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{
"title": "Social media journalists detained while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/social-media-journalists-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-28T18:03:38.321714Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:16:21.662409Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:16:21.558244Z",
"date": "2021-04-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kzp17\">Independent journalist Naasir Akailvi, of the Minnesota-based social media news outlet the Neighborhood Reporter, said he was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 14, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"9wn8d\">Akailvi told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was detained by Minnesota State Patrol troopers at the same time as his Neighborhood Reporter colleague, journalist Tracy Gunapalan. The Neighborhood Reporter covers social justice movements in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region and publishes on social media platforms, Akailvi said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5768v\">Demonstrations were held several days in a row outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"dng69\">Akailvi and Gunapalan were returning to their car late on the night of April 14 as the protest was winding down, they told the Tracker. As they were moving away from the police department, close to a nearby church, a group of people were tapping on the windows of law enforcement vehicles and going up to officers, so Gunapalan said the pair stopped to film the interaction.</p><p data-block-key=\"gnctv\">Suddenly, she said, a line of MSP troopers started running up the street toward them. Gunapalan said the journalists held up their camera and microphone and yelled to identify themselves as press, but the troopers shouted at them to move, so they turned and started running.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ysrm\">Akailvi told the Tracker that as he was running, troopers grabbed him and pushed him to the ground. As he was taken down, he said, a trooper pulled his microphone out of his hand. As his backpack was taken off of him, a battery pack fell out, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"k4jei\">Akailvi said he was restrained on the ground with a trooper on top of him, and his hands were restrained in cuffs.</p><p data-block-key=\"pwbu6\">He said he told the troopers that he was press and had a press pass around his neck. Akailvi said a trooper got in front of him and said, “That doesn’t always work, does it?” When he asked another trooper to speak with a supervisor, he said the trooper responded, “You can get the fuck out of here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5xv1v\">Akailvi said troopers brought him over to where Gunapalan and another independent journalist, Niko Georgiades of Unicorn Riot, were also detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"4fym5\">Troopers had the journalists pull their face masks down, and they took photographs of the journalists’ faces and press passes, he said. Akailvi said he and Gunapalan wear self-made press cards that have their photographs, identify them as press and say “The Neighborhood Reporter.” Gunapalan said the troopers told the journalists they wanted to keep a record of their faces so they wouldn’t be detained again. The journalists, who were released after their photographs were taken, said they were detained for between 10 and 15 minutes.</p><p data-block-key=\"9pj4d\">After they were released, Akailvi said they went back to find the microphone and battery pack he lost when he was detained. He said the microphone was more than 15 feet away from where he had been pulled to the ground and was broken into multiple pieces. He said that he wasn’t able to find his battery pack.</p><p data-block-key=\"39av8\">The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"h8m41\">On April 16, a federal judge issued a<a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/aclu-mn-pushes-press-freedom-chauvin-trial\"> temporary restraining order</a> barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or threatening to arrest journalists. In a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> in response to the court order, MSP acknowledged that the agency is prohibited from enforcing dispersal orders against journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"5qhuh\">“While journalists have been detained and released during enforcement actions after providing credentials, no journalists have been arrested,” the MSP statement said.</p><p data-block-key=\"py6zw\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "external battery"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "recording equipment"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Naasir Akailvi (The Neighborhood Reporter)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "CNN news team harassed, assaulted while covering Brooklyn Center protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-news-team-harassed-assaulted-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-26T14:36:56.542157Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:15:46.214517Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:15:46.102344Z",
"date": "2021-04-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dmyqa\">CNN senior national correspondent Miguel Marquez and his news team were harassed and assaulted by a group of individuals while documenting protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 14, 2021. The journalists ultimately had to leave the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"pdiir\">Demonstrators had gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department to demand justice in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, who was fatally shot by a white police officer on April 11.</p><p data-block-key=\"6i65f\">CNN’s public relations office declined to make Marquez or members of the news crew available for comment, but Marquez spoke about the incident <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/04/18/journalists-assaulted-and-arrested-during-minnesota-unrest.cnn\">during a segment</a> on Reliable Sources, the outlet’s weekly program about the media hosted by Brian Stelter.</p><p data-block-key=\"jzk9w\">“There were a few protesters at the gates to the police station yelling at the police,” Marquez said. “And also then there was the phalanx of law enforcement behind the gates, and we wanted to sort of show all of that in our live shots.”</p><p data-block-key=\"490ns\">The crew had moved over, Marquez said, to accommodate the wishes of some of the protesters who said they did not want to be filmed.</p><p data-block-key=\"oqe1a\">“And then another smaller group of protesters came around and started sort of shouting us down,” he said. “They wanted us to move to a place where we couldn’t see the protesters that were taunting the police, and that’s when this water bottle gets thrown at one of our guys.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hhac4\">Washington Examiner reporter Nicholas Rowan captured that moment in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NicXTempore/status/1382497806624165897\">clip</a>, which he posted to Twitter shortly before 8 p.m.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Protesters throw a water bottle at a CNN crew member and hit him square on the head. They mock him when he falls down. <a href=\"https://t.co/cBfRN9DJOj\">pic.twitter.com/cBfRN9DJOj</a></p>— Nic Rowan (@NicXTempore) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NicXTempore/status/1382497806624165897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2021</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=\"umiea\">After the bottle hits the crew member squarely in the head, he stumbles backward and appears to trip on the curb, falling to the ground. At least one individual can be heard mocking him for falling, while another calls for a medic.</p><p data-block-key=\"clgna\">“We started trying to figure out how to make an exit because it was just getting too intense there. But we didn’t want to look like we were running,” Marquez said. “That’s when somebody hit me with a water bottle and then we just started moving toward our cars.”</p><p data-block-key=\"h9w79\">Marquez said that as the news crew left, multiple individuals continued to pelt them with whatever objects that they could find until they were able to get into their cars and leave the area. Rowan <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NicXTempore/status/1382499532995444736\">continued to film</a> as the crew left just after 8 p.m.; in his clip, individuals can be seen throwing objects, including what appear to be eggs, at the crew.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gyst1\">In a tweet posted at 9:45 p.m., Marquez <a href=\"https://twitter.com/miguelmarquez/status/1382525578067185665\">wrote</a> that he and his team were fine and that they would continue to cover the response to Wright’s death.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My team and I are fine and I appreciate your concern. I hope for equal justice under the law and will continue to report on this vital story as it unfolds.</p>— Miguel Marquez (@miguelmarquez) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/miguelmarquez/status/1382525578067185665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2021</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=\"0iz36\">“I cannot blame them for being angry,” Marquez told Stelter. “But a lot of people are very angry, suspicious of the press, the corporate media. All those things come into it at these places.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6cn1s\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Miguel Marquez (CNN)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
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},
{
"title": "Fox News photojournalist and team detained while reporting on Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-photojournalist-and-team-detained-while-reporting-on-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-19T18:32:19.466084Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:14:53.831480Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:14:53.741998Z",
"date": "2021-04-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fcmz5\">Fox News national photojournalist Les Baker was briefly detained by police while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 14, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"5hoko\">Baker was detained with Fox News producer <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-producer-part-of-reporting-team-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Nick Rojas</a> and correspondent <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-national-correspondent-and-team-detained-while-reporting-from-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Lauren Blanchard</a>, a spokesperson for the network told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"w6uu3\">Demonstrations were held several days in a row in Brooklyn Center, a city near Minneapolis, in response to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11.</p><p data-block-key=\"a6xnf\">The Fox News team was reporting live from the Brooklyn Center protests for Fox affiliates, spokesperson Tessica Glancey said in an email. Glancey referred comment on the incident to Twitter posts made by Blanchard about being detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"f0hyd\">At 10:21 p.m., Blanchard <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LaurenBlanch12/status/1382534601462185984\">wrote</a> that police ordered the news crew to get out of their cars. “My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police,” Blanchard wrote on Twitter. “They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police. They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped</p>— Lauren Blanchard (@LaurenBlanch12) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LaurenBlanch12/status/1382534601462185984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2021</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=\"nn2f2\">In a <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNsGRPUD_gn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\">post on Instagram</a> the next day, Blanchard wrote that her crew was stopped and ordered to get on the ground with their hands up, even though she tried repeatedly to tell law enforcement that they were members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"xu9p6\">Video included with the post shows multiple officers wearing fluorescent yellow jackets, helmets and large decals marked “state trooper” within the shape of the state of Minnesota approaching. One trooper says, “IDs please, press IDs please.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7u40s\">Blanchard wrote that the troopers “scolded us for being there” and told them that journalists had been ordered to leave, though Blanchard said they did not hear that order.</p><p data-block-key=\"o4cpl\">Members of the media were exempt from the<a href=\"https://mn.gov/governor/assets/EO%2021-18%20Final_tcm1055-476249.pdf\"> curfew order</a> Gov. Tim Waltz issued on April 12 for four counties, including Hennepin County, where Brooklyn Center is located.</p><p data-block-key=\"sljbb\">According to the spokesperson for Fox, the news team was fine and was able to continue reporting after they moved to a different area.</p><p data-block-key=\"v6wie\">Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"znlvn\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Les Baker (Fox News)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Fox News producer part of reporting team detained while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-producer-part-of-reporting-team-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-19T18:28:11.623150Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:14:24.800227Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:14:24.711252Z",
"date": "2021-04-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"88x0s\">Fox News producer Nick Rojas was briefly detained by police while reporting on protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 14, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"y7fis\">Rojas was detained with Fox News national correspondent <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-national-correspondent-and-team-detained-while-reporting-from-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Lauren Blanchard</a> and photojournalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-photojournalist-and-team-detained-while-reporting-on-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Les Baker</a>, a spokesperson for the network told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"l6y7r\">Demonstrations were held several days in a row in Brooklyn Center, a city near Minneapolis, in response to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11.</p><p data-block-key=\"48ufu\">The Fox News team was reporting live from the Brooklyn Center protests for Fox affiliates, spokesperson Tessica Glancey said in an email. Glancey referred comment on the incident to Twitter posts made by Blanchard about being detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"kwxnb\">At 10:21 p.m., Blanchard <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LaurenBlanch12/status/1382534601462185984\">wrote</a> that police ordered the news crew to get out of their cars and to get on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"nirql\">“My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police,” Blanchard wrote on Twitter. “They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police. They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped</p>— Lauren Blanchard (@LaurenBlanch12) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LaurenBlanch12/status/1382534601462185984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2021</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=\"53788\">In a <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNsGRPUD_gn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\">post on Instagram</a> the next day, Blanchard wrote that her crew was stopped and ordered to get on the ground with their hands up, even though she tried repeatedly to tell law enforcement that they were members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"ejtna\">Video included with the post shows multiple officers wearing fluorescent yellow jackets, helmets and large decals marked “state trooper” within the shape of the state of Minnesota approaching. One trooper says, “IDs please, press IDs please.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c0a3h\">Blanchard can be heard identifying herself as working with Fox and says other people nearby her are her security team. Two security contractors accompanied the journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"ldg61\">“They were told to leave a long time ago,” one voice can be heard saying, as officers take pictures of their press credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"ii24c\">Blanchard wrote that the troopers “scolded us for being there” and told them that journalists had been ordered to leave, though Blanchard said they did not hear that order.</p><p data-block-key=\"a1abq\">Members of the media were exempt from the <a href=\"https://mn.gov/governor/assets/EO%2021-18%20Final_tcm1055-476249.pdf\">curfew order</a> Gov. Tim Waltz issued on April 12 for four counties, including Hennepin County, where Brooklyn Center is located.</p><p data-block-key=\"7stsx\">According to the spokesperson for Fox, the news team was fine and was able to continue reporting after they moved to a different area.</p><p data-block-key=\"ebbqk\">Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"pakg4\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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],
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},
{
"title": "Fox News national correspondent and team detained while reporting from Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-national-correspondent-and-team-detained-while-reporting-from-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-19T18:23:09.560689Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:13:49.863714Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:13:49.759601Z",
"date": "2021-04-14",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3lr76\">Fox News national correspondent Lauren Blanchard, producer <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-producer-part-of-reporting-team-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Nick Rojas</a> and photojournalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-photojournalist-and-team-detained-while-reporting-on-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Les Baker</a> were briefly detained by police while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 14, 2021, a spokesperson for the network told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"al8fz\">Demonstrations were held several days in a row in Brooklyn Center, a city near Minneapolis, in response to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11.</p><p data-block-key=\"d45t9\">The Fox News team was reporting live from the Brooklyn Center protests for Fox affiliates, spokesperson Tessica Glancey said in an email.</p><p data-block-key=\"sxurk\">The team was outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department as confrontation escalated between demonstrators and police. Blanchard <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LaurenBlanch12/status/1382526204046159873\">tweeted</a> at 9:48 p.m. that police had declared an unlawful assembly and shortly after that wrote that police were beginning to use flash-bang grenades, a crowd-control device. At 10:13 p.m., she <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LaurenBlanch12/status/1382532608379224064\">tweeted</a> that law enforcement was blocking protesters as the crowd began to break apart and run.</p><p data-block-key=\"kzcn2\">Seven minutes later, Blanchard <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LaurenBlanch12/status/1382534203338801153\">posted on Twitter</a> that police had stopped her news crew as they were trying to leave the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"l37k4\">Blanchard <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LaurenBlanch12/status/1382534601462185984\">wrote</a> that police ordered them to get out of their cars and to get on the ground, took pictures of their press credentials, and allowed them to leave after about five minutes.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police. They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped</p>— Lauren Blanchard (@LaurenBlanch12) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LaurenBlanch12/status/1382534601462185984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2021</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=\"dyg4m\">In a <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNsGRPUD_gn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\">post on Instagram</a> the next day, Blanchard wrote that her crew was stopped and ordered to get on the ground with their hands up, even though she tried repeatedly to tell law enforcement that they were members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"v38un\">Video included with the post shows multiple officers approaching them, wearing fluorescent yellow jackets, helmets and large decals marked “state trooper” within the shape of the state of Minnesota. One trooper says, “IDs please, press IDs please.”</p><p data-block-key=\"15lz1\">Blanchard can be heard identifying herself as working with Fox and says other people nearby her are her security team. Two security contractors accompanied the journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"m3e65\">“They were told to leave a long time ago,” one voice can be heard saying, as officers take pictures of their press credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"12j69\">Blanchard wrote that the troopers “scolded us for being there” and told them that journalists had been ordered to leave, though Blanchard said they did not hear that order.</p><p data-block-key=\"ejl6i\">Members of the media were exempt from the <a href=\"https://mn.gov/governor/assets/EO%2021-18%20Final_tcm1055-476249.pdf\">curfew order</a> Gov. Tim Waltz issued on April 12 for four counties, including Hennepin County, where Brooklyn Center is located.</p><p data-block-key=\"rthax\">According to the spokesperson for Fox, the news team was fine and was able to continue reporting after they moved to a different area.</p><p data-block-key=\"g79rh\">Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to the Tracker’s request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"wrh1s\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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"Black Lives Matter",
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"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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},
{
"title": "NY Times reporter detained with zip ties in Minnesota BLM protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ny-times-reporter-detained-with-zip-ties-in-minnesota-blm-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2024-07-12T16:33:55.009671Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-07-12T16:33:55.009671Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-07-12T16:28:01.968447Z",
"date": "2021-04-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7vjra\">A national reporter for The New York Times was detained by police who bound his hands behind his back with zip ties on April 13, 2021, as he reported on a Black Lives Matter protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"fa4ka\">Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, who was covering protests that erupted after the April 11 killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man who was shot by a white police officer during a traffic stop, was later released without charge.</p><p data-block-key=\"d1unl\">Demonstrators protested outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department for days after Wright’s death. The protests coincided with the trial of a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"fk1pj\">People had been throwing water bottles and other items at police, according to a <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/11/insider/hands-bound-but-still-reporting.html\">Times summary</a> of Bogel-Burroughs’ account of the incident that he wrote for the newspaper’s in-house museum, Museum at The Times, where his zip ties are on display.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wild end to the third night of unrest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, when State Patrol officers kettled & charged people at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DaunteWright?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DaunteWright</a> protest, and then arrested at least 20. <a href=\"https://t.co/O0G8H0UTqg\">pic.twitter.com/O0G8H0UTqg</a></p>— Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs (@NickAtNews) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NickAtNews/status/1382196629772632064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 14, 2021</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7vjra\">As everyone started running away, Bogel-Burroughs said that he turned back briefly to record the arrest of a person who was thrown to the ground near a gas station.</p><p data-block-key=\"4mkrk\">“When I turned to flee again, I was stopped by a young officer who ordered me to lie on my stomach,” Bogel-Burroughs wrote. “I told him I was with The New York Times, but he said it did not matter and zip-tied my hands behind my back. Over the next hour, police officers took my photograph, asked me questions and stood me in a line with dozens of other people who were all waiting to be taken to jail.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e4a3i\">Bogel-Burroughs added that his editor called while he was detained, and that he was able to answer his phone in spite of the zip ties and dictated that the protest was winding down.</p><p data-block-key=\"esdvk\">Bogel-Burroughs didn’t respond to multiple messages from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"bsun3\">On April 16, police <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2021-04-16&date_upper=2021-04-16&city=Brooklyn+Center&state=Minnesota&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detained</a> at least 12 journalists who were covering protests in Brooklyn Center.</p><p data-block-key=\"6nf7t\">More than two dozen media and advocacy organizations sent <a href=\"https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Letter-to-Minnesota-governor.pdf\">a letter</a> to Gov. Tim Walz on April 17 expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.</p><p data-block-key=\"7cg7q\">“Journalists must be allowed to safely cover protests and civil unrest. I’ve directed our law enforcement partners to make changes that will help ensure journalists do not face barriers to doing their jobs,” the governor posted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GovTimWalz/status/1383586656087728134\">on Twitter</a> after meeting with representatives of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"4v9sh\">Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTXBGQC3_-_Reuters_-_Leah_Millis.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"fmufy\">Protesters take cover from fumes of chemical irritants released by the police in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, a reporter for The New York Times, was detained by police as he covered the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2021-04-13",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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},
{
"title": "Officers point weapons at photojournalist, pull him out of car at Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/officers-point-weapons-at-photojournalist-pull-him-out-of-car-at-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-10T17:59:39.563165Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:22:57.278736Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:22:57.175947Z",
"date": "2021-04-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"r0bf3\">Chris Tuite, a freelance photojournalist, said law enforcement officers aimed firearms at him and pulled him from a vehicle as he covered a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"dyq42\">The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11, 2021 rekindled a wave of racial-justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd. Protests<a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/us/brooklyn-center-minnesota-police-shooting.html\"> began outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department</a> the day Wright was killed, and continued daily through mid-April.</p><p data-block-key=\"z1ujo\">Tuite told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was at a gas station near the protests when he ran into a second photojournalist, Joshua Rashaad McFadden, who was on assignment for The New York Times. McFadden told the Tracker that police had gotten more aggressive with the crowd as the protest continued into the night, and that he heard officers order <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/april-journalists-ordered-to-disperse-threatened-with-arrest-while-reporting-on-racial-justice-protests/\">press to leave the area</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4jqry\">The two photographers saw a car coming toward them, McFadden said, and the driver offered to take them to where McFadden’s car was parked. Right after they got in the car, he said, a large number of officers started up the street. Police and National Guard vehicles also pulled into the area, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"njcb1\">Officers surrounded the car Tuite and McFadden were in and beat on the windows with batons and the butts of their weapons, Tuite said.</p><p data-block-key=\"58qs4\">“The state police rolled up with their AR-15s, pointed them at us and then tried to knock the window in using the butt of their guns,” Tuite said.</p><p data-block-key=\"lqasr\">Both photojournalists, who were in the back seat, were ordered to exit the vehicle but were unable to because the vehicle was surrounded.</p><p data-block-key=\"268y5\">“We didn’t know the driver, but they pulled the driver away, arrested him and took him away,” Tuite said. “I screamed ‘Media!’ maybe 20 times, and held my media pass up to the window.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4dqls\">The officers then pulled Tuite from the vehicle, he said. After again identifying himself as a member of the press, Tuite said the officer standing nearest him finally listened.</p><p data-block-key=\"bj455\">At around the same time, two officers got into the vehicle — one into the driver’s seat and the other in the back next to him — and began hitting him with their clubs, striking him on his legs and hitting his camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"lzjdv\">“I saw them hitting Josh with their batons, including his camera,” Tuite said. “He’s a Black male, and they trusted me more than him. It took me saying 10 times that he was media before they got off of him.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gydbg\">The Tracker has documented McFadden’s <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-by-officers-with-batons-during-brooklyn-center-protest/\">assault and damage to his equipment here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"xadvp\">The Minnesota State Patrol didn’t respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"vdyef\">Officers ultimately allowed the pair to leave once Tuite offered to walk McFadden back to his car. The photojournalists crossed the street to where other members of the press were gathered, Tuite said, and documented a little more of the standoff between law enforcement and the protesters before leaving the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"5y46h\">Tuite told the Tracker that a reporter for progressive independent outlet<a href=\"https://statuscoup.com/\"> Status Coup</a>, Jon Farina, captured <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1382356917675294725\">footage</a> of law enforcement stopping cars and ordering the passengers to exit where he and McFadden were stopped, but hadn’t filmed their specific encounter.</p><p data-block-key=\"4uk8p\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being 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/RTXBGR0T_-_Reuters_-_Leah_Millis.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"pu1r3\">Police set off flash-bangs at a protest on April 13, 2021, in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center, over the killing of Daunte Wright. Photojournalist Chris Tuite was documenting the protest when law enforcement officers with AR-15s surrounded him.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "0:20-cv-01302",
"case_type": "CLASS_ACTION",
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-02-08 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists get nearly $1M settlement over Minneapolis BLM protest attacks",
"(2022-02-08 12:05:00+00:00) Journalists reach settlement agreement with Minnesota State Patrol, rest of suit ongoing",
"(2021-09-28 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist sues following assault while covering Brooklyn Center protest"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing",
"settled"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Chris Tuite (Independent)"
],
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"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Photojournalist hit by officers with batons during Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-by-officers-with-batons-during-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-10T17:43:09.313731Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:22:15.541449Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:22:15.433109Z",
"date": "2021-04-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wbffx\">Joshua Rashaad McFadden, a freelance photojournalist on assignment for the New York Times, said law-enforcement officers hit him with batons as he covered a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"2o6np\">The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11, 2021 rekindled a wave of racial-justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd. Protests<a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/us/brooklyn-center-minnesota-police-shooting.html\"> began outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department</a> the day Wright was killed, and continued daily through mid-April.</p><p data-block-key=\"me9oj\">McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that police got more aggressive with the crowd as the protest continued into the night, and that he heard law enforcement order<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/april-journalists-ordered-to-disperse-threatened-with-arrest-while-reporting-on-racial-justice-protests/\"> press to leave the area</a>. McFadden, who had been <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-on-assignment-for-new-york-times-hit-with-projectiles-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">hit with projectiles the previous night</a>, said he decided to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"l54nq\">He said he wasn’t able to go directly to his car because the street was blocked, so he walked in the opposite direction to a gas station up the street. He said he hesitated to walk to his car alone, and while he was at the gas station, he saw another photographer he recognized — freelance photojournalist Chris Tuite.</p><p data-block-key=\"du17g\">The two photographers saw someone with a car heading in their direction, McFadden said, and the driver offered to give them a ride to where McFadden’s car was parked.</p><p data-block-key=\"tw3z9\">Right after they got in the car, he said, a large number of law-enforcement officers started up the street. Police and National Guard vehicles also pulled into the area, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"bocqv\">Officers surrounded the car McFadden was in and beat on the windows with batons, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5r85g\">“It almost seemed like the windows were going to break,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"2wdbn\">He said the officers pointed their weapons at them. McFadden said he assumed they were loaded with rubber bullets, but that they looked like guns. McFadden, who was in the back seat with Tuite, said the officers were shouting at them to get out of the car, but it wasn’t possible because the vehicle was surrounded.</p><p data-block-key=\"f7x06\">Officers dragged the driver of the car out, he said, and Tuite was pulled from the car. The Tracker has documented <a href=\"/all-incidents/officers-point-weapons-at-photojournalist-pull-him-out-of-car-at-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Tuite’s assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"prcd2\">Then, McFadden said, two officers got into the vehicle — one into the driver’s seat and the other in the back next to him. He said the officers started hitting him with their clubs, striking him on his legs and hitting his camera, like they were trying to break it.</p><p data-block-key=\"qox0v\">McFadden, who is Black, said he identified himself as a member of the press multiple times, but the officers didn’t stop.</p><p data-block-key=\"v6uqw\">When Tuite, who is white, then outside of the car, saw the officers in the car hitting McFadden, he told another officer that McFadden was a member of the press and a photographer for the New York Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"88muh\">McFadden said the officers then stopped and got out of the car. He said they tried to have him get out of the car on the opposite side from the other photographer, but McFadden objected because he saw police were making arrests on that side of the vehicle. He was able to exit the car next to Tuite.</p><p data-block-key=\"lqirx\">McFadden said the officers checked his press credential, issued by the National Press Photographers Association. He said the troopers were skeptical, and said, “anybody could have made this.”</p><p data-block-key=\"hhi8l\">Officers told him they needed to see his driver’s license, which he had left in his car because he didn’t want to lose it. He said the officers allowed him to leave when Tuite said he would walk McFadden to his car.</p><p data-block-key=\"q64gw\">“I saw them hitting Josh with their batons, including his camera,” Tuite said. “He’s a Black male, and they trusted me more than him. It took me saying 10 times that he was media before they got off of him.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1udqp\">In total, McFadden said, it was about 45 minutes from when officers began beating on the car windows until when he was let go.</p><p data-block-key=\"x8xpz\">McFadden said he believes he was targeted because he is a journalist. “It just seemed there was a certain amount of disdain for the journalists there.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4hc8n\">McFadden also said that in this April 13 incident, and when he was detained and hit again by law enforcement three days later, officers released him only after a white journalist vouched for him.</p><p data-block-key=\"396fr\">“I do know it's because Black members of the press are treated differently,” he said. “And I have to acknowledge that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"nx2qm\">McFadden said Minnesota State Patrol troopers were involved in the incident. He said officers from other law enforcement agencies were also present, though he wasn’t sure which ones. A coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota National Guard, were involved in the response to protests in Brooklyn Center.</p><p data-block-key=\"twynh\">The Minnesota State Patrol didn’t respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment by email and phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"ny10t\">McFadden said he had bruises on his legs from being hit. After he was tackled and hit by law enforcement again on Friday the 16th, he went to the hospital for treatment. He said he was given a tetanus shot because he had a cut on his hand.</p><p data-block-key=\"tt6k8\">The officers damaged his camera lens, which was “wiggly” and no longer fit correctly on the mount, McFadden said. He was able to continue using it through the week, but as a result of the damage sustained in the two incidents, he needed to get it fixed. He said he hadn’t decided whether he would file a complaint or take any other action related to the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"ntna4\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being 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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{
"quantity": 1,
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"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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},
{
"title": "Unicorn Riot journalist shot with projectile in Brooklyn Center",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unicorn-riot-journalist-shot-with-projectile-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-05T14:41:54.726414Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:20:18.627393Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:20:18.529253Z",
"date": "2021-04-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"s64yj\">Niko Georgiades, a journalist with the nonprofit media outlet Unicorn Riot, was hit in the knee with a crowd-control round while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"pu4vg\">Several hundred protesters marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"gvc4j\">Georgiades said that on the night of April 13, a line of law-enforcement officers were pushing protesters up Humboldt Avenue, away from the area immediately outside the police station.</p><p data-block-key=\"a16p7\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1lDGLpXXvAqGm\">Video</a> Georgiades streamed live to Unicorn Riot’s Twitter shows that the Minnesota State Patrol made multiple unlawful assembly announcements, and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/april-journalists-ordered-to-disperse-threatened-with-arrest-while-reporting-on-racial-justice-protests/\">ordered press to disperse</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"mb5gr\">“Media, you must leave the area,” a voice can be heard saying after one MSP unlawful-assembly order, about 32 minutes and 30 seconds into the video.</p><p data-block-key=\"5mvkd\">About a minute later, a large number of law enforcement, including MSP troopers, can be seen rushing forward toward the crowd, and Georgiades seems to back up out of their way.</p><p data-block-key=\"t2wa0\">Suddenly there is a pop and Georgiades shouts out and curses. “Shot me right in the leg,” he says, and points the camera down, showing a white mark on his jeans.</p><p data-block-key=\"5i5q4\">Georgiades told the Tracker the projectile hit him in the right knee, a few inches from his kneecap.</p><p data-block-key=\"dm8zl\">On the video, after Georgiades is hit, he briefly pans the camera around him and says, “There’s nothing but press up here.” Several people nearby can be seen carrying large cameras and wearing helmets.</p><p data-block-key=\"vsuz6\">At 9:35 p.m., Unicorn Riot<a href=\"https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1382160507088506892\"> tweeted</a> that their reporter had just been shot in the leg with “some kind of impact round.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ctd3r\">A few hours later, Unicorn Riot tweeted a photograph of a bloody wound on Georgiades’ leg.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Content Advisory: Blood<br><br>Our field reporter Niko had skin broken and blood drawn by an impact round fired at him by Minnesota police while he was documenting <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DaunteWright?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DaunteWright</a> protests on our stream tonight <a href=\"https://t.co/klgeStSaTB\">https://t.co/klgeStSaTB</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/QeeGUcfeUi\">pic.twitter.com/QeeGUcfeUi</a></p>— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1382216568332029953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 14, 2021</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=\"kf30y\">Georgiades told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he believed he was hit with a marker round, a type of projectile that leaves chalky powder where it hits. Georgiades said he thought the round might also have contained a chemical agent, like pepper spray, because when he took his pants off at home after the protest and shook them to remove the chalk, he could feel the effects of a chemical agent. He said he still had a scab a week later.</p><p data-block-key=\"93bw2\">Georgiades said he believes he was targeted because he was a journalist. He said he was wearing a press pass, which identifies him as a journalist with Unicorn Riot, and had a camera on a shoulder rig and carried a microphone, which made him easily identifiable as a journalist. He said he had a light on his camera, which he believes was why he was shot. Police had asked earlier in the protest that he turn off his light, claiming it was impeding their vision.</p><p data-block-key=\"8flwu\">Georgiades said he wasn’t sure which law-enforcement agency fired the munition that hit him. He said he saw MSP troopers, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officers and other officers in dark uniforms he couldn’t identify. National Guard troops were also on site.</p><p data-block-key=\"o6rox\">Neither the MSP nor DNR responded to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"0sevy\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police-brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> here</a>.</p></div>",
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"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Journalist cited while reporting on Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-cited-while-reporting-on-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-03T15:05:36.198603Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-12-02T21:50:35.847209Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-12-02T21:50:35.631853Z",
"date": "2021-04-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0vtf4\">Independent journalist Naasir Akailvi, who reports on social media as the Neighborhood Reporter, said he was detained and cited while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"li52h\">Demonstrations had been held for several days outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"ucgin\">Akailvi told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that late on the night of April 13 he was reporting as police pushed protesters away from the police station up Humboldt Avenue. He told the Tracker that he believed police had issued dispersal orders earlier in the night, but he hadn’t considered leaving because of them. There was a curfew in effect starting at 10 p.m., according to the <a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-st-paul-brooklyn-center-other-suburbs-impose-curfews-after-wright-killing-unrest/600045549/\">Minneapolis Star Tribune</a>; it exempt members of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"hqfcz\">Shortly before 11 p.m., Akailvi said, police had started to form a crowd-control technique called a “<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">kettle</a>,” which blocks people from leaving, in a gas station.</p><p data-block-key=\"wyiag\">At one point, Akailvi said, he noticed that police were using batons to smash a car’s windows, and he moved closer to film the scene. Within seconds, he said, he felt someone grab him from behind. He said he was taken down to the ground and his wrists were constrained with zip ties.</p><p data-block-key=\"1bv9q\">Akailvi said that he repeated, “I’m press, I’m press,” and told police he had a press pass; he said he wears a self-made card that has his photograph and identifies him as a journalist. According to Akailvi, police responded by saying that a dispersal order had been issued for media.</p><p data-block-key=\"l6aco\">Akailvi said police took his camera, mic and tripod. He was put in the back of a police car, he said, and told that he would be charged.</p><p data-block-key=\"bbobf\">The journalist said that while a Minnesota State Patrol trooper who was in the car with him started writing up his paperwork, he heard over the police radio that law enforcement would not be taking members of the press to jail but would issue citations.</p><p data-block-key=\"iz6fe\">He said he was handed a citation for “failure to obey a lawful order” and that his equipment was returned when he was released. As he was leaving, he said, he again heard an announcement over the police radio directing law enforcement not to cite journalists. However, he said, the trooper told him he would need to fight his citation later.</p><p data-block-key=\"zuh9b\">“I still got my citation, and the cops who gave it to me, they said, you’re just going to have to go fight it in court,” Akailvi said.</p><p data-block-key=\"g8rj8\">Akailvi told the Tracker he has not yet taken steps to fight the charge. His citation says that he is required to appear in court, but no date has been set.</p><p data-block-key=\"2kbum\">The Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"13sn7\">Akailvi was detained again the following night along with a reporting partner while they were documenting continuing Brooklyn Center protests. The Tracker has documented that <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/social-media-journalists-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">April 14 incident here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"88jgs\">On April 16, a federal judge issued a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/aclu-mn-pushes-press-freedom-chauvin-trial\">temporary restraining order</a> barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or threatening to arrest journalists and stating that journalists are not required to leave when there is a dispersal order.</p><p data-block-key=\"i7178\">In a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> in response to the court order, the MSP acknowledged that the agency was prohibited from enforcing dispersal orders against journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"lwopq\">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/RTXBGOIV.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"b4fsb\">A police officer shoots chemical irritant during an April 13, 2021, protest after Daunte Wright was killed by police in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Journalist Naasir Akailvi was tackled and arrested while documenting the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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"updates": [
"(2021-04-20 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at Black Lives Matter protest"
],
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"tags": [
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
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{
"title": "CNN producer thrown to the ground, arrested while covering Minnesota protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-producer-thrown-to-the-ground-arrested-while-covering-protests-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-22T19:47:33.620226Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:19:14.547643Z",
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"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ckpsc\">CNN producer Carolyn Sung was thrown to the ground and arrested by Minnesota State Patrol troopers while documenting protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"ptjua\">Demonstrators had gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department to demand justice in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, who was fatally shot by a white police officer on April 11.</p><p data-block-key=\"a489a\">According to <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20618268-mn\">a letter sent by attorneys</a> to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other local officials and signed by more than two dozen news and advocacy organizations, Sung had been attempting to comply with a dispersal order when “troopers grabbed Sung by her backpack and threw her to the ground, zip-tying her hands behind her back.”</p><p data-block-key=\"r8z6h\">“Sung did not resist and repeatedly identified herself as a journalist working for CNN and showed her credentials,” the letter continued. Troopers also reportedly ignored her complaints that the zip ties were too tight on her wrists.</p><p data-block-key=\"1hp1c\">At one point, the letter alleges, a trooper yelled at Sung, “Do you speak English?”</p><p data-block-key=\"u1lwm\">“Sung, whose primary language is English, was placed in a prisoner-transport bus and sent to the Hennepin County Jail, where she was patted down and searched by a female officer who put her hands down Sung’s pants and in her bra, fingerprinted, electronically body-scanned, and ordered to strip and put on an orange uniform before attorneys working on her behalf were able to locate her and secure her release, a process that took more than two hours,” the letter said.</p><p data-block-key=\"h6zg6\">The letter also stated that a security guard accompanying Sung was briefly detained, but was released upon showing his credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"ijgip\">CNN’s public relations office declined to make Sung available for comment, and the Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s emailed request for comment as of press time. The status of her arrest and any charges remain unknown.</p><p data-block-key=\"jdpry\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bzuck\">Law enforcement at a protest on April 13, 2021, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, after the killing of Daunte Wright by a police officer. CNN producer Carolyn Sung was violently arrested while documenting the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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},
"updates": [
"(2024-03-25 00:00:00+00:00) No charges for CNN producer arrested at Minnesota protest"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Carolyn Sung (CNN)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter grabbed, ordered to disperse during Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-star-tribune-reporter-grabbed-ordered-to-disperse-during-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-22T13:54:59.947601Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:18:49.535049Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:18:49.446066Z",
"date": "2021-04-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kvtp6\">While documenting protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021, Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Kim Hyatt said she was grabbed by a law enforcement officer whom she initially identified as a National Guard member and ordered to disperse.</p><p data-block-key=\"wkuba\">Demonstrators had gathered that night in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department to demand justice in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, who was fatally shot by a white police officer on April 11. The Minnesota National Guard had been deployed to the Twin Cities for the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin — who was charged with killing George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in May 2020 — and arrived in Brooklyn Center in the hours following the shooting of Wright to assist police.</p><p data-block-key=\"dpzoh\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kimvhyatt/status/1382161297157062661\">video</a> Hyatt posted to Twitter shortly after 9:30 p.m., she reported that officers, whom she described as “the guard,” had come around the backside of an apartment building located across the street from the police department and “ambushed everyone” who’d gathered there.</p><p data-block-key=\"dyol3\">“I was holding up my badge and they still grabbed me and told me to get out of here,” Hyatt said in the video, while displaying a large yellow “PRESS” badge issued by the Star Tribune. In the video she also tugged at her right shoulder, ostensibly indicating that that's where she'd been grabbed. Hyatt did not respond to an emailed request for comment.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">They’re making arrests and physically grabbing press and telling us to leave. <a href=\"https://t.co/t4IT3B9ilN\">pic.twitter.com/t4IT3B9ilN</a></p>— Kim Hyatt (@kimvhyatt) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kimvhyatt/status/1382161297157062661?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 14, 2021</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=\"0fpzs\">When reached or comment via email, a Minnesota National Guard spokesperson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that no members of the Guard left the fenced-in area around the police department.</p><p data-block-key=\"jhht3\">“In other words, they were not in an area with crowds,” Public Affairs Officer Melanie Nelson wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"4c4bi\">The Brooklyn Center Police Department did not immediately respond to a voicemail requesting comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"4jk9f\">Law enforcement had declared the protest an unlawful assembly before a curfew was due to go into effect at 10 p.m., Hyatt <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kimvhyatt/status/1382163875215327233\">wrote</a> in a subsequent tweet, and officers explicitly ordered members of the press to disperse despite journalists being exempt from the curfew order.</p><p data-block-key=\"rpxny\">“Still a few dozen people here but most left. Some media remain,” Hyatt <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kimvhyatt/status/1382166261707182082\">tweeted</a> just before 10 p.m. “I’m done for the night after that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2do3b\">At a press conference the following day, according to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kimvhyatt/status/1382456074293415940\">her tweets</a>, Hyatt asked Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott what he thought about law enforcement ordering the press to leave the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"dcs0z\">“Demanding the media to leave is absolutely, unequivocally unacceptable. I issued the curfew order and my curfew order permits the media to be there past the 10 o’clock hour. The curfew does not apply to the media,” Elliott said.</p><p data-block-key=\"zcn84\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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{
"title": "Photographer arrested, cited while covering Brooklyn Center protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-arrested-cited-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-19T17:28:32.656010Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:18:18.072620Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:18:17.979213Z",
"date": "2021-04-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"vwq61\">Adam Gray, chief photojournalist for UK-based South West News Service, was pushed to the ground, handcuffed, and cited with failure to follow a lawful order while he was covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"ezz4c\">Protests began following the fatal <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/article/daunte-wright-death-minnesota.html?name=styln-daunte-wright&region=TOP_BANNER&block=storyline_menu_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=show&is_new=false\">shooting</a> of a Black man, Daunte Wright, by a white Brooklyn Center Police Department officer on April 11.</p><p data-block-key=\"r6o0q\">Gray was covering police pushing protesters north on Humboldt Avenue away from the police station around 10:30 p.m. when law enforcement directed protesters and press to leave, Gray said in an email sent to the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"6lsgz\">Brooklyn Center, which is near Minneapolis, St. Paul and Minneapolis were under a 10 p.m. curfew; journalists were exempt, according to <a href=\"https://patch.com/minnesota/southwestminneapolis/tuesday-night-curfew-announced-minneapolis\">news reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"89myp\">At approximately 10:38 p.m., law enforcement rushed people down the block, and shortly after pushed people into the area of a Kisch Oil Company gas station, screaming at them to “get out” and “leave,” Gray said, noting that he was documenting the unfolding chaos.</p><p data-block-key=\"8w3ig\">The photojournalist said that he was walking backward away from law enforcement so that he could keep them in view and take photographs.</p><p data-block-key=\"ehh25\">“I wasn’t going to turn my back and run because that’s usually when they chase you,” said Gray, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pandemonium-photojournalist-arrested-held-over-night-amid-new-york-city-protests/\">who was arrested</a> last year while covering protests in New York City.</p><p data-block-key=\"ifta8\">Gray said that as the crowd moved away from the approaching law enforcement, it became apparent that police were encroaching in on the crowd, catching Gray and protesters in a “<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">kettle</a>,” a technique where police surround a group from all sides.</p><p data-block-key=\"m1lmn\">“I was very clearly press,” the photojournalist said, noting that he also had two large cameras around his neck in addition to press credentials issued by the New York Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"t6g31\">A video Gray later posted to <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/agrayphot0/?hl=en\">his Instagram account</a> of the moments leading up to his arrest shows Minnesota State Patrol in full riot gear charging at him and shoving him onto a patch of grass. In the video, Gray can be heard saying that he is a member of the press and was trying to return to his car.</p><p data-block-key=\"7s00v\">Gray said he had been working near several other journalists, though his colleagues had managed to escape the kettle and subsequent detention.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ktcr\">State Patrol officials ziptied Gray’s hands while he was facedown in the grass before rolling him over and standing him up, the photojournalist said.</p><p data-block-key=\"x2k95\">Gray said he was then taken to a patrol car where a state patrol officer cited Gray for “failure to obey a lawful order.” While the order was being written, Gray said he heard a voice on the radio that said members of the press should be charged with failure to disperse, rather than unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"cqx66\">While Gray was still in the car, and after the citation was written, a voice came on the radio and instructed law enforcement not to issue citations to the press, and to release them, Gray said. The photojournalist asked the officer who wrote his citation then a senior officer if the citation should be deleted, and the senior officer said to leave it, Gray said.</p><p data-block-key=\"oth2n\">Gray’s citation, which was reviewed by CPJ, requires him to schedule a court appearance within 30 days of the citation’s issue. Mickey Osterreicher, General Counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told CPJ via email that he is hopeful that they are in the process of resolving the charge.</p><p data-block-key=\"w5c8g\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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"(2021-05-21 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against photographer arrested, cited while covering Brooklyn Center protests"
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{
"title": "Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter struck by projectile while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-star-tribune-reporter-struck-by-projectile-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-15T20:03:57.561976Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:51:54.907333Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:51:54.775134Z",
"date": "2021-04-13",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"u8y21\">Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Andy Mannix was hit in the foot with a less-lethal munition while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the evening of April 13, 2021, the journalist told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone conversation. The munition <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AndrewMannix/status/1382159998457896960\">bounced off</a> his boot, Mannix said.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Toward the end, patrol was firing a lot of projectiles. One bounced off the bottom of my boot as I was walking away.</p>— Andy Mannix (@AndrewMannix) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AndrewMannix/status/1382159998457896960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 14, 2021</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=\"jvr85\">According to the <a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/protesters-police-clash-for-third-straight-night-in-wake-of-daunte-wright-s-death/600045600/\">Star Tribune</a>, between 800 and 1,000 protesters had gathered that night outside an FBI field office building, which was guarded by law enforcement that included Brooklyn Center police and the National Guard, to demand justice in the killing of Daunte Wright. Wright, a Black man, was <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/article/daunte-wright-death-minnesota.html?name=styln-daunte-wright&region=TOP_BANNER&block=storyline_menu_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=show&is_new=false\">fatally shot in the chest</a> by a white Brooklyn Center Police Department officer on April 11.</p><p data-block-key=\"ne2ml\">Brooklyn Center, which is near Minneapolis, Minneapolis and St. Paul were under a 10 p.m. curfew; journalists were exempt, according to <a href=\"https://patch.com/minnesota/southwestminneapolis/tuesday-night-curfew-announced-minneapolis\">news reports</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"x4r15\">At approximately 8:30 p.m. on the 13th, the Minnesota State Patrol declared an unlawful assembly outside of the FBI field office building and soon began using less-lethal weapons on the crowd, the Star Tribune reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"wido2\">Mannix said that around this time, a flash-bang grenade was fired and people from the crowd rushed up to the fence surrounding the building, escalating the situation.</p><p data-block-key=\"6puzl\">“It was kind of on after that,” said Mannix. “[Law enforcement] started firing a ton of flash-bangs,” he said, noting that it was hard to tell in the moment if the munitions were tear gas, pepper-spray bombs or smoke bombs.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1w3k\">Mannix said that around 9 p.m., the state patrol added more officers to the scene and they were firing mortar grenades. Several minutes later, he said, law enforcement fired projectiles and one ricocheted off his foot.</p><p data-block-key=\"f6uk1\">“We’ve seen this a lot in the past year. It doesn’t seem like they’re aiming at anyone in particular, or if they are they’re not aiming at anyone very well because you can just hear [the munitions] buzzing by your ear, or bouncing off a stop sign,” Mannix told CPJ. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"lhjx6\">Protests in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement began in Minneapolis last summer following the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd, a Black man. Former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, who is white, is currently on trial in the city for Floyd’s death. 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=\"hf3us\">Mannix told CPJ that he and his colleague, Star Tribune photographer Carlos Gonzalez, left the area shortly after Mannix was hit with the projectile.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"smowb\">Protesters rally outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department in Minnesota, as it is guarded by law enforcement and the National Guard, on April 13, 2021, days after Daunte Wright was shot and killed by a police officer.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"tags": [
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"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist for New York Times targeted with pepper spray at Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-for-new-york-times-targeted-with-pepper-spray-at-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-21T13:21:53.808489Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:25:02.443970Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:25:02.364697Z",
"date": "2021-04-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"g9jbg\">Aaron Nesheim, a Minneapolis-based freelance photojournalist on assignment for The New York Times, said he was deliberately pepper-sprayed by Minnesota State Patrol troopers while documenting protests in Brooklyn Center on April 12, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"rnswk\">Demonstrators gathered outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department one day after Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer during a traffic stop in the city, the<a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/protesters-police-clash-at-brooklyn-center-police-station/600045220/\"> Minneapolis Star Tribune</a> reported. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"oxm9y\">After a 7 p.m. curfew took effect, tensions escalated between protesters and law enforcement, and law enforcement later issued dispersal orders and began using rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to the Star Tribune.</p><p data-block-key=\"f1rkl\">Nesheim told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protests had been peaceful, and that there was no provocation in the moments before a trooper <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNljjMaHNjm/\">doused him in pepper spray</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ee9f9\">“As they were trying to get people to move back, one officer reached forward and started pepper-spraying people,” Nesheim said. “He stopped and then saw me with the camera and lunged forward and peppered me right in the face. Thankfully I was wearing a full-face gas mask, which kept it out of my eyes, but it proceeded to burn a pretty good red ring around my face for the rest of the evening.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qj0cq\">Nesheim said he was wearing both a helmet and a body armor vest, which were labeled with “PRESS” on multiple sides, as well as press credentials issued by the Times and the National Press Photographers Association.</p><p data-block-key=\"4q2wv\">In a <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNmu3U7Hzvt/\">post to Instagram</a> accompanying some of his photos, Nesheim wrote, “Tonight I was pepper sprayed and tear gassed worse than I’ve ever experienced. Between a burning face and puking out of my gas mask a few times, here's what I managed to capture.</p><p data-block-key=\"mcddu\">“I would love to say I am surprised by this violation of my rights, but sadly I find it to be par for the course,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"8a3gs\">The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"0qz1m\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"chemical irritant",
"protest"
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{
"title": "Researcher documenting Portland protests shoved by police",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/researcher-documenting-portland-protests-shoved-by-police/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-19T20:00:14.660416Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:52:37.742451Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:52:37.661432Z",
"date": "2021-04-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"os43t\">Independent researcher and scientist Juniper Simonis said a Portland police officer shoved them in the chest as they covered a protest in Portland, Oregon, on April 12, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"6o7r0\">Simonis said they have been publishing information for several months about law enforcement’s use of chemical irritants at protests on Twitter, for a research and activist group called the <a href=\"https://www.chemicalweaponsresearch.com/\">Chemical Weapons Research Consortium</a>, and <a href=\"https://www.weouthere.net/2021/03/pay-no-attention-to-the-gross-negligence-behind-the-smoke/\">with other outlets</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"gon5o\">According to local CBS-affiliate <a href=\"https://www.koin.com/news/protests/portland-protest-daunte-wright-fireworks/\">KOIN6</a>, demonstrators gathered outside the Penumbra Kelly Building in Northeast Portland as a response to the police killing of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man shot by an officer during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Police<a href=\"https://twitter.com/PortlandPolice/status/1381839644363386886?s=20\"> declared the gathering a riot</a> after protesters set fires and threw rocks, pieces of concrete, bottles and bricks. Officers responded with flash-bang grenades, tear gas and other crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"znmvm\">Simonis said they were walking around and taking pictures of the officers at the scene when "at some point, they [officers] decide that they will brutalize the protesters west on Burnside. They roll up with a dozen vehicles and I counted," Simonis told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. "A whole bunch of officers jump off of riot vans and bull rush people. I was documenting them coming off and running."</p><p data-block-key=\"850g0\">At 10:20 p.m., Simonis said they were standing on the sidewalk and photographing when an officer comes up to them and "uses a 40mm rifle to shove my chest, while I have press credentials on my chest." Simonis said they were visibly displaying a press badge, a card they made that had their photograph with the publications they write for listed and the word “PRESS” in large letters. Simonis also was carrying a DSLR camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"wpq03\">Law enforcement officers in Portland had targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations last June, according to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/cases/index-newspapers-llc-v-city-portland\">class-action lawsuit</a> filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The city agreed to a <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-07-16_preliminary_injunction.pdf\">preliminary injunction</a> last July to not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests or impede their work.</p><p data-block-key=\"f4856\">The Portland Police Bureau has repeatedly said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p></div>",
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"name": "Oregon",
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"protest"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist on assignment for New York Times hit with projectiles while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-on-assignment-for-new-york-times-hit-with-projectiles-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-10T17:30:35.351266Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:24:32.901714Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:24:32.813611Z",
"date": "2021-04-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fk4q4\">Joshua Rashaad McFadden, a freelance photojournalist on assignment for the New York Times, said he was hit with crowd-control munitions while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, early on the morning of April 12, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"6dhrz\">Several hundred protesters marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"o7ghd\">As demonstrations continued late into the night, McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that law enforcement heavily used crowd-control munitions and chemical agents, like tear gas, on protesters and members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"l934q\">After midnight, in the early hours of April 12, he said he was standing with other journalists near the police station when a projectile hit him in his left thigh.</p><p data-block-key=\"3fb8s\">McFadden said the projectile burned a hole about four inches wide in his pants and left a powdery substance and brown singe marks on the fabric. He said his leg was badly bruised where the object hit him.</p><p data-block-key=\"wbllc\">He didn’t know what type of projectile hit him. It may have been a flash-bang grenade or a tear-gas canister, because either can be hot, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"r6l9q\">“It wasn't just a rubber bullet, I know that,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"sygct\">McFadden said he was hit with other projectiles on his legs as well, though none were as significant. He said he was wearing a helmet, and when he removed it later, he saw there was a mark on it that he believes came from some sort of projectile, though he wasn’t sure when he was hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"nm9ew\">McFadden said he was standing with a group of journalists who were clearly identifiable as members of the press at the time he was hit. He said he and other journalists were carrying large cameras. He said journalists in the group sometimes shouted out to identify themselves as press to law enforcement, though it was very loud.</p><p data-block-key=\"lo7tk\">He said he believed that he was targeted as a journalist, because he was near others who were obviously members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"opw8t\">Several law enforcement agencies were involved in the response to protests in Brooklyn Center that night. Neither the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office nor the Brooklyn Center Police Department responded to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"unx03\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Joshua Rashaad McFadden (The New York Times)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Videographer pushed, phone knocked from her hands",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-pushed-phone-knocked-from-her-hands/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-10T13:17:44.482137Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:52:16.242512Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:52:16.121776Z",
"date": "2021-04-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"l63tb\">Independent videographer Melissa Lewis said she was targeted and pushed by Portland police while documenting a protest in northeast Portland, Oregon, on April 12, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"nds2b\">According to KOIN News, Portland's CBS affiliate, demonstrators gathered in Laurelhurst Park to hold a<a href=\"https://katu.com/news/local/portland-activists-hold-vigil-for-daunte-wright-man-killed-by-police-in-minneapolis\"> vigil</a> for Daunte Wright, a 20-year old Black man who was shot by a white police officer in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"8w1jt\">Protesters marched to the Penumbra Kelly Building, the site of numerous previous demonstrations, where, according to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/portlandpolice/status/1381841187032629250?s=21\">Portland Police tweets</a>, some members of the crowd smashed several windows and threw rocks, bottles, and other objects at officers. Police responded by deploying flashbang grenades, and the Portland Police Bureau eventually <a href=\"https://twitter.com/portlandpolice/status/1381841187032629250?s=21\">declared</a> the scene a riot.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ywdp\">At 11:10 p.m., Lewis<a href=\"https://twitter.com/Claudio_Report/status/1381852337099087877?s=20\"> tweeted a video</a> of a large group of Portland police officers pushing protesters in one direction. "Cops were VERY shove-y tonight," she wrote. " Not tolerant of walking backwards." As an officer is approaching her, as seen in the video, she says, "I'm moving as fast as I can," while recording and walking backwards, but he responds, "No, you're not. Turn around and move."</p><p data-block-key=\"vh5zz\">A few minutes later at 11:23 p.m., Lewis<a href=\"https://twitter.com/Claudio_Report/status/1381855461779988485?s=20\"> shares another video</a> of the same scene, in which Lewis says the officer walks past her and says, "Melissa, stay still. Don't get in my way."</p><p data-block-key=\"udv11\">Lewis lets out a loud laugh, to which the officer responds by turning around and knocking her phone out of her hand. From the ground, the camera shows the officer and Lewis across from each other, at which point she picks up the phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"yrprs\">"I don’t know that officer AT ALL,” Lewis told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “I was also on the sidewalk. My phone was knocked from my hands. Then another officer behind me continued to push me with his baton horizontally and into a tree.”</p><p data-block-key=\"49ji2\">Since July, law enforcement officers from the <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-07-16_preliminary_injunction.pdf\">PPB</a> and <a href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/feds-ordered-not-to-assault-arrest-journalists-in-portland/\">federal agencies</a> have been barred by court rulings from arresting, harming or impeding journalists or legal observers of the protests. The Portland Police Bureau has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in a case brought by the ACLU. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Melissa “Claudio” Lewis (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist hit in hand with law enforcement projectile at Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-in-hand-with-law-enforcement-projectile-at-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-05T16:14:21.143297Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:24:08.456632Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:24:08.361516Z",
"date": "2021-04-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5pksp\">Independent photojournalist Tim Evans was hit in the hand with a crowd-control projectile while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, for the European Pressphoto Agency on April 12, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"j3wjg\">Demonstrators gathered outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department one day after Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer during a traffic stop in the city, the<a href=\"https://www.startribune.com/protesters-police-clash-at-brooklyn-center-police-station/600045220/\"> Minneapolis Star Tribune</a> reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"nvbq9\">After a 7 p.m. curfew took effect, tensions escalated between protesters and law enforcement, and law enforcement later issued dispersal orders and began using rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to the Star Tribune.</p><p data-block-key=\"dufw1\">Evans told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was covering the protest as it continued after dark. He said law enforcement agents were deploying crowd-control munitions, including marker rounds, a type of projectile that leaves a colored mark where it hits.</p><p data-block-key=\"whr2m\">Evans said he was photographing demonstrators as he stood with his back to the police station, about 20 feet from a gate in the fence that surrounded the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"usiio\">He said he was holding his camera to his face with his right hand to take photographs when a marker round hit the back of that hand.</p><p data-block-key=\"9w2jx\">Evans said the painful impact made him let go of his camera, which hung from a strap around his neck. He said he retreated from the area for a few minutes to make sure that he wasn’t seriously injured. The marker round left a green chalky substance on Evans’ skin, which he said he wiped off. Evans said he spoke with another photographer who has medical training to check whether the projectile had broken any bones in his hand.</p><p data-block-key=\"jbzd2\">“It hurt, but it was clear that no bones were broken,” Evans said.</p><p data-block-key=\"oelp0\">Evans said he was able to continue photographing the protest that night. He had a bruise on his hand for more than a week after he was hit, he said. None of his equipment was damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"i59og\">Evans told the Tracker he did not see which law enforcement agency fired the round that hit him. Multiple law enforcement agencies were involved in the response to the protests in Brooklyn Center, including Minnesota State Patrol and the National Guard, according to the Star Tribune.</p><p data-block-key=\"y5rh5\">Evans said he did not know if he was targeted, and believed the munition may have ricocheted off of something before hitting him, because he thought a direct hit would likely have injured him more seriously.</p><p data-block-key=\"gvack\">He had a “PRESS” label attached to his backpack, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"himt1\">Minnesota State Patrol and the state Department of Public Safety, which were part of a coalition of law enforcement agencies responding to protests in Minnesota, did not answer requests for comment. A spokesperson for the National Guard said the agency “has not used a single less than lethal munition in any of its responses to civil unrest within the last year.”</p><p data-block-key=\"loru8\">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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"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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{
"title": "Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalist pepper-sprayed while documenting protests in Brooklyn Center",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-star-tribune-photojournalist-pepper-sprayed-while-documenting-protests-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-22T13:50:58.961581Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:23:44.022875Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:23:43.918197Z",
"date": "2021-04-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xq2ru\">Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalist Carlos Gonzalez was pepper-sprayed while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 12, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"4qf8y\">Demonstrators had gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department to demand justice in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, who was fatally shot by a white police officer on April 11.</p><p data-block-key=\"y2j28\">Gonzalez told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he’d arrived in the afternoon to document the second night of protests in front of the police department. At around 7:50 p.m., he said, he noticed an agitated woman confronting the police and being held back by others at the demonstration.</p><p data-block-key=\"vbzr2\">In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CarlosGphoto/status/1381794769182023682\">footage</a> Gonzalez posted to Twitter shortly after the incident, the woman can be seen confronting a line of officers in front of the department. Moments later, an officer can be seen shooting a burst of pepper spray at an individual out of frame, then turning and spraying Gonzalez.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I was pepper sprayed in the eye while photographing the scene at the Brooklyn Center Police Department. I had cameras & my press credentials clearly in view. It came from the side w/o warning I was shooting so I didn’t even see it coming. This is a GoPro version of the incident. <a href=\"https://t.co/TIhzsnG1Ri\">pic.twitter.com/TIhzsnG1Ri</a></p>— Carlos Gonzalez (@CarlosGphoto) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CarlosGphoto/status/1381794769182023682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 13, 2021</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=\"elb0e\">“I felt the spray come into my eye from my right side, so I didn’t even see it coming,” Gonzalez said. “It was obvious that I wasn’t agitating anyone, that I was documenting and not part of the protest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xhkie\">Gonzalez said he didn’t want to speculate on what the officer was thinking but noted that he was clearly identifiable as a member of the press; Gonzalez said he was not only carrying his professional camera but had both his standard press pass and a large yellow “PRESS” card — which the Star Tribune issued all of its journalists last year — around his neck in plain view.</p><p data-block-key=\"43jaz\">“I walked away almost immediately and was trying to retrieve some pepper-spray wipes that I had in my pack, but my hands were all wet and I couldn’t get them,” Gonzalez said. “Some medics must’ve seen what happened and came over to me quickly and were able to help.</p><p data-block-key=\"57la5\">“At that point I was in significant pain for some time, so after I was able to open my eyes again, I went back to my car to collect myself. While there, I started editing some of my pictures and talked to my editor to tell them what happened and that I might have captured it on my GoPro.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aaq6e\">Gonzalez told the Tracker he doesn’t remember whether he returned to document the rest of the protest that night or not, as the days have blurred together.</p><p data-block-key=\"jdb79\">“Obviously it was a protest and a bunch of things were going on,” Gonzalez said. “But the main point is that myself, my colleagues, all the other press out there — we’re out there working, being professionals. We’re not chanting and yelling and getting in cops’ faces, or anything like that. I think it’s pretty obvious to distinguish who we are.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6rb0j\">Two other Star Tribune journalists were assaulted during protests that day. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"g31f3\">CNN <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/brooklyn-center-police-shooting-04-13-21/index.html\">reported</a> the following day that City Manager Curt Boganey was fired over the city’s response to the protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"4577g\">The Brooklyn Center Police Department did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment as of press time.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Carlos Gonzalez (Minneapolis Star Tribune)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with crowd-control munition during Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-crowd-control-munition-during-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-20T20:34:02.965761Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:23:21.190248Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:23:21.075910Z",
"date": "2021-04-12",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ot6ln\">Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalist Mark Vancleave was struck in the hand with a rubber bullet while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 12, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"xxuv7\">Demonstrators had gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department to demand justice in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, who was fatally shot by a white police officer on April 11.</p><p data-block-key=\"c0h9d\">Vancleave told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he’d arrived at the police department at around 3 p.m. to document the second day of protests. The scheduled protest ended shortly before a curfew went into effect, at 7 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"xx106\">“A lot of people left at that time. A lot of other protesters showed up. And things got more tense, more confrontational, more aggressive between the cops and protesters,” Vancleave said. “There was a lot of back and forth between protesters — with people throwing water bottles, fireworks, those kinds of things — and the police, responding with tear gas, concussion or flash-bang grenades, and mace.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bjjtq\">At approximately 9 p.m., Vancleave said, he was struck in the hand with a rubber bullet.</p><p data-block-key=\"dr231\">“I was holding my camera in front of me, and was wearing a Kevlar vest and gas mask with a large polycarbonate plastic visor when the rubber bullet struck the hand I was holding the camera with,” Vancleave said. “I had some lacerations on my middle finger and then two broken bones in my ring finger.”</p><p data-block-key=\"36y6l\">Vancleave told the Tracker he was also identifiable as press by his press ID and a large yellow rectangular “PRESS” card — which the Star Tribune issued all of its journalists last year — though they were partially obscured by his coat at the moment he was struck.</p><p data-block-key=\"3q3ea\">Vancleave said he was working alongside a freelance videojournalist on assignment for PBS Frontline, who was able to help him receive initial aid from field medics. He said that once he was able to locate other staff from the Star Tribune, they transported him to a local hospital, where he was held overnight until he could receive surgery 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\">On Monday night I was shot in the hand by a rubber bullet fired by police in Brooklyn Center while covering a protest. The impact broke my ring finger in two places requiring surgery. I won’t be able to pick up my camera again for at least six weeks. <a href=\"https://t.co/IcPfjbVug4\">pic.twitter.com/IcPfjbVug4</a></p>— Mark Vancleave (@MDVancleave) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MDVancleave/status/1383514640001363974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 17, 2021</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=\"yjr70\">“I won’t be able to hold any weight in my hand for weeks at least, and I have no idea when I’ll be able to work again,” Vancleave said. “I’m just grateful that I had some colleagues that I had paired up with for just this reason, watching each other’s backs, and had a good enough exit strategy.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sgavw\">Two other Star Tribune journalists were assaulted during protests that day. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"3uys9\">A few days after he was injured, Vancleave <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MDVancleave/status/1383520588153585675\">tweeted</a>, “I remain deeply concerned for my fellow journalists working to fairly and accurately report on the crisis unfolding in our communities — particularly as Minnesota law enforcement continues to target journalists with force and disregard [their] constitutionally protected role.”</p><p data-block-key=\"owg0i\">CNN <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/brooklyn-center-police-shooting-04-13-21/index.html\">reported</a> on April 13 that City Manager Curt Boganey was fired over the city’s response to the protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"y532g\">The Brooklyn Center Police Department did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment as of press time.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"gn5xh\">Two bones were broken in the ring finger of Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalist Mark Vancleave, who was struck with a rubber bullet while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 12, 2021.</p>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
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"tags": [
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"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Mark Vancleave (Minneapolis Star Tribune)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist hit by pepper balls while covering Portland protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-by-pepper-balls-while-covering-portland-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-09T18:15:59.655030Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-06T19:48:45.337125Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-06T19:48:45.255960Z",
"date": "2021-04-11",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yhhox\">James Croxton, managing editor of Oregon-based independent media collective <a href=\"https://doublesidedmedia.com/revealing-the-work-behind-the-story/blog/\">DoubledSided541</a>, was hit by what he described as pepper ball rounds, shot by a Federal Protective Service officer, as Croxton covered a protest in Portland in the early hours of April 11, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"tn7n6\">Croxton was covering a “few dozen protesters” gathered near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, he wrote in <a href=\"https://doublesidedmedia.com/2021/04/17/melting-ice/\">a piece for DoubleSided541</a> a few days later.</p><p data-block-key=\"0upwf\">Croxton told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he did not believe he was deliberately targeted by the rounds that he said struck him around midnight that night: “Agent just opened the door and shot out. I happened to be across the street right in his sight.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oxge8\">The journalist said he was wearing a “PRESS” jacket and badge at the time.</p><p data-block-key=\"oijwo\">He added: “There’s no doubt that I was shot and injured. Still have the scar.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ex3r0\">Croxton was with independent researcher and scientist Juniper Simonis, who also reported to the Tracker that they were<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/researcher-documenting-portland-protests-hit-multiple-times-with-crowd-control-rounds/\"> hit by rounds</a>. Croxton works with Simonis on gathering research about law enforcement use of crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"tv8to\">Croxton posted video on Twitter showing <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jwcroxton/status/1381152577207762950\">what appear to be FPS agents</a>, along with the sound of firing. “Been hit in the right knee with some sort of projectile. Medics have provided an ice pack,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"ko7gg\">In his story on Double Sided Media Croxton posted <a href=\"https://doublesidedmedia.com/2021/04/17/melting-ice/\">photographs of the rounds</a> that he says hit him as well as photos of what look like <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jwcroxton/status/1381163470264037382\">injury to his knees</a> caused by crowd-control munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"ag6mt\">The protest near the ICE facility began around 9 p.m. when protesters gathered around the building, took down a fence and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jwcroxton/status/1381127751260807170?s=20\">a fire started</a>, Croxton said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5p3f1\">“Just over a half an hour later, what began as a separate small fire on the side of the [ICE] entryway, turned into the entire side of it being engulfed,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"3xclc\">According to <a href=\"https://katu.com/news/local/fires-set-at-portland-ice-building-no-arrests-made-police-say\">reports from the night</a>, the side of the ICE building was on fire and <a href=\"https://doublesidedmedia.com/2021/04/17/melting-ice/\">Portland Fire and Rescue officers</a> were sent to the scene to put out the blaze.</p><p data-block-key=\"mxktq\">“Agents tried to exit. Unsuccessful, they went across their driveway and out the side gate, running towards protesters and shooting both PepperBalls and FN 303 rounds,” wrote Croxton. FN 303 rounds are a “less lethal” form of crowd-control munition.</p><p data-block-key=\"yfbh4\">The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Federal Protective Service, has not responded to a request by Tracker for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"James Croxton (Double Sided Media)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Researcher documenting Portland protests hit multiple times with crowd-control rounds",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/researcher-documenting-portland-protests-hit-multiple-times-with-crowd-control-rounds/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-27T13:18:55.580364Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-02-06T19:47:40.395240Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-02-06T19:47:40.271168Z",
"date": "2021-04-11",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hxr7w\">Independent researcher and scientist Juniper Simonis said they were hit in the head by a crowd-control munition fired by federal officers while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, in the early hours of April 11, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"4md3g\">Simonis said they have been publishing information for several months about law enforcement’s use of chemical irritants at protests on Twitter, for a research and activist group called the <a href=\"https://www.chemicalweaponsresearch.com/\">Chemical Weapons Research Consortium</a>, and <a href=\"https://www.weouthere.net/2021/03/pay-no-attention-to-the-gross-negligence-behind-the-smoke/\">with other outlets</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"x6cbo\">According to local ABC-affiliate <a href=\"https://katu.com/news/local/fires-set-at-portland-ice-building-no-arrests-made-police-say\">KATU2</a>, demonstrators gathered outside the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on the preceding Saturday night. Portland police officers arrived around 11:30 p.m. to help Federal Protective Services officers extinguish several burning wooden pallets outside the building that protesters had set on fire. Over the past several months, the ICE building has been the target of numerous protests in support of Black Lives Matter and against police violence and the administration’s immigration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"oirfd\">Simonis said they were with a group of journalists in front of the ICE building where plywood sheets covering an entrance had been burned. They said federal officers were firing at the groups through a gap in the plywood sheets.</p><p data-block-key=\"mxjpy\">"They [federal officers] were using cellphones to peek around the corner so they could see where we were," Simonis told the Tracker. "They were targeting us even though it seemed random."</p><p data-block-key=\"mtnna\">Simonis said the officers fired several times, hitting Simonis in their lower left rib, lower back and face mask, with the last pepper ball ricocheting up and<a href=\"https://twitter.com/JuniperLSimonis/status/1381345047908470786?s=20\"> leaving a welt</a> on their forehead.</p><p data-block-key=\"yy7i3\">"I had a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JuniperLSimonis/status/1381194874909720578?s=20\">bump</a> there that was still tender a month later," Simonis added. Simonis said they were visibly displaying a press badge, a card they made that had their photograph with the publications they write for listed and the word “PRESS” in large letters. Simonis also carried a DSLR camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"7wn12\">The Department of Homeland Security, which coordinated the federal presence in Portland, didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p></div>",
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"name": "Oregon",
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"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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},
{
"title": "Freelance journalist struck in chest with flash-bang grenade during Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-struck-in-chest-with-flash-bang-grenade-during-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-12T15:30:20.817510Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:25:24.743803Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:25:24.613127Z",
"date": "2021-04-11",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xleg5\">Freelance journalist Tim Speier was struck in the chest with a flash-bang grenade that detonated while he covered protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 11, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"vy3p9\">Protests <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/us/brooklyn-center-minnesota-police-shooting.html\">outside the police department</a> began after the fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright earlier that day, which occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd. The events rekindled a nationwide wave of racial justice protests that began almost a year earlier after Floyd’s death.</p><p data-block-key=\"ipxhu\">Speier is a former marine who is now a student at St. Cloud State University and has written for the student publication the University Chronicle. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived to cover the protests alongside freelance journalist J.D. Duggan at approximately 9:30 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"iu1he\">“About 30 minutes later, I was trying to get some footage of a smoke grenade going off and there were protesters throwing stuff over me and another reporter who was standing right next to me,” Speier said. “In the footage it looks like an officer lobbed a grenade and when it came down it basically popped on my chest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sa5oj\">In footage Speier <a href=\"https://twitter.com/timmy2thyme/status/1381675958126714886\">shared</a> from Mercado Media, he can be seen standing at the intersection of 67th and North Humboldt Avenues at the north side of the police department, next to Unicorn Riot reporter Niko Georgiades, while a line of law enforcement officers stand in the background.</p><p data-block-key=\"wgm4g\">Approximately 30 seconds into the clip, a projectile which Speier identified as a flash-bang grenade can be seen striking him directly in the chest and detonating.</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, while covering the protest with <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JDugganMN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JDugganMN</a> at the Brooklyn Center Police Dept., I had a flashbang grenade detonate on my chest. I didn't think it was that bad till I saw the footage from Mercado Media.<br>I'm ok, btw. <a href=\"https://t.co/6SIiVvVKO0\">pic.twitter.com/6SIiVvVKO0</a></p>— Tim Speier (@timmy2thyme) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/timmy2thyme/status/1381675958126714886?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 12, 2021</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=\"ekoal\">Immediately following the impact, the journalist filming the incident approaches Speier and Georgiades to ask whether they were alright, and both appeared to indicate that they were.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ceyr\">“I didn’t think it was that bad till I saw the footage from Mercado Media,” Speier wrote. “I’m OK.”</p><p data-block-key=\"nxl3g\">Speier told the Tracker that his shoulder was a bit sore following the incident, but he was protected from the worst of the impact by the ballistic vest he was wearing. In the footage, Speier can be seen wearing a protective vest labeled “PRESS” and press credentials around his neck, in addition to a helmet and respirator mask.</p><p data-block-key=\"bzp6v\">Speier said he wasn’t sure whether the officer had targeted him and Georgiades, but noted that no protesters were standing near them when the grenade was thrown.</p><p data-block-key=\"qhove\">The Brooklyn Center Police Department didn’t respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"5y675\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being 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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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_32.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cmg4u\">Freelance journalist Tim Speier said he was filming a smoke grenade on April 11, 2021, in Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, moments before he was hit in the chest with a flash-bang grenade.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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},
{
"title": "Videographer assaulted, his phone thrown over a fence while covering Detroit protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-assaulted-his-phone-thrown-over-a-fence-while-covering-detroit-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-22T13:25:33.690831Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-01T14:39:47.193651Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-01T14:39:47.047417Z",
"date": "2021-04-10",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"e3vpr\">Freelance videographer Brendan Gutenschwager says he was assaulted by people who claimed to be “acting as security” for an <a href=\"https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2021/04/10/detroit-residents-activists-protest-use-police-evictions/7146719002/\">anti-evictions protest</a> in Detroit, Michigan, on April 10, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"q2vt0\">According to <a href=\"https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2021/04/10/detroit-residents-activists-protest-use-police-evictions/7146719002/\">The Detroit News</a>, protesters, organized by local activist groups Detroit Will Breathe and Detroit Eviction Defense, gathered beside the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters on Third Street and proceeded through downtown.</p><p data-block-key=\"ii381\">Gutenschwager, whose videos of protests have been used by Fox News, CNN and <a href=\"https://abcnews.go.com/US/roving-videographers-covered-2020-amid-pandemic-summer-unrest/story?id=74881662\">ABC News</a>, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that just after 2 p.m. he was filming the march with his phone and posting coverage to his own <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1380960195065614343\">Twitter feed</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"s927c\">He said he was not wearing a “PRESS” jacket or identification but he identified himself verbally to the protest group as press.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ba57\">A team of people monitoring the perimeter of the march identified themselves as security, he said. “Within a few seconds of seeing and identifying me, one of these individuals came up to grab my [phone] camera and force me away from the group,” said Gutenschwager.</p><p data-block-key=\"moz7t\">Gutenschwager said he told the monitors that he was there solely as a journalist documenting things peacefully, “but they took significant issue with me having covered the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th earlier this year.”</p><p data-block-key=\"px2qz\">According to Gutenschwager they accused him of being part of the crowd that attacked the Capitol, “and in assuming I was, said that I was a threat and tried to force me to leave.”</p><p data-block-key=\"86oyx\">Gutenschwager denied he was a participant in the attack and said he was in Washington D.C. as <a href=\"https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/01/15/it-escalated-so-quickly-videographer-describes-capitol-chaos/\">a journalist that day</a>. One of his videos, of a right-wing Proud Boy member bashing in a window of the Capitol with a stolen police shield, went viral.</p><p data-block-key=\"ade1q\">“It appeared the anger at the Detroit event was targeted towards me for having been in DC to cover the event,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"1jpx4\">After the group tried to force him away, “I stayed behind the march from that point forward, but several members of the group became fixated on my presence,” Gutenschwager said.</p><p data-block-key=\"pjdq9\">“Some attempted to keep the peace, telling the other protesters ‘Please don't engage with him. Just let him go.’ Others disagreed,” said Gutenschwager, whose video showed people shouting abuse at him, putting a hand over his phone camera and telling him “you are not welcome here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kimxk\">“Someone rammed me into the barricade,” he said. “I was then choked by a man who put both his hands around my neck as my [phone] camera was stolen and thrown over the fence.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6ayab\">Gutenschwager said his lip was injured and he had scrapes on the right side of his body from the barricade. “I was able to retrieve the camera that had been thrown, at which point I resumed recording as protesters taunted me from the other side of the fence about being bloodied up,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rfzc\">The phone was not badly damaged so he did not report the incident to the police, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"8jr3g\">Event organizers Detroit Will Breathe and Detroit Eviction Defense did not respond to requests for comment.</p></div>",
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"actor": "private individual",
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"assailant": "private individual",
"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": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Brendan Gutenschwager (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
}
]
