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{
"title": "WLKY journalist targeted with projectile while covering protests in Louisville",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wlky-journalist-targeted-with-projectile-while-covering-protests-in-louisville/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-27T20:02:47.796814Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:23:04.054141Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:23:03.908116Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"f7zeg\">A WLKY news crew was targeted with flash-bang grenades thrown by individuals while covering protests in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqcje\">Protests in Louisville have centered around the deaths of Breonna Taylor, shot and killed inside her home by Louisville police in March, and the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"u41r6\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Stephon_Dingle/status/1266560921238937606\">post to Twitter</a> at 10:43 p.m., WLKY correspondent Stephon Dingle said that individuals had thrown flash-bang grenades, a nonlethal device typically used by police, at him and his crew. Dingle did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"jef6s\">“And just like that a group of protestors threw their own flag bangs and hit our crew who was standing afar as people quickly dispersed,” Dingle wrote.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And just like that a group of protestors threw their own flag bangs and hit our crew who was standing afar as people quickly dispersed. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/chaos?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#chaos</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreonnaTaylor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BreonnaTaylor</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WLKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WLKY</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/8xw32Xb5j4\">pic.twitter.com/8xw32Xb5j4</a></p>— Stephon Dingle WLKY (@Stephon_Dingle) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Stephon_Dingle/status/1266560921238937606?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7n6gh\">In the Twitter video, two members of the WLKY news crew talk about being struck in the side with the projectiles — and one shows a mark on his body — but it did not identify the men. The Tracker has documented their assaults as Anonymous WLKY 1 and Anonymous WLKY 2.</p><p data-block-key=\"so1kt\">At least one other WLKY news crew was also attacked and two WLKY news vehicles were vandalized that night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented all May 29 WLKY incidents <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-29&date_upper=2020-05-29&targeted_institutions=265\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"py3ox\">The Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Kentucky",
"abbreviation": "KY"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Unidentified journalist 3 (WLKY)"
],
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{
"title": "Photojournalist for Norwegian outlet targeted with projectiles during Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-for-norwegian-outlet-targeted-with-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-28T19:46:27.005124Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:23:51.771735Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:23:51.678525Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4793w\">Thomas Nilsson, a photojournalist for Norwegian outlet Verdens Gang, was targeted by law enforcement while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"k8ucz\">Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"sl7qt\">Nina Svanberg, a reporter for the Swedish outlet Expressen, told the Committee to Protect Journalists — a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — that she and Nilsson had walked with protesters up from the Third Precinct to the Fifth Precinct on the 29th. National Guard troops and police arrived to the area to disperse the crowd and enforce the 8 p.m. curfew in place.</p><p data-block-key=\"wllti\">At about 11:30 p.m., Minneapolis Police Department officers began indiscriminately firing projectiles and tear gas to disperse the crowd, Svanberg said. One hit her on the hip. She added that she crawled behind a car to avoid being hit again, but was caught in the tear gas. The Tracker documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-european-outlets-hit-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/\">Svanberg’s assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"mht75\">Nilsson, who could not be reached for comment, wrote in an account for Verdens Gang that he was affected by the chemical irritant as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"bmoc9\">The journalists eventually met up in an alley where an Australian news team was sheltering with its security team.</p><p data-block-key=\"89kes\">It was there that Nilsson discovered that he had a red laser sight on his stomach, he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"hpjks\">According to his account, he moved farther into the alley and waited for about 10 minutes. When he looked out to check whether it was safe, he found himself once again targeted with a laser sight, he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"0r34p\">Svanberg told CPJ that both she and Nilsson were wearing press passes. Nilsson noted in his account that he also was carrying two cameras and was wearing a helmet and a gas mask. In the account he said that he is certain the police knew they were journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"kdy17\">The Minneapolis Police Department did not respond to multiple phone and emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"sq1wo\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Thomas Nilsson (Verdens Gang)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Police aggressively seized journalist’s press pass amid Manhattan protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-aggressively-seized-journalists-press-pass-amid-manhattan-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2022-08-23T20:32:49.616083Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-08-23T20:32:49.616083Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-08-23T20:32:49.553706Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"w65vf\">Lachlan Cartwright, a then-reporter for The Daily Beast, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering protests in New York City on May 29, 2020, when a police officer aggressively seized his press pass.</p><p data-block-key=\"94rg9\">Cartwright told the Tracker in a July 2022 interview about the incident that he was asked by an editor to provide back-up to a colleague who was already documenting the Manhattan protest. The demonstration was one of many sparked nationally by the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. The Tracker documented hundreds of incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-26&date_upper=2021-06-02&tags=Black+Lives+Matter+protest&categories=\">Find those incidents here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4gls7\">“When I entered where the protests were in Union Square, there were cars on fire, it was just mayhem,” Cartwright said. “And the cops were very aggressively advancing on the protesters, but also kind of being super aggressive to journalists, including myself.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dhqs9\">The reporter said he approached one of the New York Police Department officers and had a back-and-forth with him about the fact that he was a journalist trying to document the protest and that the police’s actions were making it difficult for him to do his job.</p><p data-block-key=\"4usku\">After the exchange, Cartwright had resumed covering the protest when he suddenly felt a hard tug at his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"1trra\">“A cop had actually ripped my badge from around my neck,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7u1ge\">Cartwright told the Tracker that in his haste when leaving his apartment he had mistakenly grabbed a press pass he had been issued while working for a different outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"41gv4\">The officer refused to return the credential. Cartwright told the Tracker that, to the best of his knowledge, it is still in the police department's possession.</p><p data-block-key=\"51v1j\">NYPD did not respond to emails requesting comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "press identification"
}
],
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Search or Seizure"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Lachlan Cartwright (The Daily Beast)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "Officer in Minneapolis points weapon at public radio reporters",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/officer-in-minneapolis-points-weapon-at-public-radio-reporters/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-14T14:04:24.254067Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:25:47.824702Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:25:47.715914Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ak0cd\">An officer brandished a weapon at two public radio reporters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, even after they identified themselves as press, just after midnight on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"91ajh\">American Public Media reporters Samara Freemark and Madeleine Baran had spent much of the evening covering the protests outside the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct when they decided to head back to their car and go home, Freemark told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"6wx5v\">As they attempted to cross Nicollet Avenue, a formation of law enforcement officers appeared, blocking them from crossing the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"25g96\">Freemark described the situation as initially being calm. “But all of the sudden, there was a switch that flipped,” she said. An officer suddenly appeared next to Freemark and Baran and shoved a weapon inches from their faces while shouting, “Get the fuck out of here,” Freemark recounted. She said she was not sure exactly what type of weapon it was, but that it did not resemble a pistol and seemed designed to fire crowd control ammunition.</p><p data-block-key=\"fxdvv\">“We were yelling, ‘We’re press, we’re press,’ but he kept shoving it in our face, yelling at us to ‘get the fuck out of here,’” she said. “It was dark, so shocking, and so unexpected.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lbn0e\">The officer did nothing to acknowledge that they were press, Freemark said, and, eventually, they ran away. “Every time we stopped, there were cops yelling at us,” she said. Freemark and Baran were unable to reach their car and had to walk home.</p><p data-block-key=\"7i1y6\">Minneapolis was under an 8 p.m. curfew that evening, but journalists were expressly exempt from it.</p><p data-block-key=\"nljai\">Freemark said that the police line they encountered included officers from multiple agencies, and she was unsure which agency the officer who pointed the weapon was from.</p><p data-block-key=\"iph6d\">An email sent to the Minneapolis Police Department inquiring about this incident was not returned as of press time. Bruce Gordon, director of communications for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, replied that before he could comment he would need to know if the incident in question involved a State Patrol trooper.</p><p data-block-key=\"a66s8\">After the encounter, Baran tweeted about the experience:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A Minneapolis police officer pointed a weapon at me at <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sfreemark?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sfreemark</a>’s heads, while we were standing on Nicollet and 32nd covering the protests. I yelled that I’m a journalist. He did not lower his weapon, so we ran. Calling it a night.</p>— Madeleine Baran (@madeleinebaran) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/madeleinebaran/status/1266610933071138816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"49qap\">An interview request sent to Baran was not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"togmm\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"jk2z7\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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],
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{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with crowd-control munition during Denver protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-with-crowd-control-munition-during-denver-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-27T17:52:08.221028Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:20:28.743699Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:20:28.650488Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3siuk\">Taylor Schuss, a photojournalist with Denver NBC affiliate 9News KUSA, was struck with a pepper ball fired by Denver police while covering protests in the Colorado city on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"o0n7n\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"pwz65\">That evening, police fired a pepper ball that hit Schuss on the ankle, according to Tim Ryan, director of content at 9News KUSA, who summarized the incident in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"98qw1\">Ryan wrote that Schuss and the reporter he was with, Steve Staeger, “don’t believe they were targeted as journalists but rather happened to be in a group of protesters who were targeted.”</p><p data-block-key=\"woa3c\">Staeger later tweeted about the incident, also adding that an individual had sprayed Schuss’ camera lens with some substance while they were covering the demonstrations.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I watched <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Taylor_TVnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Taylor_TVnews</a> take a pepper ball shot into his ankle by police and have a protestor spray his camera lens with something, all while we both endured about 5 or 6 rounds of tear gas tonight during coverage tonight. Yet through it all he stayed focused.</p>— Steve Staeger (@SteveStaeger) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SteveStaeger/status/1266625470541463552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eut79\">Schuss did not reply to an interview request sent via Twitter message.</p><p data-block-key=\"yko6n\">Requests for comment on this incident sent to the Denver Police Department were not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"nly5i\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Colorado",
"abbreviation": "CO"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Taylor Schuss (KUSA)"
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},
{
"title": "Unknown individual pepper sprays CBS4 Denver news crew",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unknown-individual-pepper-sprays-cbs4-denver-news-crew/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-27T18:06:03.480220Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:20:56.084669Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:20:55.987765Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"oljpi\">An unknown man sprayed pepper spray at CBS4 Denver news crew that was covering the protests on the streets of Colorado’s capital on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"teobe\">This incident occurred during the second night of protests in Denver over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis Police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes on May 25. Related protests have spread to cities across the nation.</p><p data-block-key=\"qqp5f\">Photojournalist Rob McClure and reporter Jamie Leary were both “OK” after the attack, according to a tweet from CBS producer Dago Cordova, who <a href=\"https://twitter.com/dago_deportes/status/1266586649024176128\">shared</a> video footage of the incident.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">During our special <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/CBSNDenver?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CBSNDenver</a> coverage of <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/JusticeForGeorge?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#JusticeForGeorge</a> protests, a man went up to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JamieALeary?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JamieALeary</a> & <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RobCBS4?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RobCBS4</a> and sprayed them with pepper spray. He did this after he did it to fellow local journalists. Jamie & Rob are okay <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CBSDenver?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CBSDenver</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/k76tZsoHXq\">pic.twitter.com/k76tZsoHXq</a></p>— Dago Cordova (@dago_deportes) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/dago_deportes/status/1266586649024176128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k5w75\">The crew was set up directly across from the Colorado Capitol along Lincoln Avenue. In the video, an unidentified young man in a colorful striped shirt, black baseball cap and black balaclava holding a canister of pepper spray walks by the journalists, who are filming live, then doubles back and sprays the crew with pepper spray. “Hey hey hey, Are you kidding me?” Leary says as the attack is underway.</p><p data-block-key=\"hnx9t\">Leary told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that both she and McClure were able to avoid a direct hit from the pepper spray because they had just watched the man pepper spray another camera crew nearby. They were watching him carefully, she explained. “He walked by us and then did an about-face,” Leary said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1viqj\">The Tracker <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/protestor-pepper-sprays-cbs4-denver-another-news-crew/\">documented Leary’s assault here</a>. McClure’s camera was lightly sprayed, but was not damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"jeayq\">The identity of the other camera crew attacked was not immediately available.</p><p data-block-key=\"yieki\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Colorado",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "AP reporter struck with projectile during Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ap-reporter-struck-with-projectile-during-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-28T21:04:02.516110Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:25:23.652890Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:25:23.570586Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9nkoy\">Associated Press photojournalist John Minchillo posted on social media that he was struck with a crowd-control munition while covering the fourth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"simmu\">Protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"qxkqh\">Two days after the incident, Minchillo <a href=\"https://twitter.com/johnminchillo/status/1267116569223725059\">posted on Twitter</a> that he was also struck by a less-lethal projectile while reporting that day, and said that police had fired indiscriminately.</p><p data-block-key=\"tzmta\">“No distinctions were made... when I and my colleagues were hit by officers,” Minchillo wrote. “This is a protocol that I’ve not seen elsewhere.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">No distinctions were made two nights back when I and my colleagues were hit by officers. Last night was full force in a wide spread. This is a protocol than I’ve not seen elsewhere. Lone officers do sometimes act so, not entire units. No discretion, just total area denial.</p>— john minchillo (@johnminchillo) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/johnminchillo/status/1267116569223725059?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"id416\">Minchillo could not be reached for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"qz9u6\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"John Minchillo (The Associated Press)"
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},
{
"title": "WCCO journalist hit by projectile while covering protests in Minneapolis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wcco-journalist-hit-projectile-while-covering-protests-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-15T21:07:11.102856Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:32:25.930356Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:32:25.851759Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"vjav4\">Jeff Wagner, a reporter and anchor for WCCO, a CBS affiliate station based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was livestreaming protest coverage as he was hit by a police projectile on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"86zbh\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"3j0kx\">Wagner was covering the fourth night of protests in Minneapolis on May 29. The night before, protesters overran and set fire to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct. But the focus on the 29th had shifted to the Fifth Precinct.</p><p data-block-key=\"fvqyx\">In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=545070406162328&ref=watch_permalink\">livestream</a> video filmed by Wagner, the Minnesota State Patrol can be heard over loudspeaker just before 11:30 p.m. ordering people to disperse immediately. About 10 minutes after Wagner filmed the loudspeaker warning, he was hit by a police projectile.</p><p data-block-key=\"z5cuu\">Wagner did not respond to requests for comment, and a message left on the WCCO general line was not answered.</p><p data-block-key=\"vzxk1\">In the livestream, Wagner reports that State Patrol troopers were advancing north on Nicollet Avenue, shooting projectiles at protesters who’d been throwing objects and launching fireworks at the police. He stands separate from the action in a mostly empty parking lot on the side of the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"fym5n\">A lone officer can be seen stepping into the parking lot and appears to hit one individual trying to retrieve a bike. Wagner asks if the person is all right, just as he, too, is hit. Wagner grunts as his phone tumbles to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"8cz05\">Wagner says in the livestream that he is all right despite the projectile feeling like the “the hardest punch to my forearm I’ve ever had.” But he says he recognized the risk of reporting close to the action.</p><p data-block-key=\"lplwf\">“I had my hand up. I got my news badge,” Wagner says as he flashes the badge on the video. “It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter in that moment. I looked like anybody else.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ja5me\">The livestream video does not clearly show the officer who shot the projectile at Wagner. Protesters, journalists and even law enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">dozen</a> agencies joined the law enforcement effort in Minnesota in late May, often wearing similar-looking uniforms.</p><p data-block-key=\"yj07x\">The Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to the Tracker’s emailed list of questions.</p><p data-block-key=\"f6pgx\"><a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-reporter-hit-projectile-tear-gassed-during-live-coverage-minneapolis-protest/\">Several</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-european-outlets-hit-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/\">other journalists</a> were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-hit-by-police-projectiles-in-minneapolis-fifth-precinct/\">hit</a> by police projectiles and tear gas fired by either State Patrol or Minneapolis Police that evening, as documented by the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"g9vo0\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
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{
"title": "TV station evacuated, windows smashed amid protests in Louisville",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tv-station-evacuated-windows-smashed-amid-protests-louisville/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-25T21:32:55.366401Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:32:08.048500Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:32:07.950413Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qrijd\">The staff of television station WHAS 11 was forced to briefly evacuate the station’s offices in Louisville, Kentucky, after the building’s windows were smashed during a protest on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"myrqf\">The protest was held in response to the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was shot dead by police on March 13, as well as the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since late May.</p><p data-block-key=\"qh75a\">Shortly after 11 p.m. on May 29, a WHAS producer posted on Twitter that he and other staff members were back on the air after having to evacuate the downtown building for 25 minutes when unidentified people started smashing windows.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ggbq\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreakingNews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BreakingNews</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WHAS11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WHAS11</a> crew forced to evacuate building for about 25 minutes after protesters starting smashing our windows. We're back on air now. We are SAFE and we are SECURE. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Louisville?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Louisville</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BreonnaTaylor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BreonnaTaylor</a></p>— Stephen A. Ostrosky (@producer_steve) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/producer_steve/status/1266566387373420545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gime6\">A news reporter from the station also described having to evacuate the building and said everyone returned safe and unharmed.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WHAS11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WHAS11</a> crew was forced to evacuate the building after some protesters smashed our windows. Thankfully everyone is safe and all is well. Please stay safe <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Louisville?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Louisville</a></p>— Senait Gebregiorgis (@SenaitTV) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SenaitTV/status/1266570203292409856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jexob\">At around 11:30 p.m., a journalist from the nearby Courier-Jourier saw broken window panes and graffiti spray painted on the network’s building, the newspaper <a href=\"https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/metro-government/2020/05/28/breonna-taylor-shooting-what-know-louisville-protest/5280762002/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"zmrx9\">Doug Proffitt, an anchor on WHAS 11, <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=756299548476021\">reported</a> on air later that night that a group of protesters had come down Chestnut Street towards the station’s building and that “it was a frightening situation.” He also said WHAS staff had suffered effects from tear gas that entered the building, but didn’t elaborate.</p><p data-block-key=\"vjwz7\">The network didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"89ici\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
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{
"title": "Journalist says police fired pepper balls at him while he stood alone covering Denver protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-says-police-fired-pepper-balls-him-while-he-stood-alone-covering-denver-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-18T18:32:54.838836Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:31:39.909305Z",
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"date": "2020-05-29",
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"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"shfdf\">Reporter and photographer Kevin Beaty says that police officers tried to pelt him with pepper balls while he was covering protests in Denver on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7mjda\">The protests erupted in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"iqctr\">Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held in cities across the U.S. since late May.</p><p data-block-key=\"eiglm\">Another Black man, Elijah McClain, died in August 2019 after a fateful encounter with police in Aurora, Colorado, which is in the Denver metro area. McClain’s name has been invoked in signs and chants at protests sparked by Floyd’s death.</p><p data-block-key=\"iqeez\">Beaty told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was standing alone on the lawn of the Colorado State Capitol while covering the May 29 protests for Denverite when a truck carrying Denver Police Department officers wielding pepper ball launchers arrived and began firing off rounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"hpyzr\">Beaty said he didn’t take direct hits, but he heard rounds make contact with his backpack.</p><p data-block-key=\"6bf2g\">“Even the smallest bit of powder getting into your respiratory system will make you sneeze or cough,” Beaty said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1tev5\">Beaty said that in addition to using pepper balls, Denver police were also hitting protesters with tear gas throughout the day and that he had taken some himself.</p><p data-block-key=\"ytaaz\">He did not seek medical attention following the May 29 protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"m9xr1\">Later that night, Beaty <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KevinJBeaty/status/1266565780671348736?s=20\">tweeted</a> that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock told him earlier that day that police would not target bystanders to the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"rb6qm\">“Why, then, did I just get shot while standing alone on the Capitol grass taking photos?” he said in the tweet.</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/DenverPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DenverPolice</a> the mayor told me this morning bystanders are not the intended target of this enforcement. Why, then, did I just get shot while standing alone on the Capitol grass taking photos?</p>— Kevin Beaty (@KevinJBeaty) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KevinJBeaty/status/1266565780671348736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"f2kcn\">The Denver Police Internal Affairs Bureau contacted Beaty after he tweeted about the incident, Beaty told the Tracker. He filed a report with the office, but said he has not been contacted since.</p><p data-block-key=\"baexf\">A spokesman for the Denver Police Department declined to comment on Beaty’s case.</p><p data-block-key=\"ykt90\">“An internal affairs investigation into this incident is underway and it would be inappropriate for the department to comment at this time,” spokesman Jay Casillas said in an email.</p><p data-block-key=\"hetmw\">Denver has seen numerous demonstrations since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, Beaty said. But the protests that broke out in the days following Floyd’s death were “some of the wildest I’ve ever seen.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xx6io\">“It was pretty bananas for the first few days,” Beaty said.</p><p data-block-key=\"qpvek\">In the months since, Beaty said that he has seen protesters in Aurora carrying firearms. He also noted that there have been a number of shootings during area demonstrations. In July, a 23-year-old man allegedly opened fire at a Jeep that attempted to drive through a group protesting McClain’s death while marching on Interstate 225 in Aurora.</p><p data-block-key=\"s1w2n\">Two protesters were struck with bullets during the shooting, <a href=\"https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/07/28/samuel-young-aurora-mugshot-shooting-jeep-elijah-mcclain-protest/\">according to CBS4 Denver</a>. Samuel Young, the accused shooter, is charged with four counts of attempted murder.</p><p data-block-key=\"une2t\">“In the last month, things have gotten more worrisome from a safety perspective,” Beaty said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2lo0s\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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{
"title": "Videographer hit by police projectiles in Minneapolis’ Fifth Precinct",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-hit-by-police-projectiles-in-minneapolis-fifth-precinct/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-08T11:11:19.119271Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:30:29.755819Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:30:29.672284Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tggag\">Police officers struck freelance filmmaker and journalist Mike Shum with two projectiles while he was reporting on protests in Minneapolis on May 29, 2020 for the New York Times.</p><p data-block-key=\"w6x10\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"hrct4\">Shum and Katie G. Nelson, a freelance journalist also reporting for the New York Times, were covering the fourth night of protests in Minneapolis on May 29. The night before, protesters overran and set fire to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct. The focus on the 29th had shifted to the Fifth Precinct, Shum told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"pcpxl\"><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000007164958/protests-minneapolis-police.html\">Video</a> shot by Shum and Nelson shows hundreds of protesters gathered outside the station as police stand on the rooftop, ordering them to disperse. Police deploy tear gas and protesters aim laser pointers and shoot fireworks at police. The video ends with a line of police emerging through a thick cloud of either tear gas or smoke on Nicollet Avenue next to the station.</p><p data-block-key=\"oev7x\">Shum said he and several other photojournalists filmed the officers as they began to fire projectiles. Protesters scattered by the tear gas were nearby, but the journalists stood together “obviously trying to get our shots,” Shum said.</p><p data-block-key=\"i5wbr\">Shum heard projectiles whizzing by his head before he was hit in the foot and side.</p><p data-block-key=\"t9c2q\">“I was trying to hold my shot realizing I could hear the whizzing by and I was like, OK, they are obviously shooting at us. And that’s when I got hit in the foot,” Shum said. “We should probably start running now.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xhikw\">He said he wasn’t sure what kind of projectile hit him, though he suspected the one on his side was a ricochet given the force and angle of the impact.</p><p data-block-key=\"vmumn\">The projectile that hit his foot “had more of an impact than I gave it credit for,” Shum said. His foot bruised with minor swelling. Walking was harder than normal but the injury didn’t require a doctor’s visit, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"pkgu4\">Shum told the Tracker he believed the police didn’t specifically target him but were shooting indiscriminately in a general direction that included many journalists. He said he wasn’t sure which law-enforcement agency was responsible, or whether other journalists in the group were hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"5wvry\">Protesters, journalists and even law-enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">dozen</a> different agencies joined the law-enforcement effort in Minnesota, often wearing similar looking uniforms.</p><p data-block-key=\"4t27k\">In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=545070406162328&ref=watch_permalink\">livestream</a> filmed by Jeff Wagner, a reporter with CBS affiliate WCCO, the Minnesota State Patrol can be heard over loudspeaker just before 11:30 p.m. ordering people to disperse immediately. Within the next twenty minutes, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-reporter-hit-projectile-tear-gassed-during-live-coverage-minneapolis-protest/\">several</a> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-european-outlets-hit-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/\">journalists</a> were hit by police projectiles and tear gas fired by either State Patrol or Minneapolis Police, all within a block radius of where Shum was hit. Nine minutes after Wagner filmed the loudspeaker warning, he, too, was hit by a police projectile.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ubso\">Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder told the Tracker he couldn’t comment on Shum getting hit. He added that “every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sbbwf\">The Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to the Tracker’s emailed list of questions.</p><p data-block-key=\"mpi02\">Capt. Melanie Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota National Guard, told the Tracker that “the Minnesota National Guard did not employ non-lethal rounds during the civil unrest in Minneapolis, Saint Paul and surrounding communities.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qvgqp\">Despite the injury, Shum continued to report on the protests with Nelson. The following day, law-enforcement officers pushed him over a wall and fired on Nelson’s car in separate incidents, the journalists said.</p><p data-block-key=\"eebuc\">Nelson and Shum have joined a class-action <a href=\"https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/press-releases/aclu-mn-sues-law-enforcement-over-attacks-journalists-covering-george-floyd-protests\">lawsuit</a> filed by the ACLU of Minnesota against Minneapolis and Minnesota officials concerning the treatment of journalists covering the Floyd protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"yjr4j\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"56toq\"><i>Editor’s Note: Shum withdrew from the lawsuit in September 2021. The metadata for this incident has been updated to reflect that. The journalists documented in the Tracker and remaining in the suit can be found</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?case_number=0:20-cv-01302\"><i>here</i></a><i>.</i></p></div>",
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{
"title": "Journalist hit with projectile two days in a row in Minneapolis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-projectile-two-days-row-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-04T20:59:12.490697Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:30:08.341092Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:30:08.244092Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
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"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cqc8r\">Reporter Julio Rosas told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was struck by a projectile shot by law enforcement while reporting on a protest in Minneapolis on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"pw86o\">The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"qhcox\">Rosas said he was hit near Minneapolis' Third Precinct while reporting for Townhall, which describes itself as a conservative news and commentary site.</p><p data-block-key=\"7p3jg\">In the early afternoon, Rosas <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266437348537106432\">filmed</a> State Patrol troopers and National Guardsmen stationed near stores that had been burgled. At about the same time, officials <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MnDPS_BCA/status/1266436388767105024\">announced</a> the arrest of fired police officer Derek Chauvin on third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison later added a second-degree murder charge in addition to charging three other former officers with aiding and abetting murder.</p><p data-block-key=\"7d0de\">The situation grew tense as an <a href=\"http://news.minneapolismn.gov/2020/05/29/mayor-frey-signs-emergency-regulation-in-minneapolis-establishing-curfew-tonight-at-8-p-m/\">8 p.m. curfew</a> drew closer, Rosas said. He filmed <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266492246519623685\">protesters</a> emotionally <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266509533171658755\">confronting</a> a mixed deployment of National Guard and police, including State Patrol.</p><p data-block-key=\"0wh57\">Some officers can also be seen wearing riot gear with “Police” or “Sheriff” written on it. It isn’t precisely clear to which law enforcement agencies they belonged.</p><p data-block-key=\"ipv4p\">Protesters, journalists and even law enforcement officials have had difficulty at times identifying specific officers during the protests. More than a <a href=\"https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ooc/news-releases/Pages/multi-agency-command-center-report-on-civil-unrest.aspx\">dozen</a> different agencies joined the law enforcement effort in Minnesota, often wearing similar looking uniforms.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0prb\">Officials by loudspeaker ordered protesters to disperse 10 minutes before curfew, as officers donned gas masks, Rosas told the Tracker. Rocks and bottles flung from the protesters’ side of a barricade were met with projectiles and tear gas from law enforcement, Rosas said.</p><p data-block-key=\"afpwj\">But instead of advancing to enforce the curfew, police and National Guard troops began to withdraw from the area, Rosas said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tfp75\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266550380193873920\">video</a> of the incident Rosas filmed from the sidewalk, law enforcement are seen backing past a burned-out building. He told the Tracker he had informed the National Guardsman closest to him that he was a journalist. He was wearing press credentials around his neck. Rosas pans to the left as police fire projectiles toward a line of protesters down the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"nujlu\">Then the sound of another shot rings out and the video cuts off. Rosas was hit in the torso. He would later <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1266539093908959232\">tweet</a> a photo of a welt of about 40 millimeters in diameter, the same as some of the projectiles he saw being used.</p><p data-block-key=\"w5k20\">Rosas, who was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-projectile-shot-minneapolis-police-vehicle/\">hit by what he believed was a pepper ball</a> the previous day, said the pain of getting hit by a 40mm projectile was on a different level.</p><p data-block-key=\"trcdh\">“When I first got hit, on a scale of one to 10 pain-wise, it was a 10 for the first minute,” Rosas said. “And then I thought ‘Oh shoot I need to get out of here.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"uiaux\">Rosas said he jumped over a small fence on the side of the road and landed on his back. Other people in the area helped him up and asked if he needed to go to the hospital. He wasn’t coughing up blood and didn’t feel pain breathing, so he went back to reporting, assuming he didn’t suffer serious internal damage. Later that night, he went to the hospital and received an official all-clear.</p><p data-block-key=\"1lhm6\">Capt. Melanie Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota National Guard, told the Tracker it “did not employ non-lethal rounds during the civil unrest in Minneapolis, Saint Paul and surrounding communities.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rzx8n\">The Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, didn’t respond to questions sent by the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ki9l8\">Rosas said he would be “very surprised” if he was hit by accident because there was no one around him. But he said he didn’t know whether he was targeted specifically as a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"40yrt\">Citing his experience assessing threats in the Marines, Rosas said it didn’t make sense to focus on him, as he posed no danger whether he was recognized as a journalist or not.</p><p data-block-key=\"0xhlf\">At least 12 people across the country were partially blinded by police projectiles between May 28 and June 2, according to a Washington Post <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2020/07/14/george-floyd-protests-police-blinding/?arc404=true#main-visual\">investigation</a>. One of those 12, freelance writer and photographer <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-permanently-blinded-others-assaulted-during-minneapolis-protests/\">Linda Tirado</a>, was hit in the left eye on the same night and precinct as Rosas.</p><p data-block-key=\"hoxyy\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"nvmtm\">Townhall reporter Julio Rosas shows the welt left behind from a projectile that hit him while covering protests on May 29, 2020.</p>",
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{
"title": "CNN headquarters in Atlanta vandalized during protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-headquarters-atlanta-vandalized-during-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-04T13:27:05.745128Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:28:57.475314Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:28:57.396920Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
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"city": "Atlanta",
"longitude": -84.38798,
"latitude": 33.749,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3az88\">On May 29, 2020, CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, was targeted by individuals who threw objects, broke windows and graffitied the large “CNN” logo out front.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ene4\">The crowd had gathered in Centennial Park earlier in the day, <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/cnn-center-vandalized-protest-atlanta-destroyed/index.html\">CNN reported</a>, but by about 7 p.m. individuals were damaging the news organization’s headquarters.</p><p data-block-key=\"3kmwk\">The protests in Atlanta were part of a national response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"doq4y\">As the crowd became rowdier on May 29, they set an Atlanta Police Department vehicle on fire and a SWAT team was called in, <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/cnn-center-vandalized-protest-atlanta-destroyed/index.html\">CNN reported</a>. As police faced off with protesters, someone threw either a firework or a flash-bang grenade over a line of officers. It <a href=\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/furious-demonstrators-swarm-cnn-center-in-atlanta-during-protest-of-george-floyds-death\">detonated in front of</a> CNN correspondent Nick Valencia and his crew as they reported from the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"7c0ha\">Despite that dramatic incident, no CNN employees were harmed, according to a CNN spokesperson.</p><p data-block-key=\"8g1ic\">“The protests were not directed at CNN and they were not protesting us/CNN, but our office in downtown Atlanta is a landmark location,” Bridget Leininger, CNN senior director of communications said.</p><p data-block-key=\"0unsm\">A <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/cnn-center-vandalized-protest-atlanta-destroyed/index.html\">CNN report</a> did note that some protesters were “chanting anti-media rhetoric.” In one <a href=\"https://twitter.com/fernalfonso/status/1266512702958112768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1266512702958112768&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2020%2F05%2F29%2Fus%2Fcnn-center-vandalized-protest-atlanta-destroyed%2Findex.html\">social media video</a> someone can be clearly heard yelling, “Fuck CNN!”</p><p data-block-key=\"qs2xv\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39KOD.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"sbuaq\">Protesters stand in front of a vandalized CNN logo at the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 29, 2020.</p>",
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{
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"state": {
"name": "Georgia",
"abbreviation": "GA"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [
"CNN"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
],
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{
"title": "Reporter for Swedish outlet struck with projectile during Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-european-outlets-hit-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-27T19:54:17.894924Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:19:17.030017Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:19:16.955619Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"b6xme\">Nina Svanberg, a reporter for the Swedish outlet Expressen, was struck with a crowd-control munition while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"o39m9\">Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"hbcy4\">Svanberg told the Committee to Protect Journalists — a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — that she and Thomas Nilsson, a photojournalist for Norwegian outlet Verdens Gang, had walked with protesters up from the Third Precinct to the Fifth Precinct on the 29th. National Guard troops and police arrived to the area to disperse the crowd and enforce the 8 p.m. curfew.</p><p data-block-key=\"xbqgo\">At about 11:30 p.m., Minneapolis Police Department officers began indiscriminately firing projectiles and tear gas to disperse the crowd, Svanberg said. One hit her on the hip.</p><p data-block-key=\"hbnvo\">“All of a sudden, I feel a sudden pain in the leg, and I’m losing my balance and falling down,” Svanberg told CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"n2d4a\">She said that she crawled behind a car to avoid being hit again, but was caught in the tear gas. Nilsson was affected by the chemical irritant as well. The Tracker documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-for-norwegian-outlet-targeted-with-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/\">his assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"7we55\">The journalists eventually met up in an alley where an Australian news team was sheltering with its security team.</p><p data-block-key=\"gt9bb\">Svanberg told CPJ that both she and Nilsson were wearing press passes.</p><p data-block-key=\"2q9vz\">“The thing is, I think it was obvious that we were there working,” Svanberg said. “We were behaving like journalists and not demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6r8vj\">The Minneapolis Police Department did not respond to multiple phone and emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ankef\">“We stood there for a while,” Svanberg said. “And then we just went from the corner and continued working.”</p><p data-block-key=\"z1vj4\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Nina Svanberg (Expressen)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Indianapolis Star journalist pepper sprayed, threatened, shot with projectile",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/indianapolis-star-journalist-pepper-sprayed-threatened-shot-projectile/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-22T22:40:27.320438Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:48:03.823637Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:48:03.732427Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Indianapolis",
"longitude": -86.15804,
"latitude": 39.76838,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"uxjqr\">Indianapolis Star photojournalist Kelly Wilkinson was tear gassed, pepper sprayed, threatened and shot with a pepper ball on May 29, 2020, while documenting the first night of protests in Indianapolis, Indiana.</p><p data-block-key=\"rh7a5\">The protests were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"t2r7l\">Wilkinson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protests that day had been largely peaceful until shortly after sunset when something triggered a back-and-forth between protesters and law enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"rhkhu\">“It sort of spiraled downhill after that,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jbwbv\">Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers began launching tear gas into the crowd, Wilkinson said. It was the first time she had experienced the chemical irritant.</p><p data-block-key=\"rl3fp\">“I don’t know whether I had a panic attack or what, but that first time that it got me, it got me good,” Wilkinson said. “I thought I was going to die.” After taking a few minutes to recover she said she was able to resume working.</p><p data-block-key=\"4rw4v\">Shortly before 10 p.m., as the skirmish between police and demonstrators continued, Wilkinson said she was working near a street corner where a number of police officers were assembled in a line. In <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ericweddle/status/1266564799384649728\">a video captured</a> by Eric Weddle, a reporter with NPR affiliate WFYI, Wilkinson can be seen approaching the intersection with one of her cameras raised as she photographs the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"25fh3\">An officer breaks away from the police line and approaches Wilkinson with his weapon trained on her. A second officer appears to intervene and directs Wilkinson to step back; as she does, the first officer appears to begin lowering his weapon.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">On the ground moments ago in Indianapolis. <a href=\"https://t.co/H4fto941z0\">pic.twitter.com/H4fto941z0</a></p>— Eric Weddle (@ericweddle) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ericweddle/status/1266564799384649728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"rkgx3\">Wilkinson told the Tracker that she didn’t remember the incident happening until she saw the video and that she hadn’t felt threatened at the time. “It does look quite shocking though, when you see it,” she added.</p><p data-block-key=\"uxwsj\">Wilkinson noted that in a separate incident that night she was struck above the knee with a pepper ball. She didn’t realize what hit her until she researched the wound pattern when she got home.</p><p data-block-key=\"1k0d5\">Later that evening, after Wilkinson had put on a gas mask to protect herself from the tear gas, officers directly pepper sprayed her, Wilkinson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"gl0l2\">“It looked like he was pointing right at me,” Wilkinson said. “I was maybe 8 to 10 feet away from him, so not too far.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gu1nj\">“Again, I thought I looked like a photographer, but maybe I didn’t. I did have all of my equipment on me,” she added, noting that she was carrying two cameras, a fanny pack and her press pass.</p><p data-block-key=\"1w300\">The following day, Wilkinson said the Star issued new press passes that are bright yellow and marked PRESS in large capital letters. Editors from the Star did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"7x21c\">The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ou1ns\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Indiana",
"abbreviation": "IN"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Kelly Wilkinson (The Indianapolis Star)"
],
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},
{
"title": "CNN producer, crew arrested on-air while documenting Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-producer-crew-arrested-air-while-documenting-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-22T16:16:58.135257Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:56:30.661884Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:56:30.556105Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yn71d\">CNN Producer Bill Kirkos was arrested with two other members of his CNN news crew while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early morning of May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"62i4i\">Protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.</p><p data-block-key=\"uaioe\">At least five journalists were hit with crowd-control ammunition while covering the Minneapolis protests on <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-struck-projectiles-while-covering-minneapolis-protest/\">May 26</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-hit-less-lethal-rounds-during-second-day-minnesota-protests/\">May 27</a> as police officers launched tear gas, stun grenades and less lethal ammunition into the crowd. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"jwumz\">Just after 5 a.m. on May 29, the CNN news crew — comprised of Kirkos, correspondent <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-news-crew-arrested-air-while-documenting-minneapolis-protests/\">Omar Jimenez</a> and photographer <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-photojournalist-crew-arrested-air-while-documenting-minneapolis-protests/\">Leonel Mendez</a> — was reporting live a few blocks from the Third Precinct, which had been set on fire by protesters the night before, CNN <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protest-updates-05-28-20/index.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"xgn5t\">In the <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/05/29/minneapolis-protests-omar-jimenez-arrested-newday-vpx.cnn\">live footage</a>, Minnesota State Patrol troopers can be seen approaching the news crew and asking them to move.</p><p data-block-key=\"t4udc\">Jimenez calmly shows the officers his CNN identification and is heard telling the troopers, “We can move back to where you’d like. We are live on the air at the moment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"u0wuw\">Within minutes, officers in riot gear approach and arrest each member of the news crew in turn while the camera continues to broadcast live.</p><p data-block-key=\"6o2yt\">Soon after the arrests, CNN posted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1266321293974134784\">a statement on Twitter</a> condemning the arrests as a violation of the journalists’ First Amendment Rights and demanding that the news crew be released.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves - a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. The authorities in Minnesota, incl. the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately.</p>— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1266321293974134784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 29, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dx98f\">The three journalists were released from the Hennepin County Public Safety facility in downtown Minneapolis at around 6:40 a.m., CNN <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protest-updates-05-28-20/index.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"d4cup\">The local chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists released a <a href=\"http://www.mnspj.org/2020/05/29/mnspj-and-tcbj-condemn-arrest-of-cnn-news-team/\">joint statement</a> condemning the arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"nydn3\">The statement reads, in part: “Police, State Patrol and other law enforcement officers should be well aware of the importance of the media whose job it is to document and report on breaking news for the benefit of the general public. We implore the responding parties to alert their officers on the rights of the press and the necessity of their presence as they continue to report on the current unrest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"g8eft\"><a href=\"https://freedom.press/news/minneapolis-minnesota-police-arrest-cnn-reporter-live-tv/\">Freedom of the Press Foundation</a>, the <a href=\"https://cpj.org/2020/05/cnn-team-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Committee to Protect Journalists</a> and other press advocacy groups also released statements condemning the arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"tt1yt\">Minnesota Governor Tim Walz apologized for the arrests during a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs4VjEsigiU\">press conference</a> a few hours after the journalists were released, stating that it should not have happened.</p><p data-block-key=\"byb6t\">“This one is on me and I own it,” Walz said. “I am a teacher by trade and I have spent my time as governor highlighting the need to be as transparent as possible and to have the media here: I failed you last night in that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"za51e\">Walz added that ensuring that there is a safe place for journalists to report during such incidents is vital, and that the arrest of journalists can increase fear in affected communities.</p><p data-block-key=\"eszpi\">“We will continue to strive to make sure that that accessibility is maintained,” Walz added. “The protection and security and safety of the journalists covering this is a top priority, not because it’s a nice thing to do, because it’s a key component of how we fix this.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dkmvq\">Neither CNN nor the Minnesota State Patrol responded to multiple emailed requests for comment about the incident.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Kirkos.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"bh13r\">CNN producer Bill Kirkos is arrested with two other members of the news crew during a live broadcast from protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 29, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Bill Kirkos (CNN)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "CNN photojournalist, crew arrested on-air while documenting Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-photojournalist-crew-arrested-air-while-documenting-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-22T16:12:55.313880Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:28:29.494788Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:28:29.388421Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"e3ujl\">CNN photojournalist Leonel Mendez was arrested with two other members of a CNN news crew while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early morning of May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"dgfbp\">Protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.</p><p data-block-key=\"484qx\">At least five journalists were hit with crowd-control ammunition while covering the Minneapolis protests on <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-struck-projectiles-while-covering-minneapolis-protest/\">May 26</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-hit-less-lethal-rounds-during-second-day-minnesota-protests/\">May 27</a> as police officers launched tear gas, stun grenades and less lethal ammunition into the crowd. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"z5dok\">Just after 5 a.m. on May 29, the CNN news crew — comprised of Mendez, correspondent <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-news-crew-arrested-air-while-documenting-minneapolis-protests/\">Omar Jimenez</a> and producer <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-producer-crew-arrested-air-while-documenting-minneapolis-protests/\">Bill Kirkos</a> — was reporting live a few blocks from the Third Precinct, which had been set on fire by protesters the night before, CNN <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protest-updates-05-28-20/index.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"wt435\">In the <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/05/29/minneapolis-protests-omar-jimenez-arrested-newday-vpx.cnn\">live footage</a>, Minnesota State Patrol troopers can be seen approaching the news crew and asking them to move.</p><p data-block-key=\"7v9l8\">Jimenez calmly shows the officers his CNN identification and is heard telling the troopers, “We can move back to where you’d like. We are live on the air at the moment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gf9dr\">Within minutes, officers in riot gear approach and arrest each member of the news crew in turn while the camera continues to broadcast live.</p><p data-block-key=\"qrz7x\">Soon after the arrests, CNN posted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1266321293974134784\">a statement on Twitter</a> condemning the arrests as a violation of the journalists’ First Amendment Rights and demanding that the news crew be released.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves - a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. The authorities in Minnesota, incl. the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately.</p>— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1266321293974134784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 29, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ysgj9\">The three journalists were released from the Hennepin County Public Safety facility in downtown Minneapolis at around 6:40 a.m., CNN <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protest-updates-05-28-20/index.html\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"0aonj\">The local chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists released a <a href=\"http://www.mnspj.org/2020/05/29/mnspj-and-tcbj-condemn-arrest-of-cnn-news-team/\">joint statement</a> condemning the arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"y4bmc\">The statement reads, in part: “Police, State Patrol and other law enforcement officers should be well aware of the importance of the media whose job it is to document and report on breaking news for the benefit of the general public. We implore the responding parties to alert their officers on the rights of the press and the necessity of their presence as they continue to report on the current unrest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tdcqb\"><a href=\"https://freedom.press/news/minneapolis-minnesota-police-arrest-cnn-reporter-live-tv/\">Freedom of the Press Foundation</a>, the <a href=\"https://cpj.org/2020/05/cnn-team-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/\">Committee to Protect Journalists</a> and other press advocacy groups also released statements condemning the arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"xaesi\">Minnesota Governor Tim Walz apologized for the arrests during a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs4VjEsigiU\">press conference</a> a few hours after the journalists were released, stating that it should not have happened.</p><p data-block-key=\"xf9mt\">“This one is on me and I own it,” Walz said. “I am a teacher by trade and I have spent my time as governor highlighting the need to be as transparent as possible and to have the media here: I failed you last night in that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"u05j4\">Walz added that ensuring that there is a safe place for journalists to report during such incidents is vital, and that the arrest of journalists can increase fear in affected communities.</p><p data-block-key=\"yther\">“We will continue to strive to make sure that that accessibility is maintained,” Walz added. “The protection and security and safety of the journalists covering this is a top priority, not because it’s a nice thing to do, because it’s a key component of how we fix this.”</p><p data-block-key=\"v3foe\">Neither CNN nor the Minnesota State Patrol responded to multiple emailed requests for comment about the incident.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Mendez.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1gtax\">The camera operated by CNN photojournalist Leonel Mendez continues to broadcast from Minneapolis, Minnesota as Mendez and two other members of the CNN news crew are arrested live on-air on May 29, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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},
{
"title": "Photographer assaulted by police officer during protests; now part of lawsuit against NYPD",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-assaulted-by-police-officer-during-protests-part-of-lawsuit-against-nypd/",
"first_published_at": "2021-08-18T14:25:30.757966Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-14T14:20:39.359062Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-14T14:20:39.175845Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4hy2l\">Visual journalist and documentary filmmaker Amr Alfiky was repeatedly assaulted by police officers while photographing a protest in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, on May 29, 2020, according to a federal lawsuit.</p><p data-block-key=\"at081\">Alfiky is one of five news photographers who filed a <a href=\"https://nppa.org/news/news-photographers-file-civil-rights-lawsuit-against-new-york-city-police-department\">federal lawsuit</a> on Aug. 5, 2021, “seeking to hold the New York Police Department [NYPD] accountable for its violation of their First Amendment rights.” The suit is being led by the National Press Photographers Association, of which four of the journalists are members, in partnership with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.</p><p data-block-key=\"xrf3d\">According to the <a href=\"https://nppa.org/sites/default/files/Gray%20v%20City%20of%20New%20York%20et%20al%20-%20Complaint%20-%20Filed%208-5-2021.pdf\">complaint</a>, Alfiky was covering a demonstration near Barclays Center with his camera in one hand and press pass in the other when an NYPD officer began shouting at him. Alfiky repeated, “I'm a journalist, I have a press pass,” but the officer responded with “I don't give a fuck about your press pass,” shoving him in the chest with a baton.</p><p data-block-key=\"73wjf\">The complaint stated that the officer continued to shove Alfiky back, causing him to trip and fall with “such force that an approximately one-inch-wide benign cyst on his back ruptured,” which led to "excruciating pain.” The officer continued to hit him with his baton and did not stop until two protesters pulled Alfiky away and helped him stand, according to the complaint.</p><p data-block-key=\"xqnj5\">“As a result of this assault, Mr. Alfiky suffered fever and infection. He later had to undergo medical treatment including a surgical procedure to clean the infected area in his back, and an additional procedure to remove the ruptured cyst,” the complaint noted. “Mr. Alfiky has also suffered back pain since the assault, which has been evaluated as likely caused by a traumatic incident.”</p><p data-block-key=\"alh6d\">“He was showing his credential and not only did the officer completely disregard it, but actually said, ‘I don't give a fuck,’” Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel to the NPPA, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “That seems to sum up, unfortunately, a lot of the attitude of law enforcement toward journalists.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1n8da\">Alfiky and the New York Police Department did not respond to a 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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39KII_-_Reuters_-_Shannon_Stap.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"p1ik8\">Police officers at a protest in New York City on May 29, 2020, following the killing of George Floyd. Journalist Amr Alfiky was shoved and beaten by an officer while documenting the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"case_number": "1:21-cv-06610",
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"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD",
"(2023-09-05 17:02:00+00:00) Journalists reach ‘historic’ settlement with NYPD in First Amendment suit",
"(2025-04-09 00:00:00+00:00) Appeals court affirms photographers’ settlement with NYPD",
"(2023-09-08 00:00:00+00:00) Judge voids First Amendment settlement with NYPD"
],
"case_statuses": [
"settled"
],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Amr Alfiky (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "San Jose journalist hit with rubber bullet in back during live coverage of protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/san-jose-journalist-hit-rubber-bullet-back-during-live-coverage-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-14T17:19:51.500695Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:28:53.317313Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:28:53.224628Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Jose",
"longitude": -121.89496,
"latitude": 37.33939,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"k43og\">Len Ramirez, a news reporter for KPIX 5 News, was shot in the back with a rubber bullet on May 29, 2020 while covering a protest in downtown San Jose, Calif.</p><p data-block-key=\"xr6xr\">The protest was part of a wave of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital. The officer has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who were present face felony charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"nxywl\">Ramirez was covering a crowd of protesters at San Jose City Hall when they were confronted by a police line. Officers declared the protest an illegal assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"d3upu\">Ramirez was live on the air for the Bay Area CBS affiliate with a camera person, who had a backpack transmitter. Ramirez was wearing a camera and holding a microphone labelled with the Channel 5 logo.</p><p data-block-key=\"tp7ef\">Officers began firing rubber bullets into the crowd and deploying flash-bang grenades.</p><p data-block-key=\"qpkna\">“I pulled back and was actually walking back and out of the area when I got shot,” Ramirez told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “I was wearing a white shirt, it left a black mark on the back and left a small bruise.” Ramirez was live on air at the time. In the clip from the broadcast he says, “Whoa, I just got hit with something.”</p><p data-block-key=\"r7phz\">The next day Ramirez tweeted: “Thanks to all for your concerns. I was shot in the back with a rubber bullet that left a bruise and mark on my shirt. I am fine. I was hit while reporting live on<a href=\"https://twitter.com/KPIXtv\"> @KPIXtv</a> during last night’s protest in downtown San Jose. I knew there were risks in being in the middle of that.” The tweet included an image of the black mark on the back of his shirt.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thanks to all for your concerns. I was shot in the back with a rubber bullet that left a bruise and mark on my shirt. I am fine. I was hit while reporting live on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KPIXtv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KPIXtv</a> during last night’s protest in downtown San Jose. I knew there were risks in being in the middle of that. <a href=\"https://t.co/4UsUVDH8Qi\">pic.twitter.com/4UsUVDH8Qi</a></p>— Len Ramirez (@lenKPIX) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/lenKPIX/status/1266922145944186880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"me2mu\">A photo provided to the Tracker shows bruising in the same area on his back. SJPD and KPIX 5 News owner CBS have yet to comment on this incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"xroo5\">On June 4, <a href=\"https://kcbsradio.radio.com/articles/sj-officials-to-reconsider-use-of-rubber-bullets\">KCBS Radio</a> reported that San Jose leaders were “questioning the use of aggressive police tactics and are re-evaluating how they police protests.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vx62g\">“I knew that there were risks involved in covering riots because I’ve covered several over the past 36 years that I’ve been a TV reporter,” Ramirez told the Tracker, “this is the most danger that I’ve felt in covering riots or police activity.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3cduf\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Len Ramirez (KPIX-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Photojournalist bruised, camera broken during NYC protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-bruised-camera-broken-during-nyc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-01T02:28:16.859384Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:28:35.976252Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:28:35.879812Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"q76tp\">Joel Marklund, a photojournalist with the Scandanavian photo agency Bildbyrån, was hit by pepper spray and involved in an altercation with New York City Police that damaged his camera and left him bruised while covering protests in the borough of Brooklyn on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"wfh1q\">The protest at Barclays Center was one of many demonstrations sparked across the country by the May 26 release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd during an arrest the prior day. Floyd, a Black man, was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"n6nve\">Marklund, who has been covering the protests since they began, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that this particularly large gathering numbered in the hundreds or thousands. Police contained the protest by using portable fencing. Around 7:15 p.m., as tensions between protesters and police intensified, officers picked up the fencing and used it to push the crowd back. They also began to “go wild” with the pepper spray, Marklund said, and some of it landed on him.</p><p data-block-key=\"nknjp\">Goggles and a facemask protected Marklund from the worst effects of the spray. But he said the spray also hit his exposed neck and arms, leaving him with a burning sensation that lasted for five or six hours. Marklund was wearing press credentials around his neck, but said that he wasn’t targeted for being a journalist. “They didn't look to see if it was press or someone else,” he said of the officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"h3ayp\">Around 8:30 p.m. during the same protest, a police officer swung his baton near Marklund to force the crowd back. In the scrum, the photographer was struck by something — probably the baton, but he could not say for sure — that left a bruise the size of his hand on his stomach, he told the Tracker. Something also made contact with the lens and body of his camera. Marklund anticipated costly repairs to his camera but expected his insurance to cover most of the expense.</p><p data-block-key=\"syywe\">“The police were very, very aggressive,” Marklund told the Tracker. “They’ve been shoving me and other media every single night. It's been very intense, but we haven't been close to what I see other photographers and media have experienced in other cities where they’ve been shot at [with projectiles]. But it's definitely been an aggressive atmosphere where it doesn't really matter if you're press or not.”</p><p data-block-key=\"88lxm\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">Find these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Marklund_floyd_0529.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"qmp7b\">Photojournalist Joel Marklund, who captured this image, said he was pepper sprayed, hit with a baton and had his camera broken while documenting protests in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on May 29, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "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": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Joel Marklund (Bildbyrån)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Individuals at protest in Tucson target journalist with repeated physical attacks",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/individuals-protest-tucson-target-journalist-repeated-physical-attacks/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-24T03:17:09.266840Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:28:18.417528Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:28:18.318818Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Tucson",
"longitude": -110.92648,
"latitude": 32.22174,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9gd82\">Individuals assaulted a freelance video journalist at a protest that devolved into violence in downtown Tucson, Arizona, on the evening of May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ssgpv\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"5099u\"><a href=\"http://www.ericrosenwaldphotography.com/\">Eric Rosenwald</a> was capturing footage of police and protesters outside the main police station in downtown Tucson around 10:30 p.m. when individuals in the crowd began to criticize him for filming them, claiming he was “with the police,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"j7e66\">Rosenwald, who was wearing a yellow safety vest adorned with a reflective patch that read “PRESS” and carrying a still camera, was clearly identifiable as a member of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"af2eb\">Rosenwald was first attacked by a young man in a blue baseball cap, who began to throw punches at him. The police line was about 20 yards away, and when officers noticed what was happening, they fired pepper balls at the ground near the attacker’s feet, affording Rosenwald the opportunity to escape, according to Rosenwald and video he furnished the Tracker of the encounter. He was not hit by any of the pepper balls nor did he inhale any of the powder they give off on impact.</p><p data-block-key=\"ooujo\">Less than a minute later, an individual came up to Rosenwald and started screaming at him.</p><p data-block-key=\"2x1kt\">“You’re fucking antagonizing us right now. You’re fucking antagonizing us right now. This is a protest and we’re protesting you, motherfucker,” that individual said, according to <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CA1G0ZMAts-/\">video footage</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"asolc\">As this verbal attack continued, Rosenwald said he was pushed to the ground by a scrum of five people, who kicked him in the head, legs and torso before he was able to find his footing again.</p><p data-block-key=\"2r6h3\">Rosenwald’s iPhone, attached to a recording rig, slipped out of his hand during this attack, and someone stole the microphone that had been attached to it, he said. He recovered his phone and continued to film as he walked backward away from his attackers. The Arizona Daily Star posted <a href=\"https://tucson.com/demonstrators-attack-photojounalist-language-alert/video_b6d1b339-1aed-5d1f-8d9b-21b348e2a6c8.html\">video</a> on its website of that attack in progress, captured from another angle by a journalist standing across the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"r9rtf\">About 30 minutes later, Rosenwald was attacked and pushed over again. During the course of the evening, he estimated he was punched or kicked 10 times, including three blows to the head that left him with large bruises and two black eyes. “I never left. I kept covering it,” Rosenwald said. “I think they realized I wasn’t going to go anywhere.”</p><p data-block-key=\"60qkz\">One of his attackers later found him in the crowd and gloated about the newly forming bruises on his face. “Look at his dumbass face. Yeah, you got fucked up. Guess who hit you? Me, you punk-ass bitch,” one attacker gloated. Rosenwald <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CA-D5cXA4Wp/\">posted video</a> of that encounter to his Instagram feed.</p><p data-block-key=\"s66bz\">Rosenwald said that the attacks were unexpected, given that he was on a well-lit street next to the police station and near plenty of other journalists. He said that his attackers seemed to range in age from 18 to 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"0hpf1\">“What really scared me, in some ways worse than the physical part, was the complete ignorance as to what the First Amendment means,” Rosenwald said. “That was frightening to me as a journalist.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eqcqw\">Rosenwald’s bruises lingered for more than two weeks, but he did not suffer any long-term injuries from the attacks. He filed a report with the Tucson Police Department on June 6 but said he has yet to hear back. A request for comment emailed to the department was not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"csczb\">One of the individuals who attacked Rosenwald also accosted a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, Caitlin Schmidt, and threw her cellphone. That incident is documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/individuals-crowd-accost-newspaper-reporter-covering-protests-tucson/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"pghu8\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "recording equipment"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Arizona",
"abbreviation": "AZ"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-01-08 15:31:00+00:00) Individual charged with assault, robbery of Tucson journalist during May 2020 protest and pays restitutions"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
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"categories": [
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},
{
"title": "CNN reporter hit with a projectile, tear-gassed during live coverage of Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-reporter-hit-projectile-tear-gassed-during-live-coverage-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-22T14:00:32.627732Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:55:52.379491Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:55:52.293593Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"j0vqk\">Miguel Marquez, a national correspondent for CNN, was hit with a projectile and tear-gassed on live TV while reporting from protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for Cuomo Prime Time on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"g4ajo\">The protests were part of several days of demonstrations that began in response to a video of a white police officer in Minneapolis kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest. Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"hjmhw\">Marquez was covering protests near the Fifth Precinct headquarters where demonstrators refused to comply with warnings from <a href=\"https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/05/30/protesters-defy-minneapolis-curfew-order-several-fires-set-during-4th-night-of-unrest-over-george-floyds-death/\">law enforcement and the National Guard</a> that they were breaking curfew and would be removed, Marquez reported. “That’s when things got very, very intense here,” he said in <a href=\"https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/05/30/marquez-minneapolis-tear-gas-police-bts-cpt-vpx.cnn\">a video of the incident</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"8hca9\">Marquez went on to say that protesters were firing bottle rockets and fireworks at the precinct, while law enforcement was responding with tear gas and flash-bang grenades. At one point in the video, the CNN reporter lets out an exclamation after being struck with a canister or a rock, and host Chris Cuomo advises him and his crew to retreat from the action.</p><p data-block-key=\"knoeh\">While describing the action in front of him — which included protesters “using the fireworks as weapons” — Marquez wound up in the line of tear gas, telling his cameraperson to “watch yourself” as they moved away. In the video, he can be heard coughing.</p><p data-block-key=\"m2fot\">“That’s a healthy dose,” he said, before continuing to report. ““They fired a hell of a volley of tear gas into the crowd to get them out,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2pans\">A CNN spokesperson declined to make Marquez available for an interview, noting that he had not specifically been targeted by tear gas but was merely “in the area where the tear gas was being shot.”</p><p data-block-key=\"alxam\">A Minneapolis police department spokesperson did not respond immediately to a question about why tear gas was deployed or the type of projectile that struck Marquez.</p><p data-block-key=\"08iqo\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Marquez_assault_0529_floyd_MN.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"zxvf5\">Demonstrators chant outside the Fifth Precinct on May 29, 2020.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"Miguel Marquez (CNN)"
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{
"title": "WLKY correspondent attacked while covering Louisville protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wlky-correspondent-attacked-while-covering-louisville-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-27T19:52:30.343289Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:22:23.637077Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:22:23.490115Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ll492\">Deni Kamper, a correspondent for local broadcast station WLKY, and her news partner were assaulted by individuals while covering protests in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"fx10e\">Protests in Louisville have centered around the deaths of Breonna Taylor, shot and killed inside her home by Louisville police in March, and the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"8f9aw\">Kamper was attacked by a mob of people alongside photographer Paul Ahmann, but reported in a tweet that she was “ok,” <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WLKYDeni/status/1266586434565177346\">writing</a>, “A lot of people helped us tonight and I’m so grateful.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">All - I’m ok. Paul, the photographer who’s been with me all night, is being treated but is also ok. A lot of people helped us tonight and I’m so grateful.</p>— Deni Kamper (@denikamper) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/denikamper/status/1266586434565177346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 30, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8vx58\">Shaky video of the attack was <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/chriscoleman.malone/videos/818598728549036/\">livestreamed</a> on Facebook. In the footage, Ahmann lays on the ground as the crowd takes photos and videos of him, while at least one man visibly tries to hold the crowd back.</p><p data-block-key=\"mcoia\">Kamper and Ahmann did not immediately respond to an emailed interview request.</p><p data-block-key=\"1g47s\">Their news vehicle was also vandalized and later set on fire, and another WLKY news vehicle was vandalized that night. At least one other WLKY news crew was also attacked. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented all May 29 WLKY incidents <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-29&date_upper=2020-05-29&targeted_institutions=265\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6bh1s\">The Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "Kentucky",
"abbreviation": "KY"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Deni Kamper (WLKY)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Individuals in crowd accost newspaper reporter covering protests in Tucson",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/individuals-crowd-accost-newspaper-reporter-covering-protests-tucson/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-22T02:46:04.327534Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:18:53.327925Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:18:53.239535Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Phoenix",
"longitude": -112.07404,
"latitude": 33.44838,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fb2zi\">While covering protests in Tucson on the evening of May 29, 2020, Caitlin Schmidt, a sports reporter with the Arizona Daily Star, was accosted by individuals in the crowd who hit her arm and threw her phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"gckip\">The protests were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ihvis\">Schmidt arrived outside the police station in downtown Tucson at 10 p.m. to document the protest, attended by several hundred people.</p><p data-block-key=\"vf1va\">She began filming the scene on her phone to send to her editor to post on social media, when three members of the crowd wearing medical masks approached her and began yelling at her, Schmidt told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"jjmgv\">One shouted at her, “When you put our faces on TV, it gets us killed,” according to Schmidt’s recounting. She responded, “I'm not putting you on TV, I’m just doing my job,” and continued to film.</p><p data-block-key=\"18f4s\">Another one hit her arm very hard, causing her phone to slip out of her grasp. The first person, who had been yelling, scooped up Schmidt’s phone and threw it some 20 feet away, nearly hitting someone. The phone was not damaged, and a coworker was able to retrieve it for her.</p><p data-block-key=\"rnafv\">“The next day I had a pretty large bruise on my arm,” she said, as well as some “fairly significant swelling.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3i7fy\">Schmidt was wearing press credentials around her neck, which caught the eye of the individuals who accosted her. They took photos of it and threatened to find her later. “If you use our faces, we’re going to come find you,” Schmidt recounted one said.</p><p data-block-key=\"rjvmi\">She was standing within six feet of the police line at the time, as well as close to some TV cameramen from another outlet, and the incident was caught on the TV camera's live stream, she said. Schmidt said she did not “move or react” until the three left her alone.</p><p data-block-key=\"sn4a2\">An hour later, one of the same people found Schmidt in the crowd again and began yelling at her. That encounter was captured by freelance photojournalist Eric Rosenwald, who <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/eric.rosenwald/videos/1517285145109755/\">posted</a> it on Facebook. "Announce your privilege! Announce your privilege! You won't, because you're part of the problem, and that's why you got your shit tossed," the person yelled. Schmidt again remained silent until the person walked away.</p><p data-block-key=\"wjkt5\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"g6jeh\">An individual harasses Arizona Daily Star reporter Caitlin Schmidt about an hour after she was assaulted while reporting from a protest in Tuscon on May 29, 2020.</p>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "Arizona",
"abbreviation": "AZ"
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"tags": [
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "WPTA journalist hit with tear gas canister while covering Indiana protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wpta-journalist-hit-tear-gas-canister-while-covering-indiana-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-15T02:08:04.603037Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:18:24.901352Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:18:24.814952Z",
"date": "2020-05-29",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Fort Wayne",
"longitude": -85.12886,
"latitude": 41.1306,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"x09lt\">Karli VanCleave, a journalist with WPTA ABC 21, was struck by a tear gas canister fired by police while she was covering protests in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"awt46\">Protests in Fort Wayne began as demonstrations erupted across the country, sparked by a video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest in Minnesota on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"46iuw\">VanCleave covered the protests in downtown Fort Wayne for several hours. In the evening, as protesters gathered in the street, she said police formed a barricade to keep them from the courthouse lawn. The tension between protesters and police went on for several hours, VanCleave said, and police used tear gas several times.</p><p data-block-key=\"8knwp\">VanCleave was part of a group of five journalists with WPTA covering the protests. They had been standing near the police, who were aware the journalists were there, she said. VanCleave and her colleagues were wearing bright red shirts and jackets with the station’s logo. She was carrying equipment, including a camera marked with ABC 21’s letters.</p><p data-block-key=\"on68m\">As protesters and police faced off, without a warning, police began shooting canisters off in every direction, VanCleave said. She began to run and lost the rest of her team.</p><p data-block-key=\"s9cbj\">She saw one of the canisters, billowing smoke and looking “like a firework,” coming straight toward her face. VanCleave said she turned to duck, and the canister hit her in the back. She couldn’t breathe and had to hunch over. She was also carrying a large camera and a microphone, which made it “impossible” to run, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tzj8r\">VanCleave’s coworker, Kayla Crandall, posted on <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Karli_VanCleave/status/1266618555484823554\">Twitter</a> that VanCleave had been struck with a canister while covering the protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"z0f5j\">The blow from the canister left VanCleave feeling sore the next day. Being close to the tear gas was worse, she said, because she couldn’t breathe or see and her skin felt as though it was burning everywhere.</p><p data-block-key=\"z5fm0\">VanCleave did not report the incident to police. Though the news organization has been in touch with police about other issues from the protests, she did not believe her experience had been reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"256w2\">Sergeant Brian Walker, the regional public information officer for the Indiana State Police, said in an email that he had looked into the claim, but there was nothing to comment on and confirmed there was no documentation of it.</p><p data-block-key=\"0qq9d\">VanCleave said police did not give warnings before using tear gas. For both protesters and the press, it was not clear what people were supposed to do to avoid exposure. “We would inch closer and closer so we could get the best shots, and still thinking that we were OK for a little bit to not get tear-gassed,” VanCleave said. “But then it would just happen out of nowhere, it seemed like almost every time.”</p><p data-block-key=\"33ja0\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> here</a>.</p></div>",
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Indiana",
"abbreviation": "IN"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Karli VanCleave (WPTA)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
}
]
