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[
{
"title": "Michigan broadcast reporter assaulted by a man who grabs and throws her microphone",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/michigan-broadcast-reporter-assaulted-by-a-man-who-grabs-and-throws-her-microphone/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-07T19:39:05.379117Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-01T14:30:10.522754Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-01T14:30:10.422053Z",
"date": "2021-05-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Greilickville",
"longitude": -85.63869,
"latitude": 44.78306,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"90d1m\">An individual was caught on film assaulting a news team for NBC-affiliate UpNorthLive, based in Traverse City, Michigan. Video posted by the station shows the man throwing one of the broadcast team’s microphones and spitting on a camera during an event with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on May 6, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"l3ch3\">The news team was covering an outdoor event in Greilickville, at which Whitmer signed a bill authorizing spending to protect Michigan’s natural resources, UpNorthLive News <a href=\"https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/man-arrested-for-assaulting-upnorthlive-news-crew-during-whitmer-event-in-traverse-city\">reported</a>. The man first heckled the governor, shouting profanities during her speech and yelling “We don’t want you here,” before turning to criticize journalists covering the event, according to the broadcaster’s account.</p><p data-block-key=\"hke6w\">UpNorthLive reporters Natalie Spala and Cortney Brown covered the signing and were scheduled to interview the governor right after, but the interview was canceled when officials escorted Whitmer away from the heckler to her car, the outlet reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"mbs7k\">According to UpNorthLive, the man “then turned his attention to the UpNorthLive news crew, asking if he should destroy the reporter’s [Brown’s] camera before taking a microphone and throwing it across the parking lot.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b51v3\">Leelanau County Sheriff’s deputies at the scene intervened and arrested the man immediately, but as he was being handcuffed he <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-threatened-spat-on-by-man-at-event-with-michigan-governor/\">spat on Brown and the camera she was carrying</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"pwqk3\">“OK, that’s unnecessary,” Spala can be heard saying in the footage published by UpNorthLive.</p><p data-block-key=\"6j1ho\">In an interview with the outlet, Sheriff Mike Borkovich said, “We have been in contact with this individual before, mostly regarding political-type things. I personally believe that’s not normally what he has done but I do think when you cross the line, people have to know that we will enforce the law.”</p><p data-block-key=\"yzkhm\">Neither of the reporters nor the station’s news director responded to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"l2pyu\">The man was transported to the Leelanau County Correctional facility, where he was processed and charged with two counts of assault and battery and one count of malicious destruction of property, according to a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/LeelanauCountySheriffsOffice/posts/4336161326417286\">Facebook post</a> by the Sheriff’s Office.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">According to the sheriff’s office, he is currently in the Leelanau County Jail on two counts of assault and battery and one count of malicious destruction of property.<a href=\"https://t.co/HIV7ElZjsa\">https://t.co/HIV7ElZjsa</a></p>— upnorthlive.com (@upnorthlive) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/upnorthlive/status/1390429354778263554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 6, 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=\"soygh\">UpNorthLive <a href=\"https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/man-arrested-for-assault-on-upnorthlive-news-crew-released-on-bond\">reported</a> that the man, a 39-year-old Traverse City resident, was released on a $100 interim bond later that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"01us6\">Sheriff Borkovich told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the arraignment of the arrested man was scheduled for June 8.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"actor": "private individual",
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"links": [],
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "recording equipment"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-09-10 00:00:00+00:00) Man who attacked Michigan TV reporters sentenced"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Natalie Spala (WPBN-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
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},
{
"title": "Broadcast reporter threatened, spat on by man at event with Michigan governor",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-threatened-spat-on-by-man-at-event-with-michigan-governor/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-07T19:04:05.179576Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-18T15:58:52.892197Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-18T15:58:52.603017Z",
"date": "2021-05-06",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Greilickville",
"longitude": -85.63869,
"latitude": 44.78306,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6b31w\">An individual was caught on film assaulting a news team for NBC-affiliate UpNorthLive, based in Traverse City, Michigan. Video posted by the station shows the man throwing one of the news team’s microphones and spitting on a camera during an event with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on May 6, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"z6prt\">The news team was covering an outdoor event in Greilickville, at which Whitmer signed a bill authorizing spending to protect Michigan’s natural resources, UpNorthLive News <a href=\"https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/man-arrested-for-assaulting-upnorthlive-news-crew-during-whitmer-event-in-traverse-city\">reported</a>. The man first heckled the governor, shouting profanities during her speech and yelling “We don’t want you here,” before turning to criticize journalists covering the event, according to the broadcaster’s account.</p><p data-block-key=\"0dv99\">UpNorthLive reporters Natalie Spala and Cortney Brown covered the signing and were scheduled to interview the governor right after, but the interview was canceled when officials escorted Whitmer away from the heckler to her car, the outlet reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"urtgq\">According to UpNorthLive, the man “then turned his attention to the UpNorthLive news crew, asking if he should destroy the reporter’s [Brown’s] camera before taking a microphone and throwing it across the parking lot.” <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/michigan-broadcast-reporter-assaulted-by-a-man-who-grabs-and-throws-her-microphone/\">Spala's assault is documented here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"erfs0\">Leelanau County Sheriff’s deputies at the scene intervened and arrested the man immediately, but as he was being handcuffed he spat on Brown and the camera she was carrying.</p><p data-block-key=\"lxrbx\">“OK, that’s unnecessary,” Spala can be heard saying in the footage published by UpNorthLive.</p><p data-block-key=\"juqm8\">Brown confirmed in a <a href=\"https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=192678522673187&id=100057931215222\">Facebook post</a> that she was spat on and verbally threatened by the individual.</p><p data-block-key=\"pzqwa\">In an interview with the outlet, Sheriff Mike Borkovich said, “We have been in contact with this individual before, mostly regarding political-type things. I personally believe that’s not normally what he has done but I do think when you cross the line, people have to know that we will enforce the law.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vxz6r\">Neither of the reporters nor the station’s news director responded to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"xfj4n\">The man was transported to the Leelanau County Correctional facility, where he was processed and charged with two counts of assault and battery and one count of malicious destruction of property, according to a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/LeelanauCountySheriffsOffice/posts/4336161326417286\">Facebook post</a> by the Sheriff’s Office.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">According to the sheriff’s office, he is currently in the Leelanau County Jail on two counts of assault and battery and one count of malicious destruction of property.<a href=\"https://t.co/HIV7ElZjsa\">https://t.co/HIV7ElZjsa</a></p>— upnorthlive.com (@upnorthlive) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/upnorthlive/status/1390429354778263554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 6, 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=\"9edqf\">UpNorthLive <a href=\"https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/man-arrested-for-assault-on-upnorthlive-news-crew-released-on-bond\">reported</a> that the man, a 39-year-old Traverse City resident, was released on a $100 interim bond later that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"madwi\">Sheriff Borkovich told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the arraignment of the arrested man was scheduled for June 8.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-09-10 00:00:00+00:00) Man who attacked Michigan TV reporters sentenced"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Cortney Brown (WPBN-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Valley News Live journalists attacked in North Dakota, camera damaged",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/valley-news-live-journalists-attacked-in-north-dakota-camera-damaged/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-17T19:15:59.213259Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-01T14:30:32.759822Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-01T14:30:32.644160Z",
"date": "2021-05-03",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Fargo",
"longitude": -96.7898,
"latitude": 46.87719,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"439gz\">Two journalists with TV news station Valley News Live, an NBC affiliate based in Fargo, North Dakota, were attacked by a man wielding a screwdriver, who damaged their camera while they were reporting in the city on May 3, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"kqp2t\">Valley News Live photojournalist Michael Downs and reporter Nachai Taylor were near downtown Fargo, preparing for a 9 p.m. live report about a building the city commission had decided to demolish, Taylor said in a <a href=\"https://www.valleynewslive.com/2021/05/04/a-man-assaults-a-valley-news-live-crew-as-they-prepared-to-go-on-air/\">report</a> that aired on the station following the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"90v6t\">In that report, Taylor said she was walking toward Downs, who was holding the camera when an unidentified man drove a pickup truck onto the curb. The man approached them, swinging a screwdriver, “which was kind of a scary situation,” Taylor said.</p><p data-block-key=\"qtz4c\">Video published by Valley News Live shows a man approaching the camera, gesturing with a screwdriver, then jabbing the tool directly at the camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"vwnk0\">Taylor said the man was shouting at the journalists to get off his property, though the journalists were on the sidewalk, she reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"4z7iq\">Taylor said after she told the man that she was going to call police, he got in his truck and left. She said the journalists gave statements to police about the incident, including the license plate number of the vehicle the man was driving. Taylor’s <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-valley-news-live-journalists-attacked-in-fargo-by-man-with-screwdriver/\">assault is documented here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"1v3jx\">Neither Downs nor Taylor responded to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"hpfgc\">Valley News Live news director Renee Nygren told the Tracker the camera was not operable after the attack. She said it was being repaired and believed that the damage would be fixable, but was not certain.</p><p data-block-key=\"27713\">Nygren said she does not believe either journalist was physically touched during the attack, but she described the incident as frightening. “It's concerning and really unfortunate that they had to go through that,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"sa9ub\">On May 18 Valley News Live reported that Gary Reinhart, the owner of the building slated for demolition, <a href=\"https://www.valleynewslive.com/2021/05/18/fargo-property-owner-charged-in-attack-on-a-valley-news-live-crew/\">was charged</a> with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. The station reported that a fire had destroyed the property, after which the city ordered the building demolished by June 30.</p><p data-block-key=\"cr6ms\">The Fargo city attorney’s office told the Tracker it would not comment on charges against Reinhart because the case against him is still open. Reinhart entered a not guilty plea to both charges at his arraignment on June 8, according to North Dakota’s <a href=\"https://publicsearch.ndcourts.gov/Search.aspx?ID=100\">court tracking system</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"xlzdw\">Reinhart’s attorney declined to comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "private individual",
"border_point": null,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "North Dakota",
"abbreviation": "ND"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-10-20 00:00:00+00:00) Man who attacked North Dakota journalists sentenced"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Michael Downs (KVLY-TV)"
],
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"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Two Valley News Live journalists attacked in Fargo by man with screwdriver",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-valley-news-live-journalists-attacked-in-fargo-by-man-with-screwdriver/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-17T19:17:14.398923Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-10-18T16:03:28.578506Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-10-18T16:03:28.387851Z",
"date": "2021-05-03",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Fargo",
"longitude": -96.7898,
"latitude": 46.87719,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4u1ch\">Two journalists with TV news station Valley News Live, an NBC affiliate based in Fargo, North Dakota, were attacked by a man wielding a screwdriver, who damaged their camera while they were reporting in the city on May 3, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"rd3lw\">Valley News Live photojournalist Michael Downs and reporter Nachai Taylor were near downtown Fargo, preparing for a 9 p.m. live report about a building the city commission had decided to demolish, Taylor said in a <a href=\"https://www.valleynewslive.com/2021/05/04/a-man-assaults-a-valley-news-live-crew-as-they-prepared-to-go-on-air/\">report</a> that aired on the station following the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"i9e4h\">In that report, Taylor said she was walking toward Downs when an unidentified man drove a pickup truck onto the curb. The man approached them, swinging a screwdriver, “which was kind of a scary situation,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"9gybc\">Video published by Valley News Live shows a man approaching the camera, gesturing with a screwdriver, then jabbing the tool directly at the camera. Downs’ <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/valley-news-live-journalists-attacked-in-north-dakota-camera-damaged/\">assault and the equipment damage is documented here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"2sk58\">Taylor said the man was shouting at the journalists to get off his property, though the journalists were on the sidewalk, she reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"pk8n1\">Taylor said after she told the man that she was going to call police, he got in his truck and left. She said the journalists gave statements to police about the incident, including the license plate number of the vehicle the man was driving.</p><p data-block-key=\"6ebys\">Neither Taylor nor Downs responded to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"oz1dk\">Valley News Live news director Renee Nygren told the Tracker the camera was not operable after the attack. She said it was being repaired, and believed that the damage would be fixable, but was not certain.</p><p data-block-key=\"yruy9\">Nygren said she does not believe either journalist was physically touched during the attack, but she described the incident as frightening. “It's concerning and really unfortunate that they had to go through that,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b8pmp\">On May 18 Valley News Live reported that Gary Reinhart, the owner of the building slated for demolition, <a href=\"https://www.valleynewslive.com/2021/05/18/fargo-property-owner-charged-in-attack-on-a-valley-news-live-crew/\">was charged</a> with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. The station reported that a fire had destroyed the property, after which the city ordered the building demolished by June 30.</p><p data-block-key=\"3qkzw\">The Fargo city attorney’s office told the Tracker it would not comment on charges against Reinhart because the case against him is still open. Reinhart entered a not guilty plea to both charges at his arraignment on June 8, according to North Dakota’s <a href=\"https://publicsearch.ndcourts.gov/Search.aspx?ID=100\">court tracking system</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ymx6v\">Reinhart’s attorney declined to comment.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "North Dakota",
"abbreviation": "ND"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-10-20 00:00:00+00:00) Man who attacked North Dakota journalists sentenced"
],
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"tags": [],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist stopped, strip searched while crossing back into U.S.",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-strip-searched-while-crossing-back-into-us/",
"first_published_at": "2021-07-09T15:33:03.999813Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-06T19:38:18.587835Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-06T19:38:18.476967Z",
"date": "2021-04-30",
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"city": "Nogales",
"longitude": -110.93425,
"latitude": 31.34038,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zs94u\">Photojournalist Ash Ponders, whose work has appeared in The Intercept, The New York Times and other publications, was stopped for secondary screening and searched at the U.S. border after reporting on a protest in Nogales, Mexico, on April 30, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"gemhd\">Ponders told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they were strip searched by an admitting officer from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Arizona at the <a href=\"https://www.gsa.gov/historic-buildings/us-border-station-morley-gate-nogales-az\">Morley Gate</a> in Nogales on the Arizona/Mexico border. Ponders’ phone was taken away, and they were told by a border agent that they weren’t a journalist, after being asked what they did, and responding with “photojournalist”.</p><p data-block-key=\"wk9my\">“They did ask what I had been doing in Mexico, and I said I had been covering a march,” Ponders said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jgv6q\">While looking at their passport, an officer asked Ponders what they did for a living in Spanish. “I answered in English. And then someone came up over her shoulder and started...there was like, an immediate anger, frustration on their part.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3ipx7\">The officials wanted to see images from the journalist’s camera, but Ponders had already taken the memory card out of the camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"a77nb\">Ponders tried to show the officer the commission for the story. “And when I tried to suggest I had a letter from my editor on my phone he yanked it out of my hand (my index finger was on the power button so as he pulled it out of my hand it locked).”</p><p data-block-key=\"tp0hi\">The photographer was traveling with Intercept reporter Ryan Devereaux, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/intercept-reporter-told-you-are-not-a-journalist-when-stopped-by-border-officials/\">who also was stopped</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"hezph\">In a back room, another officer told Ponders to put their cameras and fanny pack on a table, before frisking the photographer.</p><p data-block-key=\"p47hg\">An officer questioned Ponders, who told her their city of birth, what they were doing in Nogales, and said they had traveled to and from Mexico many times.</p><p data-block-key=\"m7hba\">Eventually Devereaux was released. When he asked to stay until Ponders was released, too, he was told to wait outside.</p><p data-block-key=\"ty6kq\">“<a href=\"https://twitter.com/CBPArizona\">@CBPArizona</a> should not be hassling working journalists passing through the Nogales port of entry for work,” Devereux <a href=\"https://twitter.com/rdevro/status/1388274151186571264?s=20\">tweeted</a> just after being released: “I was just taken into secondary screening after being told I was “not a journalist.”<a href=\"https://twitter.com/ashponders\"> @ashponders</a> is still being detained. Going on an hour now.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qcu3d\">Ponders said an officer then had them remove their hat, glasses, mask, shoes and belt, and went through these while another officer watched.</p><p data-block-key=\"la9e6\">“He then asked me to pull down my pants and he felt around my genitals,” Ponders said. “And then having come up very empty (I’m quite boring) he told me to pull up my pants and get dressed. I did,” said Ponders.</p><p data-block-key=\"hky29\">CBP didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"68r92\">Ponders said they were held at the border for between 2 ½ to three hours. An officer had to run outside to give Ponders back their passport, they said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b8ueg\">Ponders, who regularly crosses the U.S.-Mexico border on assignment, said being stopped at the border was a regular occurrence. “It's not every time and it's not even most of the time. But it's enough that it's something that I plan for.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"actor": null,
"border_point": "Nogales-Morley Gate Port of Entry",
"target_us_citizenship_status": "U.S. citizen",
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": true,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": "unknown",
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": "yes",
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"links": [],
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"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Arizona",
"abbreviation": "AZ"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [
"United States"
],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ash Ponders (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Intercept reporter told “You are not a journalist” when stopped by border officials",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/intercept-reporter-told-you-are-not-a-journalist-when-stopped-by-border-officials/",
"first_published_at": "2021-07-09T14:59:15.475860Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-08-22T19:49:54.474876Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-08-22T19:49:54.404573Z",
"date": "2021-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Nogales",
"longitude": -110.93425,
"latitude": 31.34038,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"bx3rd\">Ryan Devereaux, who reports for The Intercept, was stopped and told “You are not a journalist” by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official at the Arizona border with Mexico on April 30, 2021, as he returned from covering a protest in Nogales, Mexico.</p><p data-block-key=\"j5d6g\">Devereaux, who was traveling with photojournalist Ash Ponders, said that after a long wait at the border, officials called Ponders first for processing. According to Devereaux, Ponders and a CBP official were deep in a long conversation and disagreement when the official tried to take their phone. The photojournalist managed to lock it.</p><p data-block-key=\"h19qd\">“The officer reached for it. Ash was then taken to a group holding cell and I was called forward,” Devereaux told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"x2a49\">Devereaux said the same officer then asked what he was doing in Nogales. “I told her I was a journalist and working in Nogales that day,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"z8c6e\">A second officer appeared and asked Devereaux what he did for a living. “I said I was a journalist who covers border issues and that I was in town covering an asylum protest,” he said. “I had already produced my passport. I was told to produce evidence that I was a journalist. I gave the officers an Intercept business card with my name on it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ftvbh\">At this point, Devereaux said he was told by a border official that he was not a journalist and was taken to the same cell where Ponders was being held.</p><p data-block-key=\"f7orp\">“After handing over our belongings, which sat on a table and were not moved, we sat in the cell with a handful of other detainees,” Devereaux said. “Eventually I was told I could go. I was never questioned.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tjwn5\">Devereaux said he was told he could not wait in the area for Ponders but must wait outside.</p><p data-block-key=\"5s3ox\">After being released, Devereux <a href=\"https://twitter.com/rdevro/status/1388274151186571264?s=20\">tweeted</a> that CPB officials should not be harassing journalists “I was just taken into secondary screening after being told I was “not a journalist.”<a href=\"https://twitter.com/ashponders\"> @ashponders</a> is still being detained. Going on an hour now.”</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/CBPArizona?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CBPArizona</a> should not be hassling working journalists passing through the Nogales port of entry for work.<br><br>I was just taken into secondary screening after being told I was “not a journalist.” <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ashponders?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ashponders</a> is still being detained. Going on an hour now.</p>— Ryan Devereaux (@rdevro) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/rdevro/status/1388274151186571264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 30, 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=\"erk4n\">Ponders, whose case is documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-strip-searched-while-crossing-back-into-us/\">here</a>, was strip-searched and held for 2 1/2 to three hours before being released, the photojournalist told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"dbtpz\">CPB didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"case_number": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": "Nogales-Morley Gate Port of Entry",
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": true,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": "no",
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": "no",
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Arizona",
"abbreviation": "AZ"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Border Stop"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ryan Devereaux (The Intercept)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Univision journalist arrested, his phone seized while reporting in Arizona",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/univision-journalist-arrested-his-phone-seized-while-reporting-in-arizona/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-21T14:15:14.492759Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-08-17T17:21:38.637546Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-08-17T17:21:38.265068Z",
"date": "2021-04-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Gilbert",
"longitude": -111.78903,
"latitude": 33.35283,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"r469a\">Local police officers arrested Univision Arizona news anchor León Felipe González Cortés and seized his cellphone while he was reporting in Gilbert, Arizona, on April 30, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"zqkty\">González was in Gilbert, about 20 miles southeast of Phoenix, to report on the death of one policeman and critical injury of another the previous day. The officers were hit by a man driving a stolen pickup truck, who was being chased by police, <a href=\"https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/chandler/2021/05/03/jonathon-altland-arrested-suspicion-killing-chandler-officer-christopher-farrar/4924152001/\">according to The Arizona Republic.</a> The man was later arrested on suspicion of first degree murder, the newspaper reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"brn34\">According to a <a href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20797414-reporter-cell-phone-complaint?embed=true&responsive=false&sidebar=false\">motion</a> filed in Gilbert Municipal Court on June 3 by attorneys for the journalist, González was one of several reporters covering the story in Gilbert that day. But he was the only one “arrested, handcuffed, transported, fingerprinted and charged” with a crime, according to the motion. Gilbert police records charge him with trespassing and interfering with an officer, the motion states; police charge that González was reporting “from the wrong side of police tape.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ihlml\">González did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"8l3ly\">According to<a href=\"https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/gilbert/2021/06/04/gilbert-police-refuse-to-return-univision-arizona-leon-felipe-gonzalez-cellphone/7536595002/\"> The Arizona Republic</a>, attorneys representing González allege that police also seized his cellphone, threatened to access its contents by "brute force" and referred to him in a derogatory way as "compadre," in reference to his Latino heritage.</p><p data-block-key=\"67r0v\">"[He] was wearing a Univision shirt, was accompanied by a Univision photographer, and he identified himself as a journalist to the Gilbert Police officers working at the scene," according to the motion, which demands that police return the cellphone to González.</p><p data-block-key=\"zz5vd\">In a statement to The Arizona Republic, Univision Arizona President and General Manager Joe Donnarumma said the channel supported its journalist and demanded immediate return of his cellphone, “a mobile journalism tool which was seized on baseless and unreasonable grounds."</p><p data-block-key=\"jwycs\">"Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy,” Donnarumma said, “as are the tools, technologies and constitutionally protected newsgathering activities that our journalists employ every day across the country to keep our audiences informed."</p><p data-block-key=\"3wqiu\">Gilbert Police spokesperson Brenda Carrasco told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that González was arrested “after he intentionally walked inside a clearly-marked crime scene during the criminal investigation.” Carrasco said the journalist’s phone was seized “as evidence at the time of his arrest, as the Police Department had probable cause to believe that the phone contained evidence of his criminal conduct.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rbj6r\">A pre-trial conference on the charges against González is scheduled for July 8.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Gilbert Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": "in custody",
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "law enforcement",
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
}
],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Arizona",
"abbreviation": "AZ"
},
"updates": [
"(2022-11-22 12:57:00+00:00) Court sets aside conviction of Arizona journalist"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"León Felipe González Cortés (KTVW-DT)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "FBI drops 'unconstitutional' subpoena for USA Today readership information",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fbi-drops-unconstitutional-subpoena-for-usa-today-readership-information/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-21T14:21:36.173149Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-09-22T15:03:45.418950Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-09-22T15:03:45.358442Z",
"date": "2021-04-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1a4no\">The Federal Bureau of Investigation subpoenaed Gannett Company, publisher of USA Today, on April 29, 2021, seeking information about people who had read a story the paper published about a shooting that left two FBI agents dead and three wounded. The FBI then withdrew the subpoena in early June.</p><p data-block-key=\"x7j8b\">The<a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.231951/gov.uscourts.dcd.231951.1.1.pdf\"> subpoena</a> sought Internet Protocol addresses and "other potentially identifying information ‘for computers or other electronic devices’” used by readers to access a Feb. 2 USA Today <a href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/02/sunrise-florida-shooting-fbi-agents-injured/4352344001/\">story</a> headlined: “FBI identifies 2 agents killed in Florida while serving warrant in crimes against children case.” The subpoena said the information “relates to a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI” regarding its agents, who were shot during an attempt to serve a warrant in a child exploitation case.</p><p data-block-key=\"17tao\">In a<a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.231951/gov.uscourts.dcd.231951.1.0.pdf\"> U.S. District Court filing</a> dated May 28, Gannett attorneys wrote, "in making this unconstitutional demand, the FBI has failed to demonstrate compliance with the United States Attorney General's regulations for subpoenas to the press.” Gannett asked the court to quash the subpoena.</p><p data-block-key=\"ix7xi\">A<a href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/03/usa-today-subpeona-florida-shooting-491847\"> Politico</a> story about the subpoena noted that “The accusation that the FBI defied the Justice Department’s guidelines for seeking news media records comes as the department is facing criticism from journalists, press freedom advocates and even President Joe Biden for a series of court orders obtained last year in leak investigations.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7m926\">On June 5, Keith Becker, deputy chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal division, <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.231951/gov.uscourts.dcd.231951.6.1_1.pdf\">informed</a> Gannett attorneys that the FBI was withdrawing the subpoena “because the child sexual exploitation offender subject of the investigation has at this time been identified via other means.”</p><p data-block-key=\"03qyg\">The Department of Justice did not respond to an emailed request from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"case_type": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": "journalist communications or work product",
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": "Federal",
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"USA Today"
],
"tags": [
"Department of Justice"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": [
"dropped"
],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Washington Post journalist subpoenaed for documents from college reporting",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/washington-post-journalist-subpoenaed-for-documents-from-college-reporting/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-14T18:01:37.867772Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-07-11T20:32:28.881469Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-07-11T20:32:28.722904Z",
"date": "2021-04-22",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jtkmg\">Journalist Fenit Nirappil was subpoenaed on April 22, 2021, in a lawsuit involving former Chicago police officers for documents related to his work on two stories for the Medill Innocence Project nearly a decade earlier, according to the <a href=\"https://www.rcfp.org/fenit-nirappil-subpoena-letter/\">Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"tqg24\">Nirappil, now a journalist for The Washington Post, was a part of a team of Northwestern University students who investigated the conviction of Ariel Gomez during the 2011-2012 academic year, according to RCFP, which is representing Nirappil. RCFP is a partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"0i7gp\">The subpoena was issued by Chicago-based Sotos Law Firm on behalf of four law enforcement officers and officials who are defendants in a federal lawsuit Gomez is pursuing alleging misconduct related to his conviction.</p><p data-block-key=\"h3qtt\">The officers’ legal team sought a broad range of documents from Nirappil related to his undergraduate education, according to a letter RCFP senior attorney Sarah Matthews wrote in response to the subpoena. Matthews is a member of the Tracker’s advisory committee.</p><p data-block-key=\"ga7aa\">Matthews argued in the letter that Nirappil isn’t required to comply with the subpoena, citing First Amendment privilege for journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"8djdp\">She also wrote that the subpoena was invalid due to procedural rules. It was improperly served because it was sent through the mail, rather than personally served, she wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"le4nw\">The subpoena was also overly broad, including requests for records related to 49 individuals, according to the letter. Matthews wrote that it effectively sought all information related to Nirappil’s undergraduate education.</p><p data-block-key=\"sb51a\">The subpoena requested Nirappil’s documents by May 5 — an “insufficient” amount of time to reply given the scope of the request, and that he only received the subpoena on May 1, Matthews wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"xm4ad\">Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, if the subject of a subpoena for documents files an objection within a certain window of time, they don’t need to comply with the subpoena, according to Matthews.</p><p data-block-key=\"0kms8\">She told the Tracker Nirappil wasn’t under any further obligation to respond, unless the attorneys representing the Chicago police officers file a motion in court.</p><p data-block-key=\"9dysg\">Nirappil didn’t respond to a request for comment. He posted on Twitter about the subpoena on May 10.</p><p data-block-key=\"9b99q\">“I'm not going to roll over when attorneys for law enforcement come after my reporting notes, even if they were from college a decade ago,” he wrote.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I'm not going to roll over when attorneys for law enforcement come after my reporting notes, even if they were from college a decade ago. Thank you for helping me fight this, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/rcfp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@rcfp</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/rF7d7MM3y8\">https://t.co/rF7d7MM3y8</a></p>— Fenit Nirappil (@FenitN) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FenitN/status/1391853448359030785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 10, 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=\"w98rl\">Sotos Law Firm also didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"cgh6r\"><i>Editor’s Note: The original 2021 report has been revised to correct a mistaken identification for Ariel Gomez.</i></p></div>",
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"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
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"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": "journalist communications or work product",
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": "Federal",
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-07-08 15:42:00+00:00) Subpoena for college reporting of Washington Post journalist dropped"
],
"case_statuses": [],
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"tags": [
"student journalism"
],
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"categories": [
"Subpoena/Legal Order"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Fenit Nirappil (Medill Innocence Project)"
],
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"objected to"
],
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},
{
"title": "Reporter detained by LA deputies while trying to re-enter press conference",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-detained-by-la-deputies-while-trying-to-re-enter-press-conference/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-10T17:16:25.663640Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-06-10T17:16:25.663640Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-06-10T17:16:25.624897Z",
"date": "2021-04-20",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Freelance reporter Cerise Castle said she was detained by LA County sheriff’s officers when she attempted to re-enter a press conference being held on the steps of the Hall of Justice, Los Angeles, on April 20, 2021.</p><p>Castle <a href=\"https://twitter.com/cerisecastle/status/1384621148718080003\">said on Twitter</a>: “I was detained today while covering a press conference hosted by the LA County Sheriff's Department. Yes, I had my press pass.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I was detained today while covering a press conference hosted by the LA County Sheriff's Department. Yes, I had my press pass. <a href=\"https://t.co/GtTDA37Kuk\">https://t.co/GtTDA37Kuk</a></p>— Cerise Castle (@cerisecastle) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/cerisecastle/status/1384621148718080003?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 20, 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>The press conference was part of National Victims’ Rights Week, a series of annual events highlighting services for victims of crime and related issues.</p><p>John Schreiber, a photojournalist at local LA stations KCBS 2 / KCAL 9, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/johnschreiber/status/1384696980056596482?s=20\">filmed Castle</a> as LA County Sheriff’s officers detained her and then prevented her from returning to the press conference.</p><p>In his Twitter post, Schreiber wrote that he and Castle had stood next to each other at the press conference. “When protesters arrived, we both went over to film” them, he wrote. “Then, saw deputies try to block her from coming back. She was later let back in.”</p><p>Castle told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that police held her “for between 5-15 minutes” before sheriff’s officers allowed her to return to the press conference. She said she was wearing a press pass issued by VICE, where she had been previously employed, and currently freelances.</p><p>Castle, who has published an investigative series on <a href=\"http://knock-la.com/lynwood-vikings-sheriff-gang-origins-abuse/\">a history of violence</a> within the LA County Sheriff’s department, said she had been working with a few outlets on stories about the department and was pursuing a chance to ask Sheriff Alex Villanueva a question during a question and answer session at the press conference.</p><p>Referring to attempts by officers to block Castle from returning to the press conference, the ACLU <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ACLU_SoCal/status/1384981237836644355?s=20\">Southern California</a> office said: “This conduct is unacceptable, and we strongly support journalists’ demands for an immediate change in practice.”</p><p>Such incidents “offend the First Amendment’s unambiguous protection of newsgathering,” the ACLU stated. “Journalists, like the public, have a robust right of access to document government activity free of interference from law enforcement.”</p><p>The ACLU statement summarized a series of actions by southern California law enforcement agencies toward journalists in recent months, describing them as unacceptable patterns of behavior.</p><p>“Law enforcement practices at protests throughout Southern California exhibit a disturbing trend in treatment of journalists—detaining, arresting, harassing, and otherwise interfering with journalists’ First Amendment rights to gather and disseminate information to the public,” the ACLU wrote. “The public interest requires that law enforcement agencies allow journalists to access and cover protests to the full extent of their First Amendment rights.”</p><p>When contacted by the Tracker, the LA County Sheriff’s Office said: “We are unfamiliar with the details surrounding this incident and will need to conduct an inquiry to ascertain more information. At this time we are unable to offer further comment, but what we can say is Sheriff Alex Villanueva strongly supports the First Amendment, the right to peacefully protest, and the people’s right to be informed by the press.”</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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"Cerise Castle (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Judge orders New Mexico public school district to pay news outlets for violating state public records act",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/judge-orders-new-mexico-public-school-district-to-pay-news-outlets-for-violating-state-public-records-act/",
"first_published_at": "2021-06-07T18:32:06.736108Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-07-13T22:29:46.847205Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-07-13T22:29:46.735605Z",
"date": "2021-04-19",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Albuquerque",
"longitude": -106.65114,
"latitude": 35.08449,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"71rt6\">On April 19, 2021, a Bernalillo County judge ruled that Albuquerque Public Schools violated New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act when handling requests for documents made by two media outlets. The judge ordered the school district to pay the news organizations more than $400,000.</p><p data-block-key=\"2fv1q\">The Albuquerque Journal and local NBC-affiliate KOB 4 had jointly sued the school district, alleging that it failed to meet deadlines in turning over public documents that the news outlets had requested in 2014. The documents related to the abrupt departure of former schools Superintendent Winston Brooks, the Journal <a href=\"https://www.abqjournal.com/2381835/aps-ordered-to-pay-400k-for-violating-state-records-law.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"k66qb\">Then-school board president Analee Maestas said at the time of Brooks’ departure that “a serious item of concern to Board members was raised and discussed,” according to the Journal. An outside attorney hired to investigate the issue produced a report for the school board; the news outlets had requested copies of the report, along with other documents and communications related to Brooks’ record as superintendent, his sudden departure two years before the end of his contract with the district and the <a href=\"https://www.abqjournal.com/446498/aps-superintent-brooks-resigns.html\">$350,000 he was paid</a> to buy out his contract.</p><p data-block-key=\"wovof\">Judge Nancy Franchini had earlier denied the request for the attorney’s report, saying it was exempt from disclosure because it contained personnel information, according to the Journal. But in her April ruling the judge found that the school district’s actions were “unreasonable,” KOB 4 <a href=\"https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/bernalillo-county-judge-rules-against-aps-over-public-records-case/6080406/\">reported</a>, when it failed to produce other records requested and missed deadlines set out in the state’s public records act on 13 separate instances. Among documents the judge said should be released to the news organizations was a spreadsheet documenting complaints against Brooks, according to the Journal.</p><p data-block-key=\"jfzy3\">Franchini ordered the school district to pay KOB 4 $118,000 and the Journal $293,625, as well as their court costs and reasonable attorneys fees, the news outlets reported. According to KOB 4, she also ordered the school district to release the requested records within 20 days.</p><p data-block-key=\"q58dv\">The Journal reported that the school district has announced plans to appeal the ruling.</p><p data-block-key=\"qpzj6\">“APS works diligently to be transparent in responding to all records requests, and this matter was no different,” school district spokesperson Monica Armenta said. “In this same case, the Court previously sided with APS and found that the District correctly withheld the investigatory report regarding former Superintendent Winston Brooks.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jy8s5\">Both news organizations said they intend to appeal Franchini’s earlier ruling that the attorney’s report on Brooks is exempt from disclosure. But they praised the decision ordering the school district to pay fees for failure to comply with open records rules. In a <a href=\"https://www.abqjournal.com/2381835/aps-ordered-to-pay-400k-for-violating-state-records-law.html\">statement</a>, Journal Editor Karen Moses said the ruling sent a clear message on the importance of adherence to the public records act.</p><p data-block-key=\"j4bvq\">“Noncompliance of the state’s open records law has been a longstanding issue with APS,” Moses said. “And when public bodies fail to follow the requirements for timely production of public records, the community is deprived of information that it is entitled to.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9ebd0\">Michelle Donaldson, the vice president and general manager of KOB 4, also stressed the importance of public records laws in a <a href=\"https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/bernalillo-county-judge-rules-against-aps-over-public-records-case/6080406/\">statement</a> to the outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"k0x5b\">“A school district cannot pick and choose when to obey the law, especially when it’s writing six-figure checks to outgoing personnel,” Donaldson said. “People cannot have faith in the system when the laws are ignored.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "New Mexico",
"abbreviation": "NM"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"Albuquerque Journal",
"KOB"
],
"tags": [
"public records"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
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},
{
"title": "Block Club Chicago journalist assaulted, his camera damaged at protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/block-club-chicago-journalist-assaulted-his-camera-damaged-at-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-24T13:13:55.203454Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:51:08.394395Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:51:08.290837Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Chicago",
"longitude": -87.65005,
"latitude": 41.85003,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"twd6m\">Block Club Chicago reporter and photojournalist Colin Boyle was assaulted by a Chicago police officer while he was covering a demonstration in northwest Chicago, Illinois, on April 16, 2021. According to its website, <a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/\">Block Club</a> is a local, reader-supported nonprofit newsroom “dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8pec2\">According to the <a href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2021/4/16/22388624/adam-toledo-fatal-police-shooting-little-village-rally-protest-march-logan-square\">Chicago Sun Times</a>, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the city’s Logan Square Monument the evening of April 16 to demand justice for 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer on March 29, 2021. After several speeches and chants, the paper reported, the crowd marched north on Milwaukee Avenue, yelling phrases such as, "No justice, no peace, abolish the police!"</p><p data-block-key=\"9h9ea\">Boyle said he was leaving the demonstration around 9:50 p.m., after several hours of covering a peaceful protest, when he saw an alert on Twitter that said the Chicago Police Department was calling units to return to an intersection where Boyle had been<a href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/04/16/thousands-march-in-chicago-to-protest-police-killing-of-13-year-old-adam-toledo-adam-deserved-to-live/\"> photographing</a> earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"jluu1\">Around 10 p.m., he said he arrived on the scene of a standoff between officers and protesters. Boyle said he had been following a group of protesters down West Logan Boulevard toward an area where police had blocked off the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"aff73\">"There was a police sergeant telling the police officers to form a line and two seconds later after he made that call, he looked at me and directed me to move," Boyle told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview. Boyle said he began to move, but “under four seconds after the sergeant told me to move, an officer comes power walking up behind me and he says, 'Sir, he's not going to tell you again.'"</p><p data-block-key=\"5dffq\">Boyle said he was holding a Chicago Police Department press badge in his hand and had press markings across his helmet and vest on front and back. He said he also verbally announced that he was press. Still, he said, the officer marched up to him and "shoved me backwards through a crowd of police officers."</p><p data-block-key=\"g8roq\">According to Boyle, he repeatedly told the officer he was already moving, but the officer cut him off and said, "Nope, nope, nope. Keep on going." After being pushed through "a wall of his coworkers [officers] who did not intervene," Boyle said he lost balance and fell on his camera gear, breaking a camera hood, busting open a flash, and shaking up a telephoto lens, which he said still rattles from the impact.</p><p data-block-key=\"ivfu7\">"This is how you treat press credentialed by your department, again?" Boyle<a href=\"https://twitter.com/colinbphoto/status/1383258884844843009?s=20\"> wrote on Twitter</a> alongside several photographs taken at the scene. "Shameful."</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The cop on the right started tossing me as I was leaving upon order. I was pushed to the ground and that broke my camera lens hood. Thanks, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CPD_Media?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CPD_Media</a>. This is how you treat press credentialed by your department, again? Shameful. <a href=\"https://t.co/rOdJknBudb\">pic.twitter.com/rOdJknBudb</a></p>— Colin Boyle (@colinbphoto) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/colinbphoto/status/1383258884844843009?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=\"1l29t\">After the incident, Boyle said he shared his frustration with CPD Director Glen Brooks, and a few days later he filed a formal complaint. As of early May, Boyle said, he had received no information on the status of his complaint.</p><p data-block-key=\"dtdt2\">Chicago police 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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"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": 2,
"equipment": "camera equipment"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Illinois",
"abbreviation": "IL"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Colin Boyle (Block Club Chicago)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"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": "",
"teaser": "",
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"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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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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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": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"links": [],
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{
"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)"
],
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},
{
"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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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "private individual",
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Justin Yau (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"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>",
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"arresting_authority": "Brooklyn Center Police Department",
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
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"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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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Brad Svenson (Watchdog Citizen News)"
],
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},
{
"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": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Babs Santos (KMSP-TV)"
],
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},
{
"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"
],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"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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{
"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",
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"city": "Brooklyn Center",
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"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>",
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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",
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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",
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"city": "Brooklyn Center",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"u80oq\">Freelance photojournalist Joshua Rashaad McFadden, on assignment for The New York Times, said he was detained and hit by law enforcement officers while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"qo45y\">The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11 rekindled a wave of racial-justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd. Protests <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/us/brooklyn-center-minnesota-police-shooting.html\">began outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department</a> the day Wright was killed, and continued daily through mid-April.</p><p data-block-key=\"241kx\">McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and other journalists stuck together as a group as police rushed the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"i1vlb\">“We're all literally huddled together in one area, and the police rushed in,” McFadden said. “They rushed the crowd and they detained us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"whokr\">The group included other photographers, TV news staff and reporters, McFadden said. He said the journalists were repeating “we’re press, we’re press!” Officers told the journalists “we don’t care” and ordered them to lie on the ground, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2dqdx\">McFadden said he was on the ground when one officer came over to him and ordered him to get up, then another officer came over and told him to get back down.</p><p data-block-key=\"s5xus\">At that point, McFadden said, he was on his knees. He identified himself as a member of the press, he said, and asked the officers, “what do you want me to do?”</p><p data-block-key=\"nqa78\">Then, McFadden said, another group of officers rushed and trampled over him, knocking him to the ground “like a football tackle.”</p><p data-block-key=\"liwin\">He said the officers started hitting him and hitting his camera. He said he was holding his phone in one hand, and felt an officer try to yank the device from him. McFadden said he didn’t want to appear to be confrontational, but he was concerned about losing his phone so he held onto it.</p><p data-block-key=\"92m39\">McFadden, who is Black, said a white photographer acquaintance came over and told the officers that McFadden was a journalist and that he worked with the Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"0ai99\">After the other photographer identified him, he said, the officers allowed him to stand up. He showed them his press pass, which is issued by the National Press Photographers Association. McFadden said the officer told him, “anybody could have made that,” and asked to see his driver’s license, which he had left in his car.</p><p data-block-key=\"yi7xc\">McFadden said it was clear that the officers weren’t going to allow him to go, but they were going to let the other photographer go. He said officers only allowed him to leave when the other photographer volunteered to escort him to his car.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ijis\">He said he previously had similar experiences, including <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-by-officers-with-batons-during-brooklyn-center-protest/\">three days earlier in Brooklyn Center</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"n4fje\">“I do know it's because Black members of the press are treated differently,” he said. “And I have to acknowledge that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jn5hs\">McFadden said the other photographer walked with him so she could help him navigate interaction with law enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"x74og\">“It's because she knew that at every kind of checkpoint they set up, they were going to either try to hold me or arrest or detain me, or I'll get a million questions if my credentials are real,” McFadden said. He said there was also a risk he could be shot at with rubber bullets while approaching officers from a distance. “If I'm with her I'm able to walk up to the group.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3tfs4\">As they were trying to leave the area, McFadden said, they came upon a checkpoint at a gas station where police had stopped a large number of journalists and were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/law-enforcement-agencies-photograph-journalists-and-their-ids-as-they-cover-protests/\">taking photographs of their credentials, IDs and faces</a>. He said officers told the journalists the photographs would be entered into a database.</p><p data-block-key=\"0gjuf\">McFadden said law enforcement again asked him to see his license, and he told them it was in his car. He said that they were stopped at the gas station for about an hour.</p><p data-block-key=\"kt817\">McFadden said his shoulder was injured when he was tackled and hit. He also had bruises on his legs, adding to bruises he had gotten earlier in the week when he was hit <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-on-assignment-for-new-york-times-hit-with-projectiles-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/\">with crowd-control munitions</a>, and hit with sticks by law enforcement officers while in a car. McFadden said he sought medical attention for the injuries he accumulated through the week. He said he was told to take ibuprofen after he declined other medication, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vwxow\">McFadden’s camera was damaged when he was tackled, he said. The body of the camera was scratched up and he said he needed to get some parts replaced. As a result of the two assaults, he also needed to get the lens repaired.</p><p data-block-key=\"nv26u\">McFadden told the Tracker he believed he was targeted because he was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"y41y4\">He said Minnesota State Patrol troopers were involved in the incident. MSP didn’t respond requests for comment by email and phone</p><p data-block-key=\"3fh99\">McFadden was detained the same evening a federal judge issued a <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/judge-issues-order-halting-police-attacks-journalists\">temporary restraining order</a> barring MSP from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"e9bmq\">The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations, including the New York Times, sent <a href=\"https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Letter-to-Minnesota-governor.pdf\">a letter</a> to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.</p><p data-block-key=\"gex7o\">In response to the court order, MSP released a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> on April 17 that acknowledged troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said no journalists were arrested, though some had been detained and released during the protests. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category, but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.</p><p data-block-key=\"kfw9j\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"tags": [
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"Assault",
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{
"title": "Journalist detained, shoved while covering Brooklyn Center protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-detained-shoved-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-12T15:44:56.861283Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T19:38:09.001410Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T19:38:08.916830Z",
"date": "2021-04-16",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Brooklyn Center",
"longitude": -93.33273,
"latitude": 45.07608,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eactg\">Freelance journalist J.D. Duggan said he was detained and shoved to the ground by a law enforcement officer while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.</p><p data-block-key=\"l2t0b\">Several hundred protesters had marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.</p><p data-block-key=\"oiow1\">According to the<a href=\"https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/16/authorities-break-up-protests-make-arrests-outside-brooklyn-center-police-station/\"> St. Paul Pioneer Press</a>, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. At around 10 p.m., <a href=\"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/04/17/law-enforcement-response-swift-on-sixth-night-of-protests\">Minnesota Public Radio</a> reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.</p><p data-block-key=\"hqaz9\">Amid the unrest, a group of journalists was detained by law enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published on other news outlets. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/arrest-criminal-charge/?categories=4&city=Brooklyn%20Center&date_lower=2021-04-16&date_upper=2021-04-16&state=27\">Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"zpx3c\">Duggan, who has written for outlets including The Intercept and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when lines of law enforcement officers started moving in to surround the crowd, he found himself near a group of other journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"bypjb\">Officers surrounded the group and shouted at them to get on the ground, so Duggan said he got down on his knees. Duggan said he shouted out to identify himself as a member of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"q42x8\">As he was on his knees, he said, an officer came up behind him, shoved him on his back between his shoulders and yelled at him to lie on the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"3xcdw\">Duggan said he didn’t see which law enforcement agency the officer who shoved him was with.</p><p data-block-key=\"ofdoh\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/JDugganMN/status/1383255718568947716\">Video he posted on Twitter</a>, which appears to be filmed from the ground, shows multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers standing nearby.</p><p data-block-key=\"8as7g\">At one point, Duggan says, “I’m press, I’m press. Can I get out of here?”</p><p data-block-key=\"u99ie\">“Hang tight” a voice can be heard responding.</p><p data-block-key=\"hzl01\">Minutes later, a voice orders members of the press to stand up, and a trooper checks Duggan’s credential.</p><p data-block-key=\"z2ff1\">Duggan told the Tracker after the journalists were allowed to get up, officers led them across a parking lot and kept the members of the press in a group. He said officers took photographs of his face, his ID and his press credential.</p><p data-block-key=\"i9z8g\">He was allowed to go about 45 minutes after he was first detained, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b7cz3\">Duggan said he was displaying his press badge at the time he was detained. His badge is issued by The Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota student newspaper where he was a journalist until he graduated in December.</p><p data-block-key=\"71yso\">Duggan and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a<a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/judge-issues-order-halting-police-attacks-journalists\"> temporary restraining order</a> barring state law enforcement from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"50jtu\">The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations sent <a href=\"https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Letter-to-Minnesota-governor.pdf\">a letter</a> to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began. CBS signed the letter on behalf of WCCO.</p><p data-block-key=\"i2ei6\">A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/Pages/msp-statement-recent-temporary-restraining-order.aspx\">statement</a> from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said that though journalists had been detained and released during the protests, no journalists were arrested. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category but notes that the journalists were released without being processed. MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about Duggan.</p><p data-block-key=\"pwlw7\">The agency said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"9e0ce\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> here</a>.</p></div>",
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