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{
"title": "Photojournalist grabbed by backpack, shoved by police while covering Portland protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-grabbed-by-backpack-shoved-by-police-while-covering-portland-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-03-17T16:18:00.847904Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T21:14:49.033601Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T21:14:48.904822Z",
"date": "2020-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"539mq\">A law enforcement officer grabbed independent photojournalist Maranie Staab by her backpack and shoved her while she was covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, late on the night of Sept. 26, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"gz1qj\">Staab was documenting one of the many protests that had been ongoing for months in downtown Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. 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=\"6lnsp\">Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-temporary-restraining-order-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">temporary restraining order</a>, and later a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-07-16_preliminary_injunction.pdf\">preliminary injunction,</a> barring the Portland Police Bureau from harming or impeding journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"421kp\">Earlier in the day on Sept. 26, a rally organized by the Proud Boys far-right extremist group drew some 800 people to Portland, while at least 1,000 counterprotesters gathered nearby, <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/far-right-rallies-and-counter-protests-in-portland-ended-without-violence-saturday-as-the-daytime-gatherings-were-smaller-shorter-than-expected.html\">The Oregonian</a> reported. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had declared a state of emergency ahead of the rally, putting officers from the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office under a unified command. After those protests ended, left-leaning demonstrators gathered downtown later that night, according to The Oregonian, and police declared an “unlawful assembly” around 11:40 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"njcyt\">Shortly before midnight, Staab was standing next to several other journalists when an officer grabbed her by her backpack and shoved her away.</p><p data-block-key=\"55xv0\">Independent journalist Rodrigo Melgarejo captured the incident in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Mestizo43/status/1310174924976259072\">video</a> posted on Twitter. Staab, wearing a black vest clearly marked with “press” in large white letters, can be seen standing next to several other people wearing press vests as police officers tell people to leave. An officer abruptly reaches toward her from her right, spins her around by her backpack and pushes her forward.</p><p data-block-key=\"qqg93\">Retweeting Melgarejo’s video later that day, Staab <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MaranieRae/status/1310397183963746306?s=20\">wrote</a>, “@PortlandPolice continue to unlawfully target members of the Press. While they’re clearly marked. And on the sidewalk. And in no way interfering. This is an affront to our Constitution & democracy. This is taxpayer funded abuse.”</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/PortlandPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PortlandPolice</a> continue to unlawfully target members of the Press. <br><br>While they’re clearly marked. <br><br>And on the sidewalk. <br><br>And in no way interfering. <br><br>This is an affront to our Constitution & democracy. <br><br>This is taxpayer funded abuse. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/protectandserve?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#protectandserve</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/pdx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pdx</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/policebrutality?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#policebrutality</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/pyhLiT4p77\">https://t.co/pyhLiT4p77</a></p>— Maranie R. Staab (@MaranieRae) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MaranieRae/status/1310397183963746306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 28, 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=\"fhrgd\">After the incident, police began rushing a group of journalists who were on the sidewalk, Staab told the Tracker, adding that she and other members of the press were pushed and shoved back by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"eu36v\">Staab believed she was targeted because she was a journalist, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ngv6s\">The ACLU called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate police treatment of journalists that night, <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/09/aclu-calls-for-special-prosecutor-after-video-shows-officers-aggressive-tactics-during-weekend-protests.html\">The Oregonian</a> reported. Photojournalist John Rudoff was also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-knock-photojournalist-to-the-ground-damaging-camera-lens-during-portland-protest/\">pushed to the ground</a> by police while covering the same protest, shortly before midnight. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-shoved-by-police-while-covering-a-portland-protest/\">Melgarejo</a> and journalists <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-shoved-by-law-enforcement-officers-while-covering-portland-protests/\">Sergio Olmos and Sean Bascom</a> were also shoved by law enforcement in the early hours of the morning.</p><p data-block-key=\"1z0f3\">Brown<a href=\"https://twitter.com/OregonGovBrown/status/1310369711159271424?s=20\"> tweeted</a> on Sept. 27 that she asked the individual law enforcement agencies to investigate any allegations about the use of force against members of the press or public. In a statement on behalf of the three agencies, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said it was aware that video had been taken of several incidents involving force, which would be reviewed to determine whether any officers violated law enforcement policies, according to <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/09/aclu-calls-for-special-prosecutor-after-video-shows-officers-aggressive-tactics-during-weekend-protests.html\">The Oregonian</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"yai7j\">A spokesperson for the PPB didn’t respond to a request for comment, but the bureau has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing the continuing ACLU litigation.</p></div>",
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"name": "Oregon",
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"white nationalism"
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{
"title": "Police knock photojournalist to the ground, damaging camera lens, during Portland protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-knock-photojournalist-to-the-ground-damaging-camera-lens-during-portland-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-03-11T18:09:52.373397Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T21:14:33.773710Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T21:14:33.676501Z",
"date": "2020-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fts5d\">Independent photojournalist John Rudoff was shoved to the ground by police while he was photographing an arrest during a protest in Portland, Oregon, late on Sept. 26, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"zyijr\">Rudoff, whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Nation and Rolling Stone, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he hit the ground “so hard that my teeth hurt” and that his camera lens was significantly damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"675j0\">Rudoff was documenting one of the many protests that had been ongoing for months in downtown Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. The 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=\"35wlo\">Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-temporary-restraining-order-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">temporary restraining order</a>, and later a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-07-16_preliminary_injunction.pdf\">preliminary injunction,</a> barring the Portland Police Bureau from harming or impeding journalists. Rudoff is a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-journalists-say-federal-agents-targeted-them-with-projectiles-as-they-covered-protests-in-portland/\">plaintiff</a> in the class-action lawsuit.</p><p data-block-key=\"e993v\">Earlier in the day on Sept. 26, a rally organized by the Proud Boys far-right extremist group drew some 800 people to Portland, while at least 1,000 counterprotesters gathered nearby, <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/far-right-rallies-and-counter-protests-in-portland-ended-without-violence-saturday-as-the-daytime-gatherings-were-smaller-shorter-than-expected.html\">The Oregonian</a> reported. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had declared a state of emergency ahead of the rally, putting officers from the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office under a unified command. After those protests ended, left-leaning demonstrators gathered downtown later that night, according to The Oregonian, and police declared an “unlawful assembly” around 11:40 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"0n684\">Rudoff told the Tracker that he was following a crowd of protesters around 11:45 p.m. when several police officers ran up the sidewalk and tackled a demonstrator. Rudoff crossed the street and ran to document the arrest, along with several other journalists and photographers.</p><p data-block-key=\"lu708\">When Rudoff started taking photographs, standing at least 10 feet back, two officers put their hands on him and pushed him backwards, he said. He didn’t have time to put a foot back to catch his balance, and he landed on his right hip and the right side of his back. The right side of his head got slammed to the ground, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7tfzf\">“All the teeth in my mouth hurt from the impact of my helmet on the sidewalk,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"gk2ub\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByMikeBaker/status/1310112139126996992\">Video</a> posted on Twitter at midnight by Mike Baker of The New York Times shows officers running alongside a wall and tackling an individual to the ground. About 20 seconds into the video, Rudoff, wearing a bright yellow backpack, can be seen standing several yards back from the arrest, holding a camera up to take a photograph. Then two officers approach him, put their hands on his shoulder, and push him to the ground.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Aggressive arrests, baton jabbing and knocking a photographer to the ground. <a href=\"https://t.co/OXdGhfOs3k\">pic.twitter.com/OXdGhfOs3k</a></p>— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByMikeBaker/status/1310112139126996992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 27, 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=\"ajz9i\">Rudoff said he was protected from the impact because he was wearing a helmet and body armor. He continued to work for about 20 more minutes before going home. He didn’t require any medical attention, he said, but was sore for the next few days.</p><p data-block-key=\"m19b4\">His 24-70mm Canon lens, the shorter of two lenses he had with him that night, was significantly damaged and had to be repaired, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"grvkm\">Rudoff said he believes PPB officers pushed him, but that it’s possible it was a state trooper.</p><p data-block-key=\"268tb\">He doesn’t know whether he was targeted because he was a member of the press, saying it’s possible he was pushed because he was a civilian approaching a police action. However, he believes it’s more likely he was shoved because he was a clearly marked journalist photographing a violent arrest. “That would be the argument, that I was targeted because I was able to record what they were doing,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"divo1\">Rudoff noted that he had “press” written on his helmet and body armor, press identification around his neck, and professional-grade cameras.</p><p data-block-key=\"y8wy1\">Attorneys involved with the ACLU suit are aware of the incident on Sept. 26, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"xjsqm\">The ACLU called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate police treatment of journalists that night, <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/09/aclu-calls-for-special-prosecutor-after-video-shows-officers-aggressive-tactics-during-weekend-protests.html\">The Oregonian</a> reported. Matt Borden, a lawyer on the ACLU case, was quoted as saying the incident involving Rudoff “violates basic human decency in addition to the Court’s injunction.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8fc9j\">Brown<a href=\"https://twitter.com/OregonGovBrown/status/1310369711159271424?s=20\"> tweeted</a> on Sept. 27 that she asked the individual law enforcement agencies to investigate any allegations about the use of force against members of the press or public. In a statement on behalf of the three agencies, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said it was aware that video had been taken of several incidents involving force, which would be reviewed to determine whether any officers violated law enforcement policies, according to <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/09/aclu-calls-for-special-prosecutor-after-video-shows-officers-aggressive-tactics-during-weekend-protests.html\">The Oregonian</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"w831s\">A spokesperson for the PPB declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. A spokesperson for the OSP said they weren’t aware of the incidents.</p></div>",
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"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
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"tags": [
"protest",
"white nationalism"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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{
"title": "Multiple journalists assaulted at a Proud Boys rally in Portland",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-journalists-assaulted-proud-boys-rally-portland/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-02T20:13:00.676523Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-05-17T13:40:34.846659Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-05-17T13:40:34.726646Z",
"date": "2020-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2w72l\">Two independent photojournalists and a livestreamer were assaulted by an individual at a Sept. 26, 2020, rally in Portland, Oregon, according to interviews and multiple filmed accounts of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"jgc26\">National leaders of the Proud Boys, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as a hate group, organized the rally, which drew between 200 and 300 people to Portland’s Delta Park, <a href=\"https://www.opb.org/article/2020/09/26/live-updates-portland-under-state-of-emergency-as-hate-group-holds-rally/\">Oregon Public Broadcasting reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"kuzbg\">Journalists and <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CFneZg0B4I4/?igshid=1gri7c05smoeh\">others at the rally</a> posted videos online showing a man shoving around independent journalists Zack Perry and Justin Katigbak.</p><p data-block-key=\"twjof\">The same assailant <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1309945564922961920?s=20\">was also recorded throwing a livestreamer</a> to the ground, kicking him in the face and throwing the journalist’s phone over a fence. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented the assault on the livestreamer, who goes by the name Jovanni, and damage to his equipment <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/livestreamer-assaulted-individual-proud-boys-rally-his-phone-stolen/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4kf47\">Perry told the Tracker that prior to the assaults, a “huge chunk of the crowd” moved away from a stage erected in the park to chase after Jovanni. A Proud Boys member working security at the event managed to keep the crowd at bay to allow Jovanni to leave, Perry said.</p><p data-block-key=\"wthig\">Perry, Jovanni and other journalists walked away from the scene together. But the man followed after them, “stalking us and berating us” and blaming them for “burning down the city of Portland,” Perry said.</p><p data-block-key=\"31cnc\">The assailant “pushed me very aggressively multiple times and punched me in the back of the head on two separate occasions but we just kept walking,” Perry said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7wwps\">Katigbak told the Tracker that he began to follow the group after he noticed that the assailant was pursuing the two journalists, recording the altercation with a Nikon Z6.</p><p data-block-key=\"s52uq\">“I noticed this guy was going after them and I followed to video,” Katigbak said.</p><p data-block-key=\"o6qrv\">Instagram user Gabby Albano <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CFneZg0B4I4/?igshid=1gri7c05smoeh\">posted a video</a> of the assailant following Perry and Jovanni and giving Perry a shove from behind. The Tracker has documented that incident <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-assaulted-at-a-proud-boys-rally-in-portland/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"sr2he\">Soon after that exchange, the man shoved Jovanni into a nearby fence and kicked him in the face while he was down before tossing the livestreamer’s phone over the fence.</p><p data-block-key=\"qe6vf\"><a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CFneZg0B4I4/?igshid=1gri7c05smoeh\">In Albano’s video</a>, a man wearing a black polo shirt with yellow trim — colors associated with the Proud Boys — is seen trying to restrain the assailant.</p><p data-block-key=\"5vlis\">The assailant paces for about one minute before turning his sights on Katigbak. The assailant then shoves the journalist into a tree, causing Katigbak to fall to one knee.</p><p data-block-key=\"72rqe\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1309946306337464322?s=20\">In a video posted by</a> Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling, Katigbak is seen getting to his feet when another rally attendee, wearing combat gear with a rifle strapped to his vest, shoves the journalist several times before others step between them.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ba5n\">Perry told the Tracker he did not file a complaint. Katigbak said he filed a report with the Portland Police Bureau regarding the assault but that he has not followed up with the department in the months since.</p><p data-block-key=\"cmsdq\">PPB spokesman Derek Carmon told the Tracker on Feb. 1, 2021, that no one has been arrested in relation to Katigbak’s alleged assault and no suspects have been identified.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"name": "Oregon",
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{
"title": "Livestreamer assaulted by individual at Proud Boys rally, his phone stolen",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/livestreamer-assaulted-individual-proud-boys-rally-his-phone-stolen/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-02T20:08:34.198877Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-01T14:52:36.847269Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-01T14:52:36.730888Z",
"date": "2020-09-26",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3r9nr\">A livestreamer was punched and shoved to the ground while covering a Sept. 26, 2020, rally in Portland, Oregon. The attacker was filmed kicking the journalist in the face, taking his phone and throwing it over a fence.</p><p data-block-key=\"s83f3\">Journalists covering the Sept. 26 rally of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, Portland’s Delta Park, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1309945564922961920?s=20\">captured images of a man</a> assaulting the livestreamer, who goes by the name Jovanni, <a href=\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/police-investigate-assault-on-livestreamer-after-far-right-proud-boys-descend-on-portland\">the Daily Beast reports</a>. The event attracted between 200 and 300 people, <a href=\"https://www.opb.org/article/2020/09/26/live-updates-portland-under-state-of-emergency-as-hate-group-holds-rally/\">according to Oregon Public Broadcasting</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ex6jr\">Independent journalist Zack Perry told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that at one point during the rally he witnessed members of the crowd yelling at Jovanni and trying to chase him out of the event. A man clad in jeans, gray shirt and a ballcap punched Jovanni in the eye but the livestreamer managed to get away, according to Perry and a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jovannithe1st/status/1310085449910595585?s=20\">Twitter post by Jovanni.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"czsc0\">Jovanni did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"4bvrn\">Perry, Jovanni and two other journalists tried to walk out of the event as a group, but Jovanni’s assailant “kept stalking us and berating us, blaming us for killing Jay Bishop and for burning down the city of Portland,” Perry said.</p><p data-block-key=\"gvdqe\">“Jay Bishop” is an alias for Aaron Danielson, a “friend and supporter” of the right-wing, Vancouver, Washington-based Patriot Prayer group <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/08/1-person-shot-killed-near-downtown-portland-protests-saturday.html\">who was shot and killed</a> on Aug. 29, 2020, during a clash of left-wing groups and supporters of President Donald Trump in downtown Portland, the Oregonian reports.</p><p data-block-key=\"7vgp4\">“He pushed me very aggressively multiple times and punched me in the back of the head on two separate occasions but we just kept walking,” Perry said. After Perry was struck, the journalist said he stepped away in order to get “some distance to see if I could capture footage of him fucking with us better.”</p><p data-block-key=\"g6nvd\">The Tracker documented the assaults of Perry and independent journalist Justin Katigbak <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-journalists-assaulted-proud-boys-rally-portland/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"yx153\">At that point, Perry said, the assailant who had punched Jovanni earlier assaulted him a second time, throwing him into a fence and kicking him in the face.</p><p data-block-key=\"pb7qf\">Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1309945564922961920?s=20\">posted a video</a> on Twitter of the attack at about 4 p.m. in which the man is seen kicking Jovanni in the face, snatching his phone from his hand and throwing the device over the fence. The assailant then falls to the ground himself.</p><p data-block-key=\"qpzwt\">Perry said that both journalists and rally attendees then moved to separate the assailant from Jovanni and that he and other journalists took the livestreamer to be seen by medics on hand at a nearby Black Lives Matter protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"pkhg8\">Jovanni <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jovannithe1st/status/1310085449910595585?s=20\">tweeted on Sept. 27</a> that he went to the hospital and learned that he suffered a concussion from the attack. He said that he was unable to recover his phone but that a “homie got me a temporary.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wa681\">The Portland Police Bureau <a href=\"https://twitter.com/portlandpolice/status/1309964401600901120?s=21\">tweeted that the department</a> was investigating the on-camera assault and called on witnesses to come forward. But a department spokesperson told the Tracker that investigators were unable to get in touch with Jovanni to look into the matter further.</p><p data-block-key=\"k4w7o\">“I have not been notified that there has been any change to that case. As far as I can tell it remains inactive,” Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen told the Tracker on Feb. 1, 2021.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Freelance photographer beaten, arrested while covering Illinois protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photographer-beaten-arrested-while-covering-illinois-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2025-03-05T21:00:46.300943Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-03-05T21:07:50.863817Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-03-05T21:07:50.707399Z",
"date": "2020-09-25",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Rockford",
"longitude": -89.094,
"latitude": 42.27113,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"65heb\">Freelance photojournalist Albert Riley Jr. was beaten by police officers, arrested, and had his camera seized and equipment damaged while documenting a protest in Rockford, Illinois, on Sept. 25, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7j27l\">He was held for three days and later charged with felony aggravated battery and resisting arrest, but was acquitted of the charges on Feb. 17, 2022.</p><p data-block-key=\"c3pd\">Protests against police brutality had been held Fridays near Rockford’s City Market in the wake of the killing in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. On Sept. 25, a small group of demonstrators showing support for the police was also present, the Rockford Register Star <a href=\"https://www.rrstar.com/story/news/2020/09/26/2-arrested-1-taken-away-by-ambulance-in-rockford-protests/114399006/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"djk9d\">Riley <a href=\"https://www.rockrivercurrent.com/2022/02/photographer-albert-riley-found-not-guilty-after-arrest-covering-protests/\">told</a> the Rock River Current that he was covering various aspects of the protests. “There wasn’t anything specific that I was taking pictures of: I took pictures of police, I took pictures of protesters, I took picture of counter-protesters, I took pictures of the ministers on the corner singing and playing guitars, I took pictures of the marches as they were going through the crosswalk.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8sdiq\">According to the Current, Riley said that at one point, he took photos of an off-duty Winnebago County sheriff’s deputy throwing a water bottle at protesters, and protesters throwing the bottle back. The deputy’s wife, an off-duty detective in the Sheriff’s Office, approached Riley and asked him to delete the photos; he started to take a picture of her, and she slapped his hand and camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"dihoq\">Riley said he reacted to try to protect himself and the camera, causing the detective to fall back. “Was it my intention for her to fall back and hit the ground? No it was not. I just wanted her out of my personal space,” he told the Current.</p><p data-block-key=\"9qbvo\">Then, her husband pushed him in the back, and two uniformed Rockford Police Department officers grabbed him from behind and threw him to the ground. Riley said he was unaware they were police officers until he was on the ground. He alleged they assaulted him, and denied he resisted arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"a884k\">“They’re punching me. They’re kicking me,” he told the Current. “I didn’t fight with them, I was just attacked by them.” The outlet reported the journalist sustained a black eye, a bruised cheek and bleeding on the side of his nose, adding that his glasses and cellphone screen were broken.</p><p data-block-key=\"8v0i9\">Riley also said that images were deleted from his professional camera’s memory card without his permission.</p><p data-block-key=\"2cako\">Melinda Jacobson, Riley’s attorney, told the Current that the police never explained deleting the images. “The only photographs that were deleted contained images of the state’s witnesses,” she added.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ecoc\">Jacobson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that Riley’s camera was broken during the assault.</p><p data-block-key=\"n6mt\">A <a href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/camera-equipment-broke-by-rockford-police\">fundraiser</a> started on his behalf stated that he needed to replace more than $4,000 worth of camera equipment and a lens as a result of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"28a4k\">Riley was released on Sept. 28, and charged with felony counts of aggravated battery in a public way — for allegedly shoving the off-duty detective to the ground — and resisting arrest. A superseding indictment was entered on Oct. 28, for the same charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"cdoba\">In February 2022, following a four-day trial, Riley was acquitted on both charges by a jury in Winnebago County 17th Judicial Circuit Court, according to the <a href=\"https://www.rockrivercurrent.com/2022/02/photographer-albert-riley-found-not-guilty-after-arrest-covering-protests/\">Current</a> and court records.</p><p data-block-key=\"bu71r\">The Rockford Police Department declined to comment.</p></div>",
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"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-09-28",
"detention_date": "2020-09-25",
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{
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],
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"Blue Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault",
"Equipment Search or Seizure",
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],
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],
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},
{
"title": "Independent social media reporter arrested while covering protest in Richmond",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-social-media-reporter-arrested-while-covering-protest-richmond/",
"first_published_at": "2020-12-02T18:09:47.747561Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T21:15:25.834053Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T21:15:25.700621Z",
"date": "2020-09-24",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Richmond",
"longitude": -77.46026,
"latitude": 37.55376,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4crnj\">Independent reporter Lynn Murphy, who said she reports on social media about protests, was arrested while covering a demonstration in Richmond, Virginia, early in the morning of Sept. 24, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"6lyyd\">The Richmond event was held in response to a Kentucky grand jury’s decision on Sept. 23 not to bring charges against police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was killed in her home in Louisville on March 13, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"jsj3q\">Murphy is one of three activist journalists who recently told <a href=\"https://vpm.org/news/articles/18040/citizen-journalists-seek-answers-from-richmond-police\">Virginia Public Media</a> they believe Richmond police have targeted them for their coverage of racial justice protests in 2020. She told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on the day of the grand jury decision in Kentucky, she had been covering a march in Richmond that turned into an hours-long standoff at the police headquarters, continuing past midnight.</p><p data-block-key=\"ou3qg\">Murphy said when she approached one part of a police line outside the building, an officer greeted her by name. Murphy, who was taking photographs, said the officer said she would help Murphy get a better photo. According to Murphy, the officer then stepped up close to her face, grabbed her arm and pulled her through the line of police in order to arrest her. Murphy said she was pulled through the line just as police advanced toward protesters. Richmond activist Jimmie Lee Jarvis <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JLJLovesRVA/status/1309005753915711489?s=20\">tweeted</a> at 1:44 a.m. that police had “snatched” Murphy from the crowd; a video Jarvis posted shows police officers moving toward protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"q1qnw\">Murphy said she dropped her phone as the officer pulled her. Her glasses were also knocked off and broken, and her arm was bruised, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"bwe21\">A Richmond police sergeant told Murphy that she was being taken into custody for an outstanding arrest warrant, but Murphy said the sergeant couldn’t tell her any specific information about the warrant. She said she later learned that the warrant was for a charge of “obstructing free passage” on Sept. 14, when Murphy had been reporting on another protest in Richmond. Murphy said that on that day, she had been covering the protest from the sidewalk with other reporters and was never spoken to by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"00x9z\">Murphy said police restrained her wrists with zip-ties and transported her to the Richmond City Justice Center, where she was held for 12 hours. At 2:45 a.m., while she was in custody, a magistrate set bond for her at $1,500, according to Murphy. But when a bail bond representative arrived later, the representative was told bail had not been set, Murphy said.</p><p data-block-key=\"sykvz\">Murphy said she was released after her arraignment on the morning of Sept. 24. At a Nov. 19 hearing, the case was continued until March 2021. Murphy said the charges are still pending while her lawyer seeks to probe whether police unlawfully searched her phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"rri39\">Murphy said she got her phone back from police on Nov. 6. When she retrieved it, the case was missing, the screen protector cracked, and the SIM card had been removed, she said. Murphy believes police searched her phone, but she said there was no way for her to determine whether the device had been searched. She said police asked for her passcode, which she did not provide.</p><p data-block-key=\"mn2to\">According to Murphy, a detective told her multiple times that police were keeping the phone because they had a sealed warrant for it, but she has not been able to locate any warrant in either the circuit or district court.</p><p data-block-key=\"qf5ra\">Murphy said she was wearing a press badge at the time of her arrest. She said that she did not identify herself to police as a reporter, but she believes officers with the police department are familiar with her because they refer to her at protests as “Lynn from Twitter.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9rlet\">“I really just see them as malicious, the way they target us like this,” Murphy said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ypw89\">The Richmond Police Department confirmed to the Tracker that detectives had held her phone “due to the ongoing investigation.” The department did not respond to further questions about a warrant.</p><p data-block-key=\"9mtv2\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country.<a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> Find these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"xxb37\">Lynn Murphy reports on a protest in Richmond, Virginia, on Sept. 1, 2020.</p>",
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}
],
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"state": {
"name": "Virginia",
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},
"updates": [
"(2021-03-02 08:47:00+00:00) Independent social media reporter agrees to community service in exchange for charges being dropped",
"(2021-06-03 16:06:00+00:00) Charges dropped against independent social media reporter"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Lynn Murphy (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist shoved by Portland, Oregon, police during Breonna Taylor protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-injured-by-portland-police-while-covering-protest-over-breonna-taylor-grand-jury-decision/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-13T15:17:39.324604Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:30:09.540892Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:30:09.448270Z",
"date": "2020-09-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9ww5n\">Independent videographer Melissa Lewis says she was shoved by local police officers while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 23, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"wvdxn\">Lewis 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 deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and others. 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=\"9cs2f\">Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led the city to agree 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 arrest, harm or impede the work of journalists or legal observers of the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"daqje\">The Sept. 23 protest was called in response to a Kentucky grand jury’s decision that day to not prosecute Louisville police officers for shooting and killing Taylor.</p><p data-block-key=\"mjgkn\">Demonstrators <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/portland-protest-grows-downtown-on-eve-of-breonna-taylor-grand-jury-decision.html\">gathered</a> in downtown Portland outside the Multnomah County Justice Center, a focus of Portland protests because it houses a jail, courtrooms and a police station. According to a <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/portland-protest-grows-downtown-on-eve-of-breonna-taylor-grand-jury-decision.html\">report in The Oregonian</a>, sometime after 9 p.m., some protesters threw rocks at the windows to the Central Precinct station, located on the Second Avenue side of the Justice Center.</p><p data-block-key=\"4qxgm\">In response, Portland police declared the protest a riot and used crowd-control munitions on demonstrators. At around 10:30 p.m., a protester threw a Molotov cocktail at officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"mvt0b\">Lewis told the Tracker she was filming a confrontation between an officer and a protester on Broadway in downtown Portland. After she walked on the crosswalk to film, a police officer began to yell at her.</p><p data-block-key=\"m75fy\">Video <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LauraJedeed/status/1309008605543362561\">published</a> by independent journalist Laura Jedeed at 10:55 p.m. captures Lewis, with the words “press” on her helmet walking backwards while an officer follows. Then, the officer pushes her to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"yr689\">“I reached the sidewalk and he shoved me over. My ankle caught the curb. I felt it pop and snap,” Lewis told the Tracker. “Medics were concerned I broke my ankle because it swelled, so I got evacuated to the ER.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tznd0\">At Providence Portland Medical Center, Lewis learned her ankle didn’t break. But medical staff told her the officer’s push resulted in torn soft tissue in her ankle.</p><p data-block-key=\"dzpb3\">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=\"p54n9\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX7XT1S_-_Reuters_-_Jim_Urquhart.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"q8ev8\">Law enforcement at a September 2020 protest in Portland, Oregon, after a grand jury declined to prosecute Kentucky police for killing Breonna Taylor. Journalist Melissa “Claudio” Lewis was shoved by an officer at a Portland protest on Sept. 23.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "3:20-cv-01882",
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
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},
"updates": [
"(2020-11-01 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist joins civil rights suit against Portland, Oregon; later withdraws"
],
"case_statuses": [
"withdrawn"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Melissa “Claudio” Lewis (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Independent reporter arrested while covering Louisville protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-reporter-arrested-while-covering-louisville-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-23T17:20:31.448993Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T21:15:44.917731Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T21:15:44.814783Z",
"date": "2020-09-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"vp8qr\">Social media reporter Ian Kennedy was arrested while covering a protest against police violence in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sept. 23, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ea8z7\">Racial-justice demonstrations, which had been occurring daily in Louisville for months, were reinvigorated when a grand jury decided not to bring charges against police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her home on March 13, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"b2ube\">Kennedy, who reports for his independent media outlet Concrete Reporting, streams unedited video footage of protests live to social media.</p><p data-block-key=\"jfygg\">Kennedy told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was following a large group of protesters who continued to demonstrate in downtown Louisville after a 9 p.m. curfew went into effect. Near midnight, city police officers used <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">a crowd-control technique called kettling</a>, in which police block protesters from leaving the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"murxz\"><a href=\"https://www.pscp.tv/w/1dRJZZLRzkvJB\">Video</a> Kennedy posted of the protest on Periscope shows police lines blocking both directions of a wide city street, firing pepper balls toward the ground and ordering protesters to sit down. As police moved in toward the group of protesters Kennedy had been following, he crossed the street to stand on the opposite sidewalk, where he and others were also ordered to sit on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"0xd5s\">He said he identified himself to police as a reporter multiple times. On his video, he can be heard telling one officer that he had just arrived from Seattle to cover the protest for his work. “I’m not a protester, I’m just doing my job. I’m press,” he tells the officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"akp2f\">A short time later, another officer searches through his backpack and pulls out a copy of Kennedy’s press pass, which Kennedy said includes his name, Concrete Reporting, and a QR code that links to the website.</p><p data-block-key=\"uy0jk\">“Yeah, that’s fake,” the officer says.</p><p data-block-key=\"xf42g\">Kennedy told the Tracker he was held in jail for 18 hours after he was arrested. Court documents show he was charged with failure to disperse and unlawful assembly. A hearing in his case is scheduled for Nov. 24.</p><p data-block-key=\"1mdq2\">The Louisville Metro Police Department didn’t respond to requests for comment about Kennedy’s arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"p7zfl\">Two Daily Caller reporters,<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-held-12-hours-while-covering-louisville-protests/\"> Jorge Ventura</a> and<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-held-16-hours-while-covering-louisville-protests/\"> Shelby Talcott</a>, were arrested covering the same protest in Louisville on Sept. 23.</p><p data-block-key=\"x07er\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country.<a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> Find these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Louisville Metro Police Department",
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"state": {
"name": "Kentucky",
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"updates": [
"(2020-11-24 14:54:00+00:00) Charges dropped for reporter arrested while covering Louisville protest"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"kettle",
"protest"
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"categories": [
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},
{
"title": "Reporter arrested, held 12 hours while covering Louisville protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-held-12-hours-while-covering-louisville-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-08T18:00:04.001915Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T19:43:23.947662Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T19:43:23.834478Z",
"date": "2020-09-23",
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"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sxx0m\">Daily Caller reporter Jorge Ventura was arrested while covering protests and unrest in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sept. 23, 2020, and detained more than 12 hours.</p><p data-block-key=\"xprf4\">Protesters marching daily for months in downtown Louisville were inflamed anew that day after a grand jury decided not to charge police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her home on March 13, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"r4iyb\">Ventura and Shelby Talcott, his colleague from the right-leaning news and opinion outlet, were reporting from the city center late at night when police began using a controversial crowd-control technique called kettling that restricts people from dispersing, according to an <a href=\"https://dailycaller.com/2020/09/28/exclusive-louisville-arrest-daily-caller-reporters-kettling-black-lives-matter-protest/\">account</a> of the arrests Talcott later published. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-held-16-hours-while-covering-louisville-protests/\">Talcott’s arrest here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6kjr8\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShelbyTalcott/status/1308960469240213504?s=20\">Video Talcott posted on Twitter</a> shortly before the two journalists were arrested shows she told nearby police officers that they were members of the press several times.</p><p data-block-key=\"pkee2\">Geoffrey Ingersoll, editor in chief of the Daily Caller, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GPIngersoll/status/1308973875980644352?s=20\">tweeted</a> at 11:37 p.m. that he had notified the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department that the two reporters were press, and expected they would be released swiftly. A short time later he posted that he learned that they would be processed and charged.</p><p data-block-key=\"k1zbt\">While he was held in the police processing center, Ventura was called over to a supervising police officer who told him that Ingersoll had called, Ventura said in <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1309270945400528898?s=20\">an interview with Fox News</a>. He said he thought then that the two journalists would be released, but the officer briefly left, and when he returned, told him that they would be arrested and held overnight.</p><p data-block-key=\"b50ne\">Ventura was released early in the afternoon on Sept. 24.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Released from jail in Louisville after being detained for +12 hours. My colleague <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShelbyTalcott?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ShelbyTalcott</a> is still detained at the moment, as well as journalist <a href=\"https://twitter.com/livesmattershow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@livesmattershow</a>. Thank you to everyone for the support , I am truly grateful! <a href=\"https://t.co/E6Ooau4viQ\">pic.twitter.com/E6Ooau4viQ</a></p>— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/VenturaReport/status/1309207734756216834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"l2m2o\">Ventura was charged with violating a county ordinance and failure to disperse, <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/us/daily-caller-reporters-arrested-during-protests/index.html\">CNN reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"vrqem\">The LMPD didn’t respond to a request for comment about why the reporters were arrested. In an email to members of the media earlier on Sept. 23, the department said journalists wouldn’t be subject to curfew or unlawful-assembly orders, according to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/oliviakrauth/status/1308997947338772480?s=20\">correspondence shared on Twitter</a> by a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"3kizt\">A court dropped the charges against both Talcott and Ventura on Oct. 20, the <a href=\"https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/20/charges-dropped-daily-caller-reporters-arrested-louisville-protest/\">Daily Caller reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"a22s0\">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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX7XHII.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ey8oh\">A man in Louisville, Kentucky, holds up a sign during a Sept. 23, 2020, protest for Breonna Taylor, a Black woman shot dead by local police earlier in the year.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Louisville Metro Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-09-24",
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"name": "Kentucky",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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{
"title": "Reporter arrested, held for 16 hours while covering Louisville protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-held-16-hours-while-covering-louisville-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-08T17:51:21.176946Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T19:42:00.787968Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T19:42:00.595645Z",
"date": "2020-09-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8s72i\">Daily Caller reporter Shelby Talcott was held in police custody for 16 hours after she was arrested while covering protests and unrest in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sept. 23, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"3zzjt\">Protesters marching daily for months in downtown Louisville were inflamed anew that day after a grand jury decided not to charge police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her home on March 13, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"rgb63\">Talcott and Jorge Ventura, her colleague at the right-leaning news and opinion outlet, were reporting from the city center late on Sept. 23 when police began using a controversial crowd-control technique called kettling that restricts people from dispersing.</p><p data-block-key=\"1tfy2\">Talcott <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShelbyTalcott/status/1308960469240213504?s=20\">tweeted</a> at 10:44 p.m. that police were moving in on a scattered crowd at a park. Video she posted showed a line of officers with shields advancing along a street. A few minutes later she tweeted that police had everyone on the ground, and had begun zip-tying people’s wrists.</p><p data-block-key=\"6swkh\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShelbyTalcott/status/1308965986683551745?s=20\">video</a> Talcott posted on Twitter at 11:06 p.m., she can be heard trying to tell police that they were journalists. “Sir, we’re press,” she repeats twice. “Stay where you’re at,” an officer responds. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented Ventura’s <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-held-12-hours-while-covering-louisville-protests/\">arrest here</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are all on the ground right now and police are taking people and putting them in zip tie cuffs <a href=\"https://t.co/eIJJF1t1Ub\">pic.twitter.com/eIJJF1t1Ub</a></p>— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShelbyTalcott/status/1308965986683551745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ndyyl\">Talcott wrote in a Daily Caller <a href=\"https://dailycaller.com/2020/09/28/exclusive-louisville-arrest-daily-caller-reporters-kettling-black-lives-matter-protest/\">article</a> that she identified herself as a journalist to several other officers as she was taken into custody. One officer asked for her credentials, which Talcott didn’t have, but she offered to verify that she was a journalist by calling people who could vouch for her.</p><p data-block-key=\"inc2l\">When she asked another officer if she was being detained, he told her she was being arrested, she wrote. The officer told her that members of the press weren’t exempt from the city’s curfew or the unlawful-assembly order, she wrote, contradicting previous statements from the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department. Police had emailed reporters that day saying they wouldn’t be subject to curfew or unlawful-assembly orders, according to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/oliviakrauth/status/1308997947338772480?s=20\">correspondence shared on Twitter</a> by a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"va1no\">The LMPD didn’t respond to a request for comment about why the reporters were arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"lb8br\">Police took Talcott’s backpack, zip-tied her wrists behind her back, and patted her down, before she was taken into a garage where police were processing arrests, she wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"myh16\">Geoffrey Ingersoll, editor in chief of the Daily Caller, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GPIngersoll/status/1308973875980644352?s=20\">tweeted</a> at 11:37 p.m. that he had notified the LMPD that the two reporters were press, and expected they would be released swiftly. A short time later he posted he learned that they would be processed and charged.</p><p data-block-key=\"ta3lx\">Talcott wrote that she underwent a second, more invasive pat-down as she was processed. She wrote in a <a href=\"https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/03/shelby-talcott-daily-caller-arrest-louisville-jail-part-two/\">second account of her experience</a> that she was held in a cell with approximately 28 women, no room to social distance, and not everyone was provided with a mask. She said she was in custody for 16 hours before she was released.</p><p data-block-key=\"22pjy\">Talcott was charged with unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. She <a href=\"https://dailycaller.com/2020/09/30/daily-caller-reporter-pleads-not-guilty-arrested-covering-louisville-protests/\">pleaded not guilty</a> to the charges on Sept. 30. A court dropped the charges against both Talcott and Ventura on Oct. 20, the <a href=\"https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/20/charges-dropped-daily-caller-reporters-arrested-louisville-protest/\">Daily Caller reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"f2i8t\">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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX7XGE91.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hlid5\">Police stand guard in Louisville, Kentucky, as people react to a Sept. 23, 2020, decision in the criminal case against officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, earlier in the year.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Louisville Metro Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-09-24",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"name": "Kentucky",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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},
{
"title": "Multimedia journalist repeatedly pushed by police while covering L.A. protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multimedia-journalist-repeatedly-pushed-by-police-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-03-11T14:16:03.335879Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T19:44:12.991639Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T19:44:12.902566Z",
"date": "2020-09-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"v6zqt\">Lexis-Olivier Ray, a multimedia journalist for local outlet L.A. Taco, says he was repeatedly pushed by Los Angeles Police Department officers while documenting protests in Los Angeles, California, on Sept. 23, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"5hqqk\">The Los Angeles Times <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-23/hundreds-join-downtown-l-a-protest-over-decision-in-breonna-taylor-case\">reported</a> that hundreds had taken to the streets of downtown L.A. that day following the grand jury decision in the case of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who’d been fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky, home by police in March. Protesters were also demanding the removal of Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, whom <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/10/us/jackie-lacey-la-da-black-lives-matter/index.html\">they claimed</a> hadn’t done enough to hold the police department accountable in cases of excessive use of force and officer-involved shootings.</p><p data-block-key=\"ra29d\">The protest was just one in a surge of demonstrations against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement that have been held since May. 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=\"0kof8\">Ray told the Tracker he was following marchers as they made their way through downtown toward LAPD headquarters, near the intersection of South Main and West First streets.</p><p data-block-key=\"kjpfn\">“I arrived kind of late and was trying to catch up with people as they headed toward the police station and City Hall, which is nearby,” he said. “To get where the group of people was, I had to cross police lines.”</p><p data-block-key=\"t7bcf\">Ray said that he identified himself as press, but when he then attempted to cross the line, a few officers gave him a “hard time.” He said he then took a few steps back and told the officers he would stay where he was.</p><p data-block-key=\"qqxgd\">“They weren’t happy about that,” Ray said. “They told me to back up and eventually started pushing me down the street pretty aggressively.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">LAPD pushing a shoving me down a public sidewalk after I repeatedly identified myself as a journalist. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LATACO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LATACO</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/2HRRFPrfw1\">pic.twitter.com/2HRRFPrfw1</a></p>— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShotOn35mm/status/1309007382345928705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"oz1sv\">Ray said that he then walked approximately 30 to 40 feet farther down the police line and asked different officers if he could be allowed to cross the line in order to document the protest, again identifying himself as a member of the press. According to Ray, the officers said, “Oh yeah, sure,” and he was able to reach the protest without further incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"tsq30\">“I had my press pass and I had a system for dealing with the police,” Ray said. “I stayed on the sidewalk, in a public area. I was careful about identifying myself and making sure that they knew I was a journalist and I tried to keep my distance from the officers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hkv5t\">The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for comment.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Lexis-Olivier Ray (L.A. Taco)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Social media journalist hit with projectile while covering Portland protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/social-media-journalist-hit-with-projectile-while-covering-portland-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-10T18:57:36.123312Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T21:16:22.373574Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T21:16:22.277754Z",
"date": "2020-09-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"o1mxw\">Social media journalist Chris Khatami was hit with a law enforcement munition used for crowd-control while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 23, 2020. Khatami told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he did not believe he was targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"c4uut\">Khatami, who hosts an <a href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/specscript\">entertainment show</a> on the platform Twitch, has been documenting and livestreaming the city’s protests for racial justice and against police brutality on social media for several months.</p><p data-block-key=\"93ri2\">On Sept. 23, protesters gathered outside the Multnomah County Justice Center in downtown Portland to demonstrate against the Kentucky Attorney General’s <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/breonna-taylor-decision-louisville-police-wanton-endangerment-grand-jury/\">announcement</a> that a grand jury had declined to charge any police officers in the March 2020 death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.</p><p data-block-key=\"8qnab\">According to Khatami, around midnight, officers began pushing protesters away from the building and through Chapman Square, which housed a large encampment of homeless people. It was a chaotic scene, Khatami told the Tracker, as he tried to film officers pushing and grabbing protesters in the dark, while not trampling the belongings of the encampment’s residents.</p><p data-block-key=\"vhstp\">In the midst of this, Khatami said he was hit on the hand by a crowd-control munition, but that it did not leave a mark or cause injury. He said he was not sure what kind of munition it was, and he did not believe he was targeted.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">At Wednesday’s protest I was hit by DHS munitions and all I got was this amazing shot.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandProtests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/portland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#portland</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/pdx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pdx</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/policeriot?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#policeriot</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/copriot?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#copriot</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PoliceBrutality?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PoliceBrutality</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/5VexF9wRug\">pic.twitter.com/5VexF9wRug</a></p>— Ra's Al Gabaghul (@ChrisKhatami) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ChrisKhatami/status/1309565049715847170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 25, 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=\"dt9yo\">Earlier that evening, around 11 p.m., Khatami said police officers threw a gas canister directly toward where he was standing with a group of journalists, all of whom were clearly labeled “press.” Khatami was wearing homemade signs that said “press” taped to his backpack, shirt and helmet, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"9q2n2\">The journalist said the canister bounced away and he was not hit with any chemical irritant.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In this video from last night's protests in Portland you can see a cop throw a CS gas canister at me, and you can hear me be an indignant baby about it! <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/pdx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pdx</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PDXprotests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PDXprotests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/portland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#portland</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortlandProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PortlandProtests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PoliceBrutality?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PoliceBrutality</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/csgas?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#csgas</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/copriot?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#copriot</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/PoliceRiots?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PoliceRiots</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/b6ktNW4lKb\">pic.twitter.com/b6ktNW4lKb</a></p>— Ra's Al Gabaghul (@ChrisKhatami) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ChrisKhatami/status/1309270620668977153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 24, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9rg74\">Since July, law enforcement officers from the PPB and federal agencies have been barred by court rulings from arresting, harming or impeding journalists or legal observers of the protests. Sergeant Kevin Allen, a Portland Police Bureau Public Information Officer, told the Tracker in an email that he was unable to provide comment on the incident because “there is active litigation involving the City of Portland on the topic you’re asking about.”</p><p data-block-key=\"p3c3b\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Chris Khatami (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Portland police shove journalist covering protest over Breonna Taylor grand jury decision",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-journalists-say-they-were-shoved-portland-police-while-covering-protest-over-grand-jury-decision/",
"first_published_at": "2021-01-21T19:52:18.516688Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:28:18.749274Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:28:18.663620Z",
"date": "2020-09-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dowh4\">Independent photojournalist Ariston Vallejos said he was shoved by local police officers while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 23, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"xknns\">Vallejos 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 deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and others. 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=\"y3cxi\">Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led the city to agree 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 arrest, harm or impede the work of journalists or legal observers of the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"s5nwv\">The Sept. 23 protest was called in response to a Kentucky grand jury’s decision that day to not prosecute Louisville police officers for shooting and killing Taylor.</p><p data-block-key=\"p8an2\">Demonstrators <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/portland-protest-grows-downtown-on-eve-of-breonna-taylor-grand-jury-decision.html\">gathered</a> in downtown Portland outside the Multnomah County Justice Center, a focus of Portland protests because it houses a jail, courtrooms and a police station. According to a <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/portland-protest-grows-downtown-on-eve-of-breonna-taylor-grand-jury-decision.html\">report in The Oregonian</a>, sometime after 9 p.m., some protesters threw rocks at the windows to the Central Precinct station, located on the Second Avenue side of the Justice Center.</p><p data-block-key=\"btjel\">In response, Portland police declared the protest a riot and used crowd-control munitions on demonstrators. At around 10:30 p.m., a protester threw a Molotov cocktail at officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"yl8mw\">Throughout the night, Vallejos filmed and tweeted from the protests. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mr1mportant/status/1308998866671464448\">Twitter message</a> posted at 10:17 p.m., Vallejos wrote he was “repeatedly shoved and screamed at,” despite his being marked as press.</p><p data-block-key=\"wpcjd\">A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/mr1mportant/status/1309012645224349697\">video Vallejos posted</a> about an hour later captures an officer arresting someone on the ground. After Vallejos gets closer, a police officer pushes him back, and tells him to “get the fuck out of here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ul33m\">Vallejos confirmed the videos to the Tracker and that he felt targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"v5p8h\">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=\"afdc2\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ariston Vallejos (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Camera kicked by individual during Rhode Island protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/camera-kicked-individual-during-rhode-island-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-01-20T18:30:57.116337Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:11:31.916549Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:11:31.815910Z",
"date": "2020-09-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Providence",
"longitude": -71.41283,
"latitude": 41.82399,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"a39xt\">WLNE-TV ABC 6 cameraman Paul Duddy had his camera kicked by an individual during a protest in Providence, Rhode Island, on Sept. 25, 2020, according to social media posts by station employees.</p><p data-block-key=\"trij9\">An ABC 6 news crew had been following a protest march against the Sept. 23 announcement that a Kentucky grand jury would not be filing charges against police officers for the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old unarmed Black woman who was shot and killed during a botched police raid on her Louisville apartment on March 13. The announcement rekindled racial justice protests across the country, including in Providence.</p><p data-block-key=\"ucomn\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> documenting arrests, assaults and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"xjyg2\">At 10:11 p.m., ABC 6 reporter Brittany Comak <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BComakABC6/status/1309676999645048832\">tweeted a video</a> showing an individual in white sneakers breaking off from the march, running toward the lens of a camera as it filmed the scene and kicking it.</p><p data-block-key=\"pu09u\">“Many of the protesters were hostile to the media. This happened walking the Brown University Campus. We are okay. Please remember we are just trying to do our jobs,” she wrote.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Many of the protesters were hostile to the media. This happened walking the Brown University Campus. We are okay. Please remember we are just trying to do our jobs. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ABC6?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ABC6</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/8haz790vaz\">pic.twitter.com/8haz790vaz</a></p>— Brittany Comak (@BComakABC6) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BComakABC6/status/1309676999645048832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 26, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5grxk\">She later<a href=\"https://twitter.com/BComakABC6/status/1309838469187936256\"> wrote on Twitter</a> that the kick was “dangerously close to my photographer’s head.”</p><p data-block-key=\"u5lni\">Kim Kalunian, a reporter at WPRI 12 who was also at the march, reported seeing the incident as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"t5ug8\">“One of the protesters just kicked the lens of a camera being manned by a photojournalist from @ABC6,”<a href=\"https://twitter.com/KimKalunian/status/1309664843847397378\"> she wrote on Twitter</a> at 9:23 p.m. “We heard them saying they should smack our cameras just moments before.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9ntxy\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShiinaHL/status/1309664915569938432\">Shiina LoSciuto, another WPRI 12 reporter, tweeted</a>: “It sounded like a few people were threatening to scratch our cameras because we are ‘not on their side.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"becsv\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/APittsABC6/status/1309677311764070403\">A later tweet from ABC 6 reporter Amanda Pitts</a> identified the cameraman whose camera was kicked as Paul Duddy.</p><p data-block-key=\"o4e65\">Staff at ABC 6 and WPRI 12 did not respond to requests for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "",
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "private individual",
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Rhode Island",
"abbreviation": "RI"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"court verdict",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Paul Duddy (WLNE-TV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist arrested while reporting on homeless encampment in Oregon",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-while-reporting-homeless-encampment-oregon/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-20T19:59:38.764014Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-02-21T18:26:24.189970Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-02-21T18:26:24.027763Z",
"date": "2020-09-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Medford",
"longitude": -122.87559,
"latitude": 42.32652,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lhjw3\">Jefferson Public Radio reporter April Ehrlich was arrested while covering police evictions of a homeless encampment in a public park in Medford, Oregon, on Sept. 22, 2020.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Medford police arrested JPR reporter April Ehrlich as she was covering the MPD's operation this morning removing campers from the city's Hawthorne Park. She was one of 11 people arrested during the police action. We'll have more details as they become available.</p>— JPR News (@JPRnews) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JPRnews/status/1308497204659793927?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 22, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lhwyr\">JPR Executive Director Paul Westhelle said in a <a href=\"https://www.ijpr.org/media-society/2020-09-23/jpr-statement-on-the-arrest-of-reporter-april-ehrlich-at-the-hawthorne-park-camp-sweep\">statement</a> that Ehrlich had arrived at Hawthorne Park near downtown Medford in the early morning to interview some of the nearly 100 unhoused people who had taken up residence in the park. Police arrived at approximately 8 a.m. to enforce a 24-hour eviction notice.</p><p data-block-key=\"84h1m\">Officers directed members of the press to a “media staging area” located at one of the entrances to the park, Westhelle said. He added that “it was not possible to adequately see or hear interactions between police officers and campers, or gather audio” from the staging area.</p><p data-block-key=\"yek9z\">MPD’s Lt. Mike Budreau told the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that Ehrlich was arrested after reportedly refusing to go to the media staging area. Budreau added that members of the press “had full access to the park up until the public closure and the media staging location was well within view of the officers’ interactions with campers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8o244\">JPR reported that Ehrlich was released later that afternoon with charges for criminal trespassing, interfering with a peace officer and resisting arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"k4mv4\">If convicted, Ehrlich could face more than a year in prison and fines up to $7,500.</p><p data-block-key=\"uamtl\">“April is a professional journalist and part of her job is being present during charged situations that sometimes involve law enforcement,” Westhelle wrote. “She knows how to be close enough to report without interfering.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4mioe\">“JPR stands by April’s award-winning journalism and supports the courage it can take to tell compelling stories that don’t echo the narratives the institutions we cover sometimes lead us to.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mzi28\">The Oregon Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists <a href=\"https://www.spjoregon.com/news/spj-oregon-statement-on-arrest-of-jpr-reporter-april-ehrlich\">issued</a> a statement condemning the arrest, as did <a href=\"https://cpj.org/2020/09/journalist-april-ehrlich-facing-criminal-charges-over-reporting-on-homelessness-in-oregon/\">CPJ</a> and <a href=\"https://rsf.org/en/news/us-journalist-facing-criminal-charges-reporting-homeless-encampment-oregon\">Reporters Without Borders</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"q1ono\">JPR News Director Liam Moriarty told the Tracker that Ehrlich has a preliminary court appearance on Oct. 22.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Ehrlich.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"kcxm5\">In police body camera footage obtained by her attorneys, Medford Police officers confront and arrest then-Jefferson Public Radio reporter April Ehrlich during an encampment sweep on Sept. 22, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Medford Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": "1:22-cv-01416",
"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,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [
"(2022-09-20 16:34:00+00:00) Reporter cleared of charges files lawsuit alleging wrongful arrest",
"(2021-11-18 11:48:00+00:00) Trial date set for Jefferson Public Radio reporter",
"(2022-08-26 17:26:00+00:00) Charges dropped against reporter nearly two years after her arrest"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"encampment"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"April Ehrlich (Jefferson Public Radio)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Photojournalist assaulted, threatened with firearm while covering Pittsburgh protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-assaulted-threatened-firearm-while-covering-pittsburgh-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-01T17:43:18.094876Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-11-25T18:31:33.728522Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-11-25T18:31:33.634412Z",
"date": "2020-09-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Pittsburgh",
"longitude": -79.99589,
"latitude": 40.44062,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dynbl\">Freelance photojournalist Ed Thompson said he was assaulted and threatened with a firearm by an individual while covering a protest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 22, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"4eajl\">Thompson was covering one of the many protests that broke out across the U.S. in 2020 in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. 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=\"00k83\">On Sept. 22, <a href=\"https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2020/08/22/City-police-arrest-man-during-protest-in/stories/202008210143\">protesters demonstrating against</a> police violence and the arrest of a prominent activist marched on the home of Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto in the city’s Point Breeze neighborhood.</p><p data-block-key=\"vrbsp\">Thompson told the Tracker in an interview that as protesters were leaving Peduto’s home, he ran ahead to get better shots of them. As he did, he said, a resident of the neighborhood about a block down from the mayor’s residence began to spray him with a hose. Speaking to the Tracker, Thompson said the man then threw a handful of small rocks at him before charging him and punching his hand. Thompson said the assault pushed his camera into his face but left him uninjured.</p><p data-block-key=\"6jtdt\">Following that altercation, Thompson said the man retreated into his residence before reemerging on his balcony, where he threatened to shoot Thompson and others in the crowd before briefly producing what appeared to be a handgun in a holster.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Covering a protest tonight in Pittsburgh when a older man first punched me and threw a hand full of rocks at me. Then, continued to his porch and said he’ll shoot me if I don’t get off his property. Subsequently pulls a handgun on me and points it at me. This world in messed up. <a href=\"https://t.co/Jb25iSk4jz\">pic.twitter.com/Jb25iSk4jz</a></p>— Ed Thompson (@ThompsonFoto12) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThompsonFoto12/status/1308626550175272960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 23, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"m7q0i\"><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GufRvlBWKsk&feature=youtu.be\">In video</a> Thompson recorded of the incident, the man can be seen standing on a balcony that had signs hanging from it reading “VOTE TRUMP ALLRED,” “NO DEM COMIE CHAOS” and “ALL USA LIVES MATTER.” Apparently speaking to Thompson, the man says, “Get off my property.” Thompson informs him he is on the sidewalk. Seconds later, the man says, “Get off my grass right now. I’ll shoot you.”</p><p data-block-key=\"74mbz\">“He’s got a gun! He’s got a handgun!” Thompson can be heard shouting as he backs up.</p><p data-block-key=\"2fbzt\">A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThompsonFoto12/status/1308629327567822853\">video</a> shot by photographer and videographer Dan Lampmann showed the man flash what appears to be a holstered weapon more clearly.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here is some video of the man pulling out a hand gun briefly after he says he’s going to shoot me. Video via <a href=\"https://twitter.com/danlampmann?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@danlampmann</a>. Thank you for having my back tonight. You could have been injured too if he had carried out his threats <a href=\"https://t.co/F3QIJqJcLr\">https://t.co/F3QIJqJcLr</a></p>— Ed Thompson (@ThompsonFoto12) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThompsonFoto12/status/1308629327567822853?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 23, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"87s0b\">The incident had Thompson scared for the safety of himself and those around him, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"1l6an\">“If he would have shot, he probably would have hit me,” he said. “I was 20 feet away. Even if he was a bad shot, if he pulled off five or six rounds he probably would have got me. But I was worried about the crowd, too.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aqz39\">While police officers were nearby, Thompson described their response as “nonchalant” and “real chill.”</p><p data-block-key=\"51lg2\">Thompson said that the man involved in the incidents had previously harassed protesters on other marches to the mayor’s residence. He said the man, who is white, had at times turned to racial taunts.</p><p data-block-key=\"bv9iv\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/csnyderj/status/1308580858111107073\">A video recorded</a> by independent journalist Christian Snyder and uploaded to Twitter at 9:36 p.m. shows the man standing on the balcony shouting, “I’ll shoot you, you fucking cocksuckers!”</p><p data-block-key=\"a9kzt\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/csnyderj/status/1308580523938385925\">Another video shot by Snyder</a> shows the man being confronted by police while holding a hose and yelling at protesters. He eventually drops the hose and walks away while shouting at the protesters, “If it was up to me, you’d all be dead!”</p><p data-block-key=\"dis8h\">Thompson is unsure whether he was targeted for being press. Part of him thinks that he was just the closest of the crowd to the man. But given the pro-Donald Trump signs on the man’s balcony, he said he worries that the president’s anti-media rhetoric played a role.</p><p data-block-key=\"a2o6c\">“Who knows, maybe it was because I had a camera. I had three cameras and a badge saying I was a journalist. I can’t say either. You can probably assume both,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"uju1u\"><a href=\"https://www.wtae.com/article/protesters-and-a-neighbor-clash-in-pittsburgh-mayors-neighborhood/34131012#\">Speaking to WTAE-TV</a> the following day, the man, whom the station identified, claimed he “slipped” and hit Thompson’s camera and did not punch him. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ThompsonFoto12/status/1308988036097728514\">A video later posted by Thompson</a> that he says was filmed by Snyder showed the man approaching the photographer and appearing to reach up toward him before Thompson stumbles backward.</p><p data-block-key=\"o3h5d\">In the interview with WTAE-TV, the man said he had a microphone in his hand, not a gun, but did say he had threatened to shoot protesters to “protect myself.” He said he may have “accidentally squirted” protesters with his hose or “maybe the hose had a mind of its own.” He added: “They needed a bath anyway.” During the interview, he wore a “Make America Great Again” hat.</p><p data-block-key=\"wnvzi\">Thompson said police took his information down at the scene and said they would be in touch with him regarding the incident. He said at the time they noted that he had video of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"dkxmj\">But “to the date, I haven’t been called by a detective or a police officer yet regarding that case,” he told the Tracker in mid-December, nearly three months after the march.</p><p data-block-key=\"dkt7f\">On Sept. 23, the Pittsburgh Current, where Thompson is a contributing photojournalist, reported that police <a href=\"https://www.pittsburghcurrent.com/photojournalist-assaulted-threatened-with-gun-by-man-opposed-to-blm-protests/\">told the paper</a> that they were “aware of the incident and are investigating.”</p><p data-block-key=\"z0oq8\">Responding to a request for comment from the Tracker, Cara Cruz, a spokesperson for Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Safety said the incident had been investigated by detectives but “after a review of available video, it was determined that no charges would be filed.”</p></div>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "Pennsylvania",
"abbreviation": "PA"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ed Thompson (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Independent filmmaker arrested while covering anti-ICE protest in New York City",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-filmmaker-arrested-while-covering-anti-ice-protest-new-york-city/",
"first_published_at": "2021-01-06T16:34:20.024191Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-01-21T22:10:21.800647Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-01-21T22:10:21.683857Z",
"date": "2020-09-19",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4zu3w\">Ronald Weaver II, an independent filmmaker, was arrested while covering a protest against immigration policy and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York City on Sept. 19, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"fei2e\">The protest, which began in Times Square, was prompted by a <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/us/ICE-hysterectomies-whistleblower-georgia.html\">whistleblower’s allegation</a> that immigrant women held at a privately run detention center in Georgia were forced to undergo hysterectomies. Weaver, a New York-based filmmaker, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the protest was part of a broad protest movement against racial injustice that swept across the country over the summer.</p><p data-block-key=\"5iv9g\">Weaver said he began documenting racial justice protests in New York City in June. He said he initially attended protests as a participant with his camera, but by late June he said he was primarily attending to photograph and video the protests with the goal of making a documentary project. He has worked in the past as a commercial videographer and photographer, and has been documenting protests in New York and in other parts of the country on <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rw2productions/\">Instagram</a>. He said he has sold his footage to outlets including the<a href=\"https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-2235192/Video-Surfers-remember-Breonna-Taylor-paddle-Rockaway-beach.html\"> Daily Mail</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NBCNewsNow/status/1284910879650152448?s=20\">NBC News</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"thsgx\">Weaver said there was a heavy police presence as the protesters gathered midday in Times Square. When protesters on bicycles started to lead a march, Weaver said police began stopping and arresting them. In response, he said, other protesters moved off the sidewalk and sat in the middle of Seventh Avenue, prompting police to make more arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"n0qu2\">Weaver said he left Times Square for police headquarters in Lower Manhattan to film the release of arrested protesters from One Police Plaza. However, he said, as more protesters started showing up, police started to restrict movement. Weaver said it appeared police were preparing to block the street, a tactic known as “kettling,” to restrict protesters’ movements.</p><p data-block-key=\"2waix\">Around 3:30 p.m., Weaver said he was filming police as they physically restrained a young woman, when a New York Police Department officer in riot gear suddenly shoved him in the back. Weaver said he kept his balance, despite holding his heavy equipment at the time. He said he then noticed a second officer, who was about 10 feet away from him, had started to run toward him.</p><p data-block-key=\"auyyz\">“It was obvious that they were targeting me because of what I was filming,” Weaver said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jis11\">Weaver said he believed he was about to be tackled, so he ran away. As he ran, he said he shouted, asking what he did wrong. A group of about five other police officers came around a corner in front of him, he said, and stopped him. Weaver said the officers allowed him to put down his camera, and then arrested him.</p><p data-block-key=\"vdxlb\">Weaver said the officers asked if he had press credentials, which he didn’t. He said he explained to his arresting officer that he was there to observe, not participate, and had been documenting and filming protests through the summer.</p><p data-block-key=\"0oq9j\">New York Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"4u87u\">Weaver said police took his camera equipment when he was arrested and returned it to him, undamaged, when he was released after 8 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"nurow\">Weaver was charged with disorderly conduct. He said his original court hearing scheduled for Dec. 18 was postponed because of court closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a new date hasn't been scheduled.</p><p data-block-key=\"o2lt0\">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. <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">Find these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-09-20 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against New York filmmaker documenting protest"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"immigration",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ronald Weaver II (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist hit with crowd-control munitions, assaulted by police at protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-with-crowd-control-munitions-assaulted-by-police-at-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-03-06T19:58:53.158798Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-04-11T14:56:09.025091Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-04-11T14:56:08.930111Z",
"date": "2020-09-18",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hio7x\">Independent journalist Melissa “Claudio” Lewis was hit in the leg repeatedly with crowd-control munitions fired by law enforcement, then grabbed and thrown to the ground by a police officer while documenting a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 18, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"c1h1c\">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=\"4d49f\">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=\"dd9p8\">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=\"6lruk\">In the complaint, Lewis describes Department of Homeland Security agents firing tear gas, pepper balls and Stinger grenades (which contain rubber pellets and the same ingredient used in pepper spray) into the crowd of people assembled at the Sept. 18 protest near a Portland branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"2lhgo\">Lewis, who shielded herself with a door, says she was shot in the leg seven times during the barrage.</p><p data-block-key=\"1sd8h\">Later that night, according to the complaint, Lewis was perched on the tailgate of a truck to film the actions of law enforcement agents when a police officer grabbed her by her backpack and threw her off the truck and onto the curb, where she hit her back and hips. Lewis later went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with oxycodone for the severe pain caused by the impact.</p><p data-block-key=\"3kg4l\">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=\"de8m1\">Lewis told the Tracker that she ultimately withdrew from the suit because of issues with her legal representation.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX7WHNF_-_Reuters_-_Shannon_Stap.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"gmanv\">Police officers at a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 18, 2020, where journalist Melissa “Claudio” Lewis was shot with crowd-control munitions fired by federal agents and thrown to the ground by police.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "3:20-cv-01882",
"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": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [
"withdrawn"
],
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Melissa “Claudio” Lewis (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
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},
{
"title": "Freelance journalist says federal agents fired tear gas and smoke, then shoved her, during Portland protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-says-federal-agents-fired-tear-gas-and-smoke-then-shoved-her-during-portland-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-01-29T16:33:06.499447Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-06T19:59:39.435961Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-06T19:59:39.213844Z",
"date": "2020-09-18",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"sax63\">Freelance journalist Laura Jedeed said federal law enforcement officers fired tear gas and smoke towards her, and then shoved her, while she was covering a protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 18, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"hjzdz\">Jedeed, a contributor to Portland Monthly and Willamette Weekly, was covering one of the many Portland protests in response to law enforcement violence that first erupted after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25. 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=\"lnmgq\">Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The case resulted in a temporary restraining order on July 2 barring the Portland police from harming or impeding journalists, which was <a href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/feds-ordered-not-to-assault-arrest-journalists-in-portland/\">expanded to include federal agents</a> later that month.</p><p data-block-key=\"qtrgv\">The Sept. 18 demonstration began in the evening, as demonstrators marched several blocks south from Elizabeth Caruthers Park in the South Waterfront district to the ICE building, and stretched past midnight. The demonstration came after a whistleblower <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/16/913398383/whistleblower-alleges-medical-neglect-questionable-hysterectomies-of-ice-detaine\">alleged</a> that ICE was medically neglecting detainees at a private detention center in Georgia and overseeing hysterectomies on detained women. Demonstrators also chanted against the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from parents, in place from 2017 to 2018, and the <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/family-separation-parents-chosen-homeland-security-chad-wolf/\">lack of progress</a> in reuniting all of the families.</p><p data-block-key=\"mh2ot\">Jedeed was <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LauraJedeed/status/1307176190411644933\">documenting</a> the scene as federal agents dispersed the crowd to the north after protesters started pushing at the gates of the ICE building. Then the Portland police joined in the enforcement effort and <a href=\"https://www.koin.com/news/protests/smoke-clears-and-protests-resume-in-portland/\">declared</a> the protest an “unlawful assembly,” according to local news outlet KOIN. Eleven people were arrested by the police on a range of charges, and law enforcement officers fired crowd-control munitions at the crowd to drive them away from the ICE building.</p><p data-block-key=\"qat65\">A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LauraJedeed/status/1307191954493431810\">video</a> published by Jedeed on Twitter at 10:37 p.m. shows tear gas enveloping a street where protesters were retreating. After her camera pans to capture law enforcement officers standing on a street, a munition bounces close to her, and green smoke comes out.</p><p data-block-key=\"tdy7j\">“It landed right near me, and it was a plume of green smoke. It made it impossible to film, and there was only press there,” Jedeed told the Tracker, adding that believes federal officers targeted her to stop her from filming.</p><p data-block-key=\"nmsg1\">Earlier in September, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler had <a href=\"https://www.koin.com/news/protests/wheeler-orders-ppb-to-stop-using-tear-gas-immediately/\">banned</a> the Portland Police Bureau from using tear gas for crowd-control, and he <a href=\"https://twitter.com/tedwheeler/status/1307426135278383105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1307426137417547776%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.koin.com%2Fnews%2Fprotests%2Fsmoke-clears-and-protests-resume-in-portland%2F\">tweeted</a> the day after the protest that the police had abided by his order. Federal agents, however, have continued to deploy tear gas during Portland protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"7apei\">After pulling back to the ICE facility, law enforcement officers again rushed the crowd and made an aggressive arrest around midnight. Jedeed was pushed to the ground during the rush, she told the Tracker, adding that believes a federal law enforcement officer shoved her.</p><p data-block-key=\"qg3g9\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/LauraJedeed/status/1307217753741246465\">Footage</a> published by Jedeed on Twitter shortly after shows a group of officers running down a street near the ICE facility. About nine seconds in, the camera points downward and then shuts off as she is pushed. “I get shoved and skid along the asphalt,” wrote Jedeed in a post accompanying the video.</p><p data-block-key=\"uqvbf\">The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to a request for comment on the incidents.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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},
{
"title": "Al Jazeera’s AJ+ ordered to register as foreign agent",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/al-jazeeras-aj-ordered-to-register-as-foreign-agent/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-30T14:08:40.345848Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-04-06T15:27:30.600872Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-04-06T15:27:30.529927Z",
"date": "2020-09-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ujery\">The U.S. Department of Justice ordered Al Jazeera’s U.S.-based social media division, AJ+, to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act on Sept. 14, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"rtpg8\">In a letter <a href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/trump-doj-al-jazeera-fara-uae-qatar/\">obtained by Mother Jones</a>, Jay Bratt, chief of the DOJ’s counterintelligence and export control section, wrote that AJ+ acts “at the direction and control” of the leaders of Qatar.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ya8p\">“Despite assertions of editorial independence and freedom of expression, Al Jazeera Media Network and its affiliates are controlled and funded by the Government of Qatar,” Bratt wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"i69km\">Al Jazeera <a href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/17/al-jazeera-condemns-aj-fara-registration-order-in-us/\">condemned the order</a>, referencing “relentless lobbying efforts” by the government of the United Arab Emirates to shutter the outlet. Since 2108, Republican members of Congress have sent three letters requesting that the DOJ compel Al Jazeera’s registration, Mother Jones reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"denyj\">Entities registered under FARA must include disclaimers about their government connections in their reporting and provide details about operations and funding to the Justice Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"rgvmb\">The Trump administration has ordered bureaus of multiple other foreign outlets to register <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/us-based-news-outlets-funded-russia-ordered-register-foreign-agents/\">under</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rt-america-compelled-register-foreign-agent-department-justice/\">FARA</a> or the <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/state-department-classifies-five-chinese-state-run-outlets-as-foreign-missions/\">Foreign Missions Act</a>, in some cases leading to retaliation against journalists in those countries.</p><p data-block-key=\"v0hj9\">A spokesperson for Al Jazeera said in a statement to Mother Jones that the act effectively “hobbles” the outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"0v3y8\">“We are deeply disappointed by the Department’s decision, which runs counter to the extensive factual record we provided demonstrating that FARA registration is not applicable to AJ+,” the statement reads. “The legal structure, editorial structure, editorial policies, budgeting process and content of AJ+ clearly demonstrate its independence.”</p><p data-block-key=\"g7ao9\">The statement added that the outlet is reviewing the determination and considering its options moving forward.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"AJ+"
],
"tags": [
"Department of Justice"
],
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"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist arrested while covering break-up of LA protest encampment",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-while-covering-break-la-protest-encampment/",
"first_published_at": "2020-12-06T14:20:12.713130Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T21:17:35.338936Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T21:17:35.239810Z",
"date": "2020-09-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"00eve\">Freelance journalist Talia Jane was arrested while covering a police raid of a protest camp in Los Angeles on Sept. 13, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"6f604\">Los Angeles law enforcement officers moved in to break up the encampment in the city’s Grant Park, across from City Hall, early on the morning of Sept. 13, the<a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-13/los-angeles-police-clear-protest-encampment-grand-park\"> Los Angeles Times</a> reported. The encampment had been established in June by activists, in part to support protests for racial justice and against police brutality that began following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minnesota on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"70ils\">Jane told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was reporting on the police action for social media. Jane has freelanced for publications including VICE, Elle, and Mic. Before her arrest, Jane said, she was following a standoff between law enforcement officers and protesters involved with the group Black Unity LA.</p><p data-block-key=\"c77f0\">At around 8:30 a.m., police ordered protesters to disperse, she said. Jane said she continued to film a line of police officers forming across a street, as she walked about half a block in front of the police.</p><p data-block-key=\"p2x80\"><a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tv/CFJJm7CHP7Z/?igshid=1lcnlkqcmnikz\">Video</a> she posted on Instagram shows four officers suddenly running toward her. “Put your hands behind your back,” one said repeatedly.</p><p data-block-key=\"l8e4f\">“You’re arresting me?” she asked.</p><p data-block-key=\"7rebu\">According to Jane, she was identified as press on her hat and backpack and had a digital press badge from the Freelance Journalists Union on the lock screen of her phone. She said she told arresting officers multiple times that she was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"l0zwb\">Jane said she was held for eight hours before she was released without bail. She said she faces a misdemeanor charge of failure to disperse and was given a citation for $5,000. According to Jane, she was given a court date in January 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"wboi3\">A spokesperson for the LAPD told the Tracker the department would not comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"btfez\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering these protests across the country. <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">Find these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-07-07 15:32:00+00:00) Charges dropped against journalist arrested while covering break-up of LA protest encampment"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Talia (Jane) Ben-Ora (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist Josie Huang arrested, charged with obstructing police in Los Angeles",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-josie-huang-arrested-charged-obstructing-police-los-angeles/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-18T20:50:11.863144Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-08T19:22:29.095324Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-08T19:22:28.805526Z",
"date": "2020-09-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"l6c3l\">On the evening of Sept. 12, 2020, deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department tackled and arrested journalist Josie Huang while she was covering officers making an arrest, she confirmed to the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"5s220\">Huang, who is a reporter for a National Public Radio member station KPCC and local news website LAist, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1305261859155505153\">wrote on Twitter</a> that she was attending a press conference led by Sheriff Alex Villanueva at the St. Francis Medical Center in Los Angeles and had just gotten in her car to head home when she heard shouting. She wrote that she got out of her car and went to investigate what was happening, noting that she was wearing a press ID around her neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"iri65\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Last night I was arrested and charged with obstructing a peace officer by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LASDHQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LASDHQ</a> after videotaping their interactions with protesters in Lynwood. This is what I remember and what I have on video and audio.</p>— Josie Huang (@josie_huang) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1305261859155505153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 13, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"j15hi\">“A handful of men were on the sidewalk. A couple were carrying large flags. Others were filming deputies and taunting them,” she <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1305262627686354944\">wrote</a>. “I started filming on my phone, standing off to the side. No one took issue with me being there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ssv1y\">Huang wrote that she followed deputies down the street and filmed as they arrested an individual, using the zoom on her camera to maintain a physical distance.</p><p data-block-key=\"a374v\">The deputies suddenly told Huang to back up and, “Within seconds, I was getting shoved around. There was nowhere to back up,” she wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"f5yn5\">A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1305331513592967168\">video</a> published by OnScene.TV shows deputies throwing Huang to the ground and arresting her. She also tweeted that the officers stomped on her phone and damaged it, but did not break it.</p><p data-block-key=\"cezqp\">Deputies detained Huang for approximately five hours before releasing her with a citation for obstructing a police officer, according to Huang’s posts on Twitter and a copy of the citation seen by the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"tjako\">If convicted of obstructing police, a misdemeanor, Huang could face a fine up to $1,000, imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year, or both, according to the <a href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=148.&lawCode=PEN\">California penal code</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"xrhsw\">The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LASDHQ/status/1305073750895812611\">tweeted</a> the morning following Huang’s arrest that she did not identify herself as a member of the press and that she “later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person.” However, in <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1305265081144410112\">a video</a> Huang filmed while she was being arrested, she can be heard clearly identifying herself as a reporter for KPCC.</p><p data-block-key=\"6vhj4\">LAist published <a href=\"https://laist.com/2020/09/13/arrest_of_laist_reporter_josie_huang_in_her_own_words.php\">her full account</a> on Sept. 13.</p><p data-block-key=\"8hbpi\">Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S.Press Freedom Tracker, called the sheriff’s department for comment and was told by the person who answered that they are not answering questions at this time because there is an ongoing investigation. Deputy Grade Medrano, a department spokesperson, sent an emailed statement to CPJ that said the sheriff’s department was aware of the incident, and that an active investigation was underway.</p><p data-block-key=\"9du9f\">The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a Tracker partner, and a coalition of 65 press freedom organizations — including more than a dozen other Tracker partner organizations — <a href=\"https://www.rcfp.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/RCFP-LA-County-Sheriff-Letter-with-Signatories-attachments.pdf\">sent a letter</a> on Sept. 16 calling on the sheriff’s department to drop all charges against Huang. It also urged the department to take immediate action to prevent future arrests of working members of the press.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTX7VBMR.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"4dn1u\">Journalist Josie Huang was arrested outside of St. Francis Medical Center in Los Angeles. Protesters and law enforcement were gathered there following the shooting ambush of two LA County Sheriff's Department deputies.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-09-13",
"detention_date": "2020-09-12",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": null,
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"actor": "law enforcement",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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{
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],
"state": {
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"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2023-11-07 00:00:00+00:00) LA radio reporter gets $700K settlement after 2020 arrest",
"(2020-09-24 16:25:00+00:00) Charges dropped against journalist Josie Huang after arrest in Los Angeles"
],
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"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist assaulted, threatened by LA sheriff’s deputies",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-assaulted-threatened-by-la-sheriffs-deputies/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-29T16:39:44.847469Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-09-09T17:30:26.738144Z",
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"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3nnso\">According to a claim filed against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, deputies “pushed, struck and threatened” independent photojournalist Nash Baker while he was covering officers making an arrest on the evening of Sept. 12, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"qrh0j\">Baker, who works for the video wire service <a href=\"https://onscene.tv/about-us/\">OnScene.TV</a>, filed the claim for damages in January 2021 alleging the assault. When reached by the Tracker on April 28, 2021, Baker declined to comment, citing an upcoming press conference.</p><p data-block-key=\"no23n\">According to the complaint, which was reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Baker was covering the scene outside the St. Francis Medical Center, where two deputies had been taken after being shot in their patrol car, <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/13/912408622/two-los-angeles-county-sheriffs-deputies-shot-in-apparent-ambush-near-train-stat\">according to NPR</a>, and where a crowd of demonstrators had gathered.</p><p data-block-key=\"7daxs\">According to the claim, at approximately 10:30 p.m., Baker captured footage of “deputies using excessive force and threatening the use of deadly force” against a group of retreating protesters. When he attempted to document the arrest of one protester he was prevented from doing so and assaulted by a deputy: “In order to prevent Mr. Baker from making a photographic record of the arrest, a deputy pushed, struck and threatened Mr. Baker,” the complaint reads. “The deputy can be heard stating, ‘Get out of here or I’ll break your f--king camera.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"yq6hz\">In <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BdWN37Mdro\">footage Baker captured of the incident</a>, the photojournalist can be heard repeatedly identifying himself as press as a deputy yells at him to leave the area and shoves him backward.</p><p data-block-key=\"uttmk\">At a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxdvInlLNZ8\">press conference</a> the day after the incident, he stated: “I feel that [the sheriff administration] should take notice that when we’re out there, when we’re filming these events, that all of us are safe.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mtwkd\">Moments after he was pushed down the street, Baker’s footage captured a second journalist, Josie Huang, being tackled and arrested, a case the Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-josie-huang-arrested-charged-obstructing-police-los-angeles/\">here</a>. Huang, who is a reporter for National Public Radio member station KPCC and local news website LAist, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1305331513592967168\">shared footage</a> captured by Baker on Twitter the following day.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thank you <a href=\"https://t.co/5ajOiRV1m6\">https://t.co/5ajOiRV1m6</a> for what is the clearest footage of my arrest by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LASDHQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LASDHQ</a>. <br><br>It’s how I remember it — like being tossed around in the ocean and then slammed into rock <a href=\"https://t.co/G3rfCR1NiI\">pic.twitter.com/G3rfCR1NiI</a></p>— Josie Huang (@josie_huang) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1305331513592967168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 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=\"hbcf3\">Baker’s claim for damages, which is the precursor to filing a lawsuit, asks for at least $500,000 in restitution.</p><p data-block-key=\"zqrcq\">“The attack on Mr. Baker was unprovoked,” the complaint states. “The actions of the LASD served to stifle press coverage, to suppress and chill free speech, and to prevent accurate dissemination of news reports regarding the LASD’s treatment of citizens engaged in constitutionally protected, non-violent protest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qv063\">The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment as of press time.</p></div>",
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"name": "California",
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"updates": [
"(2021-05-03 12:58:00+00:00) Photojournalist sues L.A. Sheriff’s Department after deputies assault, threaten him",
"(2022-08-29 13:29:00+00:00) Photojournalist settles lawsuit against LA Sheriff’s Department"
],
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{
"title": "Julian Assange subpoenaed in defamation suit",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/julian-assange-subpoenaed-in-defamation-suit/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-16T02:37:26.229109Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-04-06T15:28:48.828914Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-04-06T15:28:48.750267Z",
"date": "2020-09-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zehm0\">In the early hours of July 10, 2016, Seth Rich, a 27-year-old staffer with the Democratic National Committee, was <a href=\"https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/man-shot-killed-in-northwest-dc/2074048/\">fatally shot</a> while walking to his home in Washington, D.C. His death, while unsolved, is believed to be the result of a <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/08/749392506/conspiracyland-debunks-theories-about-murder-of-dnc-staffer-seth-rich\">robbery gone wrong</a>. It quickly, however, became a <a href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-43727858\">flash point</a> for conspiracy theories: that Rich had been behind a DNC email dump to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, and that he’d effectively been assassinated because of it. None of the claims have ever been substantiated.</p><p data-block-key=\"7lil0\">On March 26, 2018, Rich’s brother, Aaron, <a href=\"https://money.cnn.com/2018/03/27/media/seth-rich-brother-sues-washington-times/index.html\">filed a defamation suit</a> in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against a slew of defendants — Texas businessman and then-frequent Fox News guest Ed Butowsky, the Washington Times, America First Media Group and its founder, Matt Couch — who he’d alleged had shown a “reckless disregard for the truth” and falsely linked both himself and his brother to the email leak.</p><p data-block-key=\"s1xvv\">During the course of three years of litigation, attorneys for both sides collectively subpoenaed nearly a dozen news outlets and members of the press. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents all subpoena requests individually; Find a complete overview of the known subpoenas for this case in the blog post, “<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/nearly-a-dozen-journalists-outlets-and-third-parties-subpoenaed-in-defamation-suit/\">Nearly a dozen journalists, outlets and third parties subpoenaed in defamation suit</a>.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cf8jt\">In January 2021, both <a href=\"https://thedcpatriot.com/statement-from-matt-couch/\">Couch</a> and <a href=\"https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/i-never-had-physical-proof-to-back-up-any-such-statements-former-fox-news-guest-apologizes-to-seth-richs-brother-for-dnc-conspiracy-theory/\">Butowsky</a> publicly apologized and retracted prior claims made about the Rich brothers, though Butowsky deleted his statement of contrition almost immediately, according to Law & Crime. Couch and Rich reached a settlement agreement on Jan. 19; Butowsky and Rich reached an agreement on March 22. The lawsuit was terminated officially when District Judge Richard Leon granted Rich’s motions to dismiss the charges against the defendants on March 29. The details of the settlement agreements were not made public.</p><h4 data-block-key=\"mj3mw\">Julian Assange | WikiLeaks founder</h4><p data-block-key=\"b8aar\">In July 2016, some four months before the U.S. presidential election, WikiLeaks “released a trove of 20,000 emails stolen from the servers of the Democratic National Committee,” <a href=\"https://www.vox.com/2016/7/23/12261020/dnc-email-leaks-explained\">according to Vox</a>. How WikiLeaks obtained those emails fueled endless speculation around Seth Rich and his death. The WikiLeaks founder proceeded to <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/10/489531198/wikileaks-offers-reward-in-search-for-democratic-party-staffers-killer\">imply</a> that Rich may have been the source of the leak, but specified that WikiLeaks does not reveal the identities of any of its sources. The outlet was also subpoenaed over the course of the lawsuit, which the Tracker has documented here.</p><p data-block-key=\"ng47i\">Assange was taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London when Aaron Rich filed the defamation suit, but during the discovery process, he was expelled from the embassy and arrested by British authorities. He remains imprisoned in the U.K. today.</p><ul><li data-block-key=\"mlwnx\"><b>July 2018:</b> Rich first attempts to serve a subpoena on Assange.</li><li data-block-key=\"6ysx3\"><b>April 2019:</b> Rich’s counsel reaches out to Assange’s criminal defense counsel to request his help in serving the subpoena; the attorney responds that he is not authorized to accept service of the subpoena.</li><li data-block-key=\"ov4tw\"><b>Aug. 18, 2019:</b> Couch lists Assange in his initial disclosure statement as someone who is likely to have discoverable information, alleging he “knows the identity of the individual or individuals who leaked the DNC emails to him” and “ knows the identity of the individual or individuals to whom payment was made for the DNC emails.”</li><li data-block-key=\"mv87p\"><b>Nov. 8, 2019:</b> Rich motions that the court issue a letter of request for assistance from the United Kingdom’s court system in requiring Assange to appear for a deposition.</li><li data-block-key=\"ysjy3\"><b>Jan. 6, 2020:</b> Butowsky submits his own request for a letter of assistance from the court.</li><li data-block-key=\"g3mgb\"><b>Jan. 24, 2020:</b> District Judge Richard Leon denies both Rich’s Nov. 8, 2019, motion and the defendants’ Jan. 6 request.</li><li data-block-key=\"zwrek\"><b>Aug. 13, 2020:</b> Rich files a motion asking Leon to reconsider his denial.</li><li data-block-key=\"vjtrj\"><b>Aug. 18, 2020:</b> Leon grants the motion to reconsider his ruling on Rich’s motion.</li><li data-block-key=\"zf7ma\"><b>Aug. 24, 2020:</b> The defendants file a similar motion to reconsider so they too can depose Assange.</li><li data-block-key=\"m0fyg\"><b>Sept. 12</b> and <b>Sept. 22, 2020:</b> Leon approves Rich’s and the defendants’ requests for international judicial assistance for the subpoena of Assange, respectively.</li></ul><p data-block-key=\"9pd0d\"><b>Status of Subpoena</b></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"6fgg8\">With the case closed, any outstanding subpoenas would become moot. Assange’s attorneys did not respond to the Tracker’s emailed request for comment, and it is unclear from the court filings alone whether his deposition was completed. Therefore, the Tracker is listing the status of the subpoena as “unknown” until further information is available.</li></ul></div>",
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"subpoena_type": "testimony about confidential source",
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"legal_order_venue": "Federal",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
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"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Julian Assange (WikiLeaks)"
],
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"unknown"
],
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{
"title": "Photojournalist surrounded, threatened with weapon, while filming Oregon fires",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-surrounded-threatened-weapon-while-filming-oregon-fires/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-19T19:57:27.889202Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-09-22T13:47:51.293682Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-09-22T13:47:51.218364Z",
"date": "2020-09-10",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Estacada",
"longitude": -122.3337,
"latitude": 45.28957,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wcc10\">Freelance photojournalist Nathan Howard encountered a hostile group of armed individuals on Sept. 10, 2020, while reporting on forest fires in Estacada, Oregon, a city about 30 miles southeast of downtown Portland, he told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"zsgfz\">Howard, who was on assignment for Getty Images, said that he had pulled up to a house that had clearly been evacuated, in order to take pictures. After he parked, a blue pickup truck pulled up, a man got out and Howard said he told the man who he was and showed his press pass, issued by the National Press Photographers Association.</p><p data-block-key=\"1r9vn\">“I thought he was a volunteer firefighter, and that he was angry I was working in an evacuation zone,” Howard told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. At the time, there was a <a href=\"http://www.nlfr.org/images/ready_set_go_evacuation_levels_-_lincoln_county.pdf\">level three evacuation order</a> in effect for the area. The man who came out of the truck asked Howard why he had Washington license plates, the journalist said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ztgl3\">Howard speculated that the man may have believed he was a looter. “At that point in time, I didn’t need to be there anyway. I said there was a misunderstanding, and I said I’d leave,” Howard told CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"xmnzc\">The man then spoke into his lapel, as if he had a mic on, and read Howard’s license plate number, the journalist said; after that, he told Howard that he needed to go, stating that he had “boys coming.”</p><p data-block-key=\"r4vbv\">Howard said he left and noticed that the man followed in his own truck, tailgating Howard for five miles before a white pickup truck pulled up perpendicular to Howard.</p><p data-block-key=\"rkn1u\">“The guy in the white pickup truck got out with an assault rifle and his finger was on the trigger. I didn’t feel like they ever wanted to hurt me, they just wanted to intimidate me,” Howard said.</p><p data-block-key=\"bjgou\">The man from the white pickup truck asked Howard what he was doing, and the photojournalist replied that he was working. Within a couple of minutes another truck arrived. A man got out of the third truck, examined Howard’s credentials and cameras and told him to photograph evacuation on the main roads, Howard said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7uh6j\">“One of them told me, ‘If we see you up here again, we’re going to put you in a ditch,’” Howard said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2wx2m\">In a separate incident, Alissa Azar told CPJ that she encountered a group of armed men while she was out reporting on the same fires around Molalla, a town 30 miles south of Portland, with colleagues <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDocumentarians\">Justin Yau</a>, a freelancer, and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MrOlmos/status/1304147436164665344\">Sergio Olmos</a>, who works for Oregon Public Broadcasting.</p><p data-block-key=\"ck95a\">Azar, a freelance photojournalist, said she was trying to get a good shot when she noticed three men who each carried a rifle and had a handgun at his waist. During their conversation with Azar, Yau and Olmos, two of the men put their rifles away in their vehicle, according to Azar.</p><p data-block-key=\"wixb5\">Azar said the men wanted to know why the journalists were there taking pictures. The journalists showed their press credentials and offered to show their work to the men.</p><p data-block-key=\"rsuye\">“They told us to just get the fuck out of there to avoid any problems or further confrontation with them,” Azar said. The three photojournalists got in their car and drove away, with the men filming their faces and car.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bmk6e\">A fire-damaged forest in Estacada, Oregon in September 2020.</p>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
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"tags": [
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Nathan Howard (Getty Images)"
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}
]
