks exploded and police shouted, “That was not us!” Officers then began pepper spraying the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"cl5la\">“I’m walking away from the police. I turn around to start walking backwards, like I’m in a marching band, while I’m holding up my camera on my shoulder,” Wilson said. “A police officer, who is on the very edge of the line, just randomly sprays pepper spray as if it was silly string.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vmpaf\">Wilson said the officer looked directly at him when he sprayed from about 10 yards away. “It was directly aimed at me and that photographer and it wafted over to us and went directly into us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kt6r5\">Wilson said he was clearly identifiable as a member of the media. He had a large camera on his shoulder, was dressed in a suit and tie, and was wearing a media I.D. on a lanyard.</p><p data-block-key=\"bbcut\">Wilson also had visited the police station earlier in the day to ask where journalists should report from, and where they should move to in the event of a dispersal. When told to disperse, Wilson walked in the direction the police had told him to go earlier in the day.</p><p data-block-key=\"p5jq8\">After he was sprayed, Wilson turned the camera at the police, repeated that he was media, and asked the officer why he sprayed. Wilson says the officer was silent, and continued chasing after protesters who were walking away. Wilson didn’t get the name of the officer, and said he didn’t know whether he had been targeted as a member of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"uagom\">After being sprayed, Wilson said he was separately hit with tear gas deployed by police. A police officer led Wilson — coughing and with eyes stinging from the chemicals — away from the street. He used a water bottle given to him by a protester to wash out his eyes and finished reporting at around midnight.</p><p data-block-key=\"jhoyq\">A spokesperson for the Colorado Springs Police Department declined to comment on the incident, but said the department worked with the media to address safety concerns. The department also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CSPDPIO/status/1268277781609148416\">said</a> on Twitter that demonstrators are ordered to disperse only when protests turn violent.</p><p data-block-key=\"qhh6y\">In a message sent to members of the media on June 3, the Colorado Springs Police Department said, “Please know that you are never targeted because you are press. When officers are working to safely disperse a crowd, they cannot differentiate media in the crowd (as many protestors also have cameras), and are working to disperse everyone present.” The message goes on to ask reporters to wear clothing that clearly identifies them as press, and that journalists have their credentials on them at all times.</p><p data-block-key=\"38xrx\">The next day, Wilson’s boss bought goggles and reflective vests for journalists to wear for future assignments, so police could more easily identify them. Wilson said he went back to the Colorado Springs police headquarters and told officers about the vests.</p><p data-block-key=\"gt132\">“The officers I spoke with laughed and said, ‘It’s not going to help.’ I was taken aback.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q5tpb\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Freelance journalist detained until colleague vouches for her to Los Angeles police",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-detained-until-colleague-vouches-her-los-angeles-police/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-05T16:14:05.872520Z",
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"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"h5sbm\">Samanta Helou-Hernandez, a freelance multimedia journalist, was detained by Los Angeles police on June 2, 2020 while covering a protest near the mayor’s residence.</p><p data-block-key=\"ubjc6\">The protest was part of a wave of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"lgq1u\">The officer has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who were present face felony charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"lq0z9\">The protest in central Los Angeles began at the Getty House, the mayor’s residence, before the city-wide curfew at 6:30 p.m., Helou-Hernandez told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Some protesters wanted to continue demonstrating past curfew and Helou-Hernandez stayed to document them. Around 7:30 p.m., about 100 protesters marched through Hancock Park before turning onto Wilshire Boulevard where they were met by police in riot gear.</p><p data-block-key=\"6470g\">Helou-Hernandez followed the group of protesters onto a side street. Someone yelled, “they’re shooting,” and Helou-Hernandez said she followed a smaller contingent of around a dozen people onto another side street, where they were cornered by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. Helou-Hernandez was cuffed with zip ties. When she told the police that she was press, they moved her aside. She explained that she didn’t have press credentials because she was a freelancer and offered to show LAPD her clips and website on her phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"6i41y\">According to Helou-Hernandez, an officer said something to the effect of, “If you’re press, why did you run away from us? You should have run toward us” if you thought there was shooting. At this point, Helou-Hernandez and protesters were brought to a second location to join a larger group of about 20-30 handcuffed protesters. The officers called their names and directed them to form lines. The group was sent to a third location on 8th and Crenshaw where buses would take them to the precinct.</p><p data-block-key=\"t15wf\">Lexis-Olivier Ray, a journalist for L.A. Taco, was at 8th and Crenshaw documenting arrests. Ray was already in touch with a police supervisor because he and an L.A. Taco colleague had been barred from crossing the police line. Ray heard Helou-Hernandez calling his name.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ympi\">“I grabbed the attention of the supervisor who I had been talking to already ... and I bring his attention to the fact that my friend and fellow journalist Sami is in custody,” Ray said. He also showed the LAPD her website and clips.</p><p data-block-key=\"txkmb\">At 9:36 p.m. Ray <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShotOn35mm/status/1268038752628174848\">tweeted</a> a video of Helou-Hernandez in zip ties with the caption, “My friend and fellow journalist<a href=\"https://twitter.com/Samanta_Helou\"> @Samanta_Helou</a> is currently in custody.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAPDHQ\"> @LAPDHQ</a> is trying to verify her identity. We've shown them her work for<a href=\"https://twitter.com/KCET\"> @kcet</a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/Curbed\"> @curbed</a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAist\"> @laist</a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/LATACO\"> @lataco</a>.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My friend and fellow journalist <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Samanta_Helou?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Samanta_Helou</a> is currently in custody. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAPDHQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LAPDHQ</a> is trying to verify her identity. We've shown them her work for <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KCET?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@kcet</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Curbed?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@curbed</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@laist</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LATACO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@lataco</a>. <a href=\"https://t.co/ttLPiynnGU\">pic.twitter.com/ttLPiynnGU</a></p>— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShotOn35mm/status/1268038752628174848?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=\"8fu2s\">Ray was told that the media relations officer would make a decision regarding whether Helou-Hernandez would be taken into custody. After 20-30 minutes, the media relations officer arrived and Helou-Hernandez was released.</p><p data-block-key=\"0za7w\">Helou-Hernandez was not given a certificate of release, but estimates that she was in custody for 90 minutes. At 10:02 p.m. she <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Samanta_Helou/status/1268045354701750272\">tweeted</a> that she had been released. The LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"kc0ur\">“Had I not seen a colleague I would have ultimately been taken on the bus downtown,” Helou-Hernandez told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"gzee1\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
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{
"title": "KQED journalist briefly detained, another journalist arrested, covering sit-in against San Francisco curfew",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kqed-journalist-briefly-detained-another-journalist-arrested-covering-sit-against-san-francisco-curfew/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-05T21:59:24.334354Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:54.148330Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:54.058777Z",
"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=\"95lg2\">Police detained Sheraz Sadiq, a producer for local NPR and PBS affiliate KQED, while covering a protest against a citywide curfew in San Francisco, California, on June 2, 2020, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"2vnm0\">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=\"1rpx6\">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 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=\"ruy51\">San Francisco police followed the march and formed a cordon around the protesters after they arrived at the Hall of Justice, Sadiq told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"eufll\">Not wanting to be confused for a protester, Sadiq showed officers his credentials and told them he was working for KQED, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"duob6\">Around 9:30, 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=\"qs1p1\">Sadiq said he tried to leave the cordoned area, but an officer blocked his exit. When he identified himself as a journalist, the officer called over a sergeant.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffpnn\">The sergeant said Sadiq was in a “sanitized zone” and could not leave, according to Sadiq. When Sadiq told the sergeant he was a journalist, the sergeant said they would “sort it out later,” according to Sadiq.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4kjf\">Rebuffed on one side, Sadiq said he tried to leave on the other side of the cordon. But there, too, he was turned back. Sadiq was stuck inside the cordon with the sit-in, now about 30 people strong.</p><p data-block-key=\"ltfuz\">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=\"lk9ge\">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=\"cjmze\">But freelance journalist Sakura Sato, who was also inside the cordon, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-detained-one-arrested-covering-protest-against-san-francisco-curfew/\">was arrested</a> with the protesters despite identifying as a journalist, she told the Tracker. Sato, who recently decided to pursue journalism, had not yet acquired press credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"gcm36\">Sadiq, who had a press ID from KQED, was treated differently. With all the protesters and Sato under arrest, only Sadiq remained inside the police cordon. Two officers approached him.</p><p data-block-key=\"on9k2\">“They looked a little bit confused. They had to check with each other. Like, should we get him?” Sadiq explained. “Then I stepped back and they said, ‘Sir, you are going to have to come with us.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"gpvtn\">Sadiq asked why, and the officers said that he was not under arrest but detained until they could check his credentials. The officers asked if Sadiq would resist. He said no, but voiced his disagreement about what was happening, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"fo9cw\">“Joe, I’m being arrested!” Sadiq yelled out to his KQED colleague Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, who was reporting across the street. Fitzgerald Rodriguez remained outside the cordon but was flanked by officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"w4ryl\">“What did I tell you?” one of the officers responded, according to Sadiq. “You’re not being arrested. You’re just being detained.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2i1f4\">The officers took Sadiq to a staging area, where he was asked to provide his driver’s license. Sadiq removed the face mask he was wearing to help confirm his identity, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7jrbi\">Sadiq said he asked why he was being detained, and the officers responded that he disobeyed the dispersal order. When Sadiq said he was a working journalist exempt from the curfew order, the police said that protesters had falsely been claiming to be journalists in an attempt to evade arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"81skb\">Sadiq said he was released after about 15 minutes.</p><p data-block-key=\"m6uvi\">Fitzgerald Rodriguez told the Tracker that he shouted across the street trying to vouch for his detained colleague. Eventually an officer, who he believes was a sergeant, crossed the street to talk to him before returning to Sadiq.</p><p data-block-key=\"1r8ov\">Sato and the protesters were released with a citation on charges of violating curfew and resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer or peace officer, Sato and Williams, the DSA member, told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"73z45\">Rachel Marshall, a spokesperson for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, said the cases were 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=\"4h259\">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=\"dr1dh\">Sadiq said the police treated him politely but the incident left him questioning why his detention was necessary at all.</p><p data-block-key=\"aa87t\">“It’s not like this was a melee, a chaotic scene that was unfolding, and in the scrum of the confusion, they swept up everybody,” Sadiq explained. “This was a very orderly, very well-organized demonstration.”</p><p data-block-key=\"zwew6\">Yet once someone is inside the police cordon, Sadiq said, they seemed to be treated “almost like an enemy combatant” that the police must “screen and verify and go through their protocols, including detention and possibly arrest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tdc9c\">Sadiq, who is of South Asian heritage, said he did not see any evidence of racial prejudice during his detention. But he worried throughout that his name would end up on a list that could cause trouble in the future.</p><p data-block-key=\"ay5an\">“As a person of color, especially with the protests that are engulfing the nation around racial inequity, this is a conversation or a monologue sometimes people of color have, especially when being subject to interactions with law enforcement,” Sadiq said.</p><p data-block-key=\"75cx6\">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/Sadiq_CreditFitzgerald_Rodriguez_.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1ycc7\">Protesters perform a sit-in at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice on June 2, 2020, as KQED’s Sheraz Sadiq, standing right, in white sweater, documents the scene. The protesters were arrested and Sadiq was detained.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "San Francisco Police Department",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"Black Lives Matter",
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],
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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",
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"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": "",
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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>",
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"name": "California",
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"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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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",
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"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "Little Rock",
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"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": "",
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"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>",
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"name": "Arkansas",
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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",
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"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "Little Rock",
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"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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"name": "Arkansas",
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"tags": [
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],
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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",
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"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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"arresting_authority": "Arkansas State Police",
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"name": "Arkansas",
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"tags": [
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"categories": [
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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": "2025-04-14T14:20:59.665284Z",
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"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
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"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>",
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"abbreviation": "NY"
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"updates": [
"(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",
"(2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD",
"(2025-04-09 00:00:00+00:00) Appeals court affirms photographers’ settlement with NYPD",
"(2023-09-08 00:00:00+00:00) Judge voids First Amendment settlement with NYPD"
],
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"settled"
],
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"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Jae Donnelly (Daily Mail)"
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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",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
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"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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/slatz_arrest_0601.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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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>",
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"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-06-04",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
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},
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"(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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"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
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"Anna Slatz (Rebel News)"
],
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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",
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"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,
"arrest_status": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"May-E Wong (The Associated Press)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"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>",
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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"
],
"case_statuses": [],
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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>",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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"Dave Greber (WIVB-TV)"
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{
"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": "2025-04-04T18:07:11.228699Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:07:11.123061Z",
"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>Editor's Note: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer's name.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Aaron Guy Leroux (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"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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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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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": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"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": "",
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Oakland Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"assailant": null,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Terry McSweeney (KNTV)"
],
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},
{
"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": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"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": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jordyn Grzelewski (The Detroit News)"
],
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"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": "2025-04-14T14:20:41.782646Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-14T14:20:41.552741Z",
"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": [
"(2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD",
"(2023-09-08 00:00:00+00:00) Judge voids First Amendment settlement with NYPD",
"(2025-04-09 00:00:00+00:00) Appeals court affirms photographers’ 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>",
"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": "Ohio",
"abbreviation": "OH"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sarah Szilagy (The [Ohio State University] Lantern)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"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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{
"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": "2025-04-07T14:24:30.092794Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-07T14:24:29.991679Z",
"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 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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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Akin_assault_0601_IA.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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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",
"abbreviation": "IA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Katie Akin (The Des Moines Register)"
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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": "",
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"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>",
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"actor": "law enforcement",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"(2023-05-24 11:17:00+00:00) Investigation finds that officers used excessive force against Australian correspondent, photojournalist"
],
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"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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}
]
