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{
"title": "New York Times reporter taunted, threatened during Albuquerque protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-times-reporter-taunted-threatened-during-albuquerque-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-22T20:32:27.419328Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T19:12:23.471726Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T19:12:23.374235Z",
"date": "2020-06-15",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Albuquerque",
"longitude": -106.65114,
"latitude": 35.08449,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sv3ch\">New York Times reporter Simon Romero was taunted and threatened by a man armed with a military-style rifle while covering protests in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 15, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ow7iv\">The protest was organized to demand the removal of a statue of Juan de Oñate, a 16th- and 17th-century conquistador and colonial governor in New Mexico at the <a href=\"https://www.taosnews.com/tempo/juan-de-o-ate-and-a-400-year-legacy-of-conflict/article_32a70355-5612-55c2-8ba8-ed8b5812945d.html\">center of long-standing tension</a> between Pueblo Native Americans and Hispanic people in the state. It was one in a surge of demonstrations across the country this summer calling for a reckoning with the country’s history of racial injustice, sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man, while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"ogr4o\">Romero told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that no Albuquerque Police Department officers were present when he arrived at the Albuquerque Museum in Old Town at around 5 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"s6ofe\">Armed members of a right-wing group called the New Mexico Civil Guard had stationed themselves around the statue. When he approached them the men told him explicitly that they were there to protect the statue and to keep it from coming down.</p><p data-block-key=\"0usbz\">“The guys who were managing the protest were the militia,” Romero said.</p><p data-block-key=\"q1kyj\">Romero said he attempted to interview some of the men, and spoke briefly with one who gave Romero his name.</p><p data-block-key=\"kijoc\">By around 6 p.m., about 300 people had gathered at Tiguex Park across the street for a prayer and speeches from indigenous activists and small-business owners, the Albuquerque Journal <a href=\"https://www.abqjournal.com/1466626/one-man-shot-during-protest-in-old-town-albuquerque.html\">reported</a>. They then crossed the street to the statue being guarded by the militia members.</p><p data-block-key=\"3jzd5\">Tensions escalated when some demonstrators climbed onto the statue, covered Oñate’s head with a cloth and someone brought out a pickaxe to aid in bringing the statue down.</p><p data-block-key=\"7i8qg\">“I was in the thick of the protest as it turned to mayhem and started to get very violent, and there were still no police while this was happening,” Romero said.</p><p data-block-key=\"m8qzx\">Romero told the Tracker that a militia member carrying a military-style rifle approached him and began taunting him.</p><p data-block-key=\"0dw9g\">“He said, ‘So you work for the Times, huh? Do you guys print anything that’s not lies?’ He started on this whole ‘fake news’ thing,” Romero said. “That in itself, facing that type of taunting from an armed, extremist, right-wing militia figure at a protest without any police presence is in my view extremely threatening.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yicku\">When the man let up, Romero said he approached the militia member who had spoken with him before and told him, “Listen, you better take care of your boy because this is unacceptable.” Romero said the man only responded with a smirk.</p><p data-block-key=\"e3fk4\">Shortly after, a member of the militia group got into a fight with the people attempting to pull down the statue. The group pushed the militia member into the street and followed after, the Journal reported. The man then pepper sprayed the group, pulled out a gun and fired around five shots, wounding one person.</p><p data-block-key=\"7r6id\">The police arrived at the scene a few minutes after, using tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the protesters and detain individuals involved in the shooting. The man who had taunted Romero was among those militia members detained that night, Romero said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ij0le\">Romero told the Tracker that the scene was too chaotic that night, so he didn’t give a statement to the police. The Albuquerque Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"6brew\">The Journal reported that the crowd dispersed at around 9:30 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"2egsb\">Romero said that despite years of covering paramilitary groups, ideological militias and violent street protests across Latin America, he had never felt more threatened than he did in Albuquerque that day.</p><p data-block-key=\"o1vy3\">“I’ve never seen anything like this in more than two decades of journalism up and down the Americas,” Romero said. “I take something like this extremely seriously and I think every journalist should, especially now that they’re being attacked and singled out at protests around the country.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bados\"><i>To read similar incidents from other days of national protests in this category,</i> <i>go </i><a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=protest%2CBlack+Lives+Matter&categories=Other+Incident&endpage=2\"><i>here</i></a><i>. A full accounting of incidents in which members of the press were assaulted, arrested or had their equipment damaged while covering these protests can be found</i> <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"><i>here</i></a><i>. To learn more about how the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents and categorizes violations of press freedom, visit</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/frequently-asked-questions/\"><i>pressfreedomtracker.us</i></a><i>.</i></p></div>",
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"name": "New Mexico",
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"tags": [
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{
"title": "Youth smashes windshield of TV news crew’s car in Louisville",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/youth-smashes-windshield-of-tv-news-crews-car-in-louisville/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-21T15:08:05.554842Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:38:09.616937Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:38:09.523416Z",
"date": "2020-06-15",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gu54i\">A young, unidentified male hurled a concrete block into the windshield of a television news crew’s car after a June 15, 2020, protest in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, video of the incident shows.</p><p data-block-key=\"ga0bn\">The protest was held in response to the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was shot dead by police on March 13, as well as the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since late May.</p><p data-block-key=\"ahult\">Shaquille Lord, a reporter for CBS affiliate WLKY, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShaqWLKY/status/1272653039468531712\">posted a video to his Twitter page</a> showing a group of people heckling the crew as they walk to their car. A young male holding a large concrete block walks into the street and yells, “You better hop in that car before I break the shit.” The video shows him throwing the block into the vehicle’s windshield and the news crew fleeing the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"oxp7o\">“Our crew just got attacked as we were trying to leave,” Lord said on Twitter. “We’re okay and I recorded the entire thing. I can tell you things are definitely not peaceful in the downtown area today.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our crew just got attacked as we were trying to leave. We’re okay and I recorded the entire thing. I can tell you things are definitely not peaceful in the downtown area today <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WLKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WLKY</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Louisvilleprotests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Louisvilleprotests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DavidMcAtee?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DavidMcAtee</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreonnaTaylor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BreonnaTaylor</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/nnlv0lX34k\">pic.twitter.com/nnlv0lX34k</a></p>— Shaquille Lord (@ShaqWLKY) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShaqWLKY/status/1272653039468531712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 15, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6q89n\">Neither Lord nor WLKY News Director Andrea Stahlman responded to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. <a href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/louisville-protesters-throw-brick-car-windshield-local-camera-crew-1511207\">Newsweek also reported on the incident.</a> It isn’t clear whether the crew was targeted for being members of the media. WLKY’s vehicles are clearly marked with the station’s logo.</p><p data-block-key=\"joby5\">A teenager was later arrested in Louisville and was charged with wanton endangerment, burglary, and criminal mischief in relation to the incident, police spokesman Sgt. Lamont Washington said.</p><p data-block-key=\"d0gme\">Because he is a minor, the youth isn’t being identified and the Tracker was only able to obtain a redacted copy of the police report. Washington said he couldn’t provide any further information about the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"6n4at\">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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"state": {
"name": "Kentucky",
"abbreviation": "KY"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Shaquille Lord (WLKY)"
],
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},
{
"title": "7 former eBay employees charged in harassment campaign against journalists",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/six-former-ebay-employees-arrested-alleged-harassment-campaign-against-journalists/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-10T18:15:24.475623Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-10-01T12:55:59.236229Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-10-01T12:55:59.095329Z",
"date": "2020-06-15",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Natick",
"longitude": -71.3495,
"latitude": 42.28343,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9pvxh\">The FBI announced charges against six former eBay employees on June 15, 2020, for their alleged participation in a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the editor and publisher of an online e-commerce news site.</p><p data-block-key=\"c7xdo\">David and Ina Steiner, who are married, have run the blog and newsletter EcommerceBytes for more than two decades out of their home in Natick, Massachusetts, the Wall Street Journal <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/ebay-harassment-campaign-pig-cockroach-blog-11593009038\">reported</a>, focusing their coverage on online retailers, including Amazon, Craigslist and eBay.</p><p data-block-key=\"67m3h\">The Steiners did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"pa547\">According to a Department of Justice <a href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/six-former-ebay-employees-charged-aggressive-cyberstalking-campaign-targeting-natick\">press release</a>, an August 2019 article in the newsletter about litigation involving eBay allegedly spurred a conversation between two company executives “suggesting that it was time to ‘take down’ the newsletter’s editor.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ollgt\">The FBI alleges that one of those executives and five other eBay employees then executed a harassment campaign against the Steiners.</p><p data-block-key=\"332lh\">“Among other things, several of the defendants ordered anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims’ home, including a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, a book on surviving the loss of a spouse, and pornography — the last of these addressed to the newsletter’s publisher but sent to his neighbors’ homes,” the press release stated.</p><p data-block-key=\"3kmgx\">The employees also allegedly sent the pair threatening public and private messages on Twitter, stalked the victims and attempted to install a GPS tracking device on their car. The plan was then for the eBay security team to reach out to the couple about the harassment and offer support in what an FBI <a href=\"https://www.scribd.com/document/465728291/FBI-Affidavit-against-eBay-employees-for-harassment#from_embed?campaign=SkimbitLtd&ad_group=66960X1514734X3d3d31626d80058337651031ed306d82&keyword=660149026&source=hp_affiliate&medium=affiliate\">affidavit</a> referred to as a “White Knight Strategy.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c8ytt\">Joseph Bonavolonta, the FBI special agent in charge of the case, <a href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/former-ebay-employees-threatened-couple-who-wrote-critical-newsletter-articles-n1231075\">told</a> NBC News, "All the while, they were hiding behind the internet, using burner phones and laptops, overseas email accounts, and prepaid debit cards purchased with cash, to try and cover up their alleged crimes and evade and obstruct the Natick Police Department.”</p><p data-block-key=\"pd43f\">The six employees are each charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses:</p><ul><li data-block-key=\"7umg5\">James Baugh, 45, former senior director of safety and security;</li><li data-block-key=\"ktdga\">Brian Gilbert, 51, former senior manager of special operations for eBay’s Global Security Team;</li><li data-block-key=\"kutu0\">David Harville, 48, former director of global resiliency;</li><li data-block-key=\"72qgy\">Stephanie Popp, 32, former senior manager of global intelligence;</li><li data-block-key=\"e4bnl\">Stephanie Stockwell, 26, former manager of eBay’s Global Intelligence Center; and</li><li data-block-key=\"ajk5a\">Veronica Zea, 26, former intelligence analyst contractor in the GIC.</li></ul><p data-block-key=\"m1bne\">U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling <a href=\"https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/06/15/ebay-employees-arrested-u-s-attorney-andrew-lelling-cyberstalking/\">told</a> CBS Boston, “It was a determined, systematic effort of senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a couple in Natick, all because they published content company executives didn’t like.”</p><p data-block-key=\"782n5\">In a <a href=\"https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-inc-issues-statement-regarding-indictments-of-previously-terminated-employees/\">press release</a>, eBay Inc. said that the company was unaware of the harassment campaign until notified by law enforcement in August 2019, and immediately launched an internal investigation. As a result of that investigation, it said, all involved employees were fired that September.</p><p data-block-key=\"c7fzf\">The statement said the company’s board formed an independent special committee to oversee the investigation. A statement from that committee said the company does not tolerate that type of behavior: “eBay apologizes to the affected individuals and is sorry that they were subjected to this.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kz2gd\">The Journal reported that the U.S. attorney’s office is still investigating whether the company targeted any other critics with similar harassment campaigns.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Massachusetts",
"abbreviation": "MA"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-07-27 08:04:00+00:00) EBay manager imprisoned for role in harassment campaign against journalists",
"(2024-07-18 00:00:00+00:00) Seventh eBay defendant sentenced for harassment of journalists",
"(2022-11-03 00:00:00+00:00) Six eBay employees sentenced for their roles in harassment campaign against journalists",
"(2022-05-12 13:40:00+00:00) EBay executive pleads guilty for role in harassment campaign against journalists",
"(2024-01-11 00:00:00+00:00) eBay fined $3 million for employees’ stalking of journalists"
],
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"Other Incident"
],
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"Ina Steiner (EcommerceBytes)",
"David Steiner (EcommerceBytes)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Independent journalist says they were shoved by police while covering protests in Portland",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-says-they-were-shoved-police-while-covering-protests-portland/",
"first_published_at": "2020-12-06T15:36:47.612551Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:38:26.079009Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:38:25.982432Z",
"date": "2020-06-15",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lm4i6\">Independent journalist Tuck Woodstock said police shoved them while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on June 15, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"72uby\">Woodstock was covering one of the many protests that have broken out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. 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><p data-block-key=\"amca9\">In Portland, nightly protests over Floyd’s death began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare a curfew that lasted three days. Even after the nightly curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon in June. Woodstock is a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-06-30_-_woodstock_decl.pdf\">plaintiff</a> in the suit, which resulted in a temporary restraining order and an <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a> by the city of Portland in July not to arrest, harm or impede any journalists or legal observers.</p><p data-block-key=\"0zc3f\">Around 8:30 p.m. on June 15, Woodstock started covering a rally, organized by Rose City Justice, demanding funding cuts for the Portland Police Bureau ahead of an upcoming Portland City Council budget vote, according to <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/06/portland-protests-continue-monday-after-police-take-down-some-fencing-at-epicenter-of-demonstrations.html\">The Oregonian newspaper</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"wx14p\">The protesters marched from southeast Portland to Pioneer Courthouse Square downtown. After the rally concluded, Woodstock followed protesters to the Multnomah County Justice Center, a regular meeting point for protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"3u74u\">Just after 11 p.m., police declared <a href=\"https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=250884&ec=1&ch=twitter\">a civil disturbance</a> and warned the crowd to leave the area or be subjected to force or arrest. Around the same time, Woodstock <a href=\"https://twitter.com/tuckwoodstock/status/1272771843800231938\">tweeted</a> that shots rang out as police used <a href=\"https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=250884&ec=1&ch=twitter\">crowd-control munitions</a> to disperse the protesters. About 20 minutes later, Woodstock <a href=\"https://twitter.com/tuckwoodstock/status/1272776683674689536\">tweeted</a> that a protester had been shot in the head by some type of munitions in an area outside the dispersal zone.</p><p data-block-key=\"t7ri8\">Soon after, Woodstock <a href=\"https://twitter.com/tuckwoodstock/status/1272775757341659136\">tweeted</a> about getting shoved. A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/tuckwoodstock/status/1272788511117021184\">video</a> Woodstock posted later on Twitter appears to show the incident. “Police were aiming guns at a protester next to me, and I got caught in the protester’s umbrella and then slammed into by police and then dropped my phone and then picked it up to see the protester get jumped on by many police,” Woodstock says in the tweet.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And this, my friends, is when police were aiming guns at a protester next to me, and I got caught in the protester’s umbrella and then slammed into by police and then dropped my phone and then picked it up to see the protester get jumped on by many police. So. Content warning. <a href=\"https://t.co/Phx5UnqXGg\">pic.twitter.com/Phx5UnqXGg</a></p>— Tuck Woodstock (@tuckwoodstock) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/tuckwoodstock/status/1272788511117021184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 16, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nlpu7\">Woodstock declined to comment further about the incident. Derek Carmon, a spokesman for the PPB, said he was unable to comment on this incident due to the ongoing ACLU litigation.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Unicorn Riot reporter assaulted by crowd defending Columbus statue in Philadelphia",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unicorn-riot-reporter-assaulted-crowd-defending-columbus-statue-philadelphia/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-26T19:20:39.432898Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:56:15.632782Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:56:15.537076Z",
"date": "2020-06-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Philadelphia",
"longitude": -75.16362,
"latitude": 39.95238,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dhk42\">A reporter for nonprofit media outlet Unicorn Riot was hit repeatedly while he filmed protesters who said they were defending a statue of Christopher Columbus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 14, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"gzewc\">The night before, on June 13, a group of vigilantes had gathered at South Philadelphia’s Marconi Plaza to defend its Columbus statue. Monuments of the Italian explorer and other figures across the country had been toppled or vandalized during continuing protests sparked by the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That evening, Schiano had filmed a group of men carrying bats and guns at the statue before he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unicorn-riot-reporter-assaulted-his-bike-damaged-philadelphia/\">assaulted and had his bike tires slashed</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"960zk\">On June 14, a much larger crowd of demonstrators claiming to defend the statue converged on Marconi Plaza, drawing counterprotesters. Schiano said when he arrived in the late afternoon, police were trying to separate the two sides but failed to keep them apart, resulting in several heated confrontations.</p><p data-block-key=\"zolrx\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1272371618778689536\">In one video Unicorn Riot shared on Twitter</a> that night, Schiano asks a man if he can tell him what was going on.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ow9i\">“How about I beat you the fuck up? Get the fuck out of here,” says the man before walking away.</p><p data-block-key=\"loopo\">Another man sitting next to Schiano then says: “Listen, you’re not supposed to be here, like, videoing everyone, you know what I’m saying?”</p><p data-block-key=\"uxrty\">It then appears Schiano is repeatedly hit by different members of the group surrounding him over the course of 30 seconds. Schiano said his camcorder was <a href=\"https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1272385088978911232\">smashed into a tree</a> by one of the people in the group, damaging the equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"k0s7p\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/GeorgeSolis/status/1272332958385475585\">Footage from a 6abc Action News reporter</a> captured part of the incident, showing a crowd converging on Schiano and attacking him as he filmed. “Kill him!” a voice can be heard shouting. “That’s the one from yesterday!” another voice yells as Schiano is punched and shoved.</p><p data-block-key=\"ej705\"><a href=\"https://vimeo.com/429527076#t=23m40s\">In video footage</a> from the aftermath of the incident, members of the crowd can be heard taunting Schiano and threatening bodily harm as police officers intervene to keep them away from the reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"ntk8t\">Like the previous evening, the assaults on Schiano appeared to come from members of the group that said they were there to protect the Columbus statue.</p><p data-block-key=\"uj49v\">Schiano told the Tracker that at another point, he was standing near a police officer when a man came and tackled him to the ground. He added that at several points, people in the crowd tried to take his phone from him.</p><p data-block-key=\"xbf9g\">“I was standing within inches of a cop when this happened, too, who didn’t do anything,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ipacz\">He added that he also saw assaults on counterprotesters by members of the group purporting to defend the statue that didn’t attract police intervention.</p><p data-block-key=\"8g3nd\">The Philadelphia Police Department declined to comment on the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"bueiv\">Schiano said he tried to leave the plaza several times that evening, only to realize he was being followed, at which point he decided to stay, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"g5ze3\">Schiano said he has covered dangerous and traumatic events previously, like the far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in the summer of 2017, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unicorn-riot-journalist-attacked-while-reporting-charlottesville/\">where he was also attacked</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"n2bxi\">“This felt like that,” he said. “It was like the stress and adrenaline of things I’ve experienced before, but dialed up to 1,000.”</p><p data-block-key=\"33x8c\">He told the Tracker that he had slight swelling on his lip where he got punched and “serious bruising” under his right arm from the blows he received.</p><p data-block-key=\"n1693\">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 these incidents <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"quantity": 1,
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}
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"name": "Pennsylvania",
"abbreviation": "PA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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{
"title": "Portland Tribune reporter struck with munition, pushed by police amid protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/portland-tribune-reporter-struck-with-munition-pushed-by-police-amid-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T16:29:44.171889Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:41:32.609941Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:41:32.517654Z",
"date": "2020-06-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"uznvq\">Zane Sparling, a journalist for the Portland Tribune, said he was shoved by an officer and then hit in the foot with a crowd-control munition while covering demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, on June 13, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"zilrm\">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=\"qf4zx\">In Portland, nightly protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. But even after the curfew was lifted, Portland law enforcement continued to target journalists, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed on June 28 by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU lawsuit resulted in a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-temporary-restraining-order-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">temporary restraining order</a> against the Portland Police Bureau, and eventually led to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">preliminary injunction</a> in July barring the police from harming or impeding journalists and legal observers.</p><p data-block-key=\"wsc7d\">On the evening of June 13, Sparling told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was covering demonstrators who were yet again gathering in Chapman Square downtown. A little after 10:30 p.m., the Portland police declared the protest an “unlawful assembly” and began to fire crowd-control munitions and tear gas to clear the square. Sparling followed a group of about 50 protesters who fled the area and then formed a line on Southwest Main Street, next to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.</p><p data-block-key=\"wlfwr\">As the police were warning protesters that the downtown area was closed and they needed to leave, Sparling — who was filming the scene with his cellphone and had a camera strapped around his neck — moved to the sidewalk so he could document the scene away from the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"gujpk\">“As a journalist, I was staying out because that’s when people want observers on the ground: when munitions are going and orders are being enforced with force,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"mhgwt\">When the police started to charge toward the demonstrators, Sparling turned the corner onto Southwest Park Avenue. “But the officer appeared around the corner as well,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7covb\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1272058454799028226\">Footage</a> that Starling posted on Twitter at around 11:50 p.m. shows an officer running around the corner and — right after Sparling calls out that he was “media” — shoving him into a wall. The officer could be heard saying, “I don’t give a shit.” and ordering him to leave the area.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Portland Police charge protesters tonight. <br><br>Officer: Move! <br><br>Me: MEDIA! <br><br>Officer: I don’t give a shit! Go! <br><br>I was shoved into the wall, then hit in the heel by some sort of crowd control munition. I’m fine <a href=\"https://t.co/daPElkEb6J\">pic.twitter.com/daPElkEb6J</a></p>— Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1272058454799028226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 14, 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=\"cxeuc\">“I didn’t break any bones. But it was a scary moment,” Sparling told the Tracker. “I was on the sidewalk not doing anything other than my job, other than being there and trying to observe.”</p><p data-block-key=\"h3iyj\">Sparling wasn’t unsure if the police targeted him because he was a journalist, noting that although his camera was hanging from around his neck, his press badge may have been hard to see.</p><p data-block-key=\"s9ztl\">After getting shoved, Sparling walked down the rest of the block to leave the area. As he was walking away, a crowd-control munition hit his foot, leaving a red welt, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"aypzz\">The Portland Tribune, Sparling’s employer, and The Oregonian, Nakamura’s employer, have both filed complaints about the incidents with the Portland Independent Police Review, an independent agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct.</p><p data-block-key=\"c27or\">“Both of those investigations are underway,” Ross Caldwell, the director of the Independent Police Review, told the Tracker. “We have a huge volume of cases, as you can imagine, so everything is taking longer than it normally does.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4e5gy\">In response to questions about the incidents involving Nakamura and Sparling, marched Carmon, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, told the Tracker, “We will not be commenting in regard to these two incidents at this time” because “there is a TRO in place and because the preliminary injunction is still an open litigation case.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d3diq\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Oregon",
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{
"title": "Unicorn Riot reporter assaulted, his bike damaged in Philadelphia",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unicorn-riot-reporter-assaulted-his-bike-damaged-philadelphia/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-22T19:32:10.000453Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:25:49.961128Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:25:49.822819Z",
"date": "2020-06-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Philadelphia",
"longitude": -75.16362,
"latitude": 39.95238,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lc8b8\">On June 13, 2020, Unicorn Riot reporter Chris Schiano was physically assaulted and saw his bike’s tires slashed while filming protesters who claimed to be protecting a statue of Christopher Columbus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.</p><p data-block-key=\"3borl\">After statues — including some depicting Christopher Columbus — were toppled or vandalized in cities across the country during protests over the police killing of George Floyd, a group of individuals stationed themselves at South Philadelphia’s Marconi Plaza on June 13 saying they were protecting the Columbus statue there.</p><p data-block-key=\"kc8d0\">Schiano told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he headed to Marconi Plaza after he saw a brief news article online that featured a photo of an armed man by the statue. Upon arriving on his bicycle, Schiano was quickly confronted by men asking who he was and what he was doing. He said he attempted to calm the situation and explained he was there as a journalist. However, he was assaulted within minutes of his arrival after he took out his camcorder and began filming.</p><p data-block-key=\"nyfz9\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1271957058426986496\">In one video Unicorn Riot tweeted that evening</a>, Schiano appeared to be in a confrontation with several men who had come to the statue.</p><p data-block-key=\"vsbi4\">“Sir, I’m just here taking a video of you with your bat,” says Schiano. “You’re here at the Columbus statue with a bat. That seems newsworthy to me. That’s all. Any of you guys want to tell me why you’re out here today?”</p><p data-block-key=\"7htac\">One man tells him that they are there “protecting history.” Then, the man with a bat Schiano was originally addressing begins taunting him, saying “look at you, you’re fucking shaking. How scared are you?” As he says that somebody else appears to hit Schiano.</p><p data-block-key=\"de4f4\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1271956591605092355\">In a second video,</a> a man in a red-shirt walks up to Schiano holding a baseball bat and appears to slap him. About 14 seconds later, Schiano says “this guy just hit me in the head” and the camera pans to a man in the group surrounding Schiano hauling away his bicycle. Schiano can be heard asking for his bicycle to be returned before the camera shakes violently and there are sounds of a struggle. The clip ends with a man slashing the bike’s tires with a knife.</p><p data-block-key=\"8r10d\">After those assaults, Schiano said police came and formed a line in front of him. He said some protesters continued to try to come at him and a<a href=\"https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1271966766764371971\"> video he posted on Twitter</a> showed one being shoved away by police while yelling “I don’t want him fucking filming.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wb72h\">Later,<a href=\"https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1271968811886022656\"> a police officer approached Schiano</a> and ordered him to leave the area, saying that it was a “volatile situation” and Schiano’s presence was “aggravating the situation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"m469d\">Schiano told the officer he was there as a journalist to document what was going on.</p><p data-block-key=\"qt1qy\">“And you’re inciting a riot,” said the officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"mssvy\">Fearing arrest if he did not comply, Schiano left the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"tiac8\">“I walked away with my slashed tires bike under threat of arrest to these cheering sounds of basically everybody who was there,” he told the Tracker. “It was like they’d just won a baseball game because the cops told me to leave.”</p><p data-block-key=\"64jtt\">Contacted by the Tracker, the Philadelphia Police Department declined to comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"x9txv\">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 these incidents <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
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}
],
"state": {
"name": "Pennsylvania",
"abbreviation": "PA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
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"Christopher Schiano (Unicorn Riot)"
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},
{
"title": "Oregonian journalist pushed by Portland police while covering protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/oregonian-journalist-pushed-by-portland-police-while-covering-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-20T19:13:24.344528Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:41:07.417920Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:41:07.319710Z",
"date": "2020-06-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"p7rr4\">Beth Nakamura, a photojournalist for the Oregonian, said she was pushed by officers then struck with a baton while covering demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, on June 13, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"8xlnv\">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=\"qcnrm\">In Portland, nightly protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. But even after the curfew was lifted, Portland law enforcement continued to target journalists, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed on June 28 by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU lawsuit resulted in a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-temporary-restraining-order-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">temporary restraining order</a> against the Portland Police Bureau, and eventually led to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">preliminary injunction</a> in July barring the police from harming or impeding journalists and legal observers.</p><p data-block-key=\"qb7m2\">In the early morning hours of June 13, Nakamura was covering protests in downtown Portland around the Multnomah County Justice Center, which houses a jail, courtrooms and a police precinct. Most protesters were congregating in Chapman Square, across the street from the Justice Center.</p><p data-block-key=\"54mlc\">At around 12:30 a.m., Portland police <a href=\"https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/06/12/28534140/live-updates-protesting-police-violence-in-portland-on-friday-june-12\">declared</a> the demonstration an “unlawful assembly.” Officers fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades, then rushed into the park to clear the area of demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"iqqcq\">“It’s a chaotic scene that unfolds quickly,” Nakamura told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “I was photographing and held up — which I always do — my I.D. and my camera. I was at the time saying, ‘Press, press.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"06ikh\">When the police instructed her to move north, Nakamura obeyed.</p><p data-block-key=\"gstd5\">“I turned around and I was walking, and I got pushed by a police officer,” she said. “Then I got batoned, slammed on the back as I’m walking.” When she tried to explain that she was with The Oregonian, the officer said, ‘I don’t give a fuck who you are,’” according to Nakamura.</p><p data-block-key=\"ds0ta\">“Physical assault is not normal,” said Nakamura. “It’s not something anyone should tolerate well. It’s not right.”</p><p data-block-key=\"phuvv\">After Nakamura <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bethnakamura/status/1272551330184228864\">tweeted</a> about the incident a couple of days later, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also holds the title of police commissioner, responded in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/tedwheeler/status/1272597259150999553\">tweet</a>: “This is extremely concerning. Journalists need to be able to cover the protests safely. I know @portlandpolice works hard to protect the rights of our press, but there are alarming incidents that need to be addressed.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">While covering protests I was slammed by a baton from behind by police. Just before that I was shoved hard. I'd made it clear I was press (both hands up, ID in left hand, camera in right). This happened sometime between 12-1 Friday night.</p>— Beth Nakamura (@bethnakamura) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bethnakamura/status/1272551330184228864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 15, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7ah7k\">The Oregonian, Nakamura’s employer, and the Portland Tribune, Sparling’s employer, have both filed complaints about the incidents with the Portland Independent Police Review, an independent agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct.</p><p data-block-key=\"hm53p\">“Both of those investigations are underway,” Ross Caldwell, the director of the Independent Police Review, told the Tracker. “We have a huge volume of cases, as you can imagine, so everything is taking longer than it normally does.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5c5ib\">In response to questions about the incidents involving Nakamura and Sparling, marched Carmon, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, told the Tracker, “We will not be commenting in regard to these two incidents at this time” because “there is a TRO in place and because the preliminary injunction is still an open litigation case.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bg5xt\">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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{
"title": "Photojournalist says Portland police shot him in the back with rubber bullet",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-says-portland-police-shot-him-back-rubber-bullet/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-22T14:24:14.364495Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:38:43.701228Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:38:43.621029Z",
"date": "2020-06-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"s0ljd\">A freelance photojournalist said police shot him in the back with a rubber bullet while he was covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on June 12, 2020. The photojournalist asked to remain anonymous out of concerns for his safety and privacy.</p><p data-block-key=\"8sdnl\">Many protests broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. 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><p data-block-key=\"auwpq\">In Portland, nightly protests over Floyd’s death began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare a curfew that lasted three days. Even after the nightly curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The photojournalist provided a declaration in support of the suit, which resulted in a temporary restraining order and an <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a> by the Portland Police Bureau in July not to arrest, harm or impede any journalists or legal observers.</p><p data-block-key=\"dy1ai\">On June 12, the journalist said he was taking photographs of the protests near the Multnomah County Justice Center — which houses a jail, courtrooms and a Portland police precinct — when he was shot from behind.</p><p data-block-key=\"k3xap\">“I was taking photos near the Justice Center when police shot me in the back with a rubber bullet,” he said in the court declaration, noting that he had a press pass and he is clearly identified as a journalist. “Fortunately, I was wearing a backpack, or I may have been seriously injured. Shortly after this, the police swarmed the crowd from behind, physically assaulting and beating people at random.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lasmr\">The shooting made him fearful of covering the demonstrations after that. “After this incident, I stopped reporting on the protests because the actions and attitude of the police made me feel unsafe,” said the journalist, who declined to comment further for the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"w3kqv\">In response to questions about the journalist’s account, Portland Police Bureau spokesman Derek Carmon told the Tracker, “We will not be commenting” because “there is a TRO in place and because the preliminary injunction is still an open litigation case.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bwjbc\">Portland City Attorney Tracy Reeve similarly said, “We are not able to comment on pending litigation.”</p></div>",
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"shot / shot at"
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{
"title": "Journalist shot with crowd-control munitions at Portland, Oregon, protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shot-with-crowd-control-munitions-at-portland-oregon-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-05T20:20:00.726211Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:50:34.334763Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:50:34.256437Z",
"date": "2020-06-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"emn0k\">Independent journalist Melissa “Claudio” Lewis was shot by police officers in Portland, Oregon, with a foam baton round — a crowd-control munition similar to a rubber bullet — while documenting a Black Lives Matter protest on June 12, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"frlum\">The protest was one of the many that broke out across the U.S. that year in response to police violence and in support of the BLM movement following the murder of George Floyd. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-01-01&date_upper=2020-12-31&tags=Black+Lives+Matter%2Cprotest\">As the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented</a>, an unprecedented number of journalists were assaulted and arrested at these protests, including in Oregon, where the ACLU later <a href=\"https://www.aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">filed</a> a class-action lawsuit on behalf of journalists and legal observers who were targeted and attacked by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"7mibl\">Lewis joined a separate civil suit on Nov. 1, 2020, charging that the city of Portland, Multnomah County, and various law enforcement officials violated the constitutional rights of people with disabilities during BLM protests that year.</p><p data-block-key=\"5dklm\">Lewis and three other Oregonians with disabilities who either documented or participated in the protests accused law enforcement of assaulting them multiple times and of generally acting without regard for their disabilities. Lewis has photosensitive epilepsy and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that increases the risk of injury and makes it difficult for her to move quickly.</p><p data-block-key=\"4l65p\">In the complaint, Lewis describes standing in a crowd near the Multnomah County Justice Center in downtown Portland at the June 12 protest. As protesters shook the fence around the building, the complaint says Portland Police Bureau officers shot Lewis in the leg with the foam baton from less than three feet away, although she had her hands raised and was not touching the fence.</p><p data-block-key=\"esnlv\">Lewis said she felt severe pain after the blow, a reaction linked to her Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. She went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with an injury to a leg muscle, the complaint says. She continued to experience pain afterward, could not put weight on her leg and was forced to use crutches for two weeks, and, later, a cane.</p><p data-block-key=\"7tpdk\">In October 2021, the court approved a motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims in the lawsuit, ruling that they had failed to prove that the city customarily violated the constitutional rights of people with disabilities when responding to protests. The plaintiffs then filed an amended complaint, which did not include Lewis.</p><p data-block-key=\"c0jcc\">Lewis told the Tracker that she ultimately withdrew from the suit because of issues with her legal representation.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ttipr\">Police at a June 2020 protest in Portland, Oregon, after the murder of George Floyd; journalist Melissa “Claudio” Lewis says police shot her with a foam baton at a protest there that month.</p>",
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],
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},
{
"title": "Dover Post journalist detained despite repeatedly identifying as press",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/dover-post-journalist-detained-despite-repeatedly-identifying-press/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-29T20:08:10.489619Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:39:03.937678Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:39:03.844827Z",
"date": "2020-06-09",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Camden",
"longitude": -75.54187,
"latitude": 39.11345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"d6zp1\">Andre Lamar, a photographer and reporter for the Dover Post, was detained as he covered protests against police violence in Delaware on June 9, 2020, according to his <a href=\"https://www.doverpost.com/news/20200610/attorneys-state-leaders-denounce-arrests-of-floyd-protesters-in-camden\">outlet</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"97il7\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"y07jg\">The demonstrations continued in Dover on June 9, as protesters marched to nearby Camden along Route 13, according to <a href=\"https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2020/06/09/gannett-reporter-arrested-covering-protest-dover/5331102002/\">news reports</a>. Several dozen protesters blocked traffic near a Wawa convenience store.</p><p data-block-key=\"68htl\">In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/doverpost/videos/1228867454129044/\">Facebook Live video</a> posted shortly after his release, Lamar explained the protesters had used the tactic of blocking traffic for several days as a way to engage the public with their message as the police stood by. There was tension between the protesters and police on June 9, Lamar said in his <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/doverpost/videos/695870007915620/\">reporting</a> on Facebook Live, but the protest remained non-violent.</p><p data-block-key=\"kysdd\">The <a href=\"https://doverpolice.org/2020/06/10/dover-police-statement-regarding-june-9th-actions-with-delaware-state-police/\">Dover Police</a> claimed the protesters had become “more hostile” to motorists and pedestrians in recent days, leading to 911 calls and nearly missed traffic accidents. According to the <a href=\"https://dsp.delaware.gov/2020/06/10/update-delaware-state-police-investigating-disorderly-group-resulting-in-several-arrests-camden/\">Delaware State Police</a>, the situation on June 9 escalated when a police vehicle was not allowed to pass and the officer exited the vehicle. Law enforcement warned the protesters to stop blocking traffic and get off the road, the state police statement said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ijsra\">Lamar captured his detention on a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/doverpost/videos/3598774303482628/\">Facebook Live</a> video posted around 6:30 p.m. In the video, Lamar films as officers arrest protesters on the grass next to the road. The officers “slammed them down to the ground,” Lamar says in the video. “There are people laying down on the ground right now and we don’t know why.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jzo2y\">In the video, Lamar asks officers why they are arresting protesters. But he does not get an answer. He appears to place the camera down on the grass. Seconds later, Lamar begins to ask “Sir, why are people…” when a Dover Police officer grabs him suddenly.</p><p data-block-key=\"bewjk\">“I’m with the press! I’m with the press!” Lamar yells as the camera shakes chaotically, capturing glimpses of several Dover Police officers placing him into custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"my6b8\"><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLx0kai9MOs\">Drone footage</a> released by the Dover Police show officers completing the arrests of protesters on the side of the road. Lamar stands to the side and bends down to access his backpack. A Dover Police officer leaves one individual already in custody and begins to approach Lamar.</p><p data-block-key=\"dyjc5\">The Dover Police said the officer was concerned for public and officer safety, not knowing what Lamar was retrieving from his bag. Throughout the week some protesters had been armed, Dover Police said.</p><p data-block-key=\"43nlc\">Suddenly the officer charges at Lamar and grabs him. Two other Dover Police officers nearby assist in restraining Lamar.</p><p data-block-key=\"d80qc\">“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Lamar says to the officers in his Facebook Live video. Officers tell him to stop resisting. “I have a press badge on,” Lamar says.</p><p data-block-key=\"nhlzl\">“You may, but you gotta listen to us, OK? Just relax,” an officer responds.</p><p data-block-key=\"er9wv\">An officer picks up Lamar’s phone, which is still filming his Facebook Live video. Lamar addresses his audience. “You’ve got no help here,” an officer says. “The best thing you can do is be quiet, alright?”</p><p data-block-key=\"c9kh5\">For at least nine times in two minutes, Lamar identifies as a journalist. The livestream ends as an officer places Lamar’s camera into his bag.</p><p data-block-key=\"wvuya\">Lamar and 21 others were taken into custody and transported to Delaware State Police Troop 3, the state and Dover Police said. Lamar was released without charge after police confirmed he was working as a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"xdkbv\">One other individual was released without charge. Twenty were charged with a combination of misdemeanor charges including disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstruction, state police said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ro32l\">Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a <a href=\"https://attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/executive/department-of-justice-review-of-june-9-2020-camden-protests/\">statement</a> that "neither a prosecution of these protesters, nor an investigation into the police—both of which have been demanded, with equal volume—would serve a good purpose." Jennings added that her office asked Delaware State Police to release Lamar immediately upon learning he was in custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"ikj9u\">Delaware Governor John Carney condemned Lamar’s arrest on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JohnCarneyDE/status/1270529883299631104\">Twitter</a>. “Reporters have a fundamental right to cover the demonstrations we’re seeing in Delaware and across our country,” he wrote. “They should not be arrested for doing their jobs. That’s not acceptable.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yjt6m\">After his release, Lamar continued to report on a livestream from outside the police station, where family members and supporters of the arrested protesters had gathered.</p><p data-block-key=\"ni9ho\">“Honestly, I’m pissed,” Lamar, who is Black, says in the live video. “I’m pissed because this should never have happened. And I’m more pissed because I’m privileged. I have a badge. That’s why I believe I’m still not inside Troop 3 right now.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8aqqs\">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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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"pi2v5\">Drone footage published on the Dover Police YouTube account shows officers detaining journalist Andre Lamar, on the left side of the image, while he was covering protests against police violence on June 9, 2020.</p>",
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist attacked at scene of statue vandalism in Richmond",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-attacked-at-scene-of-statue-vandalism-in-richmond/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-12T19:00:16.369056Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:05:36.004002Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:05:35.923343Z",
"date": "2020-06-09",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Richmond",
"longitude": -77.46026,
"latitude": 37.55376,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"inhw0\">On June 9, 2020, a photojournalist with NBC 12 in Richmond, Virginia, was attacked by individuals tearing down a Christopher Columbus statue in Byrd Park.</p><p data-block-key=\"1deio\">Confederate and Columbus statues were <a href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53005243\">torn down and vandalized</a> in several cities in June, during protests against police violence and racial inequality.</p><p data-block-key=\"oz235\">In Richmond, the NBC 12 photojournalist was covering the scene with his colleague Brent Solomon, who <a href=\"https://twitter.com/solomonreports/status/1270526859034398722\">tweeted</a>, “Violent protesters rip off Christoper Columbus statue, throw it into the water, attack our photographer.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBC12?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NBC12</a> BREAKING: Violent protesters rip off Christoper Columbus statue, throw it into the water, attack our photographer. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Richmond?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Richmond</a></p>— Brent Solomon (@solomonreports) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/solomonreports/status/1270526859034398722?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 10, 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=\"bt9m2\">Solomon did not name the photographer in his tweet, and Solomon said that they would “politely decline” to comment on the case to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"aj577\">According to <a href=\"https://www.nbc12.com/2020/06/09/christopher-columbus-statue-torn-down-thrown-lake-by-protesters/\">an article</a> the TV channel published about the Columbus statue vandalism, the statue was torn down, spray painted, set on fire and dumped in a lake. The station’s report said that “at the height of the destruction,” some individuals surrounded the photographer, “demanding he leave the scene.” Without naming the photographer, the article said the individuals waved boards in his face, grabbed at him and attacked his camera. The article did not state if the camera was damaged, but noted that the photographer was “able to return to work after the incident.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7ef0f\">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 these incidents <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Multimedia journalist hit by crowd-control projectile in Seattle protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multimedia-journalist-hit-crowd-control-projectile-seattle-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-05T21:29:57.197536Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T00:13:45.517259Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T00:13:45.440321Z",
"date": "2020-06-08",
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"city": "Seattle",
"longitude": -122.33207,
"latitude": 47.60621,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1sdnt\">Independent multimedia journalist Jordan Pickett was hit and injured by a crowd-control projectile fired by law enforcement officers while he covered protests against police violence in Seattle on June 8, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"vkxtl\">The Seattle demonstrations were one of many that have swept across the country in response to the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"s49ij\">On the evening of Sunday, June 7, most protesters were gathered in one area near Capitol Hill along East Pine Street and 10th Avenue, Pickett told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He had been covering the action in the front, but began to slowly retreat as police officers deployed tear gas to force protesters to disperse.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ntnj\">“At that point, a flash bang grenade went off almost directly on my foot and that was scary enough that I started to push back further,” Pickett remembered. “I was walking with both of my cameras held up to try to appear as not intimidating as possible.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hji5q\">Pickett said he also had a press badge around his neck and large pieces of white duct tape with the word “PRESS” written in black Sharpie on his hat and backpack.</p><p data-block-key=\"miuby\">At 12:23 a.m. on June 8, officers hit Pickett with what he believes was a 40mm baton round in the back of his right thigh, he told the Tracker. In a tweet sent at 3:02 a.m., he wrote the projectile tore through thick jeans from more than 50 feet away, breaking the skin and making him collapse in pain.</p><p data-block-key=\"swfw0\">According to his estimates, officers were still more than 50 feet away. Picket crawled behind a parked car to regain his composure while more tear gas was released around him. He said he was momentarily blinded and still disoriented when he got up and started walking towards Broadway, where a protester sprayed a baking-soda solution in his eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"0ly3d\">“Either officers identified me as press and shot anyway, are shooting so quickly or indiscriminately that they can’t identify their targets first or weren’t aiming for me and shot inaccurately,” Pickett wrote in another tweet. “All three seem problematic.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uxjy4\">On Sept. 25, the law firm of Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore filed a <a href=\"https://www.stritmatter.com/protest-injury\">lawsuit</a> against the city of Seattle and state of Washington on the behalf of “peaceful protesters,” including Pickett, <a href=\"https://www.stritmatter.com/blm-protest-complaint\">claiming</a> the city enabled police officers’ “unreasonable and disproportionate conduct” and the “widescale use of excessive force,” violating rights protected under the First Amendment.</p><p data-block-key=\"xqkd9\">Seattle Police Department spokesman Randy Huserik declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing pending litigation. He confirmed that SWAT officers were deployed but said they do not use baton rounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"thiaa\">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.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"uuuoc\">Shortly after being hit with a crowd-control munition while covering a protest in Seattle on June 8, journalist Jordan Pickett posted these images on Twitter, saying he was clearly identifiable as working press.</p>",
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"student journalism"
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{
"title": "Q13 Fox News crew harassed, assaulted by crowd while reporting in Seattle",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/q13-fox-news-crew-harassed-assaulted-crowd-while-reporting-seattle/",
"first_published_at": "2021-01-04T17:59:13.809417Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:39:43.316224Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:39:43.237448Z",
"date": "2020-06-08",
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"city": "Seattle",
"longitude": -122.33207,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sedwa\">Q13 Fox political correspondent Brandi Kruse and her television news crew were targeted, followed and harassed by a group of unidentified people while the journalists covered protests in Seattle, Washington, on June 8, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"rh8y4\">Kruse was documenting nightly demonstrations organized in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"4f81i\">According to<a href=\"https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-area-protests-live-updates-for-monday-june-8/\"> news reports</a>, on June 8 the Seattle Police Department withdrew from its East Precinct on Capitol Hill and left the area to protesters, who continued to demonstrate and<a href=\"https://twitter.com/BrandiKruse/status/1270213502557278209?s=20\"> host speakers</a>. Earlier that afternoon, Kruse retweeted a<a href=\"https://twitter.com/BrandiKruse/status/1270133232374132736?s=20\"> photo</a> of Seattle police officers moving equipment out of the East Precinct station.</p><p data-block-key=\"v7yfn\">In the evening, Kruse and her crew with the Seattle-area Fox affiliate were targeted by protesters and harassed for approximately 15 minutes, according to an unedited<a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=600727890649078\"> video</a> of the incident that she shared on Facebook. Kruse said she posted a considerable amount of material about the incident on Twitter and Facebook, but declined to comment further.</p><p data-block-key=\"jo33a\">“Our crew was targeted, stalked, harassed, and assaulted,” Kruse wrote in her video post. “The level of vitriol from one member of the mob, who claimed she was a ‘social worker,’ was like nothing I've ever experienced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"u2ksv\">The video begins when Kruse is speaking to some of the protesters near her. One individual is filming the scene on his phone and says, “Y’all spread misinformation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a2qdx\">Kruse responds: “You haven’t even heard our report yet.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q4c20\">Kruse attempts to explain what she hopes to cover and asks those confronting her to not swear on camera. (They continue to do so.) As Kruse tries to lead her crew away, the same individual yells out to other protesters in the area, “This is Q13 Fox. Don’t let them get a second of news. They’re trying to make us look bad.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7gc7w\">Kruse asks the cameraperson to continue filming. Two minutes into the video, a small crowd around her begins to chant, “Fuck Fox News.” As Kruse and her crew begin to walk faster, the crowd pursues them and individuals can be heard yelling things like “fake news,” “get the fuck out of here” and “you should be ashamed of yourself.” Members of the crowd also can be seen taking photographs and filming as they go.</p><p data-block-key=\"ktffa\">When one individual approaches Kruse while yelling in her face, calls of “don’t touch her” can be heard from the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"5p7nc\">For several minutes, Kruse and her crew walk down various streets, always followed closely by a group of protesters. Occasionally, she responds to protesters’ questions and remarks, explaining that Q13 is a local station, that she lives in the area and that she has already been reporting for four hours that evening. Protesters say they don’t want Fox News in the neighborhood. One says: “You are destroying the country.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wqh2w\">Q13 is owned by Fox Television Stations, a subsidiary of Fox Corp.</p><p data-block-key=\"s31vn\">At 9:48 in the video, Kruse stops in front of several businesses and the crowd gathers close around her. Most of the individuals have masks on. At 10:35, one person appears to hit the side of Kruse’s face with an extended umbrella, so she asks her cameraperson to “get her on camera because she physically assaulted us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b70gi\">The yelling escalates and it is difficult for Kruse to communicate with the crowd. At one point, she says, “I don’t mind if you yell. I have no issue with you expressing your opinion.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jh8rc\">An individual near her asks why she works for Fox News. Kruse responds: “I work for Q13. We’re a local news station.”</p><p data-block-key=\"poje0\">One individual tells her that “nobody is going to hurt you,” but asks her to leave. As she continues to discuss with her crew whether to stay or go, the same individual says again, “You’re provoking us by filming. People don’t want to be on camera. We’re trying to get you out.”</p><p data-block-key=\"o1mwd\">Eventually, Kruse and her crew walk towards a nearby fire station and are let in. Once inside, the news crew is ushered toward the back of the building and the video ends.</p><p data-block-key=\"eg5mj\">In the comments below the Facebook post, Kruse explained that one reason she posted the full clip was so there would be no dispute about what happened.</p><p data-block-key=\"uzlsg\">“The mob that accosted us did not represent or reflect the entire group of protesters,” she later<a href=\"https://twitter.com/BrandiKruse/status/1272649737661845505\"> tweeted</a>. “It’s not fair to blame that violence on everyone, just like it’s not realistic to say everyone has been peaceful.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jv1hg\">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>",
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{
"title": "Village Portland editor sprayed by police while covering Portland protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/village-portland-editor-sprayed-by-police-while-covering-portland-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T16:23:44.023519Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:42:50.533315Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:42:50.442864Z",
"date": "2020-06-07",
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"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8rqkc\">Cory Elia, an editor at Village Portland and host of a KBOO podcast, was deliberately sprayed with tear gas while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, during the late hours of June 6, 2020, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed by ACLU of Oregon.</p><p data-block-key=\"216xw\">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=\"9nsxd\">In Portland, nightly protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Even after the curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to the ACLU suit. The suit led to an <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a> by the Portland Police Bureau in July not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests. Wheeler later banned the police from using tear gas as a form of crowd control on Sept. 10.</p><p data-block-key=\"fpkyc\">Just before midnight on June 6, Elia was attacked while filming police clearing out protesters in Chapman Square downtown. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1jMJgXgMzjlxL\">live video</a> that Elia posted on Twitter, an officer can be seen turning toward him and spraying him in the face and on the camera. “They just sprayed me!” Elia can be heard yelling. “I’m down, I can’t see,” he said, adding that he had been holding up his press pass.</p><p data-block-key=\"qqs07\">“Police knew he was press when they attacked him,” the ACLU complaint says. Elia ended up going to the hospital to be treated.</p><p data-block-key=\"waudp\">The ACLU filed the complaint on June 28 on behalf of multiple journalists. On July 8, Elia and Lesley McLam, a colleague at Village Portland and KBOO radio station, filed a <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/07/two-independent-journalists-file-suit-against-portland-police-county-sheriffs-deputies-and-state-police.html\">civil lawsuit</a> against the city, the state, and multiple law enforcement officers for allegedly violating their constitutional rights and for battery, assault, negligence and false arrest. They are also seeking compensation for their injuries and punitive damages.</p><p data-block-key=\"p43lp\">Asked in an interview about his decision to participate in the suit, Elia told the Tracker, “If these instances are not seen, not heard about, not reported, they can continue. It results in a very dangerous situation. Any reporter out there can be subjected to this treatment without any kind of consequence or accountability for those actions.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0fszu\">The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case.</p><p data-block-key=\"v8bkg\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9pea\"><i>Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect that Cory Elia is not a plaintiff in the ACLU of Oregon's lawsuit, but has filed an independent civil rights suit with journalist Lesley McLam.</i></p></div>",
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"name": "Oregon",
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"updates": [
"(2022-07-29 13:22:00+00:00) Independent journalist receives $50,000 to settle lawsuit stemming from arrest, assaults at protests in 2020",
"(2022-04-28 00:00:00+00:00) City of Portland pays two journalists $55,000 to settle lawsuit stemming from arrests, assaults at protests in 2020"
],
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{
"title": "Freelance photojournalist hit by police paint projectile while covering Portland protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-hit-police-paint-projectile-while-covering-portland-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-04T19:24:02.788059Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-03-12T17:19:38.701166Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-03-12T17:19:38.598137Z",
"date": "2020-06-07",
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"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dmbac\">Freelance photojournalist Alex Milan Tracy was hit with a green paint projectile fired by police while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on June 7, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ij6d\">The protest was one of many that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. 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><p data-block-key=\"4gqhf\">In Portland, nightly protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Even after the curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a class action suit the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon filed against the Portland Police Bureau in June. Tracy is a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/07-17-20_-_second_amended_complaint_0.pdf\">plaintiff</a> in the suit, which resulted in a temporary restraining order and an <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a> by the city in July not to arrest, harm or impede any journalists or legal observers.</p><p data-block-key=\"iu0hs\">Tracy was covering one of <a href=\"https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/06/07/28516910/live-updates-protesting-police-violence-in-portland-on-sunday-june-7\">three protests</a> in the city on the night of June 7. The protest originated at the Multnomah County Justice Center with a speech by faith leaders. The protest remained peaceful until 11 p.m., when protesters began to shake the fence around the Justice Center and police countered with pepper balls. Around 11:45 p.m., an unlawful assembly was declared and the use of crowd control munitions escalated.</p><p data-block-key=\"8xu54\">As officers cleared the area in front of the Justice Center, Tracy was hit in the lower leg by the police paint marker round, according to the ACLU declaration. Tracy wasn’t available for further comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"1frbb\">In a video Tracy <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AlexMilanTracy/status/1269915899131117568\">tweeted</a> of when he got hit, green paint can be seen on the ground where he had been standing. He also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AlexMilanTracy/status/1270141298402451456\">tweeted</a> a picture of his pants covered in green paint below the knee.</p><p data-block-key=\"5vol7\">Just before midnight, Tracy fell while running from a police charge. “I fell backwards on a curb, got up and turned around and was seconds away from getting grabbed by riot police who were tackling people to the ground as they made arrests,” he said in the declaration. In a video Tracy <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AlexMilanTracy/status/1269928231148244992\">tweeted</a>, he appears to fall about 20 seconds in, and then a protester can be seen getting tackled as Tracy gets up to run.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"und\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://t.co/9iyFc2I7R2\">pic.twitter.com/9iyFc2I7R2</a></p>— Alex Milan Tracy (@AlexMilanTracy) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AlexMilanTracy/status/1270141298402451456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 8, 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=\"6bjom\">The PPB has said they wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2020-06-08T000000Z_1906101116_RC2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"b4lkm\">Clouds of tear gas at a protest on June 7, 2020, in Portland, Oregon, after the murder of George Floyd. Photojournalist Alex Milan Tracy was hit with a paint projectile fired by police while documenting the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "3:20-cv-01035",
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"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [
"(2025-03-05 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists settle with Portland, Oregon, over 2020 protest violations"
],
"case_statuses": [
"settled"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Alex Milan Tracy (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist arrested in Portland after asking a police officer for his name",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-in-portland-after-asking-a-police-officer-for-his-name/",
"first_published_at": "2021-03-22T19:51:42.741984Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:47:19.697699Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:47:19.587431Z",
"date": "2020-06-07",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"s1v89\">Bea Lake, who works as a staffer for podcasts hosted by journalist Robert Evans on iHeartMedia radio network, was arrested in Portland, Oregon, while covering protests on June 7, 2020. A video of the incident shows an officer telling Lake to leave, Lake asking for the officer’s name, then Lake being arrested. Police and other records show Lake was charged with “interfering with a Peace Officer” and released several hours later.</p><p data-block-key=\"9s528\">Protesters gathered outside the Multnomah County Justice Center in downtown Portland the night of June 7 as part of ongoing protests against police brutality and racial injustice. Shortly before midnight, law enforcement declared the gathering an unlawful assembly after protesters threw water bottles, cans and other objects over a fence and in the direction of police officers, <a href=\"https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=250860\">according to the Portland Police Bureau</a> and live streams from the scene. The officers ordered anyone in the area to leave and fired flash grenades to clear the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"fixt8\">Lake was filming officers dispersing the crowd when an officer approached and said to leave. At 17:45 into a video recording of the incident posted to Twitter, the officer is heard saying “press passes don’t matter.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7v4z0\">Lake then asks the officer for his name, to which he replies by pointing to a number written on his shirt. He then says “keep moving.” After Lake asks again for his name, the officer says “You want to go to jail? You’re under arrest.” As the officer grabs and arrests Lake, she can be heard shouting repeatedly “I am press, I am not resisting.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">One of my crew members, clearly labeled as press, was just arrested for asking an officer their name. <a href=\"https://t.co/E1zPepX4Ev\">https://t.co/E1zPepX4Ev</a></p>— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1269890280016105472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 8, 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=\"h7uoa\">iHeart Radio’s Evans posted the video on Twitter June 8, followed by the message “She is free with a citation, which we will fight.” The arrest of Lake is described, without giving Lake’s name, on page 21 of a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf\">complaint</a> filed by the ACLU against the city of Portland; Portland <a href=\"https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=250860\">police records</a> note the arrest of Bea Lake, 31, charged with “interfering with a Peace Officer.”</p><p data-block-key=\"v7kh1\">The Tracker was unable to reach Lake and Evans for comment, and it is unclear if the charge is still pending against Lake. The Portland Police Bureau did not respond to an email seeking comment on the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"7bhyr\">In July 2020, Lake and Evans joined a class action <a href=\"https://dockets.justia.com/docket/oregon/ordce/3:2020cv01142/153526\">lawsuit</a> against the city of Portland. In the complaint, the journalists alleged that police officers used unnecessary force and interfered with their abilities to do their jobs as members of the press during the protests, according to <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/07/city-of-portland-now-faces-a-3rd-class-action-lawsuit-over-police-use-of-force-at-protests.html\">news reports</a>. No information on the status of the lawsuit was available from any of the involved parties as of March 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"7cqkc\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Portland Police Bureau",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-06-08",
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "3:22-cv-00818",
"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": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [
"(2022-06-06 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist refiles federal lawsuit against city of Portland two years after 2020 arrest",
"(2023-10-12 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist reaches settlement with city of Portland following 2020 arrest"
],
"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"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Bea Lake (iHeartMedia)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter shoved by Portland police",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/oregon-public-broadcasting-reporter-shoved-portland-police/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-23T19:08:12.913344Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-03-12T17:26:08.330659Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-03-12T17:26:08.233082Z",
"date": "2020-06-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"putji\">Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Sergio Olmos was shoved by a police officer while covering a protest in downtown Portland, Oregon, in the early morning hours of June 6, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"s5tkj\">Olmos was covering one of the many protests that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. 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><p data-block-key=\"c4xa7\">In Portland, nightly protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Even after the curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a class action suit the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon filed against the Portland Police Bureau in June. The city agreed to <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-07-16_preliminary_injunction.pdf\">a preliminary injunction</a> in July to not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests or impede their work. Olmos is a plaintiff and provided a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf\">declaration</a> in support of the suit.</p><p data-block-key=\"8d926\">Olmos was covering a protest at the Multnomah County Justice Center that began the evening of June 5 and stretched into the next morning. Shortly after 11 p.m., he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1269150140264136705\">tweeted</a> that the PPB had declared an “unlawful assembly.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i6k2a\">Tear gas pushed the protesters further into the downtown, according to a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1269157544871653377\">tweet</a> Olmos posted at 11:41 p.m. Ten minutes later, Olmos <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1269159893937737728\">posted</a> an image of an email from a police spokesperson urging the media to “leave the area please for your safety.” In the tweet accompanying the image, Olmos wrote, “This reporter is staying.”</p><p data-block-key=\"w7enf\">After midnight, the crowd returned to the Justice Center and was soon dispersed by police yet again. Olmos gets shoved by an officer using a baton while leaving the area. “This reporter is shoved by police, I try to vocalize my moments and tell police officer I’m behind him and blocked,” he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1269184050314407936\">tweeted</a> at 1:27 a.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"dq9v6\">The accompanying video shows Olmos filming two police vans from across the street. “I’m going this way,” Olmos can be heard saying to an officer. “Hey, I’m behind you.” Another officer approaches and shoves Olmos with his baton, then points a can of tear gas at him. The officer gestures for him to follow the path of the sidewalk, which appears to have been rerouted for construction. “I didn’t see that, I’m going,” Olmos can be heard saying.</p><p data-block-key=\"ndpzb\">At 4:15 a.m., Olmos posted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1269226525020184577\">footage</a> of the incident from another angle. “I vocalize my movements, telling two police officers I’m behind them. I think the sidewalk is closed and I’m stuck. I call out to police to let them know. Police officer shoves as I explain,” he wrote in the post.</p><p data-block-key=\"jq1t5\">Olmos also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1269185561559838720\">tweeted</a> a photo of himself marked as “press” and wearing a press pass around his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"lcqdf\">“He had his press pass clearly visible,” the <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf\">ACLU court filing</a> said. “Nevertheless, the police attacked him with a baton.”</p><p data-block-key=\"isbc5\">Olmos didn’t respond to a request for comment. The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing the continuing ACLU litigation.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2020-06-08T000000Z_716972961_RC2Y.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"2ngms\">A police officer tackles a protester in this still image from a video shot by journalist Sergio Olmos at a protest against police brutality in Portland, Oregon, on June 7, 2020. Olmos had been shoved by police while reporting the previous night.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "3:20-cv-01035",
"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": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [
"(2025-03-05 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists settle with Portland, Oregon, over 2020 protest violations"
],
"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": [
"Sergio Olmos (Oregon Public Broadcasting)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Photojournalist slammed into wall by police during Miami protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-slammed-wall-police-during-miami-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-01T13:11:09.252922Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:41:02.495600Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:41:02.415512Z",
"date": "2020-06-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Miami",
"longitude": -80.19366,
"latitude": 25.77427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5ciu2\">Freelance photojournalist Sam Navarro said in an interview that he was shoved into a wall by a police officer while covering a protest against police violence in Miami, Florida on June 6, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"lk90t\">The protest was one of many across the country sparked by the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis. Navarro, who was photographing the June 6 demonstration for the Miami Herald, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protest had been peaceful.</p><p data-block-key=\"0is5o\">However, he said, at around 7:30 p.m., a large number of police officers confronted the protesters and declared an unlawful assembly. Navarro said most of the demonstrators left, but a few dozen remained.</p><p data-block-key=\"b9e1q\">Navarro was photographing the scene at the intersection of 107th Avenue and Eighth Street when one protester ran around behind him. He turned and saw police officers advancing rapidly toward him. An officer wearing a helmet and carrying a shield shoved him up against a concrete wall with a raised metal railing on the edge of the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"11akn\">Navarro said the officer let him go almost immediately after the impact, and he resumed photographing the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"wobig\">Navarro said he later had a large bruise on his upper left arm from the impact. His two cameras banged up against the wall, but weren’t damaged, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"czgz4\">The incident was filmed in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/joeflech/status/1269420611480231941?s=20\">video posted on Twitter</a> by Herald reporter Joey Flechas.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">About 25 officers hopped the barricade and slammed two people to the wall with their shields. One was running away. One was a photographer working for the Herald. Another woman sitting on the ground was arrested. This small number of people was declared an “unlawful assembly.” <a href=\"https://t.co/jYpLEjqNrC\">pic.twitter.com/jYpLEjqNrC</a></p>— Joey Flechas (@joeflech) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/joeflech/status/1269420611480231941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 7, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"86rjz\">Later, as police were finishing arresting demonstrators, another officer asked Navarro if he was alright, the photographer said. The officer said he tried to pull Navarro away so he wouldn’t have been caught up when police advanced, but that there wasn’t time.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ln78\">Navarro said he was clearly identifiable as a journalist. He was wearing press credentials on a lanyard around his neck, and carried two cameras with him.</p><p data-block-key=\"cztbr\">The Miami-Dade Police Department didn’t return a request for comment about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"9z2hb\">The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/IMG_5521.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"jiwt4\">Photographer Sam Navarro covering a rally in Miami in July 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Florida",
"abbreviation": "FL"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sam Navarro (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Colorado Springs news station’s car windshield smashed with skateboard",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-springs-news-stations-car-windshield-smashed-with-skateboard/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-30T16:10:58.320391Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:40:41.388762Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:40:41.292451Z",
"date": "2020-06-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Colorado Springs",
"longitude": -104.82136,
"latitude": 38.83388,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"22vgd\">A skateboard thrown at a television news station’s car smashed the vehicle’s windshield and broke the driver’s door near protests against police violence in Colorado Springs, Colorado on June 6, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"np6xd\">Reporter Colette Bordelon was driving the marked KOAA News5 car near Colorado Springs’ City Hall to cover the demonstration on June 6. When she made a left turn on a street heading away from City Hall, someone threw a skateboard at the car. Later that night, Bordelon <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ColetteBordelon/status/1269397907532283904\">tweeted</a> a video showing damage to the car and said: “I can’t open the driver’s side door as a result. Friendly reminder that your local reporters are here to tell your stories.”</p><p data-block-key=\"x1ugr\">A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ColetteBordelon/status/1269397907532283904\">video clip</a> that accompanies the tweet shows a large smash on the left-hand side of the car’s windscreen.</p><p data-block-key=\"gkvjp\">It isn’t clear whether the vehicle was specifically targeted for belonging to a media outlet. “It was pretty close to the protests, but I have no way of knowing if it was a random person or actually a protester,” Boredelon told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"7l0p5\">“There are too many unanswered questions in my specific incident to go ahead and attribute it to an attack on the press, or as related to the protests,” Bordelon said in an email.</p><p data-block-key=\"kf9u3\">Bordelon <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ColetteBordelon/status/1269403436031803393\">tweeted after the incident</a> that she was uninjured, and <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/KOAA/videos/2616132585301212/\">livestreamed on Facebook Live</a> from the scene of the protest that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"d7ozv\">“So everyone knows - I’m totally okay!” she tweeted. “Also, I realize this is an isolated incident, and it doesn’t represent all of the people I have met at these protests over the past week. The main message of the protests is still the story I will share - systemic racism in America.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vhbxj\">Bordelon filed a police report about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"mm35f\">The Colorado Springs demonstration was one of many protests that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement since the end of May. They were sparked by a viral video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"618xj\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"akv5z\">A screenshot from a video taken by journalist Colette Bordelon and posted to Twitter shows damage to her news vehicle.</p>",
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{
"title": "Independent journalist struck with truncheon, pepper sprayed amid Portland protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-struck-with-truncheon-pepper-sprayed-aimd-portland-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-23T10:55:21.060850Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:33:47.721033Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:33:47.616061Z",
"date": "2020-06-06",
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"city": "Portland",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eijo4\">Independent journalist Donovan Farley was struck with a wooden truncheon and pepper sprayed while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, during the late hours of June 6, 2020, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed by ACLU of Oregon.</p><p data-block-key=\"0kj9m\">The Portland-based journalist was covering one of the many protests that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. 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><p data-block-key=\"9pght\">In Portland, nightly protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Even after the curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to the ACLU suit. The suit led to an <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a> by the Portland Police Bureau in July not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests. Wheeler later banned the police from using tear gas as a form of crowd control on Sept. 10.</p><p data-block-key=\"srof3\">Just before midnight on June 6, Farley began filming police officers arresting a man in Chapman Square downtown, as one officer put his knee on the man’s neck. Farley “had identified himself as press and was filming several police officers kneeling on a protester’s neck, George Floyd-style,” according to the ACLU <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf\">filing</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"yz8wh\">Then, in an attack that was captured on a KATU newsfeed and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TVAyyyy/status/1269526590456643584\">posted on Twitter</a> by Theo Van Alst, an associate professor at Portland State University, one of the officers pushes Farley back with his hand before hitting him with a truncheon. The officer can then be seen macing Farley as he turns to walk away, then hitting him and macing him again.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">From the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KATUNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KATUNews</a> feed about 15 minutes ago. This guy gets maced and beaten for filming at the Justice Center <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandProtests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandProtest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandProtest</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/pdx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pdx</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/portland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#portland</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/hGSosEES0m\">pic.twitter.com/hGSosEES0m</a></p>— TVAyyyy, Don’t Go in the Basement 👻 ✶ ✶ ✶ ✶ (@TVAyyyy) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TVAyyyy/status/1269526590456643584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 7, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"di55w\">“I was chased and assaulted because I was a journalist who caught law enforcement behaving in the exact illegal fashion that started this nationwide uproar,” Farley said in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DonovanFarley/status/1269701897377603584\">statement posted on Twitter</a>. While acknowledging that he was vocal in telling the officers to remove their knee from the man’s neck, Farley said he was staying out of the way of the arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"fq6t2\">The first hit with the truncheon injured his lower thigh, Farley said, and the officer also hit him between the shoulders as he was retreating. The shock of that blow is what caused him to turn around, he said, which is when the officer maced him again at close range.</p><p data-block-key=\"zynp5\">“The burst was so intense that for the first second I thought he had taken out the big canister and punched me with it,” said Farley in the statement, adding that he was incapacitated for the remainder of the night.</p><p data-block-key=\"idp7q\">Farley wasn’t available for further comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"iled7\">The ACLU filed the complaint on June 28 on behalf of multiple journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"am9ne\">The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case.</p><p data-block-key=\"af3xs\"><i>Editor's note: This piece has been updated to reflect that Donovan Farley is not among the plaintiffs in the ACLU of Oregon's class-action lawsuit.</i></p></div>",
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"name": "Oregon",
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"(2023-05-17 12:03:00+00:00) City of Portland, Oregon, to pay independent journalist $50,000 to settle lawsuit"
],
"case_statuses": [
"settled"
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"tags": [
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"chemical irritant",
"protest"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
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{
"title": "Investigative reporter hit by munition while covering Portland protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/investigative-reporter-hit-by-munition-while-covering-portland-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T16:25:01.871719Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-05-02T16:40:03.548393Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-05-02T16:40:03.456677Z",
"date": "2020-06-06",
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"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6dkvm\">Robert Evans, a reporter for investigative news site Bellingcat and host of a podcast for iHeartMedia, was hit by a crowd-control munition while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, during the early hours of June 6, 2020, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed by ACLU of Oregon.</p><p data-block-key=\"86vxp\">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=\"8g0ij\">In Portland, nightly protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Even after the curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to the ACLU suit. The suit led to an <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a> by the Portland Police Bureau in July not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests. Wheeler later banned the police from using tear gas as a form of crowd control on Sept. 10.</p><p data-block-key=\"wtlqv\">Evans, who was <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IwriteOK/status/1269506850912780288\">livestreaming</a> the protest, was filming the police clearing Chapman Square when he was hit in the fingers by an impact munition. At about 48 minutes and 40 seconds into the video, Evans can be heard exclaiming after being hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"5rn71\">“They got me real good in the fucking fingers,” Evans can be heard saying, speculating that the munition might be made of glass. “They were shooting at my chest though, because my hand was on my chest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ae6kf\">“I think maybe even aiming at my press pass, because my hand was right next to it,” he added. The ACLU <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf\">complaint</a> notes that Evans was hit in the hand that was holding his press pass, and that his helmet also said “press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"zcixb\">Evans told the Tracker that his fingers were bruised and hurt for a few days. “That one wasn’t serious,” he says, but it was memorable for how targeted he felt.</p><p data-block-key=\"bkmp5\">The ACLU filed the complaint on June 28 on behalf of multiple journalists. Evans and his colleague Bea Lake filed their own civil lawsuit against the city of Portland on July 14.</p><p data-block-key=\"xz1b0\">The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing the ongoing litigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"5wxpi\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"jy8b4\"><i>Editor's Note: This piece has been updated to reflect that Robert Evans is not a plaintiff in the ACLU of Oregon suit, but has independently sued the city of Portland.</i></p></div>",
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"case_number": "20CV23349",
"case_type": "CLASS_ACTION",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
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"(2022-05-06 00:00:00+00:00) Reporter reaches settlement agreement with city of Portland"
],
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"settled"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Robert Evans (Bellingcat & iHeart Radio)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist hit by crowd-control grenade while covering Seattle protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-by-crowd-control-grenade-while-covering-seattle-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-11T19:04:21.713802Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:56:04.041373Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:56:03.935968Z",
"date": "2020-06-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Seattle",
"longitude": -122.33207,
"latitude": 47.60621,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kzh2m\">Cole Miller, a journalist for local station KOMO TV, was injured by debris from a crowd-control munition while reporting from a protest on June 6, 2020, in Seattle, Washington.</p><p data-block-key=\"a7jb2\">Protesters were gathered that day in Capitol Hill, a Seattle neighborhood which had already seen several days of protests, and which would later be the site of a weeks-long occupation protest known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.</p><p data-block-key=\"gj3zp\">Miller told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was reporting that evening at the southeast corner of Cal Anderson Park, at 11th and Pine Street, when Seattle police officers began attempting to disperse the crowd. Miller said the police had assembled in front of their precinct office on Pine Street, across from the park, and the police line and protest line had confronted each other, with the police trying to push the protesters out of the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"vw8c4\">A<a href=\"https://twitter.com/ColeMillerTV/status/1269459358288494592\"> video Miller posted to Twitter</a>, shot while he was standing in the midst of a group of protesters, shows there were multiple loud bangs and flashes of light, accompanied by clouds of gas. Multiple <a href=\"https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-area-protests-demonstrators-prepare-for-ninth-day-of-action-after-george-floyds-killing/\">news reports</a> <a href=\"https://mynorthwest.com/1925435/seattle-protests-saturday-june-6/?\">from that day</a> confirm that police were using blast balls, a type of crowd-control grenade similar to a flash-bang grenade which sets off noise and bright light, and can disperse rubber shrapnel when detonated.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SeattlePD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SeattlePD</a> using flash bangs to disperse crowd, people throwing things at officers. A piece of one of those bangs just hit my leg. This is quickly getting out of hand. Protesters hadn’t thrown or done anything it seems to provoke this <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/KOMONews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#KOMONews</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/HXCuIAqNyb\">pic.twitter.com/HXCuIAqNyb</a></p>— Cole Miller (@ColeMillerTV) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ColeMillerTV/status/1269459358288494592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 7, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"416cf\">Miller said that the situation became “quite chaotic” with protesters running into each other, and “pieces of shrapnel from the blast exploding in all directions.”</p><p data-block-key=\"y0wne\">Miller said that debris from one of the crowd-control munitions hit him in the leg “with quite a bit of force,” which later resulted in a large blister. He also said that <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ColeMillerTV/status/1269459852885028865\">he inhaled</a> some of the gas used to break up the protest, which he was not able to identify. Miller told the Tracker that police continued to push the crowd back toward Broadway, using more gas. According to Miller and a news report from the Seattle Times, the protesters eventually pushed back on the line of police and ended up back near 11th and Pine.</p><p data-block-key=\"bwogz\">Later that day, Miller posted photos of <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ColeMillerTV/status/1269482381158739968\">rubber debris</a> from the blast balls, which he found on the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"tdoo0\">Seattle Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ql7uw\">One day prior to these incidents, the Seattle Police Department <a href=\"https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-area-protests-demonstrators-prepare-for-ninth-day-of-action-after-george-floyds-killing/\">had announced</a> a minimum 30-day ban on the use of tear gas, and said that other policies on measures such as pepper spray would be subject to review.</p><p data-block-key=\"e5v12\">The Seattle protests were in response to the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during a May 25 arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which sparked demonstrations across the country. 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. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Washington",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Cole Miller (KOMO-TV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Freelance journalist forced by police from scene of Seattle protest in June",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-forced-police-scene-seattle-protest-june/",
"first_published_at": "2021-01-04T16:55:44.676215Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:41:36.910309Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:41:36.759204Z",
"date": "2020-06-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Seattle",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2m7xi\">A freelance journalist said a police officer grabbed her, threatened her with arrest and forced her away from the scene of a protest she was covering on June 6, 2020, in Seattle, Washington.</p><p data-block-key=\"412un\">Shauna Sowersby, who was filing for KNKX public radio, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was working out of the offices of a local newspaper, The Stranger, which is located at 11th Avenue and Pine Street in Capitol Hill. The Seattle neighborhood for several days had been the scene of intense protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, prompting standoffs between demonstrators and law enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ecsc\">From the newspaper office, Sowersby said she had a clear view of a protest happening below and rushed down to the street when she saw police attempting to clear the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"wb7vr\">Sowersby said a Seattle police officer approached her as soon as she reached the street, telling her she needed to leave. “I told him I was press and without going any further or without asking me any more questions he just grabbed my arm, and he's like ‘no, you need to leave.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"wbyc1\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Shauna_Sowersby/status/1269463849725390849\">video she posted</a> to Twitter from that evening, Sowersby can be heard repeating “I’m press,” while the officer leads her down the street, which had been cleared of protesters and was guarded by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"qd8kd\">In the background, an unidentified man can be heard calling attention to “an accredited journalist” being harassed by a police officer. Sowersby said the officer was walking behind her and kept trying to put his arms around her, in a way she said felt threatening.</p><p data-block-key=\"rarw5\">In the video, the officer is seen walking close by her as he says: “You can’t be here.” When Sowersby objects, saying she is a member of the press and has a right to be there, he tells her she will be arrested if she doesn’t leave. Sowersby repeatedly asks the officer not to touch her. At one point she asks the officer’s identity, to which the officer says “It’s written right on my chest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ogtes\">According to Sowersby, when they reached the end of the sectioned-off street she was pushed to an area where a line of officers were standing. She told one of these officers that her workplace was just down the street and she needed to get back to work. Sowersby said this officer told the first officer to let her go.</p><p data-block-key=\"cbwyl\">“And then the police officer who had me, actually grabbed the back of my jacket, and he twisted it really hard, like in the middle of my back, and just shoved me out of the line,” she told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"gvia1\">She said police then kept her out on the street for nearly two hours, unable to get back to her office.</p><p data-block-key=\"po7df\">“I could only call the people that were in the office and there was nothing they could really do at that point,” she said. “So we had to wait until they cleared the area and then I was able to eventually go back into the office.”</p><p data-block-key=\"pph7r\">Sowersby added that no police officer acknowledged that she was a member of the press, despite her shouting it repeatedly.</p><p data-block-key=\"vxcru\">The Seattle Police Department didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"v6z0y\">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 that began after the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Journalist pushed by police while filming arrest in Brooklyn",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-pushed-police-while-filming-arrest-brooklyn/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-05T18:37:09.997601Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:42:16.924956Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:42:16.837382Z",
"date": "2020-06-05",
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"city": "New York",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"czodn\">An officer with the New York Police Department pushed Gothamist reporter Sydney Pereira as she filmed an arrest during a protest in Brooklyn, New York, on June 5, 2020, according to Pereira and videos of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"pt67x\">The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"ko3rr\">After reporting on a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sydneyp1234/status/1269053987317301254\">protest</a> in Manhattan, Pereira began to follow another <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sydneyp1234/status/1269079913677688832\">demonstration</a> near Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn around 9:30 p.m., according to her Twitter feed. Police and protesters negotiated to allow protesters, who were out past an 8 p.m. curfew, to leave Grand Army Plaza peacefully, the Gothamist <a href=\"https://gothamist.com/news/live-protest-updates-june-5-2020\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6q1ps\">Pereira began to head home when she encountered a group of protesters being <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sydneyp1234/status/1269094070258937856\">arrested</a> near Nostrand Avenue and Crown Street around 10:30 p.m., she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2brhn\">As seen in a video filmed by City and State New York reporter <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ZachReports/status/1269095713444712450\">Zach Williams</a>, several police officers repeatedly <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ZachReports/status/1269096296247369732\">shoved</a> Michael Carter, who told the Tracker that he heard a commotion from his apartment and went outside to document arrests on his block. Carter said documenting police misconduct was part of his job as communications director for state Senator Julia Salazar.</p><p data-block-key=\"zq07u\">Officers confronted him and ordered him to back up. After he was shoved into the metal security gate of a storefront, he tried to leave the area, he told the Tracker. Carter said he then heard an officer say, “Get him.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tpgt0\">Videos filmed by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sydneyp1234/status/1269096490477158404\">Pereira</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ZachReports/status/1269095713444712450\">Williams</a> show Carter tried to run away as one officer swung his baton at him. Carter crossed the street before several officers in pursuit took him to the ground. As officers attempted to restrain Carter, several others ordered Pereira, who was standing several feet away, to back up.</p><p data-block-key=\"e4apj\">“Press! Press! Press!” Pereira said to the officers as she held up her NYPD-issued press badge.</p><p data-block-key=\"7o2vu\">“I don’t care,” one officer responded as he pushed her back using his baton. He then turned away as two other officers continued to tell Pereira to back up. One officer yelled that she could keep recording if she backed up.</p><p data-block-key=\"k782h\">An officer in a white shirt, signifying a higher rank, intervened and told everyone to relax before walking over to Carter.</p><p data-block-key=\"sgkzf\">Pereira then stepped to the side to keep filming the arrest. A different officer told her, “If you come closer, you’re going to get yourself in trouble. Please stay where you are.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ei1mb\">“I’m press. Come on.” Pereira responded. “I gotta document what you all are doing. That’s my job here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"h0duq\">Pereira told the Tracker she questioned why she was pushed. “I felt like I was allowed to be there to film, and I felt like I wasn’t too close,” Pereira said. “I didn’t have a tape measure, but I didn’t feel like I was obstructing the arrest from happening.”</p><p data-block-key=\"t3vc7\">The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"zm321\">After the confrontation, the police did not hinder Pereira from reporting, she said. Officers escorted Carter to a line of other arrestees awaiting transport. With officers flanking him on all sides, he gave an <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sydneyp1234/status/1269096982628446213\">account</a> of his arrest to Pereira, who was filming. Senator Salazar later <a href=\"https://twitter.com/juliacarmel__/status/1269226779807485952\">intervened</a> to help get Carter released from police custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"usqqw\">Carter, who is no longer with the senator’s office, told the Tracker that the journalists’ video documentation of his arrest had an impact because “people could see that I wasn’t being aggressive in any way or doing anything violent or even I would say illegal.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ioug2\">Pereira noted the role journalists play in holding powerful institutions like the police accountable.</p><p data-block-key=\"4zc5y\">“Someone needs to be able to do that without fear of harassment or threats or physical violence.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1aptx\">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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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"4q4bc\">NYPD officers order Gothamist journalist Sydney Pereira to back up as she films an arrest in Brooklyn on June 5, 2020.</p>",
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