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{
"title": "Photojournalist detained while covering protest in Brooklyn Center",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-while-covering-protest-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-21T19:07:59.343562Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:13:23.343193Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:13:23.241850Z",
"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=\"mg1ej\">Independent photojournalist Alex Kent told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"d1xvi\">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=\"tef0o\">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=\"eu5yh\">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=\"6l2qh\">Kent told the Tracker in an email that as law enforcement closed in around protesters, he was near an apartment building across from the Brooklyn Center Police Department. Kent said he files images for Shutterstock’s editorial branch.</p><p data-block-key=\"9e4ue\">As he was about to leave the area, he said, he noticed a cloud of pepper spray and saw an officer, who state officials determined was with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, spraying the chemical irritant on three Agence France-Press journalists, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-correspondent-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Eléonore Sens</a>, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-photojournalist-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-at-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Chandan Khanna</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-reporter-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Robin Legrand</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4wlrs\">Kent said the deputy threatened another couple, then turned toward Kent. He held out his National Press Photographers Association credentials and told the officer he was press, he said, and the officer told him to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"1slqn\">Kent said he moved about a half block away when he came upon a line of law enforcement officers blocking the street and “just over a dozen” journalists lying on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"3u4a4\">Kent said he held up his hands, holding out his press credential, and told the officers he was a member of the press as he approached. He said they directed him to lie down.</p><p data-block-key=\"8sk98\">On Twitter, Kent shared photographs posted by USA Today photojournalist Jasper Colt and identified himself in the second photo. The image shows a person lying on the ground, a camera with a long lens visible at their side, a few yards away from a line of Minnesota State Patrol troopers holding sticks.</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 me in the second photo. <a href=\"https://t.co/mM55uYn60r\">https://t.co/mM55uYn60r</a></p>— Alex Kent (@AlexKentTN) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AlexKentTN/status/1383459651572826119?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=\"zhruo\">After about 10 minutes, Kent told the Tracker, an officer came to check the journalists’ credentials and they were directed to walk to the end of the block.</p><p data-block-key=\"fhvrf\">There, a state trooper asked each journalist to remove their masks and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/law-enforcement-agencies-photograph-journalists-and-their-ids-as-they-cover-protests/\">took photographs of their faces, press credentials and IDs</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"u8sbb\">“I was uncomfortable with the situation, but I didn't dare refuse for the fear of being arrested,” Kent told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"40t9n\">Kent <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNylzpVB5vK/\">posted an image on Instagram</a>, taken by photojournalist Christian Monterrosa, showing an officer in a Minnesota State Patrol uniform taking Kent’s photograph with a cellphone.</p><p data-block-key=\"c4dhg\">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=\"s5arr\">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 Kent.</p><p data-block-key=\"h2mcn\">The agency said in the statement troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"jlzpe\">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",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Alex Kent (Independent)"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist for New York Times thrown to ground, detained while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-for-new-york-times-thrown-to-ground-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-21T13:25:04.466492Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:12:44.777886Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:12:44.667205Z",
"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=\"6d6u4\">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=\"n8yf1\">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=\"qubcd\">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=\"74a0e\">Aaron Nesheim, a Minneapolis-based freelance photojournalist on assignment for The New York Times, was one of the journalists detained.</p><p data-block-key=\"d07ao\">Nesheim told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting the protest in the center of the intersection of Humboldt and 67th Avenues just after 9 p.m. when officers advanced on the crowd and ordered everyone to lie down on their stomachs.</p><p data-block-key=\"ye22f\">“I did not get down. I kept photographing until finally an officer pepper sprayed me,” Nesheim said. “I was wearing a bulletproof vest, and eventually a State Patrol officer grabbed me by the front of the vest and used that to throw me on the ground.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5yiew\">Nesheim said in addition to his body armor vest, which was labeled with “PRESS” on the front and back, he was wearing a helmet similarly labeled and press credentials issued by the Times and the National Press Photographers Association.</p><p data-block-key=\"ejxgt\">“The [trooper] definitely understood I was a member of the press and was — I guess I would use the word ‘exasperated,’ with the fact I hadn’t just complied and gotten on the ground immediately before he threw me,” Nesheim said.</p><p data-block-key=\"h1tg3\">The force of his fall damaged the 70-200mm lens on one of his cameras, Nesheim said, causing the autofocus not to work properly and requiring repair. The officer ordered Nesheim to stay on his stomach, he said, which he did while continuing to take photos from that vantage point.</p><p data-block-key=\"eus34\">“I did stay on the ground, kind of on my side. I didn’t make any moves after that until another officer came in and got me up and started escorting me back to where they were processing the journalists,” Nesheim said.</p><p data-block-key=\"g0t19\">Law enforcement had established a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/law-enforcement-agencies-photograph-journalists-and-their-ids-as-they-cover-protests/\">“media checkpoint”</a> at a nearby Pump n’ Munch gas station, where members of the press had their faces, press credentials and IDs photographed before they were permitted to leave the area. Nesheim confirmed to the Tracker that he had to pass through the checkpoint before he could leave the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"b6wcv\">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=\"3v9ok\">“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=\"zy2h5\">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=\"3501n\">The agency’s statement said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"i0yl1\">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": "",
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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,
"case_type": null,
"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,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
},
{
"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",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Aaron Nesheim (The New York Times)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist covering Portland protest struck by individual",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-covering-portland-protest-struck-by-individual/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-20T17:20:51.211202Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-01T14:32:17.445936Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-01T14:32:17.341380Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"40ykp\">Independent journalist Justin Yau said he was attacked and shoved to the ground by an unidentified individual while covering a protest at Lents Park in Portland, Oregon, on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"27jdn\">According to <a href=\"https://www.wweek.com/news/2021/04/16/portland-police-fatally-shoot-man-in-lents-park/\">Willamette Week</a>, Portland police fatally shot a man in the park that morning after receiving reports of a man pointing a gun. Demonstrators immediately gathered near the scene, yelling “shame on you," at police, which led police to declare an unlawful assembly shortly before noon, according to the article.</p><p data-block-key=\"6sylu\">Yau, who has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Portland Mercury, ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting, said at around 2 p.m., he was attacked by an individual while photographing the protest. Yau said he had a press credential issued by Willamette Week, which he was then on assignment for, clipped to his collar.</p><p data-block-key=\"u3f3i\">"I was standing and talking to a colleague, when the attacker shoved me to the ground,” Yau told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “It was an unprovoked surprise attack. The attacker pushed my head while I was on the ground & tried to take my cameras, but was unsuccessful."</p><p data-block-key=\"2zr0z\">Yau said he didn’t know the person, and that accomplices stood by yelling phrases like “Don’t take pictures!” and stopping his colleague from protecting him.</p><p data-block-key=\"uocry\">Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling tweeted<a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1383163724932927488?s=20\"> two photographs</a> of the scene, writing that Yau was "bleeding after being shoved to the ground, hit multiple times."</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Reporter <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDocumentarians?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PDocumentarians</a> bleeding after being shoved to the ground, hit multiple times while covering a protest in Portland right now <a href=\"https://t.co/F1qVyUL1sa\">pic.twitter.com/F1qVyUL1sa</a></p>— Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1383163724932927488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 16, 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=\"isnzo\">Yau said the attacker grabbed his glasses, scratching his face in the process, and broke the hood of his 18-25-millimeter lens during the scuffle. Sparling's photograph also shows a pair of broken glasses on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"lqtw3\">“The injuries were minimal, [but] breaking my glasses made work really difficult for the rest of the day,” he told the Tracker.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"case_number": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "private individual",
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Justin Yau (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalist, colleague detained in Brooklyn Center",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-star-tribune-photojournalist-colleague-detained-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-19T17:44:34.595437Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:11:51.516349Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:11:51.426187Z",
"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=\"fqk5g\">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=\"fxala\">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=\"x2ih4\">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 around 10 p.m. 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=\"dkk5p\">Star Tribune photojournalist Liz Flores told the Tracker she was detained with her colleague Renée Jones Schneider. The Tracker has documented Jones Schneider’s detainment <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-star-tribune-photojournalist-and-colleague-detained-in-brooklyn-center/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"fo11f\">Flores told the Tracker that the journalists had been standing near the fence that surrounded the police station when members of the crowd started to shout, “Run!” Flores said that she and Jones Schneider started to move away from the area but that she stopped to take photographs of the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"20xmm\">“All of a sudden I saw police everywhere, all around us,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7cm7w\">Flores said she and Jones Schneider soon came across a line of law enforcement officers, holding long sticks, who moved to corral the group of people near them.</p><p data-block-key=\"77wg9\">Flores said she and Jones Schneider held out their press passes — large cards issued by the Star Tribune — to identify themselves as journalists, but police shouted at them to get down on the ground. Flores said she kneeled and continued to show her press pass. Police directed them to “get on your stomachs,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"795hk\">While lying on her stomach, she said, she continued to display her press credentials. According to Jones Schneider, many of the people detained with them were also journalists. <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=\"kewcj\">Flores <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNxVnM6H-Jt/\">posted an image</a> she took for the Star Tribune on Instagram. After about 10 minutes, Flores said, police let the journalists get up but not leave. She said that police moved the journalists up the street, where they waited in line as <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/law-enforcement-agencies-photograph-journalists-and-their-ids-as-they-cover-protests/\">officers photographed journalists’ faces, press credentials and identity cards</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"8bykr\">Suki Dardarian, senior managing editor of the Star Tribune, told the Tracker in a statement that in 2020 and 2021, the publication’s journalists have been subject to crowd-control munitions and chemical agents, detained, and photographed by law enforcement despite showing ID. She said authorities sometimes ignored the credentials they instructed journalists to wear. “And to make matters worse, it was unclear in some cases what agency the officer represented,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"lbbhd\">She said that the publication and other media organizations have spoken with authorities, who have “pledged to improve their treatment of the media.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9c4w3\">Flores and Jones Schneider 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=\"klw7v\">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=\"9r498\">The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment about the detainment of the Star Tribune journalists. 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 MSP, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” The 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=\"7uvi0\">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=\"h524k\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Brooklyn Center Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Liz Flores (Minneapolis Star Tribune)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Journalist hit with flash-bang grenade while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-with-flash-bang-grenade-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-19T17:32:11.695463Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:48:40.866225Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:48:40.778606Z",
"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=\"2x18i\">Brad Svenson, a Minnesota-based journalist who runs the social media outlet Watchdog Citizen News, said he was hit with a flash-bang grenade fired by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"aqd9n\">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=\"iyunm\">Svenson, who videos and live-streams protests, told the Tracker he was in an intersection near the police station shortly after 9 p.m. Law enforcement had deployed a few flash-bang grenades on the crowd, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ft0b0\">Svenson said he was standing in a gap in the crowd when a flash-bang came in his direction from behind a fence that surrounded the police station.</p><p data-block-key=\"kskli\">In a video Svenson <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZYylddMOoo\">posted on YouTube</a>, a law enforcement officer can be heard announcing a dispersal order. As the camera pans around the crowd of protesters, an explosion like a firework can be seen along with a loud bang.</p><p data-block-key=\"vytem\">Svenson told the Tracker the grenade hit him on his right shin, about six inches below his knee, and detonated.</p><p data-block-key=\"44in5\">“It was a big enough explosion to rattle me pretty good,” Svenson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"dmiw4\">Svenson said he continued to cover the protest after he was hit. He said he had a patch of skin that looked like a sunburn, and he felt a burning sensation on his leg for about a week and a half.</p><p data-block-key=\"7zb5x\">Svenson told the Tracker he feels that he was targeted because he was a journalist. He said he had the word “press” marked on his vest and helmet. He also displayed press identification, which he made himself, and was carrying a large camera rig on his shoulder.</p><p data-block-key=\"7kns6\">Svenson said he believes the flash-bang grenade was fired by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper. MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"lwjgf\">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": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "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"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Brad Svenson (Watchdog Citizen News)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Fox 9 reporter detained while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-9-reporter-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-19T17:03:30.510206Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:48:24.981073Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:48:24.889619Z",
"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=\"al7gu\">Babs Santos, a reporter for Minneapolis-based Fox 9 KMSP, reported live that he was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"eppzh\">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=\"wnlhp\">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. Some time after that, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempted 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=\"j54f0\">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, as well as reports in news outlets and on social media. <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=\"9vi2u\">Santos described his detainment in a live <a href=\"https://www.fox9.com/video/923181\">Fox 9 broadcast</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"wc39q\">The <a href=\"https://www.fox9.com/video/923181\">video</a> posted on Fox 9’s website shows Santos reporting at 10:04 p.m. that law enforcement had made a dispersal order. Santos says that people are moving around him and away from an approaching group of law enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"odz8l\">The broadcast switches to another reporter in a different location, showing multiple law enforcement vehicles pulling up and officers in state trooper uniforms getting out. A line of police on bicycles can be seen riding up the sidewalk</p><p data-block-key=\"c0ha6\">At 10:08 p.m., the video shows a view from the ground of someone lying on their stomach with Minnesota State Patrol troopers visible standing over them.</p><p data-block-key=\"x9taa\">At 10:14, the broadcast returns to Santos, who says his team, including photographers and security, had been detained as law enforcement moved in and surrounded the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"q4k6m\">“We were really caught right in the middle,” Santos said.</p><p data-block-key=\"pkofc\">The Tracker has not been able to identify other KMSP journalists detained with Santos. Multiple requests for comment from KMSP and FOX were not returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"jhxgi\">When the team was detained, Santos says in the video, they laid down on the ground with their hands in front of them. He says they identified themselves as press to law enforcement and were allowed to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"xxy1y\">In the video, Santos is wearing a large, bright yellow card on a lanyard around his neck that says “PRESS” and “FOX9.”</p><p data-block-key=\"h8d98\">At 10:16 p.m., Santos <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TundeTV/status/1383258060328607760\">tweeted a video</a> showing a view apparently from ground level in which multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers were visible. A voice can be heard identifying themselves as press.</p><p data-block-key=\"odjnz\">In a second video Santos tweeted about half an hour later, voices can be heard shouting “get on the ground” and state troopers and police lights can be seen.</p><p data-block-key=\"n1he8\">“Moments ago.. briefly detained with our security detail before being released,” Santos wrote.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are safe. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FOX9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@FOX9</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/HAV6D1yTCO\">pic.twitter.com/HAV6D1yTCO</a></p>— Babs Santos (@TundeTV) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TundeTV/status/1383258060328607760?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=\"h98z5\">Santos was also one of many journalists whose <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/law-enforcement-agencies-photograph-journalists-and-their-ids-as-they-cover-protests/\">credentials and faces were photographed by law enforcement</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"d45va\">Santos 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=\"is15l\">The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations, including Fox, 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=\"8zo2u\">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=\"grq60\">MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about the detainment of Santos. The agency’s earlier statement said that state troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"r8adq\">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,
"primary_video": null,
"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": 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,
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"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": [
"Babs Santos (KMSP-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "WCCO photojournalist detained while covering protest in Brooklyn Center",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wcco-photojournalist-detained-while-covering-protest-in-brooklyn-center/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-19T16:12:01.002275Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:48:06.710826Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:48:06.636600Z",
"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=\"5vglq\">Multiple journalists for Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO were detained by police while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"qvbsj\">WCCO reporter Reg Chapman told an anchor in a <a href=\"https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/5499952-wccos-reg-chapman-reports-journalists-being-detained-ids-checked/\">segment that night</a> that he and other members of the news team had been detained as 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=\"5jv84\">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=\"1u3rv\"><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=\"u15wr\">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=\"u85qj\">In the live news segment on the 16th, Chapman said the entire news crew was among those detained and released after showing press credentials. The <a href=\"https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/5499952-wccos-reg-chapman-reports-journalists-being-detained-ids-checked/\">video</a> played live footagevideo, apparently filmed from pavement-level, of multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers. In a <a href=\"https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/04/17/wcco-journalists-detained-told-to-lay-on-ground-during-brooklyn-center-protests/\">story on its website</a> the following day, WCCO noted that Champman and “other WCCO photojournalists'' were told to get on the ground. The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wcco-reporter-detained-while-covering-protest-in-brooklyn-center/\">Chapman’s detention</a> here.</p><p data-block-key=\"9zgis\">Chapman and WCCO did not return requests for comment, and the Tracker has not been able to verify the identity of the WCCO photojournalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"uqadm\">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=\"xkczx\">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=\"i7f3d\">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=\"gy3s1\">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=\"0klyn\">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=\"3p1fk\">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=\"fasmt\">The agency said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"xfa38\">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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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
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"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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"targeted_journalists": [
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},
{
"title": "AFP reporter, news crew pepper-sprayed while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-reporter-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-19T16:00:43.993196Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:47:52.366401Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:47:52.276604Z",
"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=\"8e00k\">Agence France-Press journalist Robin Legrand and two colleagues were pepper-sprayed by law enforcement while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"4apz6\">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=\"3muvc\">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. Some time after that, 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=\"tho46\">One of Legrand’s colleagues, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-correspondent-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Eléonore Sens</a>, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she, Legrand and photojournalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-photojournalist-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-at-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Chandan Khanna</a> were blocked in a corner of the street when lines of law enforcement officers rushed in to form a perimeter around the crowd of protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"728r3\">Legrand told the Tracker in an email that he and his colleagues shouted to identify themselves as journalists, but an officer sprayed them.</p><p data-block-key=\"te64w\">“We shouted "PRESS, PRESS, PRESS", but to no avail; the spraying came before and after that,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"pgpvq\">Legrand said he believed they were sprayed “in spite” of the fact that they were journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"1azem\">“We were far from any protester, and had clear markings that we were members of the press but the spraying was indiscriminate I'd say,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"70soo\">According to Khanna, the officer sprayed each one of the AFP journalists with the irritant. As the officer was spraying them, Khanna said, the dispenser briefly got stuck. The officer shook it and then resumed spraying them, Khanna said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7to5a\">“I can say with all confidence that he knew that we were press, and he made sure that he sprayed all of us, not just like one person,” Khanna said.</p><p data-block-key=\"micn2\">A photograph taken and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Chandanphoto/status/1383667472604168195\">posted on Twitter</a> by photojournalist Alex Kent, shows the officer spraying the three AFP journalists, one of whom was wearing a bright yellow vest marked “PRESS.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">Sur cette photo notre équipe <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/AFP?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AFP</a> se fait asperger de gaz poivre par la police à Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, alors que nous nous étions clairement identifiés comme journalistes. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/robin__legrand?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@robin__legrand</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DaunteWright?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DaunteWright</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/jG5JcDPebm\">https://t.co/jG5JcDPebm</a></p>— Eléonore Sens (@EleonoreSens) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/EleonoreSens/status/1383293566265348101?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=\"9e8hm\">Once the officer stopped spraying, Sens said, he shouted at them to “get the fuck out.”</p><p data-block-key=\"zq0kv\">Legrand told the Tracker the AFP journalists were also ordered to "get on the fucking ground," but he said that they didn’t comply. Legrand said officers yelled at them when they tried to stay to document law enforcement arresting protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ggdl\">After the AFP journalists left the first perimeter of officers, Sens said they came upon another line of officers who took <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/law-enforcement-agencies-photograph-journalists-and-their-ids-as-they-cover-protests/\">photographs of journalists’ faces and press credentials</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"8jkqd\">Legrand said he was “pretty shocked” by the process. He said he asked law enforcement for contact information for a press liaison, but they ignored his request.</p><p data-block-key=\"kduk2\">Legrand said he was wearing a bright yellow vest that said “PRESS” in capital letters on the front. He noted that Sens was also carrying a professional video camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"k8rhs\">Legrand said he turned away when the officer sprayed them and was hit with a minimal amount of the chemical. He said that he had a mild burning feeling on his hands for a few hours, despite attempts to scrub the substance off. He occasionally experienced a burning feeling when putting on or taking out his contact lenses for several days, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7f5ls\">Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell, who worked with the governor’s office to respond to the concerns about treatment of the media in Brooklyn Center, told the Tracker that it had been determined that the officer who sprayed the AFP journalists was a member of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. A spokesperson for Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment because the incident was under investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"y7zm0\">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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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Robin Legrand (Agence France-Presse)"
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},
{
"title": "AFP correspondent, news crew pepper-sprayed while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-correspondent-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-19T15:54:04.514870Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:47:35.547017Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:47:35.443767Z",
"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=\"lxwzo\">Agence France-Presse video correspondent Eléonore Sens and two colleagues were pepper-sprayed by law enforcement while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"3krw6\">AFP photojournalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-photojournalist-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-at-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Chandan Khanna</a> and reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-reporter-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Robin Legrand</a> were sprayed at the same time.</p><p data-block-key=\"m2jxd\">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=\"6f547\">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. Some time after that, 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=\"0tnyz\">Sens told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when lines of law enforcement officers moved in quickly to form a perimeter around the crowd of protesters, she and her AFP colleagues were blocked on a corner of the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"b7bbf\">Khanna said officers rushed toward them. He said one officer sprayed a nearby photographer, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-assaulted-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Tim Evans</a>, then saw the three AFP journalists and began spraying each of them with the chemical irritant. They continued to shout to identify themselves as journalists, according to Khanna.</p><p data-block-key=\"qqd1s\">“I can say with all confidence that he knew that we were press, and he made sure that he sprayed all of us, not just like one person,” Khanna said.</p><p data-block-key=\"lc931\">Sens said she was less certain about whether they were targeted because they were journalists. “I cannot know that,” she said, though she noted that they were clearly marked as press, repeatedly identified themselves verbally to law enforcement, and were not in the officers’ way. Sens said she was displaying a large press credential issued by the New York Police Department and carried a professional video camera, which has “AFP” written on it.</p><p data-block-key=\"yev6z\">As the officer was spraying them, Khanna said, the dispenser briefly got stuck. The officer shook it and then resumed spraying them, Khanna said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ojqz4\">A photograph, taken and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Chandanphoto/status/1383667472604168195\">posted on Twitter</a> by photojournalist Alex Kent, shows the officer spraying the three AFP journalists, one of whom was wearing a bright yellow vest marked “PRESS.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">Sur cette photo notre équipe <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/AFP?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AFP</a> se fait asperger de gaz poivre par la police à Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, alors que nous nous étions clairement identifiés comme journalistes. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/robin__legrand?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@robin__legrand</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/DaunteWright?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DaunteWright</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/jG5JcDPebm\">https://t.co/jG5JcDPebm</a></p>— Eléonore Sens (@EleonoreSens) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/EleonoreSens/status/1383293566265348101?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=\"9wpj7\">Once the officer stopped spraying, Sens said, he shouted at them to “get the fuck out.” She said the journalists tried to stay to continue to document, but officers were yelling at them to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"iermo\">One officer escorted them away from the area where law enforcement was arresting all of the protesters. She said officers wouldn’t let them film and threatened to arrest them if they didn’t leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"gti9i\">After the AFP journalists left the first perimeter of officers, Sens said they came upon another line of officers. She said the officers took <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/law-enforcement-agencies-photograph-journalists-and-their-ids-as-they-cover-protests/\">photographs of their faces, state IDs, and press credentials</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"nuraj\">“To me, that was a very shocking part, is that they took photos, and have a record of who were the journalists that night on site to cover the events,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"se91m\">Sens said she was wearing goggles, a helmet and a mask, which protected her from the effects of the pepper spray. Some of the chemical got on the back of her hand, which caused a burning feeling so intense that she needed to sleep with her hand in a bag of ice, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"17x7h\">Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told the Tracker that it had been determined that the officer who sprayed the AFP journalists was a member of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. A spokesperson for Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment because the incident was under investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"3617g\">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": "AFP photojournalist, news crew pepper-sprayed at Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-photojournalist-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-at-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-19T15:44:40.598792Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:47:19.867835Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:47:19.777228Z",
"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=\"khd41\">Agence France-Presse photojournalist Chandan Khanna said he was pepper-sprayed by a law enforcement officer while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"tzzzn\">AFP video correspondent <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-correspondent-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Eléonore Sens</a> and reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-reporter-news-crew-pepper-sprayed-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Robin Legrand</a> were sprayed at the same time.</p><p data-block-key=\"nqxkg\">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=\"y4pz8\">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. Some time after that, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempted 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=\"9a7dw\">Khanna told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was near a fence around the Brooklyn Center Police Department, taking photographs as law enforcement advanced on protesters. He saw another group of officers open a gate in the fence and a large number of officers came rushing out at the crowd, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"k6ch3\">Khanna said he rejoined his AFP colleagues, Eléonore Sens and Robin Legrand, and they moved to a well-lit spot in an effort to make clear to law enforcement that they weren’t protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ef0o\">Officers rushed toward them, and Khanna and Sens told the Tracker they shouted to identify themselves as press. Khanna said he continued taking photographs, and he held up his press pass, issued by AFP.</p><p data-block-key=\"zpk9v\">Khanna said one officer sprayed a nearby photographer, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-assaulted-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">Tim Evans</a>, then turned to the AFP journalists and began spraying each of the three of them with the chemical irritant. They continued to shout to identify themselves as journalists, Khanna said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b2v3r\">“I can say with all confidence that he knew that we were press, and he made sure that he sprayed all of us, not just like one person,” Khanna said.</p><p data-block-key=\"qjp5q\">As the officer was spraying them, Khanna said, the dispenser briefly got stuck. The officer shook it and then resumed spraying them, Khanna said. Khanna <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Chandanphoto/status/1383433470869872645/photo/2\">shared a photograph on Twitter</a> showing a jet of liquid being sprayed directly at his camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"pg3mz\">A photograph, taken and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Chandanphoto/status/1383667472604168195\">posted on Twitter</a> by photojournalist Alex Kent, shows the officer spraying the three AFP journalists, one of whom was wearing a bright yellow vest marked “PRESS.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">Extra chilli..! <a href=\"https://t.co/ug46xKBJzX\">https://t.co/ug46xKBJzX</a></p>— Chandan Khanna (@Chandanphoto) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Chandanphoto/status/1383667472604168195?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=\"9jln5\">Khanna said a mask he was wearing gave him some protection from the spray, but he said the irritant got into his left ear, was extremely painful and caused him difficulty with hearing. He said the sensation lasted for about three days. The chemical also caused a burning feeling on his wrist that lasted for days, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4exkn\">Sens told the Tracker that when the officer stopped spraying, he shouted at them to “get the fuck out.” She said the journalists tried to stay to continue to document the scene, but officers were yelling at them to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"zwg19\">The officer who sprayed them directed them to leave the area, Khanna said. As they went, another officer arrived, grabbed him by the right arm and dragged him, he said, leading the three AFP journalists away from the perimeter of the area where law enforcement were arresting protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"bxknm\">As the officer moved them away, Khanna said he saw a number of journalists who had been <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\">detained and were lying on the ground</a>. He tried to take photographs using his long camera lens, but he said officers formed a human shield around him to block his view.</p><p data-block-key=\"bppih\">Khanna said the officer who had grabbed his arm told him multiple times, “if you point your camera anywhere I'm going to arrest you.”</p><p data-block-key=\"zhilf\">The AFP journalists were taken to a nearby checkpoint where law enforcement officers were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/law-enforcement-agencies-photograph-journalists-and-their-ids-as-they-cover-protests/\">photographing journalists’ faces and IDs</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"atj4d\">Khanna, who is an Indian citizen, said the officer at the checkpoint asked to see his passport, which Khanna didn’t have with him. Eventually, Khanna said, he used his phone to pull up a photograph of his passport from an online folder. Then, he said, the officer asked him to show his visa. The officer photographed both documents.</p><p data-block-key=\"2n4l3\">Khanna said he does not know what law enforcement planned to do with the information and remains concerned about what will happen with the photographs of the documents.</p><p data-block-key=\"tcp6o\">Khanna said that the three AFP journalists should have been clearly identifiable as press to the officer who pepper-sprayed them.</p><p data-block-key=\"fsc12\">“If they say like, you know, ‘we don't know that this was press,’ this is totally false, because they literally know that I'm press and they are telling me not to point camera,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"j7ma0\">“It looked very clear that their intention was not to spare anybody,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"gpy4h\">Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told the Tracker that it had been determined that the officer who sprayed the AFP journalists was a member of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. A spokesperson for Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment because the incident was under investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"t5op2\">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": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"r8z45\">After being pepper-sprayed himself, photographer Tim Evans captured the Agence France-Presse crew recovering from being hit with the same chemical irritant.</p>",
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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",
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"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>",
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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>",
"introduction": "",
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{
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}
],
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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",
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"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
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"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>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
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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": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Reg Chapman (WCCO-TV)"
],
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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",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
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"protest"
],
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"categories": [
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],
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},
{
"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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{
"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,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"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>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"name": "Minnesota",
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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",
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"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"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": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/CT5_9036-4.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"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>",
"arresting_authority": "Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department",
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{
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}
],
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"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"(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"
],
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"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
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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",
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"city": "Brooklyn Center",
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"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>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Brooklyn Center Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Renée Jones Schneider (Minneapolis Star Tribune)"
],
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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",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:27:57.148816Z",
"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=\"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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/pjdocs_assault_0421.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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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>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"PJ Docs (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"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,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"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>",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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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>",
"introduction": "",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera equipment"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"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)"
],
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},
{
"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": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at",
"student journalism"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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],
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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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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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{
"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": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
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],
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}
]
