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{
"title": "Student journalist shoved to ground by state trooper while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-shoved-to-ground-by-state-trooper-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-18T20:34:09.186386Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:47:01.372110Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:47:01.287817Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wxf2f\">Estelle Timar-Wilcox, news editor for the Macalester College student news site The Mac Weekly, was shoved by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"wjmcn\">The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11 rekindled a wave of racial justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death 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=\"6gen8\">According to the <a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/16/authorities-break-up-protests-make-arrests-outside-brooklyn-center-police-station/\">St. Paul Pioneer Press</a>, the April 16 protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. At around 10 p.m., according to <a href=\"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/04/17/law-enforcement-response-swift-on-sixth-night-of-protests\">Minnesota Public Radio</a>, police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.</p><p data-block-key=\"b0ynt\">Timar-Wilcox told the Tracker that she was reporting on the protest that night outside the police station with three other student journalists from the Mac Weekly.</p><p data-block-key=\"9zxrb\">She said they heard police make the unlawful assembly announcement and that about 15 minutes later a line of law enforcement officers came in from many directions to form a “<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">kettle</a>,” a crowd-control tactic in which officers block people from leaving.</p><p data-block-key=\"7g0ta\">Timar-Wilcox said she was standing by an apartment building near the police station with her fellow student journalists and other members of the media, taking photographs and reporting as officers moved up the street. She said that they were on the outside of the kettle.</p><p data-block-key=\"nywpz\">After the first line of law enforcement officers passed by, she said, a line of Minnesota State Patrol troopers started to come up the street, asking journalists to move back. Timar-Wilcox said she had already backed up and was against the apartment building, but one trooper on the edge of the line tried to get her to move farther back, she said, and shoved her to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"68q8b\">Video Timar-Wilcox recorded of the incident, reviewed by the Tracker, shows many MSP troopers moving past the camera. Voices can be heard saying, “Media, back up,” and “Keep going.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jw74n\">One voice shouts, “Back up!” The video shakes and the screen briefly goes black, then is angled upward, catching part of a trooper’s bright yellow uniform.</p><p data-block-key=\"hzsdb\">This was the moment the trooper shoved her and she fell to the ground, according to Timar-Wilcox. She said she does not remember specifically where the trooper touched her but believes it was her shoulder or arm.</p><p data-block-key=\"6khci\">She said she was not injured. Another journalist helped her get back on her feet and she continued reporting, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mezx9\">A short time after she was shoved, she said, law enforcement directed her and other journalists nearby to stand on a street corner and told them they could not move any closer to the kettle.</p><p data-block-key=\"12ffd\">Timar-Wilcox said she was wearing a lanyard with her press pass issued by the Mac Weekly, which clearly states “press.” She said she does not believe that she was targeted because she was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"a8bn2\">MSP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"gaioa\">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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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Estelle Timar-Wilcox (The Mac Weekly)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist detained, ‘tackled’ by law enforcement in Brooklyn Center",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-tackled-by-law-enforcement-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-14T16:04:11.713824Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:46:23.220406Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:46:23.119904Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"u80oq\">Freelance photojournalist Joshua Rashaad McFadden, on assignment for The New York Times, said he was detained and hit by law enforcement officers while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"qo45y\">The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11 rekindled a wave of racial-justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death 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=\"241kx\">McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and other journalists stuck together as a group as police rushed the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"i1vlb\">“We're all literally huddled together in one area, and the police rushed in,” McFadden said. “They rushed the crowd and they detained us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"whokr\">The group included other photographers, TV news staff and reporters, McFadden said. He said the journalists were repeating “we’re press, we’re press!” Officers told the journalists “we don’t care” and ordered them to lie on the ground, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2dqdx\">McFadden said he was on the ground when one officer came over to him and ordered him to get up, then another officer came over and told him to get back down.</p><p data-block-key=\"s5xus\">At that point, McFadden said, he was on his knees. He identified himself as a member of the press, he said, and asked the officers, “what do you want me to do?”</p><p data-block-key=\"nqa78\">Then, McFadden said, another group of officers rushed and trampled over him, knocking him to the ground “like a football tackle.”</p><p data-block-key=\"liwin\">He said the officers started hitting him and hitting his camera. He said he was holding his phone in one hand, and felt an officer try to yank the device from him. McFadden said he didn’t want to appear to be confrontational, but he was concerned about losing his phone so he held onto it.</p><p data-block-key=\"92m39\">McFadden, who is Black, said a white photographer acquaintance came over and told the officers that McFadden was a journalist and that he worked with the Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"0ai99\">After the other photographer identified him, he said, the officers allowed him to stand up. He showed them his press pass, which is issued by the National Press Photographers Association. McFadden said the officer told him, “anybody could have made that,” and asked to see his driver’s license, which he had left in his car.</p><p data-block-key=\"yi7xc\">McFadden said it was clear that the officers weren’t going to allow him to go, but they were going to let the other photographer go. He said officers only allowed him to leave when the other photographer volunteered to escort him to his car.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ijis\">He said he previously had similar experiences, including <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-by-officers-with-batons-during-brooklyn-center-protest/\">three days earlier in Brooklyn Center</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"n4fje\">“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=\"jn5hs\">McFadden said the other photographer walked with him so she could help him navigate interaction with law enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"x74og\">“It's because she knew that at every kind of checkpoint they set up, they were going to either try to hold me or arrest or detain me, or I'll get a million questions if my credentials are real,” McFadden said. He said there was also a risk he could be shot at with rubber bullets while approaching officers from a distance. “If I'm with her I'm able to walk up to the group.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3tfs4\">As they were trying to leave the area, McFadden said, they came upon a checkpoint at a gas station where police had stopped a large number of journalists and were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/law-enforcement-agencies-photograph-journalists-and-their-ids-as-they-cover-protests/\">taking photographs of their credentials, IDs and faces</a>. He said officers told the journalists the photographs would be entered into a database.</p><p data-block-key=\"0gjuf\">McFadden said law enforcement again asked him to see his license, and he told them it was in his car. He said that they were stopped at the gas station for about an hour.</p><p data-block-key=\"kt817\">McFadden said his shoulder was injured when he was tackled and hit. He also had bruises on his legs, adding to bruises he had gotten earlier in the week when he was hit <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-on-assignment-for-new-york-times-hit-with-projectiles-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">with crowd-control munitions</a>, and hit with sticks by law enforcement officers while in a car. McFadden said he sought medical attention for the injuries he accumulated through the week. He said he was told to take ibuprofen after he declined other medication, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vwxow\">McFadden’s camera was damaged when he was tackled, he said. The body of the camera was scratched up and he said he needed to get some parts replaced. As a result of the two assaults, he also needed to get the lens repaired.</p><p data-block-key=\"nv26u\">McFadden told the Tracker he believed he was targeted because he was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"y41y4\">He said Minnesota State Patrol troopers were involved in the incident. MSP didn’t respond requests for comment by email and phone</p><p data-block-key=\"3fh99\">McFadden was detained the same evening a federal judge issued a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/judge-issues-order-halting-police-attacks-journalists\">temporary restraining order</a> barring MSP from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"e9bmq\">The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations, including the New York Times, sent <a href=\"https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Letter-to-Minnesota-governor.pdf\">a letter</a> to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.</p><p data-block-key=\"gex7o\">In response to the court order, MSP released a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> on April 17 that acknowledged troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said no journalists were arrested, though some had been detained and released during the protests. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category, but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.</p><p data-block-key=\"kfw9j\">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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{
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
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"Assault",
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{
"title": "Journalist detained, shoved while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-detained-shoved-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-12T15:44:56.861283Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:38:09.001410Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:38:08.916830Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eactg\">Freelance journalist J.D. Duggan said he was detained and shoved to the ground by a law enforcement officer while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"l2t0b\">Several hundred protesters had 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=\"oiow1\">According to the<a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/16/authorities-break-up-protests-make-arrests-outside-brooklyn-center-police-station/\"> St. Paul Pioneer Press</a>, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. At around 10 p.m., <a href=\"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/04/17/law-enforcement-response-swift-on-sixth-night-of-protests\">Minnesota Public Radio</a> reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.</p><p data-block-key=\"hqaz9\">Amid the unrest, a group of journalists was detained by law enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published on other news outlets. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/arrest-criminal-charge/?categories=4&city=Brooklyn%20Center&date_lower=2021-04-16&date_upper=2021-04-16&state=27\">Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"zpx3c\">Duggan, who has written for outlets including The Intercept and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when lines of law enforcement officers started moving in to surround the crowd, he found himself near a group of other journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"bypjb\">Officers surrounded the group and shouted at them to get on the ground, so Duggan said he got down on his knees. Duggan said he shouted out to identify himself as a member of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"q42x8\">As he was on his knees, he said, an officer came up behind him, shoved him on his back between his shoulders and yelled at him to lie on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"3xcdw\">Duggan said he didn’t see which law enforcement agency the officer who shoved him was with.</p><p data-block-key=\"ofdoh\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/JDugganMN/status/1383255718568947716\">Video he posted on Twitter</a>, which appears to be filmed from the ground, shows multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers standing nearby.</p><p data-block-key=\"8as7g\">At one point, Duggan says, “I’m press, I’m press. Can I get out of here?”</p><p data-block-key=\"u99ie\">“Hang tight” a voice can be heard responding.</p><p data-block-key=\"hzl01\">Minutes later, a voice orders members of the press to stand up, and a trooper checks Duggan’s credential.</p><p data-block-key=\"z2ff1\">Duggan told the Tracker after the journalists were allowed to get up, officers led them across a parking lot and kept the members of the press in a group. He said officers took photographs of his face, his ID and his press credential.</p><p data-block-key=\"i9z8g\">He was allowed to go about 45 minutes after he was first detained, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b7cz3\">Duggan said he was displaying his press badge at the time he was detained. His badge is issued by The Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota student newspaper where he was a journalist until he graduated in December.</p><p data-block-key=\"71yso\">Duggan and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a<a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/judge-issues-order-halting-police-attacks-journalists\"> temporary restraining order</a> barring state law enforcement from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"50jtu\">The next day, April 17, 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 expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began. CBS signed the letter on behalf of WCCO.</p><p data-block-key=\"i2ei6\">A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said that though journalists had been detained and released during the protests, no journalists were arrested. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category but notes that the journalists were released without being processed. MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about Duggan.</p><p data-block-key=\"pwlw7\">The agency said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"9e0ce\">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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"name": "Minnesota",
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"tags": [
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{
"title": "WCCO reporter detained while covering protest in Brooklyn Center",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wcco-reporter-detained-while-covering-protest-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-11T17:15:13.044454Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:37:28.109892Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:37:28.022667Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"si4fq\">Reg Chapman, a reporter for Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO, said he was detained by police with multiple other journalists while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"laud4\">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=\"cjcxv\">According to the<a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/16/authorities-break-up-protests-make-arrests-outside-brooklyn-center-police-station/\"> St. Paul Pioneer Press</a>, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. At around 10 p.m., <a href=\"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/04/17/law-enforcement-response-swift-on-sixth-night-of-protests\">Minnesota Public Radio</a> reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.</p><p data-block-key=\"ruyf3\"><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQSN9kAUwb4\">According to state officials</a>, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Minnesota State Patrol, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"qjrpx\">Amid the unrest, a group of journalists was detained by law enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published on other news outlets. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/arrest-criminal-charge/?categories=4&city=Brooklyn%20Center&date_lower=2021-04-16&date_upper=2021-04-16&state=27\">Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"okmki\">Chapman told a WCCO anchor in a <a href=\"https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/5499952-wccos-reg-chapman-reports-journalists-being-detained-ids-checked/\">segment on the night of April 16</a> that he and other members of the news team had been detained. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"tdnsc\">The video shows live video, apparently filmed from pavement-level, of multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers.</p><p data-block-key=\"oredv\">Chapman told the anchor they were detained when one group of Minnesota National Guard troops approached protesters from the south while a group of Minnesota State Patrol troopers approached from the north, forming a perimeter around the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"v39ns\">Law enforcement recognized their press credentials but ordered journalists to the ground, Chapman told the anchor in the video. He said officers checked everyone’s IDs and anybody who wasn’t a member of the press was put in handcuffs.</p><p data-block-key=\"4t1ck\">In the video, Chapman said police checked his and others’ IDs and took their photos. He said that they were waiting for the rest of the WCCO crew to be released.</p><p data-block-key=\"rzmy7\"><a href=\"https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/04/17/wcco-journalists-detained-told-to-lay-on-ground-during-brooklyn-center-protests/\">According to a WCCO</a> report, Chapman was detained with other WCCO photojournalists. The Tracker hasn’t been able to verify the identities of the other journalists and WCCO hasn’t responded to requests for more information.</p><p data-block-key=\"g1adl\">Chapman and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a<a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/judge-issues-order-halting-police-attacks-journalists\"> temporary restraining order</a> barring state law enforcement from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"mcta0\">The next day, April 17, 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 expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began. CBS signed the letter on behalf of WCCO.</p><p data-block-key=\"04lvl\">A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said that though journalists had been detained and released during the protests, no journalists were arrested. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category but notes that the journalists were released without being processed. MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about the detainment of Chapman and the WCCO crew.</p><p data-block-key=\"45b75\">The agency said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"kphqg\">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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"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"tags": [
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"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
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},
{
"title": "Reuters photojournalist detained at Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reuters-photojournalist-detained-at-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-10T20:36:15.972449Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:29:17.838328Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:29:17.729630Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fng8m\">Reuters photographer Leah Millis said she was one of a group of journalists detained by law enforcement while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"wt8dn\">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=\"9bc0o\">According to the<a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/16/authorities-break-up-protests-make-arrests-outside-brooklyn-center-police-station/\"> St. Paul Pioneer Press</a>, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. At around 10 p.m., <a href=\"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/04/17/law-enforcement-response-swift-on-sixth-night-of-protests\">Minnesota Public Radio</a> reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQSN9kAUwb4\">According to state officials</a>, a coalition of law-enforcement agencies, including the Minnesota State Patrol, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"3719b\">Amid the unrest, a group of journalists were detained by law-enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published in other news outlets. Find documented detainments from the night of <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/arrest-criminal-charge/?categories=4&city=Brooklyn%20Center&date_lower=2021-04-16&date_upper=2021-04-16&state=27\">April 16 in Brooklyn Center here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"bjela\">Millis <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeahMillis/status/1383288453660495875\">posted on Twitter</a> early on the morning of April 17 that she had been detained. She later tweeted more details, including that she was ordered to get on the ground with her hands out.</p><p data-block-key=\"y0r1o\">“I tried not to run because I didn't want to be tackled, then they shouted at us to get out and then they forced us to the ground with our hands out. I wear a large "PRESS" patch on my helmet.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is how it was last night, too. I tried not to run because I didn't want to be tackled, then they shouted at us to get out and then they forced us to the ground with our hands out. I wear a large "PRESS" patch on my helmet. <a href=\"https://t.co/No8FCGbbH5\">https://t.co/No8FCGbbH5</a></p>— Leah Millis (@LeahMillis) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeahMillis/status/1383462000471146498?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=\"x9iwv\">Millis also posted a photograph on Twitter of Minnesota State Patrol officers taking a photograph of her with a cellphone. She wrote that she and others were photographed with their identifications before they were released.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Got detained, they photographed us with our IDs before eventually letting us go. Some colleagues got pretty roughed up. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BrooklynCenter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BrooklynCenter</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/pressfreedom?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#pressfreedom</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/vrTr1pfsil\">pic.twitter.com/vrTr1pfsil</a></p>— Leah Millis (@LeahMillis) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LeahMillis/status/1383288453660495875?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=\"eglpf\">Millis referred the Tracker to a Reuters spokesperson for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"9zixt\">“Reuters condemns the actions of police against its journalist in Minneapolis on April 16,” a spokesperson said. “All journalists must be allowed to report the news in the public interest without fear of harassment or harm, wherever they are.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xhn5p\">Millis and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a<a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/judge-issues-order-halting-police-attacks-journalists\"> temporary restraining order</a> barring police from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ap94\">The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations, including Reuters, sent <a href=\"https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Letter-to-Minnesota-governor.pdf\">a letter</a> to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.</p><p data-block-key=\"x69v6\">A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said no journalists were arrested, though some had been detained and released during the protests. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category, but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.</p><p data-block-key=\"ypt83\">The agency said troopers would no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but would continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"qzy5o\">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>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTXBK3DO.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"96kb7\">Reuters photographer Leah Millis captured this image of protesters in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021, days after the death of Daunte Wright. Millis was detained and photographed by law enforcement that evening.</p>",
"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,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "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"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Leah Millis (Reuters)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Photojournalist for Status Coup shoved, pulled by law enforcement officers",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-for-status-coup-shoved-pulled-by-law-enforcement-officers/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-10T18:50:15.046358Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:28:55.681171Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:28:55.600938Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"css72\">Independent photojournalist Jon Farina was shoved by a law enforcement officer while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, for the online outlet Status Coup on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"djcqc\">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=\"4txwn\">Farina, a New York-based journalist, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on the night of April 16 officers were using rubber bullets on the crowd and chasing people away from the police station.</p><p data-block-key=\"bims1\">Farina said he stayed off to the side of the crowd as officers pushed protesters back. He said he eventually found himself by some residential buildings near the police station, where officers were making arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"xfigv\">At first, he said, officers didn’t say anything to him.</p><p data-block-key=\"0ca4r\">In a<a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1383265430672863237\"> video Status Coup posted to Twitter</a>, multiple law enforcement officers holding shields marked “sheriff” can be seen in a line. An officer, who is wearing a vest that says “sheriff” on the back, turns and approaches the camera. He repeats, “back up, back up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tc6bs\">“What’s the reason? nothing’s happening,” Farina replies.</p><p data-block-key=\"3psyh\">“You got a zoom on that thing, back up, back up,” the officer says, referencing Farina’s camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"my1ey\">The officer moves suddenly close to the camera. Farina told the Tracker that the officer held a baton with a hand at each end and used it to shove the journalist in the shoulder.</p><p data-block-key=\"6uv2s\">Immediately afterwards, Farina said, a second officer came up behind him, grabbed his backpack and used it to pull him back. The second officer can be heard on the video shouting “get out of here!”</p><p data-block-key=\"jxn5s\">Farina backs away as the second officer, who was wearing green, follows and shines a flashlight at him. Farina tries to speak with the officer, who moves toward him and shouts “get out of here!” again.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BREAKING</a>: Minnesota Police threaten photojournalist <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JonFarinaPhoto?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JonFarinaPhoto</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@StatusCoup</a>'s reporting while attacking and arresting protesters and the press during <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DaunteWright?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DaunteWright</a> protests. <a href=\"https://t.co/J5L3plF6vl\">pic.twitter.com/J5L3plF6vl</a></p>— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StatusCoup/status/1383265430672863237?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=\"9srtc\">Farina told the Tracker he decided to leave that area then because he felt he might be arrested if he stayed. As he was moving away, he saw other members of the press lying face down. He said he continued moving past them.</p><p data-block-key=\"9lzx8\">Eventually Farina said he came to a checkpoint where law enforcement officers were taking photographs of journalists’ credentials and faces.</p><p data-block-key=\"y4zhw\">Farina said he started to leave but an officer stopped him and asked if other officers had said he could go. Farina said he told him, “This is not how this works. You guys shouldn't be doing this.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2c7n0\">The officer brought over a lieutenant, he said, and Farina continued to explain his objections to being photographed. He said he told them the process was unconstitutional and illegal. They spoke for about a minute, Farina said, and the officers allowed him to proceed.</p><p data-block-key=\"oiq3e\">Farina said he was wearing a lanyard around his neck with press credentials displayed, including cards issued by the National Press Photographers Association, the New York Press Photographers Association and the New York City Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"tfm8r\">Farina told the Tracker he believed he was targeted for being a journalist. He said he believed the officers tried to intimidate journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"uvz21\">“It's very clear and obvious all journalists were targeted that day,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b2zdo\">The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"i9xi7\">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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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
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],
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"categories": [
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],
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],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist threatened, assaulted by Minnesota State Patrol while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-threatened-assaulted-by-minnesota-state-patrol-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-10T15:35:51.521838Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:28:36.444178Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:28:36.345585Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"vmi51\">Minnesota State Patrol troopers assaulted and threatened to arrest independent photojournalist Chris Tuite while he documented protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021, according to a letter to a judge by the ACLU of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"7dkpp\">Demonstrators had gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department following the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, who was fatally shot by a white police officer on April 11. On April 16, Minnesota District Judge Wilhelmina Wright granted a motion for a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/goyette_tro_granted.pdf\">temporary restraining order</a> barring all local law-enforcement agencies from arresting, threatening to arrest, using physical force against or seizing the equipment of journalists documenting the demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"cnson\">ACLU of Minnesota’s Legal Director Teresa Nelson <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20618245-letter-to-judge-wright-journalists-covering-minnesota-protests\">sent a letter</a> to Judge Wright the following day, saying: “Last night, hours after the TRO took effect, the State Defendants escalated the level of assault and harassment of journalists to an intolerable degree.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s0k3l\">Tuite was listed among the journalists affected in the ACLU letter, which Tuite confirmed in an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"cvbw8\">Tuite told the Tracker that he was taking photos of Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-assaulted-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">arresting freelance photojournalist Tim Evans</a> when he was suddenly confronted by other law-enforcement officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"d8ibz\">“I was taking a photo of an officer kneeling on Evans’ back and that’s when I got grabbed,” Tuite said. “Someone was verbally threatening me and then an officer grabbed me from behind and told me that I was under arrest.” Tuite said that the officer pulled him hard enough to rip the neck of his shirt.</p><p data-block-key=\"flshi\">“As soon as that happened another cop came over and grabbed me by the arm and ripped me away from the first cop and told me to go north, which is what I had been trying to do anyway,” Tuite said. “I got around the corner of the apartment complex to the north and got jumped by five more officers, one put pepper spray right in my face and screamed, ‘What the fuck do you not understand? Go fucking north. This was your one free pass. Are you fucking stupid? Go now or I’ll arrest you.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"r4bq9\">Tuite was ultimately directed to a “media checkpoint” at a nearby gas station, where members of the press had their faces, press passes and state identifications photographed before they were permitted to leave the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"jhdne\">“To get out of their kettle, we had to take off our gas masks and helmets and hand them our media passes and IDs. They took photos of our faces up close and then of our IDs and media passes,” Tuite said. “They told us nothing of what they were going to do with the photos, and they essentially brushed it off as, ‘We just want to make sure you guys are legit.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"bt8y8\">Tuite told the Tracker that his press pass was around his neck and he was carrying several cameras, and that he was certain the officers were aware he was a journalist as they specifically said to him, “Media: Get out of here!”</p><p data-block-key=\"cdvrr\">The Minnesota State Patrol didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"zlq3n\">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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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"wz7xk\">Law enforcement at a protest in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on April 16, 2021, after the police killing of Daunte Wright. Photojournalist Chris Tuite was grabbed, threatened and photographed by law enforcement while documenting the protest.</p>",
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"(2022-02-08 12:06:00+00:00) Journalists reach settlement agreement with Minnesota State Patrol, rest of suit ongoing",
"(2024-02-08 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists get nearly $1M settlement over Minneapolis BLM protest attacks",
"(2021-09-28 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist sues following assault while covering Brooklyn Center protest"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist assaulted, detained while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-assaulted-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-07T14:19:18.055768Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-03-10T23:16:45.677274Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-03-10T23:16:45.566758Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
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"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lxh7b\">Freelance photojournalist Tim Evans told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was assaulted by multiple law enforcement officers and detained while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"5lbpr\">Evans was one of at least 10 journalists detained that night, according to reports given to the Tracker, noted on social media or published in other news outlets.</p><p data-block-key=\"gkzn6\">Several hundred protesters had 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. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQSN9kAUwb4\">According to state officials</a>, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, the Minnesota State Patrol, and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"y8kj9\">Evans, whose work has been published by the European Pressphoto Agency, the Guardian, NPR and other outlets, told the Tracker he arrived to cover the protests earlier in the evening. The demonstration was peaceful, he said, though a few people in the crowd shook the fence around the police station or threw a water bottle at law enforcement. Evans said he heard law enforcement announce an order to disperse at 9:45 p.m. Shortly after 10, he said, law enforcement moved swiftly to form a “<a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/journalists-covering-protests-us-risk-getting-caught-police-kettling-tactic/\">kettle</a>,” a crowd-control tactic in which officers block people from leaving.</p><p data-block-key=\"axtdb\">As law enforcement closed in around the crowd, Evans said, dozens of Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies moved out from behind a fence that surrounded the Brooklyn Center police station, tackling people and spraying them with chemical agents “indiscriminately.”</p><p data-block-key=\"pubta\">Evans said that after he’d photographed an officer tackle someone to the ground in front of him, he’d looked to his right, toward a group of other photojournalists. When he turned to look back to his left, he said, he saw a sheriff’s deputy running directly at him. Evans said the officer, about 5 feet away, sprayed him in the face with a chemical agent he believes was mace.</p><p data-block-key=\"cjpd4\">Evans, who was wearing a helmet and goggles, said he dropped to his knees and held up his press credential in one hand and one of his cameras in the other; his credential, he said, is a card he made himself that features his name and photo and states “press” on the top and “photojournalist” on the bottom. In addition to his credential, he said, he had a label fixed to his backpack that identified him as “PRESS.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0xm1d\">Evans said that while he was still kneeling, he took a photograph of another photojournalist being confronted by a law enforcement officer. Right after taking the frame, he said, he heard someone shout, “Get on the ground!”</p><p data-block-key=\"1ltuv\">Evans said he then looked to his left and saw a sheriff charging at him. He said he held out his press credential and shouted to identify himself as press, but the officer proceeded to tackle him onto his back and punch him in the face. Evans said his face was largely protected because the brunt of the blow hit the padded goggles he was wearing.</p><p data-block-key=\"irkwj\">The officer then ordered him to roll over onto his stomach, Evans said, and told him he was under arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"17v1h\">Evans said he complied, continuing to tell the officer he was a journalist. The officer, he said, ignored him and told him to “shut up.” While lying on his stomach, on top of his camera, Evans said he held his press credential over his shoulder. He said the officer grabbed the card, unsnapping the clasp on the lanyard, and threw the pass facedown.</p><p data-block-key=\"hcj03\">“He rips it off and just, like, throws it into the ground and tells me he doesn’t give a fuck who I am, he doesn’t care if I’m media, and that I should have left when I had a chance,” Evans told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"bggde\">Evans said the officer kneeled on his back and used a shield to push down on him. At that point, Evans said, it seemed clear the officer was not going to release him because he was a journalist, so Evans said he started to try and attract the attention of other law enforcement nearby.</p><p data-block-key=\"bghy6\">Evans said another officer soon came up to them and asked the deputy if Evans was being arrested. Evans said he tried to tell the new officer that he was press. The new officer told him to “shut the fuck up” and smashed the back of Evans’ helmet, thrusting his face into the dirt. Evans said he could not clearly see this officer, but he believes it was also a sheriff’s deputy.</p><p data-block-key=\"f1pb5\">Evans’ hands were restrained with zip-tie cuffs behind his back, he said. After a few minutes on the ground, he said, he was raised to his feet and brought to sit on a curb.</p><p data-block-key=\"1hh5u\">About 10 minutes later, he said, another officer, who Evans believes was a Minnesota State Patrol trooper, came by and offered to make adjustments so he would be more comfortable. He said he told her he shouldn’t be there because he was a member of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"mhvca\">The officer looked at his credential and asked him about who he worked for. Evans said she then went to speak to a lieutenant. When she returned, she said they would let him go, “as long as I agreed to leave the area, and not continue to cover,” Evans said.</p><p data-block-key=\"s9enu\">“I agreed because at that point, you know, I was not in a position to make demands, I suppose,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"l6u0u\">He said the officer cut the zip-ties and escorted him to the police perimeter, about a block away, where he was allowed to go.</p><p data-block-key=\"vefkr\">Evans said he does not believe he was targeted by the first officer, who sprayed the chemical agent at him. “But everything from that point on felt targeted,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"pfhro\">Evans said he felt the second officer who attacked him “became more aggressive when he realized that I was a member of the media.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3vjqh\">Evans said the spray left him with rashes on his face, though the impact was mitigated because he was wearing personal protective equipment. His helmet and goggles also protected him from the impact of the punch and having his head shoved into the ground, he said. He said he had scratches on his hands, which he thinks were from the scuffle, but he did not require any medical attention.</p><p data-block-key=\"bk6de\">The body of one of his cameras was scuffed, the screen protector was broken, and a rubber thumb grip was ripped off, he said. He said his equipment, including his lenses, is all still functional.</p><p data-block-key=\"9xvgn\">Evans’ detainment came hours after a federal judge had issued a<a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/judge-issues-order-halting-police-attacks-journalists\"> temporary restraining order</a> barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"xjgwf\">Evans wrote a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/aclu-mn-condemns-attacks-against-journalists-covering-daunte-wright-protests\">declaration</a> about his experience, which the ACLU presented with a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/goyette_et_al._v._city_of_minneapolis_et_al._case_no._20-cv-01302_wmw-dts_april_17_2021_letter_to_judge_wright-c.pdf\">letter</a> to the court the following day. He told the Tracker he is planning to file a formal complaint with relevant law enforcement agencies and is considering other action.</p><p data-block-key=\"st86k\">A spokesperson for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office told the Tracker that the department is aware of the incident and is investigating whether any of its staff were involved. He declined to comment further, pending the determination of the investigation. Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"wofp7\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=111\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hu19e\">Photojournalist Tim Evans was detained while covering an April 16, 2021, protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Evans said the officer who detained him kneeled on his back and used a shield to push down on him.</p>",
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"case_number": "0:20-cv-01302",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [
"(2022-02-08 12:09:00+00:00) Journalists reach settlement agreement with Minnesota State Patrol, rest of suit ongoing",
"(2024-02-08 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists get nearly $1M settlement over Minneapolis BLM protest attacks",
"(2021-09-28 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist sues following assault while covering Brooklyn Center protest"
],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing",
"settled"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
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"Tim Evans (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalist and colleague detained in Brooklyn Center",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-star-tribune-photojournalist-and-colleague-detained-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-06T19:46:56.440494Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:28:17.073056Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:28:16.976798Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3b3tp\">Two Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalists were among a group of journalists detained by police while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021, according to reports shared with the U.S. Freedom Tracker, or published on social media or other news outlets.</p><p data-block-key=\"et6j1\">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=\"dvgt7\">According to the<a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/16/authorities-break-up-protests-make-arrests-outside-brooklyn-center-police-station/\"> St. Paul Pioneer Press</a>, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. At around 10 p.m., according to <a href=\"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/04/17/law-enforcement-response-swift-on-sixth-night-of-protests\">Minnesota Public Radio</a>, police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQSN9kAUwb4\">State officials said in a news conference</a> that a coalition of law-enforcement agencies, including the Minnesota State Patrol, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"igko8\">Minneapolis Star Tribune journalist Renée Jones Schneider told the Tracker she was detained while covering the protest with her colleague, Liz Flores.</p><p data-block-key=\"3z1nd\">Jones Schneider said the journalists were in front of the police department, on the northwest side of Humboldt Avenue. She said they had decided to separate themselves from the crowd of protesters, because they were unsure what the demonstrators planned to do.</p><p data-block-key=\"siqtc\">Jones Schneider said they heard a dispersal order, which, unlike at protests earlier in the week, didn’t include any specific announcement for members of the media to leave. Suddenly, she said, the crowd ran toward them.</p><p data-block-key=\"xrnys\">She said she and Flores decided to go up the street to see what was prompting people to run, but when they turned, she said, a large line of police officers was approaching.</p><p data-block-key=\"p61zb\">Jones Schneider said that they identified themselves as press. They were also wearing large press passes, issued by the Star Tribune, and gas masks, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"w33lk\">The police told them they didn’t care that they were press, Jones Schneider said, and directed them to turn and go back up the street. The law enforcement agents then ordered her and people near her to lie on the ground on their stomachs.</p><p data-block-key=\"t9m0x\">Jones Schneider said many other people who were detained near her were also members of the press. She said that police weren’t touching or yelling at anyone in the group, and that she wasn’t worried about getting arrested, but that the situation was surprising.</p><p data-block-key=\"kncjf\">After a few minutes, Jones Schneider said, the journalists were allowed to get up. Police told the journalists that they wanted to look at their credentials before they let them go. Jones Schneider said they were told to go up the street, where they encountered another line of officers and a different group of journalists. There, she said, police directed them to take out their press credentials and their state-issued identifications, and took photographs of their faces and documents.</p><p data-block-key=\"5xuo7\">The next day, Jones Schneider retweeted a video of two other Star Tribune journalists having their credentials photographed. She <a href=\"https://twitter.com/reneejon/status/1383422654586097667\">wrote</a> that she was screened twice, because law enforcement checked her credentials when she had been detained and forced to lie on her stomach earlier in the night.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This was also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/floresliz12?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@floresliz12</a> and my experience. However that was our second screening since we were also previously caught in a police kettling closer to the police station and made to lay on our stomaches for about 10 minutes and processed there too. <a href=\"https://t.co/XwpAsOC2Qs\">https://t.co/XwpAsOC2Qs</a></p>— Renee JonesSchneider (@reneejon) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/reneejon/status/1383422654586097667?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=\"9h3lv\">Jones Schneider and the other journalists in the group were detained hours after a federal judge had issued a<a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/judge-issues-order-halting-police-attacks-journalists\"> temporary restraining order</a> barring police from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"03cim\">The next day, April 17, 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 expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.</p><p data-block-key=\"a2qho\">The Minnesota State Patrol didn’t respond to a request for comment about the specific detainment of the Star Tribune journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"jj8pf\">When reached for general comment, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said that though journalists had been detained and released during the protests, no journalists were arrested. The Tracker documents detainments in the same category as arrests, but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.</p><p data-block-key=\"imlqv\">The agency said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"t8hhb\">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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"name": "Minnesota",
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"kettle",
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],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist hit with multiple crowd-control munitions during Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-with-multiple-crowd-control-munitions-during-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-28T15:47:17.462847Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:27:57.242106Z",
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"longitude": -93.33273,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hggdp\">An independent photojournalist said he was repeatedly shot with crowd-control munitions and shoved by law enforcement officers while he was documenting protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"ahjzg\">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. Earlier on April 16, Minnesota District Judge Wilhelmina Wright granted a motion for a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/goyette_tro_granted.pdf\">temporary restraining order</a> barring all local law enforcement agencies from arresting, threatening to arrest, using physical force against or seizing the equipment of journalists documenting the demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"njlri\">The photojournalist asked only to be identified under Photojournalist Docs or “PJ” (the name under which he publishes), citing concerns about police retaliation or private individuals targeting him. PJ, whose recent photos from celebrations in Minneapolis following the Derek Chauvin verdict were <a href=\"https://www.weekendernj.com/post/_minn\">published by WeekenderNJ</a>, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at the protest at around 4 p.m. and remained into the night.</p><p data-block-key=\"dbf0j\">Police had established a barricade consisting of two layers of fencing along the east side of the police department property, down North Humboldt Avenue, according to PJ. The photographer said officers remained behind both fences, near the department building, most of the night.</p><p data-block-key=\"t93yq\">At around 9:45 p.m., PJ said, he was photographing from the north side of the fence line when a protester breached the barricades further south.</p><p data-block-key=\"1uiov\">“Before I knew it, things started to change. It went from kind of just a protest to flash bangs going off and them declaring it an unlawful assembly,” PJ said.</p><p data-block-key=\"rhhhz\">About 10 minutes later, PJ said, he moved away from the fence line, toward apartment buildings across the street from the police department, and at least 150 feet away from the main group of protesters. He said that as he continued moving, law enforcement officers started shining lights on him.</p><p data-block-key=\"q5rfz\">“I put my hands up just in case I was blocking the ‘PRESS’ marking on my chest with my camera, so I put my hands up, I let my chest show, and then I would go back to taking photos,” PJ said, adding that he did this multiple times as the light continued to follow him.</p><p data-block-key=\"zi7kq\">PJ said he began photographing as a group of Minnesota State Patrol troopers rushed several clearly marked members of the press who were set up off to the side of the protesters. Within seconds, PJ said, he was struck first on his left buttocks and then again on the back of his left calf with marker rounds, a type of spongy crowd control munition that uses a dye to mark individuals with a bright color, often in order for law enforcement to identify them to be detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"3arvb\">In footage PJ <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5C1bVqYnHM\">posted to YouTube</a>, after being struck he can be heard shouting and in closed caption indicates that he was shouting “Press!” as he jogs away from where he had been standing.</p><p data-block-key=\"b2ufd\">“Then I took a direct hit to my left knee with a foam baton round,” PJ said. “More and more lights began to shine on me, and I worried that I would be hit with more munitions.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">4/16/21: I was first targeted & then fired upon by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/MNOSN?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MNOSN</a> even after US District Judge issued TRO preventing their attacks on the press. Shot multiple times by less-lethal (40mm) & non-lethal (.68cal) munitions <a href=\"https://twitter.com/uspresstracker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@uspresstracker</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ACLUMN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ACLUMN</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/GovTimWalz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@GovTimWalz</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BrooklynCenter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BrooklynCenter</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DaunteWright?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DaunteWright</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/nnkxvyWqsg\">pic.twitter.com/nnkxvyWqsg</a></p>— Photojournalist Docs (@pjdocs) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/pjdocs/status/1383786687549952003?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 18, 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=\"9vy97\">Throughout the footage, PJ appears to be standing and walking alone at a significant distance from the unfolding demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"mg6zv\">“If I was really close to the protesters and was inadvertently shot trying to capture photos, that would be different,” PJ told the Tracker. “What really blows me away is that I was very isolated. There was zero reason, no logical reason for this to have happened.”</p><p data-block-key=\"zjabi\">About three minutes after he was struck the first time, PJ said, his video camera battery died.</p><p data-block-key=\"jjgeo\">“It didn’t take long after that for law enforcement to move in and start sort of kettling people,” he said, referring to a police tactic of surrounding protesters. “A state trooper or a sheriff, I’m not really sure who, rushed up to me and kind of grabbed me by the arm and started pushing me in a direction, saying, ‘You gotta go, you gotta leave.’</p><p data-block-key=\"lketv\">“Again, I was kind of isolated, I wasn’t around anyone, I wasn’t interfering or impeding anyone from doing their jobs,” PJ added.</p><p data-block-key=\"nqod7\">PJ said the law enforcement officer then pushed him in the direction of a parking lot and ordered him to leave; judging from his experiences at earlier protests, PJ said, he believed that if he didn’t comply he would have been arrested. In order to leave the area, PJ said he had to climb over a couple of six- or seven-foot-tall fences. He said he also had to leave behind a step stool he had been carrying with him.</p><p data-block-key=\"r8eu7\">Neither the Brooklyn Center Police Department, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department nor the Minnesota State Patrol responded to requests for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"vgwuq\">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=\"hs8kr\">An independent photojournalist was shot multiple times with crowd-control munitions while documenting protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.</p>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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{
"title": "USA Today photojournalist detained during Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/usa-today-photojournalist-detained-during-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-22T18:32:18.526706Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:26:09.708886Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:26:09.617172Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"peyf3\">At least 15 journalists were detained by police while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published in other news outlets.</p><p data-block-key=\"tha84\">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=\"2a18j\">According to the<a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/16/authorities-break-up-protests-make-arrests-outside-brooklyn-center-police-station/\"> St. Paul Pioneer Press</a>, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. <a href=\"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/04/17/law-enforcement-response-swift-on-sixth-night-of-protests\">Minnesota Public Radio</a> reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQSN9kAUwb4\">According to state officials</a>, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Minnesota State Patrol, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"azsl6\">Jasper Colt, a photojournalist with the USA Today Network, was one of the journalists detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"9r4fl\">Colt told <a href=\"https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/04/17/brooklyn-center-protests-police-round-up-journalists/7268057002/\">USA Today</a> that when police issued a dispersal order around 9:30 p.m., he and other journalists did not immediately leave. “We didn’t think we needed to, and we wanted to cover what was happening,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ii3m\">Then, he told the paper, police rounded up protesters and members of the press in one group and told everyone to lie down on their stomachs. Officers identified people who were members of the media and then brought them to another area, where they took photographs of journalists’ credentials, IDs and their faces.</p><p data-block-key=\"0tutz\">“They were the ones with the guns, so we were like, ‘OK, well, we have to do this,’” Colt told USA Today.</p><p data-block-key=\"fsqh3\">Colt also detailed the experience in a tweet posted at 12:07 a.m. on April 17. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Tracker.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After quickly dispersing protesters in <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BrooklynCenterMN?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BrooklynCenterMN</a> tonight, police surrounded members of the media and made us lie flat on our stomachs. They then photographed our faces, credentials and identification before allowing us to leave the perimeter. <a href=\"https://t.co/v3BUHyvWgV\">pic.twitter.com/v3BUHyvWgV</a></p>— Jasper Colt (@jaspercolt) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jaspercolt/status/1383285891104342023?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=\"ewznv\"><a href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2021/04/17/brooklyn-center-police-disperse-protesters-corral-and-photograph-media/7266847002/\">Video</a> published by USA Today shows Minnesota State Patrol troopers checking journalists’ credentials. Colt told USA Today that the sheriff’s office made the dispersal announcement over the loudspeaker, and state and local police were involved in the detainment.</p><p data-block-key=\"xplvg\">The journalists were detained hours after a federal judge had issued a<a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/judge-issues-order-halting-police-attacks-journalists\"> temporary restraining order</a> barring police from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"6micy\">The next day, April 17, 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 expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.</p><p data-block-key=\"muk3p\">“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=\"vgu51\">When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said that though journalists had been detained and released during the protests, no journalists were arrested. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.</p><p data-block-key=\"w10m3\">The agency said that troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"jqh7u\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Brooklyn Center Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jasper Colt (USA Today)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Getty photojournalist’s camera damaged by rubber bullets at Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/getty-photojournalists-camera-damaged-by-rubber-bullets-at-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-24T12:52:33.949952Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:51:31.415845Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:51:31.315031Z",
"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=\"ufntc\">Getty Images photojournalist Scott Olson confirmed with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that his camera equipment was damaged by police officers while he was covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, on April 14, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"oez7u\">According to the<a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/14/hundreds-gather-for-4th-night-of-protests-in-brooklyn-center/\"> St. Paul Pioneer Press</a>, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department that evening to demand justice for 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man who was shot and killed by a white Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop on April 11, 2021. 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=\"zmrrc\">The Pioneer Press reported that demonstrators chanted “Don’t shoot” and other slogans, threw objects at officers and tried to dismantle fences, while law enforcement responded with pepper spray and "marker" rounds. Shortly after 9 p.m., officers declared the protest an unlawful assembly, according to the paper.</p><p data-block-key=\"lc61p\">"When the police let you know that you might be working a little too close to the action," Olson<a href=\"https://twitter.com/olsongetty/status/1382724011533213696?s=20\"> tweeted</a> the next morning at 10:54 a.m. alongside a photograph of a cracked camera lens and lens hood.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When the police let you know that you might be working a little too close to the action. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DuanteWright?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DuanteWright</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BrooklynCenter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BrooklynCenter</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloyd</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/iF7nAEAFjR\">pic.twitter.com/iF7nAEAFjR</a></p>— scott olson (@olsongetty) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/olsongetty/status/1382724011533213696?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=\"lnggd\">Olson confirmed with the Tracker that the equipment was damaged from rubber bullets fired by police, but said in a Twitter message that he does not believe he was the intended target. “As I have learned from covering many similar situations, if you work close you are at greater risk of getting injured or equipment damaged,” Olson said. He declined to comment further.</p><p data-block-key=\"mnwqk\">Brooklyn Center Police Department did not respond immediately 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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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "law enforcement",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera equipment"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Scott Olson (Getty Images)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Student journalist hit with projectile while covering protest in Brooklyn Center",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-hit-with-projectile-while-covering-protest-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-11T16:08:38.398465Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:17:52.394173Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:17:52.303621Z",
"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=\"f7nui\">Kori Suzuki, media editor for The Mac Weekly, the student news site of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, was hit with a crowd-control munition while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center on April 14, 2021, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"2fh03\">The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11 rekindled a wave of racial justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death 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 in the city through mid-April.</p><p data-block-key=\"in5i0\">Suzuki told the Tracker he was covering an evening protest April 14 near the police station with a small group of other student journalists from Macalester College. Some time after it began, he said, the police response to the protest escalated, as law enforcement used chemical agents and crowd-control projectiles on demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"dlat7\">Suzuki said he was standing with a cluster of five or six journalists next to fencing erected around the police station. Law enforcement officers were directly on the other side of the barrier, he said, shooting pepper balls and other projectiles into the crowd through the fence.</p><p data-block-key=\"ipib7\">As he was standing there, Suzuki said, a projectile hit one of his legs.</p><p data-block-key=\"9osfr\">Suzuki tweeted a photograph of the projectile at 10:06 p.m. He wrote that the base was plastic and the tip was foam.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">One of the munitions that clipped me. Foam tip, base feels like plastic <a href=\"https://twitter.com/themacweekly?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@themacweekly</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/MqflNVnej6\">pic.twitter.com/MqflNVnej6</a></p>— Kori Suzuki (@korisuzuk1) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/korisuzuk1/status/1382530661773365251?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=\"mni1v\">He told the Tracker he was not injured by the impact of the projectile and did not believe he was deliberately targeted. He said he thought the projectile likely ricocheted off of something else before it hit him, and he could not recall which leg it hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"oimq9\">Suzuki said he was displaying a press badge issued by The Mac Weekly that has his photograph, name, and says “PRESS.”</p><p data-block-key=\"395fr\">Multiple law enforcement agencies were involved with the response to protests in Brooklyn Center. Suzuki said he believes the Brooklyn Center Police Department was deploying projectiles that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"25zqa\">BCPD did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"v4mo3\">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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"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Kori Suzuki (The Mac Weekly)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Unicorn Riot journalist detained, microphone damaged while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unicorn-riot-journalist-detained-microphone-damaged-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-05T14:45:16.880403Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:17:20.257487Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:17:20.152849Z",
"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=\"uba1m\">Niko Georgiades, a journalist with the nonprofit media outlet Unicorn Riot, said he was detained by police while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 14, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"bee6w\">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=\"ko6o2\">Georgiades told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that shortly before midnight, he and other journalists were near the Lutheran Church of the Master, a short distance up Humboldt Avenue from the police station. He said that police had earlier issued a dispersal order for an area near the police station.</p><p data-block-key=\"ab4mw\">Georgiades said the National Guard, which had been in Brooklyn Center to assist law enforcement, were loading up and leaving with their vehicles. A group of people were shouting at the National Guard vehicles and antagonizing them, Georgiades said, which appeared to prompt the Minnesota State Patrol to decide to make arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"yuqrn\">Georgiades said as a line of the troopers started running toward him, he turned to run as well. After he started running, Georgiades said he slowed down and stopped to identify himself to police as a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"qt3xz\">In a<a href=\"https://unicornriot.ninja/2021/police-break-equipment-shoot-beat-and-detain-press/\"> video</a> posted on Unicorn Riot’s website, Georgiades can be heard identifying himself as a member of the press as an officer comes up to him and tells him he’s under arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"wkz8x\">“For what? I’m press” Georgiades says. “I’m not doing anything, I’m press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"imnc1\">An officer shouts, “stop resisting!” Georgiades told the Tracker that at that point he had his camera in one hand and the officer had straightened out his other arm behind him.</p><p data-block-key=\"cocdp\">Georgiades responded, “I’m not resisting, I’m press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9c5l6\">He said that while officers were detaining him, one pulled a wireless microphone out from his pocket, threw it on the ground, and kicked it.</p><p data-block-key=\"as3rp\">Georgiades said his wrists were restrained in cuffs and he was brought over to where journalists <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/social-media-journalists-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Naasir Akailvi</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/local-social-media-journalists-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Tracy Gunapalan</a>, of the social media news outlet the Neighborhood Reporter also were being held.</p><p data-block-key=\"p6cek\">Georgiades said police photographed the three journalists’ faces and press credentials. He said he was wearing a press card that identified him as a journalist with Unicorn Riot. Police told the journalists they took the photos so that they would not be detained again.</p><p data-block-key=\"qx6x0\">Georgiades said he was detained for less than 15 minutes in total.</p><p data-block-key=\"1fxgv\">After he was released, he said he went back to retrieve his microphone. He said he asked an officer where it was. The officer yelled at him when Georgiades asked why the equipment had been thrown, but did tell him where to look.</p><p data-block-key=\"rv21s\">Georgiades said he found the microphone under some bushes. He said the mic flag, a label attached to the microphone which has Unicorn Riot’s logo on it, was missing. Yellow foam that covers part of the microphone was damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"868rz\">The Minnesota State Patrol didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ruuzl\">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 the 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=\"evbwe\">“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=\"9rr3m\">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": null,
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"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "law enforcement",
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"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",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Niko Georgiades (Unicorn Riot)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Local social media journalists detained while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/local-social-media-journalists-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-28T18:08:47.275016Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:16:52.097146Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:16:51.972488Z",
"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=\"qfqx3\">Independent journalist Tracy Gunapalan, who reports with the Minnesota-based social media news outlet the Neighborhood Reporter, said she was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 14, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"z5uov\">Gunapalan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was detained by Minnesota State Patrol troopers at the same time as her Neighborhood Reporter colleague, journalist Naasir Akailvi. The Neighborhood Reporter covers social justice movements in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region and publishes on social media platforms, according to Akailvi.</p><p data-block-key=\"lyksk\">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=\"dwgxo\">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=\"s1c9d\">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=\"t4f7h\">Gunapalan said that she jogged slowly because she was concerned that running away could result in a charge for attempting to evade arrest. She said a trooper grabbed the back of her hood and pushed her to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"by143\">“The whole time I kept yelling, ‘I'm press, I'm press, I'm press!’ and they didn't seem to care,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vkliu\">Gunapalan said she told the troopers that she had a press credential on a lanyard around her neck. She said she was holding a camera and a phone attached to a tripod as she was pushed down.</p><p data-block-key=\"nmh5h\">Police restrained her hands behind her back with cuffs, which were so tight that they nicked the skin on her hand, she said. After a few minutes, troopers got her up off the ground and brought her over to where they had detained another independent journalist, Niko Georgiades of Unicorn Riot.</p><p data-block-key=\"setfl\">Troopers had the journalists pull their face masks down, and they took photographs of the journalists’ faces and press passes, Akailvi said. He 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 police 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=\"j8dsb\">The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"wb3x7\">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=\"t8rmi\">“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=\"eek09\">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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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"detention_date": null,
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"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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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": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Tracy Gunapalan (The Neighborhood Reporter)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": null,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "law enforcement",
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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"equipment_broken": [
{
"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>",
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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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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"tags": [
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"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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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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"name": "Minnesota",
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"tags": [
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"protest"
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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>",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"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,
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"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",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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"Black Lives Matter",
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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",
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"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,
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"case_number": "0:20-cv-01302",
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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",
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],
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"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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],
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},
{
"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",
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"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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{
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"name": "Minnesota",
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"tags": [
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"categories": [
"Assault",
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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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{
"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",
"primary_video": null,
"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,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
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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": [
"(2021-04-20 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at Black Lives Matter protest"
],
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"Assault"
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],
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]
