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{
"title": "Reporter punched during protest in Delaware; iPhone stolen",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-punched-during-protest-delaware-iphone-stolen/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-10T18:34:10.724671Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:18:13.728747Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:18:13.646275Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Wilmington",
"longitude": -75.54659,
"latitude": 39.74595,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dlogi\">Radio journalist Sean Greene <a href=\"https://www.wdel.com/news/video-peaceful-protests-turn-into-acts-of-violence-in-wilmington/article_9e6cd368-a2cf-11ea-ae30-4715a234bbb8.html\">was punched in the eye</a> by an unknown individual who also stole a smartphone the reporter was using to cover a demonstration in Wilmington, Delaware, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7tuwk\">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, Minnesota, 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 late May.</p><p data-block-key=\"brypu\">Greene told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that protests he has covered in Wilmington and Dover, Delaware, for radio station WDEL were mostly free of violence and destruction of property, but some individuals took advantage of the May 30 demonstration in Wilmington to break into retail stores and steal merchandise.</p><p data-block-key=\"gpbbs\">Greene used his company-issued iPhone to broadcast the scene to Facebook Live. He was wearing a construction vest and had press credentials attached to a lanyard hanging from his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"wfg0p\">At about 6 p.m. Greene was filming a person trying to break a storefront window when an unknown individual punched him in the eye.</p><p data-block-key=\"ymzan\">“I hear someone scream ‘snitch!’ and the next thing I know someone has punched me,” Greene said. The individual also stole the iPhone and fled.</p><p data-block-key=\"s8bu8\">Greene said he didn’t get a good look at the assailant.</p><p data-block-key=\"77fl5\">Greene said three Wilmington police officers standing nearby saw the assault but took no action. He didn’t seek medical attention and reported the incident to the police.</p><p data-block-key=\"tuper\">A Wilmington police spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"7m6nn\">Greene said some protesters saw the incident and helped him.</p><p data-block-key=\"l083p\">“To the protesters who made sure I was OK and offered me water, thank you,” Greene tweeted following the incident. “To the police officers who saw me take a punch and did nothing, I'm disappointed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i5sv0\">Greene said he has since covered two additional protests from WDEL without incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"zm1vt\">Mike Phillips, a colleague of Greene’s at WDEL, also had a company-issued iPhone stolen while covering the May 30 protest but wasn’t otherwise harmed. Phillips reported the theft of the two iPhones to the Wilmington Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"j9eqt\">A police spokesman declined to comment on Phillips’ report.</p><p data-block-key=\"r24bj\">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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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
}
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"state": {
"name": "Delaware",
"abbreviation": "DE"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"robbery"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sean Greene (WDEL-FM)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Free Press journalists say they were targeted with chemical irritants while covering Detroit protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/free-press-journalists-say-they-were-targeted-chemical-irritants-while-covering-detroit-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-08T12:10:46.800200Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:55.432830Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:55.350125Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pa3xw\">Free Press education reporter David Jesse said he was targeted with tear gas and rubber bullets by law enforcement while covering protests in downtown Detroit, Michigan, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"4s6xr\">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=\"lf9c2\">Jesse told the Committee to Protect Journalists — a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — that around midnight on May 30th an officer threw tear gas toward the group of journalists he’d been standing with and that someone began to fire rubber bullets. Jesse wasn’t hit but felt the incident was targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"x6h60\">“I had my iPhone out in one hand, taking a picture of what’s going on, and in my other hand, I have [my] media credential out, you know, showing the media credential,” Jesse said, adding that the journalists were screaming, “Media!”</p><p data-block-key=\"si9q3\">“It was very clear who we were,” he said. “We were all taking pictures. … It was very clearly aimed at us and getting us off the streets. There’s no doubt they were shooting right at us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"21mui\">Jesse told CPJ that he didn’t feel like any other deployments of tear gas were aimed at the journalists. “They were tear-gassing protesters and the cloud just sort of travels,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vpsfg\">Several other Free Press colleagues were caught up in tear-gas and rubber-bullet fire that evening. No one was injured, and there are differing opinions as to whether the journalists were targeted. The Free Press did not respond to an emailed request for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"xipnt\">When contacted by CPJ, the Detroit Police Department’s voicemail box was full. The department did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"dw36m\">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",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"David Jesse (Detroit Free Press)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
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},
{
"title": "Weapons aimed at Free Press journalists covering Detroit protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/weapons-aimed-free-press-journalists-covering-detroit-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-08T12:01:32.559567Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:30.403982Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:30.323392Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fmcq1\">Two journalists who’d been reporting for the Detroit Free Press had weapons brandished at them by law enforcement officials while covering protests in the city on May 30, 2020, they told the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"gznsu\">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=\"ojspr\">Detroit Free Press reporter M.L. Elrick, who’d been reporting that evening with a group of Free Press journalists, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that at around midnight, a police officer pointed a nonlethal rifle at him. Elrick was standing on a street with Free Press reporters <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-police-officer-aims-weapon-at-free-press-journalist/\">Branden Hunter</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/free-press-journalists-say-they-were-targeted-chemical-irritants-while-covering-detroit-protests/\">David Jesse</a>, several other reporters and unidentified people in civilian clothes. Elrick was wearing a press badge, khakis and sneakers, according to photographs of the evening and the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"oza3e\">Elrick said that he “explained to the cop who [he] was and nothing happened.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oqn7g\">Immediately following this incident, police used tear gas to disperse protesters as well as a rubber bullet gun, but Elrick said he did not feel like it was aimed at the reporters.</p><p data-block-key=\"2idmy\">“There was tear gas everywhere, so some people got it in their eyes,” Elrick told CPJ about that evening. “There [were] a lot of people going out there without proper regalia,” which, in Elrick’s opinion, made it difficult to distinguish journalists from protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"flc0k\">The Free Press did not respond to an email requesting comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"2vzm3\">When contacted by CPJ, the Detroit Police Department’s voicemail box was full. The department did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment as of press time. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"e5hvu\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"M.L. Elrick (Detroit Free Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Independent journalist says LA police damaged his equipment while arresting him",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-says-la-police-damaged-his-equipment-while-arresting-him/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-07T17:38:02.302763Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T22:34:18.259058Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T22:34:18.067323Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ncx04\">Jonathan Mayorca, a journalist and co-owner of video news outlet The Convo Couch, was arrested by Los Angeles police while filming a demonstration on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"oqbv9\">The protest was part of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country. The protests were 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.</p><p data-block-key=\"58cd9\">Mayorca told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at the protest in the Fairfax area of Beverly Boulevard at around 3:30 p.m. along with two crew members, including his sister, Fiorella. Mayorca immediately began to livestream the demonstration. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bSNF3DSzZk&feature=youtu.be\">Video</a> shows protesters gathering, holding signs, facing off with a line of police officers and then walking with their hands up and chanting.</p><p data-block-key=\"v5tgz\">The protesters moved west down Beverly Boulevard, and Mayorca and his crew followed. At around 4 p.m the protesters went down an alley near Beverly Boulevard and North Fairfax Avenue because the police had blocked off all other streets, Mayorca said. Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department then blocked all exits, or kettled the protesters in the alley. Mayorca and his crew were prevented from leaving.</p><p data-block-key=\"ka8l9\">Mayorca said he told the police he was a member of the press, but they ignored him. Mayorca was wearing a press badge on a lanyard hanging from his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"iofg7\">“We told them multiple times, ‘we’re press, we’re press’,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b57jb\">Protesters and Mayorca and his crew knelt on the ground in the alley as police officers watched them from a “line in front and behind us,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"h409u\">“One protester was crying hysterically,” Mayorca told the Tracker. “She threw up.”</p><p data-block-key=\"21fov\">Soon after being kettled, LAPD officers moved into the alley. Mayorca did not hear a dispersal order and was not given an opportunity to leave before he was arrested, according to a <a href=\"https://nlg-la.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/06/AMENDED-COMPLAINT-ECF.pdf\">class-action lawsuit</a> Mayorca joined against the LAPD for alleged federal and state constitutional rights violations. Mayorca’s video of the incident does not appear to pick up an audible warning from police.</p><p data-block-key=\"ljx06\">Officers grabbed Mayorca, pushed him to the ground, and arrested him, he said. The officers’ actions broke the microphone attachment for his camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"hcrlg\">“It was the height of aggressiveness,” Mayorca said.</p><p data-block-key=\"h8xsf\">According to Mayorca, an officer said his camera equipment was broken before his interaction with police.</p><p data-block-key=\"p7x4j\">The police used zip-tie handcuffs to detain him.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here’s the quick clip of us getting arrested as the cops lied and kettled the people into an alley. People were asking where to go & the cops led them to more cops. They refused to let us go even though we had badges and told them. <a href=\"https://t.co/nfYvTl561J\">pic.twitter.com/nfYvTl561J</a></p>— Fiorella Isabel🌹🔥 (@Fiorella_im) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Fiorella_im/status/1267359859386707969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 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=\"dtodm\">“The police put me against a wall and searched me,” Mayorca said.</p><p data-block-key=\"6284b\">The police brought Mayorca to the Van Nuys police station, where he was held for about two hours and then released, he said. Mayorca said he repeatedly complained about the tightness of his zip-tie handcuffs, but the police ignored him.</p><p data-block-key=\"72oc6\">“It cut off my circulation a bit,” Mayorca said. “It was uncomfortably tight.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wqen0\">He was issued a citation for failure to obey a lawful order, a misdemeanor.</p><p data-block-key=\"e9c4c\">Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer <a href=\"https://www.lacityattorney.org/post/feuer-takes-restorative-non-punitive-approach-outside-the-court-system-for-peaceful-protesters\">said in June</a> that he would use a “non-punitive approach” to resolve the cases of peaceful protesters outside the court system.</p><p data-block-key=\"k1ldd\">Jorge Gonzalez, a civil rights lawyer who's part of the team representing protesters, said the city has tentatively agreed to dismiss the charges if protesters complete an online course on the First Amendment. Gonzalez told the Tracker Aug. 3 that he is rejecting the city’s condition and awaiting the city’s response.</p><p data-block-key=\"opzwp\">However, Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Feuer, said protesters will be invited to a voluntary, virtual conversation about policing, bias, and inequity organized with the help of local cultural, academic and criminal justice institutions.</p><p data-block-key=\"pehzv\">Mayorca is a plaintiff in a <a href=\"https://nlg-la.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/06/AMENDED-COMPLAINT-ECF.pdf\">class-action lawsuit</a> against the LAPD for allegedly violating protesters’ constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, using excessive force, and holding protesters in unlawful conditions of confinement. When reached for comment, LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman said the “department does not comment on pending complaints.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i7ney\">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": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"a2af4\">Police at protests in Los Angeles, California, on May 30, 2020, after the murder of George Floyd in police custody. Journalist Jonathan Mayorca was forcibly arrested and his camera damaged while documenting the protests.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
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"case_number": "2:20-cv-05027",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "recording equipment"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-05-31 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at LA protest",
"(2024-09-05 00:00:00+00:00) Appeals court reverses class certification in suit with journalist plaintiff"
],
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"ongoing"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Jonathan Mayorca (The Convo Couch)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist’s credentials stolen during DC protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalists-credentials-stolen-during-dc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-05T18:16:53.529990Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:17:56.675125Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:17:56.578600Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"i3b7i\">Matthew Rodier, a freelance photojournalist who was covering protests in Washington, D.C., had his National Press Photographers Association credentials stolen on May 30, 2020 by an individual who said that his photos were “getting people killed.”</p><p data-block-key=\"43h9h\">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 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 United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"vck71\">Rodier, who frequently contributes to the Sipa USA agency, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he’d been covering events near the White House on the evening of May 30, when he was approached by a woman who asked him to stop taking photos.</p><p data-block-key=\"o3r6f\">“She said, ‘Your pictures are getting people killed,’” Rodier recounted. “I asked how and she responded, ‘Look what happened in Ferguson,’” seemingly a reference to <a href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/puzzling-number-men-tied-ferguson-protests-have-died-n984261\">speculation</a> that a number of individuals connected to 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, had died suspiciously.</p><p data-block-key=\"bu428\">During current protests, calls for photojournalists to blur the faces of people they photograph at demonstrations, or to not publish images that show identifying features, has inspired <a href=\"https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2020/should-journalists-show-protesters-faces/\">a debate among journalists</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9is9\">Rodier said he told the woman “that it’s both my First Amendment right and my job to take the pictures.” He said that she responded violently: “She ripped the press pass from the lanyard around my neck and threw it into the crowd.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i41jx\">Rodier, who continued to document that evening without his NPPA lanyard, was also the subject of multiple assaults while covering protests the following day in D.C. The Tracker captured those incidents <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/multiple-journalists-assaulted-while-covering-dc-protests/\">here</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalists-jaw-broken-at-washington-dc-protests/\">here</a>. 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 are documented <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">by the Tracker here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"quantity": 1,
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"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"robbery"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist hit by rubber bullets while documenting protest near White House",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-rubber-bullets-while-documenting-protest-near-white-house/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-29T02:01:06.406870Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:45:35.391824Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:45:35.294471Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"875xz\">Sally Ayhan, a reporter for TRT World — a Turkish state-owned, English-language broadcaster — said she was struck in the chest and leg by rubber bullets fired by law-enforcement officers while she covered a protest near the White House on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"5zv34\">Protests that began in Minneapolis 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=\"nb38m\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TRTWorldNow/status/1266952544967733250\">report</a> for TRT, Ayhan said that as she and her cameraman walked through the streets of Washington, D.C., they saw cars, including a police car, smoldering and heard tear-gas canisters and firecrackers going off.</p><p data-block-key=\"s3req\">“The rest of the protesters came, saying that they were being chased by police with fire crackers and gas canisters and rubber pellets,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mlfpl\">Ayhan, who didn’t respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment, added she didn’t see protesters struck by the projectiles, though she herself was hit several times. It wasn’t clear which law-enforcement agency’s officers fired the rounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"awbpa\">She said in her report that she was first hit in the back of the leg. “Then as I turned around trying to figure out how the police were dealing with protesters, I was hit in the chest, which hurt incredibly for a few moments,” Ayhan added.</p><p data-block-key=\"aai8m\">Ayhan <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Sally_Ayhan/status/1266909027075788800\">tweeted</a> that she was struck while reporting in front of the White House, and that it appeared to be a tactic police were using “to keep protestors from breaking through the barricades.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I was shot twice tonight by rubber bullets while reporting in front of the White House. Just one of the strategies police are using to keep protestors from breaking through the barricades. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydProtests</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/JQtXF1e0Ku\">pic.twitter.com/JQtXF1e0Ku</a></p>— Sally Ayhan (@Sally_Ayhan) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Sally_Ayhan/status/1266909027075788800?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=\"97b31\">Neither the Secret Service nor the D.C. Metro Police Department responded to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"w9bld\">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 related to the death of George Floyd. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39ONE.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cdc5k\">A Secret Service agent is seen behind a barricade as demonstrators rally near the White House in Washington, D.C. on May 30, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"border_point": 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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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sally Ayhan (TRT World [Turkey])"
],
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},
{
"title": "Reporter for NPR affiliate struck by rubber bullet during LA protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-for-npr-affiliate-struck-by-rubber-bullet-during-la-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-29T17:34:44.055183Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:50:04.515425Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:50:04.400258Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ecezm\">Cerise Castle, a reporter for Santa Monica NPR affiliate KCRW, was struck with a rubber bullet while covering protests in Los Angeles, California, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"1c2b4\">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=\"tqxb2\">In a statement emailed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Castle said that at around 6:45 p.m., she was photographing a group of LAPD officers in riot gear who had just arrived at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in the back of an open truck.</p><p data-block-key=\"5fgjw\">“As I was snapping photos, the police descended from their vehicle and began pointing rifles at the crowd. People started to run, I held my ground and continued to take pictures,” she wrote. “This is when the shooting started, without warning or prior order to disperse. I screamed after the first gunshot, then pulled myself together and began yelling PRESS and removed my lanyard from my neck, and held it above my head.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">LAPD just shot me and protestors gathered at Beverly & Fairfax with rubber bullets. I was holding my press badge above my head. <a href=\"https://t.co/9YCXq3rUvc\">pic.twitter.com/9YCXq3rUvc</a></p>— Cerise Castle (@cerisecastle) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/cerisecastle/status/1266878695555231747?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=\"l1q89\">The rubber bullet that hit her arm above the elbow crease was fired by an officer with whom she had just locked eyes with, she said. As she ran away, she sprained her ankle and is currently on crutches.</p><p data-block-key=\"rt4n5\">LAPD did not respond to an email requesting comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"yvgxf\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Cerise Castle (KCRW-FM)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Two Live 5 News news vehicles damaged in one night in Charleston",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-live-5-news-news-vehicles-damaged-one-night-charleston/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-28T03:49:23.978600Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:17:36.361778Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:17:36.267519Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Charleston",
"longitude": -79.93092,
"latitude": 32.77657,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"21j87\">A group of people hit and threw a rock into a stopped Live 5 News car carrying three journalists covering a demonstration against police violence in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"6qkdt\">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, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence 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=\"d63u6\">The car carrying reporter Abbey O’Brien, reporter <a href=\"/all-incidents/live-5-news-reporter-in-vehicle-attacked-during-charleston-protests/\">Rob Way</a> and producer <a href=\"/all-incidents/live-5-news-producer-in-vehicle-attacked-during-charleston-protests/\">Allyson Cook</a> was driving through a crowd to get to safety because downtown Charleston was becoming violent, O’Brien said.</p><p data-block-key=\"3u3us\">“We were in a Live 5 News car obviously designated as our station,” O’Brien told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “People started banging on our windows and flicking us off.”</p><p data-block-key=\"benei\">Demonstrations had started peacefully but turned violent as the night wore on, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ck2vp\">“Once it got dark, it turned into rioting; that was definitely not as many people,” O’Brien said. “I truly believe that it was just two different groups of people.”</p><p data-block-key=\"28rd7\">While they were stopped at an intersection, members of the crowd began to bang on the windows of the car and then a rock was thrown through the back window. No one was injured.</p><p data-block-key=\"51n7\">At the time, the journalists weren’t sure whether it was a rock, tear-gas canister or an explosive, so once they got to safety, they all exited the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"dj6bt\">“We all jumped out and realized it was just a brick,” O’Brien said. “So, no one was hurt, which is good, but it was really scary.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Now that we’re safe... here’s a look at what just happened to our <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Live5News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Live5News</a> car. Someone threw this large rock while we were driving down King St. Very scary <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/chsnews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#chsnews</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/scnews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#scnews</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/0r1Fq77nZ7\">pic.twitter.com/0r1Fq77nZ7</a></p>— Abbey O'Brien (@abbeyobrien) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/abbeyobrien/status/1266934403776864257?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=\"bie8k\">They continued to report throughout the night and made sure they didn’t leave anything valuable in the car. O’Brien said that, in a separate incident, people smashed out the front, driver’s side window of a different, unoccupied Live 5 truck. Both the car and the truck were out of commission for a few days, she said.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The windows in our <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Live5News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Live5News</a> car busted in as <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/protesters?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#protesters</a> move up king street. They are using bricks dug up to also smash windows <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Charleston?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Charleston</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/zyrXyU1omv\">pic.twitter.com/zyrXyU1omv</a></p>— Lillian Donahue (@LillianDonahue) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LillianDonahue/status/1266910869742661638?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=\"jqtcd\">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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"actor": "private individual",
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{
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"equipment": "vehicle"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "South Carolina",
"abbreviation": "SC"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
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},
{
"title": "Two news vehicles damaged during Reno protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-news-vehicles-damaged-during-reno-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-21T21:28:45.094527Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:01:49.933271Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:01:49.840305Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Reno",
"longitude": -119.8138,
"latitude": 39.52963,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hm8vc\">Unknown individuals damaged two vehicles belonging to ABC affiliate KOLO as the channel’s journalists reported on protests in Reno, Nevada, on May 30, 2020, the channel’s news director told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"vkf5y\">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=\"fsv1u\">Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters marched through downtown Reno, according to the <a href=\"https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/05/30/hundreds-gather-reno-protest-george-floyds-death/5291340002/\">Reno Gazette Journal</a>. But police intervened with tear gas after a splinter group began to damage City Hall shortly after 7 p.m. Officials declared the gathering an <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ChiefJasonSoto/status/1266939136163721216\">unlawful assembly</a> and imposed a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MayorSchieve/status/1266916816586072065\">curfew</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"zq69y\">KOLO News Director Stanton Tang told the Tracker that unknown individuals attempted but failed to overturn one of the station’s news vehicles. The vehicle’s windshield and rear window were shattered.</p><p data-block-key=\"ebnih\">Videos submitted to <a href=\"https://www.kolotv.com/community/user-content/\">KOLO’s user content</a> page show the vehicle parked a couple blocks from City Hall. One video shows someone repeatedly hit the side of the car before another person body-slams the front of it amid cheers. Another shows someone jump on the hood and repeatedly stomp on the windshield. A third shows a group of people attempt, but fail, to tip the car over.</p><p data-block-key=\"zjp5b\">Tang said another vehicle suffered multiple dents and a shattered side window. He said a rock was found inside the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"chekt\">Tang said he believed both vehicles were targeted because they were news vehicles.</p><p data-block-key=\"89z15\">A photo provided to the Tracker by photojournalist Ty O’Neil, who was on assignment for This Is Reno, shows a white vehicle with large KOLO branding on the side with a shattered front left window. O’Neil told the Tracker he took the photo a few blocks from City Hall on Mill Street.</p><p data-block-key=\"7nrbs\">The station filed a police report about the incidents, but no suspects had been identified, Tang said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ubwok\">The Reno Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ng1i8\">Police chief and acting city manager Jason Soto said that the department was reviewing video and media reports to make arrests for crimes committed during the protests, according to <a href=\"https://thisisreno.com/2020/05/riots-in-reno-after-peaceful-black-lives-matter-demonstration-videos-and-photos/\">This Is Reno</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"lysgp\">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/KOLO_Vehicle_Ty_ONeil_This_Is_Ren.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"06vg7\">The window of a KOLO news vehicle was shattered in Reno, Nevada, on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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"name": "Nevada",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist struck repeatedly with pepper balls while covering La Mesa protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-repeatedly-pepper-balls-while-covering-la-mesa-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-10T17:33:53.253264Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:01:26.656737Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:01:26.566283Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "La Mesa",
"longitude": -117.02308,
"latitude": 32.76783,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"90inu\">East County Magazine photojournalist Henri Migala was shot with pepper balls on two occasions while covering protests in La Mesa, California, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7jqfj\">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=\"tevla\">Migala told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was photographing demonstrations near the La Mesa police station at around 6:20 p.m., having received word that officers had begun using tear gas on demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"at206\">In an <a href=\"https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/photographer-hit-pepper-spray-shares-front-line-experience-covering-protest-la-mesa\">account for the magazine</a>, Migala wrote that when he reached the station, the standoff between police and protesters was well underway. The tear gas in the air caused his eyes to burn. Migala worked his way toward the south side of the station and crossed the street to distance himself from the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"rn0vi\">“I was wearing a bright yellow safety vest with my ‘MEDIA’ badge on the front,” Migala wrote. “I stood alone, away from any of the protesters so that I wouldn’t be mistaken for one of them. But despite standing there, alone, for about 20 minutes, I was shot with a pepper spray paintball in the leg.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0zgqu\">Migala told the Tracker that the pepper ball hit his right thigh, leaving a large amount of the chemical irritant powder on his leg.</p><p data-block-key=\"6imkm\">Police continued to engage with protesters over the next hour, he said, firing various crowd-control munitions to disperse the demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"qqiiz\">“I had been there for so long that my back started hurting,” Migala said. “So, I sat on the curb in front of the postal office across the street from the police station, pretty far from the main demonstrators.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5vopa\">As he sat there, police suddenly fired pepper balls at him again, striking him an additional two to four times, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"aneqh\">“One of the pellets exploded and a bunch of the powder went into my nose, my mouth and in my eyes,” he said. “I was instantly incapacitated.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2son0\">Migala said a couple of young women were able to lead him to safety. One woman held his camera, glasses and hat as the other rinsed out his eyes for at least five minutes.</p><p data-block-key=\"adi4a\">He added that the powder was still covering his respirator mask, face, clothes and beard when he got to his car, and caused him significant difficulty breathing. The following day, some powder residue still covered his camera, and when he attempted to brush it off, his eyes watered and became irritated.</p><p data-block-key=\"ryht0\">“Just molecules of that stuff is enough to irritate your eyes with burning pain,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"i24a6\">Migala told the Tracker and wrote about a second journalist who was also struck with a projectile — believed to have been a rubber bullet — while covering the protests that day. The Tracker was unable to identify the journalist as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"6hw0r\">East County Magazine Editor Miriam Raftery told the Tracker that they don’t know for sure that Migala was intentionally targeted. ”It seems to me they should have been able to see that he was media,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"83qt7\">The La Mesa Police Department did not respond to phone requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"2piay\">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": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"i098g\">From right, photojournalist Henri Migala in a reflective vest and media credentials while covering a May 30, 2020, protest in La Mesa, California, his leg after a pepper ball hit that day, and his camera covered in residue.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
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"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "Police pepper spray, shove journalist covering anti-police brutality demonstrations in Brooklyn",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-pepper-spray-shove-journalist-covering-anti-police-brutality-demonstrations-brooklyn/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-09T18:49:47.868302Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:00:22.999938Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:00:22.866223Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9r8ay\">Freelance journalist Nick Pinto was pushed to the ground by a New York City Police officer after clearly identifying himself as a member of the press during a chaotic night of protests in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"vwctc\">The protests were part of the many demonstrations held across the country after the May 26 video release of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd during an arrest the previous day. Floyd, a black man, was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"81vj0\">Pinto, who was covering the protests for New York outlet Gothamist, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the Saturday evening protest in the Flatbush neighborhood was “the most mayhem I've seen on the streets of New York City ever.”</p><p data-block-key=\"09925\">By the time Pinto arrived in the late afternoon, tensions between the protesters and police in riot gear were at a fever pitch. The two sides were facing off in the street, Pinto said, when the New York Police Department pushed the crowd north up Bedford Avenue. Some protesters were throwing objects at the officers, including plastic and glass bottles, but also more dangerous projectiles, Pinto said.</p><p data-block-key=\"g5fhp\">“I saw fire extinguishers, bricks, chunks of concrete the size of footballs; I saw a cop take a giant chunk of brick and concrete in the neck and go down and I feel certain that that cop is not OK,” Pinto told the Tracker. “The police would respond by pepper-spraying indiscriminately, charging into the crowd with bats, busting people up, making some really hard arrests, dragging them back while the crowd chants ‘shame!’ And then they would reset and do it all again. This lasted for eight hours.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wavva\">When the crowd came across any police vehicles that had been left unattended, they would vandalize them and set them on fire, Pinto said. Other anti-police partisans climbed on the roof of gas stations to throw objects at officers in an environment that Pinto compared to “urban combat.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s6ary\">When the moving conflict reached the intersection of Bedford and Church avenues, the police broke up the crowd into smaller groups that the officers pursued. During this time, Pinto was hit in the back of the neck by pepper spray, which he said felt like a “very strong Tiger Balm.” Later, Pinto would inadvertently touch the back of his neck and then his eyes, resulting in a much more painful burning sensation.</p><p data-block-key=\"oneq9\">The journalist, who was wearing a press pass around his neck, told the Tracker that he was not specifically targeted by the pepper spray, but soon had a more direct encounter with an officer. Pinto was on the sidewalk on Church Avenue moving away from the line of police officers who repeatedly told him to move. He said he displayed his credentials and identified himself as a member of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"lquo8\">“I was not moving fast enough for their satisfaction. And it was a challenge to their authority,” Pinto said. One officer “locked eyes on me, came at me, pushed me, knocked me to the ground. It tore open my pants and bloodied both my knees.”</p><p data-block-key=\"38gck\">“I got back up, and I was like, ‘Hey, I'm press, I'm doing my job. I understand you're doing your job, but, just respect what I'm doing,’” Pinto continued. The officer replied, “‘No, you have to respect what I'm doing.’ And I asked for his badge number and he gave it to me. I asked for his name and he gave it to me. But I was rattled enough that I was unable to read the name that I wrote—my hand was shaking.”</p><p data-block-key=\"pid5b\">Pinto was not detained or charged with any crime. In a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-pushed-ground-nyc-officers-during-protests/\">separate incident the night of June 4</a> in Brooklyn, Pinto said he was shoved to the ground by officers during a scrum with protesters. Pinto told the Tracker that he is unsure whether he’ll file a complaint with the NYPD about the officer’s behavior on May 30 or about the incident a few nights later.</p><p data-block-key=\"tk9pp\">“I'm trying to decide whether I particularly feel like talking to the police about the police,” he said. “But I may yet do so.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9jurm\">The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"ymbez\">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": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"djagt\">A New York City police officer uses pepper spray on protesters during a demonstration in the borough of Brooklyn on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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"protest"
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"Assault"
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{
"title": "Journalist assaulted while covering protests in Reno",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-assaulted-while-covering-protests-reno/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-09T16:44:25.871776Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:00.945134Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:00.853959Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Reno",
"longitude": -119.8138,
"latitude": 39.52963,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"aj7wc\">Don Dike-Anukam, a student political writer for the news website This Is Reno, was assaulted by several people while reporting on a protest against police violence on May 30, 2020, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"qo8wz\">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, 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=\"2u67e\">Dike-Anukam and several other colleagues contributing to This Is Reno were reporting on a small crowd gathered outside City Hall as evening drew close. The crowd had splintered from a rally of hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters who had marched through downtown Reno, Nevada, that day, according to the <a href=\"https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/05/30/hundreds-gather-reno-protest-george-floyds-death/5291340002/\">Reno Gazette Journal</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"pwkd2\">The mood at City Hall had darkened as Dike-Anukam began <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/donwil/videos/10101401363538269/\">to livestream</a> on Facebook at around 7 p.m. Dike-Anukam’s livestream and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/luciastarbuck/status/1266913483481739264\">other</a> <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/david.leon.77398/videos/3036035949819497/?story_fbid=3036035949819497&id=100002393648230\">videos</a> from the scene show people breaking the windows and entrance of the building. At one point, a chair is thrown from the inside of the building, shattering a window. An alarm wails as a Nevada flag smolders.</p><p data-block-key=\"qti7r\">Suddenly someone yells, “We got the gavel!” Dike-Anukam approaches a person in a white bandana and baseball cap. “Where did that come from? Where did that come from? Did you go in the chambers?” Dike-Anukam tries to ask in the livestream.</p><p data-block-key=\"u2t2p\">“Turn that shit off,” the gavel holder says. He pushes away Dike-Anukam’s phone before walking away.</p><p data-block-key=\"t3cv0\">Two other people immediately confront Dike-Anukam. The livestream is largely unintelligible, but it appears to show a woman covering her face with blue fabric shouting expletives at Dike-Anukam as a man in an NBA All-Star sweatshirt stands by her side.</p><p data-block-key=\"3lm2k\">Dike-Anukam told the Tracker he believes the woman called him “Reno” because she saw his This Is Reno press badge hanging from his neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkxp5\">Suddenly, the camera is knocked to the ground. Another <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/david.leon.77398/videos/3036035949819497/?story_fbid=3036035949819497&id=100002393648230\">video</a> posted to Facebook shows a fourth person, in black, who was originally standing next to the person with the gavel, backtrack toward Dike-Anukam. He swipes at Dike-Anukam’s camera before walking away through the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"3mkki\">Dike-Anukam picks up his still-streaming camera and tries to walk away. But the woman and the man in the NBA sweatshirt follow him. Off camera, she warns Dike-Anukam, “You’re still gonna get jumped.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2v41i\">“I don’t care. I don’t care. The First Amendment wins,” Dike-Anukam responds in the livestream.</p><p data-block-key=\"9nucl\">Then, chaos breaks loose on the livestream in a garbled, 30-second mess of shouting as the feed goes black.</p><p data-block-key=\"xck2w\">Dike-Anukam said he wasn’t certain if the woman was warning or threatening him, he told the Tracker. But he knew the crowd had grown increasingly aggressive toward the press. Earlier, he had watched protesters attempt to block a cameraman from the local NBC affiliate, KRNV, from filming the defacing of an American flag at police headquarters.</p><p data-block-key=\"i31mb\">Dike-Anukam explained to the Tracker he felt “a strong feeling, a sense of duty and conviction” to continue reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"whuts\">Ty O’Neil, a freelance photographer on assignment for This Is Reno, told the Tracker he was standing on a nearby ledge trying to photograph the crowd when he saw someone punch Dike-Anukam in the back of the head. In the chaos of the moment, O’Neil said he didn’t know who threw the punch, but a review of his photographs that day showed the man in the NBA sweatshirt making a fist right before Dike-Anukam was hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"ofsj9\">O’Neil ran toward his colleague as several people punched and kicked Dike-Anukam, who had fallen to the ground. <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/david.leon.77398/videos/3036035949819497/?story_fbid=3036035949819497&id=100002393648230\">Video</a> shows the woman with a blue head covering joining the fray after Dike-Anukam was punched.</p><p data-block-key=\"j3lmi\">Dike-Anukam tried to protect his face, his vital organs and his phone, which contained all his footage, as best he could, he told the Tracker. As he was curled into a ball, shielding himself against multiple assailants punching, kicking and pulling at him, Dike-Anukam heard someone urge the others to go for his camera.</p><p data-block-key=\"nalku\">Lucia Starbuck, another This Is Reno contributor and reporter for NPR affiliate KUNR, filmed the assault. Her <a href=\"https://twitter.com/luciastarbuck/status/1266916902464413696\">video</a> appears to show some protesters attempting to stop the attack. Someone in a black sweatshirt throws the woman who had accosted Dike-Anukam to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"dt8ao\">O’Neil jumped into the melee to try to save Dike-Anukam.</p><p data-block-key=\"58cgg\">“I shoved a bunch of people out of the way, and I grabbed Don’s shoulders and he looked up at me,” said O’Neil, his voice cracking. “He had these giant eyes of fear, and that’s definitely the thing that kind of stuck with me, how awful to see him like that was.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sra1o\">Dike-Anukam said: “Had Ty not jumped in there and separated the crowd and pulled me out, I wouldn’t have made it … I would’ve sustained significant physical damage.”</p><p data-block-key=\"j3yw9\">“I grabbed him under the arm on his left side and I picked him up. And I just started running,” O’Neil said. “There were so many people around us. Just punches and kicks and, you know, chaos.”</p><p data-block-key=\"npr3g\">Then the tear gas came.</p><p data-block-key=\"7qbsb\">It isn’t clear if the police, who up until this point had been conspicuously absent from City Hall, fired tear gas in an attempt to stop the assault or whether they coincidentally engaged the crowd at the same moment.</p><p data-block-key=\"g6n79\">The Reno Police Department didn’t respond to multiple inquiries seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ba8zj\">Everyone — the journalists, those who were attacking them and those who were trying to save them — all fled from the cloud of gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"6p5he\">“I just was recovering from getting my ass kicked, in a daze, and now all of a sudden I’m choking on this vile thing that’s got in my eyes,” Dike-Anukam said. “Everything hurts. My head is throbbing at this point. I’m wondering, am I bleeding?”</p><p data-block-key=\"2e8bg\">Despite the assault — and losing his glasses as a result — Dike-Anukam continued to report well into the night, as officials declared the gathering an <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ChiefJasonSoto/status/1266939136163721216\">unlawful assembly</a> and imposed a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MayorSchieve/status/1266916816586072065\">curfew</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"1j6gw\">The following day, Dike-Anukam was diagnosed with a minor concussion, he told the Tracker. As of June 22, he was still feeling the effects of the assault and planned to return to receive follow-up care, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"a4yxn\">O’Neil said he didn’t feel some of the blows from the crowd as his adrenaline surged. The next day, he discovered a bruise on his chest, but he didn’t know what caused it.</p><p data-block-key=\"59p25\">Dike-Anukam told the Tracker he filed a police report about the assault. On June 18, <a href=\"https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/06/18/reno-police-seek-help-identifying-suspects-attack-journalist/3215535001/?fbclid=IwAR2pDZZKx8yvNm67z1lzI3syQraDWecPn-2gbQ0f-rYUhr-mwG0nUQGTHNE\">the Reno Police Department</a> said it had identified the woman with a blue head covering and the man in the NBA sweatshirt as suspects in the assault and asked the public to help identify them.</p><p data-block-key=\"71qoh\">Police chief and acting city manager Jason Soto said that the department was reviewing video and media reports to make arrests for crimes committed during the protest, according to <a href=\"https://thisisreno.com/2020/05/riots-in-reno-after-peaceful-black-lives-matter-demonstration-videos-and-photos/\">This Is Reno</a>. He denounced the assault on Dike-Anukam, saying the journalist was a “personal friend of mine through the media, and it breaks my heart that he was injured.”</p><p data-block-key=\"y4id2\">In a personal account of the attack for <a href=\"https://www.press.org/newsroom/student-member-gives-first-person-account-being-injured\">the National Press Club</a>, Dike-Anukam wrote that his heart, too, was broken by the events of May 30. He noted the irony of a Black journalist being assaulted while covering a protest in response to the killing of Floyd, an unarmed Black man.</p><p data-block-key=\"jpvgg\">But the assault didn’t blunt his dedication to journalism. “I am not deterred, scared, or less in love with this profession,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"psz7t\">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=\"http://pressfreedomtracker.us/george-floyd-protests/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"v4c5i\">This Is Reno reporter Don Dike-Anukam, center, with hat and white gloves, films just before being assaulted by multiple individuals on May 30, 2020 near City Hall in Reno, Nevada.</p>",
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
},
"updates": [
"(2020-08-05 06:40:00+00:00) Reno police issue warrants in battery of journalist who was covering protests"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Don Dike-Anukam (This Is Reno)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist shot at with foam rounds while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/despite-identifying-press-multiple-journalists-shot-projectiles-minneapolis-law-enforcement/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-06T21:52:28.843664Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:07.983171Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:41:07.863454Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5ik9z\">Freelance photojournalist Adam Bettcher said State Patrol troopers fired foam rounds at him while he was covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"siju0\">A curfew was in effect following protests sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest 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=\"h8fai\">Bettcher, who was on assignment for Reuters, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that State Patrol troopers fired at him at around 11 p.m. near the Fifth Precinct.</p><p data-block-key=\"eiy3x\">Bettcher said he was holding up his press credentials and shining a flashlight at himself as he approached a police line, yelling out, “I’m press! I’m press.” Bettcher said he was wearing body armor and a denim shirt that had an embroidered patch that said “PRESS” on his chest. He said he told the troopers he was trying to reach his car and they yelled at him to “go home!”</p><p data-block-key=\"v4sgl\">Bettcher replied that he was trying to get home and asked them how he could reach his car, and they shouted at him to use Google Maps, he recounted. Seconds later, one of the officers fired a projectile that whizzed by his head, he said. “I heard it hit the wall behind me,” he said. At this, he left the area. “I didn’t go back to see what they shot at me, but it was a foam baton round from the sound of it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6lhnw\">A request for comment about this incident sent to the Minnesota State Patrol and the Minneapolis Police Department were not returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"7yyzi\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39PT7.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"djcaw\">A Minneapolis police officer clears a cameraman from near the department’s Fifth Precinct on May 30, 2020. Photojournalist Adam Bettcher, who captured this image, was shot at with a projectile after he identified as press.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Adam Bettcher (Reuters)"
],
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},
{
"title": "TRT World correspondent hit with projectiles while covering Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/news-crew-hit-projectiles-while-covering-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-06T21:41:05.898417Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:40:35.461547Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:40:35.336715Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"kon86\">Just after Minneapolis’ curfew went into effect on May 30, 2020, a correspondent and cameraman for Turkey’s state-run English-language news channel were hit by projectiles fired by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"8w86s\">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 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=\"b7tru\">Lionel Donovan, a Washington-based correspondent for TRT World, said he had set up for a live shot outside the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct just after the city’s 8 p.m. curfew went into effect, near some peaceful protesters staging a sit-in at an intersection. Journalists were specifically exempt from the curfew by Governor Tim Walz’s order.</p><p data-block-key=\"a46q3\">“The curfew came and it was like a button got hit,” Donovan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"pebx6\">According to Donovan, the police advanced down the street and began to fire off tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the crowd. One of the tear gas canisters hit cameraman Barbaros Sayilgan’s foot during Donovan’s live shot.</p><p data-block-key=\"fwzl0\">Sayilgan could not be reached for comment, but Donovan said he helped the cameraman and a producer off to safety, then went back into the street to film more footage himself. Donovan was filming on his phone, he said, when a blue foam round struck him in the inside of his left thigh, breaking the skin.</p><p data-block-key=\"tz7nq\">“It felt like someone took a baseball bat and set it on fire and hit me in the leg,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"tkor9\">Donovan was wearing a helmet and flak jacket, both emblazoned with “PRESS” in white uppercase letters. He said he was not close to the crowd when he was hit.</p><p data-block-key=\"y945u\">“It definitely made us very jittery for the rest of the deployment because then we just didn’t trust the police in any way, shape or form to help us with anything,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"w1wl2\">Requests for comment sent to the Minnesota State Patrol and the Minneapolis Police Department were not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"6jnj2\">On June 1, Donovan tweeted a video in which he displayed the wound on his leg:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When you hear journalists talk about getting fired on by police, this is one of the things we’re getting hit with. It felt like I got hit with a baseball bat... <a href=\"https://t.co/Xp4ZSYalvE\">pic.twitter.com/Xp4ZSYalvE</a></p>— Lionel Donovan, III (@LionelDonovan3) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LionelDonovan3/status/1267477984300208128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 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=\"5jw8i\">Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s communications director, brought up the attack on the crew in a June 3 phone call with David Satterfield, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, according to an <a href=\"https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/communications-director-expresses-concern-for-turkish-journalists-in-us-amid-civil-unrest\">article</a> published in the Daily Sabah, a Turkish newspaper.</p><p data-block-key=\"g4xhq\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39PTD.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"xzneq\">Minnesota State Patrol officers move toward protesters gathered near the police department’s Fifth Precinct on May 30, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": 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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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Lionel Donovan (TRT World [Turkey])"
],
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},
{
"title": "Reporters chased out of Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park by officers in riot gear",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporters-chased-out-of-washington-dcs-lafayette-park-by-officers-in-riot-gear/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T17:46:39.936304Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:29:07.639671Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:29:07.555271Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"tfc2w\">Secret Service agents and U.S. Park Police chased two journalists out of Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park in the early morning hours of May 30, 2020, minutes after the journalists were caught in a cloud of pepper spray, video footage of the incident shows.</p><p data-block-key=\"kz5ya\">At 3:22 a.m, officers in riot gear with the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police sprayed pepper spray toward a crowd of protesters as they attempted to clear the park across from the White House, according to the video streamed live on Periscope by Yahoo News White House Correspondent Hunter Walker. Some of it wafted over to the side of the park where journalists were standing.</p><p data-block-key=\"393nj\">“After several hours of standoff here, this was the moment that the Secret Service and U.S. Park Police decided to advance,” Walker said, narrating the unfolding scene to his viewers on the <a href=\"https://www.pscp.tv/w/1LyGBNWbrZoGN\">livestream</a>. “So they’re now pushing this crowd through the park.” Walker said he was holding up his White House “hard pass,” press credentials that allow him to enter the White House, to show he was a member of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"mk0k8\">He said he inhaled some of the pepper spray through his N95 mask, leading to the sensation of “a little fire in the back of my throat,” he said. “I only got the smallest edge of that. They’re spraying more. They’re saying 'out of the park or you will be sprayed’”</p><p data-block-key=\"wvdmw\">The officers then rushed toward the crowd. “All of us reporters are here on the side, the police are just running forward into the crowd,” he said, coughing. “I am holding my hard pass in the air.”</p><p data-block-key=\"k5uly\">A few officers then turned their attention to Walker, running towards him with their shields out, the video shows. “Press, guys, press. Press. OK. Press, press. Hard pass. Press. OK. Press. I’m press,” Walker shouts. Walker was chased out of the park, and turned off his livestream as an officer continued to come towards him, even as the reporter continued to wave his pass.</p><p data-block-key=\"6u76d\">In a Yahoo News <a href=\"https://news.yahoo.com/night-of-rage-on-pennsylvania-avenue-as-protesters-clash-with-secret-service-in-front-of-the-white-house-190027102.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=tw\">story</a> he published later that day, he described the incident and said officers from both the Secret Service and Park Police forced identified members of the press out of the park across from the White House, shouting: “Get the f*** out of the park!”</p><p data-block-key=\"yldsc\">Mike Balsamo, who covers the Justice Department and federal law enforcement for The Associated Press, also was present as the officers chased reporters out of the park.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">US Park Police just told the crowd, including credentialed reporters to “get the fuck out of the park right now” as fellow officers sprayed a crowd of protesters with pepper spray</p>— Mike Balsamo (@MikeBalsamo1) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MikeBalsamo1/status/1266632390757187584?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=\"7ojjz\">Neither the Secret Service nor the U.S. Park Police provided comment on the incident in response to an e-mailed request.</p><p data-block-key=\"uqna8\">A few hours earlier, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/yahoo-news-correspondent-hit-in-washington-dcs-lafayette-park/\">Walker was hit</a> by an individual, which interrupted his livestream.</p><p data-block-key=\"4wz6a\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020. 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 United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"6xmdu\">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 Black Lives Matter 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": "",
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Hunter Walker (Yahoo News)",
"Mike Balsamo (The Associated Press)"
],
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"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Rubber bullets crack windshield on FOX 9 new vehicle",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rubber-bullets-crack-windshield-fox-9-new-vehicle/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T17:09:47.553872Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-11-03T13:57:44.988257Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-11-03T13:57:44.886282Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2q8zw\">A vehicle used by FOX 9, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Fox affiliate, was hit with two rubber bullets, which cracked its windshield, on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis, according to tweets from two network reporters, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DawnAtFOX9/status/1266910636916781060\">Dawn Mitchell</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AmyHockert/status/1266911510862979073\">Amy Hockert</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"zspjr\">The incident occurred as the crew was reporting about ongoing protests in Minneapolis relating to the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis police custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"9neib\">Hockert tweeted around 9:30 p.m. that two rubber bullets hit the car and that everyone was OK.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Please go home, they mean business, our crew just got two rubber bullets to the car. They are OK. And they are allowed to be there. <a href=\"https://t.co/1lAPlp3XWC\">pic.twitter.com/1lAPlp3XWC</a></p>— Amy Hockert (@AmyHockert) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AmyHockert/status/1266911510862979073?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=\"37uu9\">Mitchell tweeted that the Minneapolis Police Department fired the bullets. The two reporters appeared not to be with the crew at the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"dmoxr\">Hockert could not be reached for comment via email. Christina Palladino, a FOX 9 reporter who was part of the crew in the car, according to Mitchell’s tweet, could not be reached via email. In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CPalladinoFox9/status/1266911930717016064\">tweet</a> about the incident, Palladino wrote “we are all good!”</p><p data-block-key=\"nuwzj\">FOX 9 did not return CPJ’s voicemail requesting comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"mnva9\">The MPD did not return CPJ’s emailed request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"actor": "law enforcement",
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "vehicle"
}
],
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"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"KMSP-TV"
],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Equipment Damage"
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},
{
"title": "Officer in Minneapolis points weapon at public radio reporters",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/officer-minneapolis-points-weapon-public-radio-reporters/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-01T17:06:20.223632Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:40:13.299811Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:40:13.211452Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jet8l\">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=\"jsxdg\">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=\"qvqzx\">American Public Media reporters Madeleine Baran and Samara Freemark 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=\"mfxb9\">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=\"544r9\">Freemark described the situation as initially being calm, but suddenly “there was a switch that flipped.” 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=\"zl7yn\">In a tweet recounting the experience, Baran wrote, “A Minneapolis police officer pointed a weapon at me at @sfreemark’s heads, while we were standing on Nicollet and 32nd covering the protests.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sv9ka\">“I yelled that I’m a journalist. He did not lower his weapon, so we ran. Calling it a night,” she wrote.</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=\"ax2x4\">Freemark and Baran were unable to reach their car and had to walk home, Freemark said. An interview request sent to Baran was not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"fherm\">Minneapolis was under an 8 p.m. curfew that evening, but journalists were expressly exempt from it.</p><p data-block-key=\"osnq5\">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=\"8epja\">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=\"087yb\">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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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"z3zep\">Minnesota State Patrol officers clear an area near the Minneapolis Police Department's Fifth Precinct on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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{
"title": "Yahoo News correspondent hit in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/yahoo-news-correspondent-hit-in-washington-dcs-lafayette-park/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-30T02:35:19.094148Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:16:34.204730Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:16:34.121235Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"1l0l6\">An individual at a protest hit a White House correspondent in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park in the early morning hours of May 30, 2020, interrupting footage the journalist was streaming live from his phone to Periscope.</p><p data-block-key=\"xaogx\">In his <a href=\"https://www.pscp.tv/w/1lDGLgzQRozKm?t=7\">livestream</a>, Yahoo News correspondent Hunter Walker narrated the scene around him on the evening of May 29 and into the early morning of May 30: “The situation has become extremely heated in the last few minutes. Again, this is Yahoo News White House Correspondent Hunter Walker. We are in front of the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue, where protesters have taken down some of the barricades and are just repeatedly clashing with Secret Service and U.S. Park Police who have plastic riot shields and riot helmets,” Walker said on the livestream, before his phone was knocked out of his hand, cutting off the livestream.</p><p data-block-key=\"l9v92\">In the video, an unidentified individual verbally accosts Walker, telling the reporter to go away and accusing him of saying racist comments. Walker identified himself as a journalist and asked the individual, “What racist things did I say?" before the video cuts out.</p><p data-block-key=\"659h3\">Walker was able to recover his phone and resume live streaming. “After a brief interruption, someone hit me and threw my phone — one of the protesters here — I am back live in front of the White House,” he said in a <a href=\"https://www.pscp.tv/w/1LyGBNWbrZoGN\">subsequent clip</a> posted to Periscope. “I’m doing fine, guys, I’m doing great, no worries.”</p><p data-block-key=\"n9p49\">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=\"nlxd5\">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></div>",
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"name": "District of Columbia",
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"Assault"
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"Hunter Walker (Yahoo News)"
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{
"title": "Photojournalist struck with projectile during LA protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-struck-projectile-during-la-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-29T22:42:29.819130Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:50:55.447119Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:50:55.368912Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"h5ewg\">While on assignment for Reuters, freelance photojournalist Kyle Grillot was struck by an unknown crowd-control munition when Los Angeles police officers fired projectiles at demonstrators during protests on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"jfy66\">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=\"yepnx\">Grillot was documenting protests in Los Angeles as they continued past the city’s 8 p.m. curfew. Grillot told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was at the intersection of Hope Street and Olympic Boulevard, preparing to document the police advance toward protesters in the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"vgl7d\">“I positioned myself safely on a corner and held up my LAPD press badge,” Grillot said.</p><p data-block-key=\"32mq7\">As officers opened fire on the demonstrators with crowd-control munitions, Grillot said he realized that his position was actually putting him in danger and moved behind an electrical box.</p><p data-block-key=\"3pxxi\">“That’s when I felt it hit my thigh,” he said, adding that he believes it was a rubber bullet that struck him. “I ran around the corner and continued to take photos, continuing to try to make my press badge as visible as possible.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c0m89\">Grillot told the Tracker that beyond a bit of bruising, he was not seriously injured and none of his equipment was damaged. While he does not believe he was deliberately targeted, Grillot said that the officers were firing indiscriminately.</p><p data-block-key=\"d524p\">“I’m left wondering what I could have done to make it any more apparent that I was working press,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"xje5i\">The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"x56ue\">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": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS39PMZ.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ebdkb\">Photojournalist Kyle Grillot was hit with a projectile fired by a Los Angeles police officer the day he captured this image. Grillot was on assignment for Reuters to cover protests in the city.</p>",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
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"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"Assault"
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"Kyle Grillot (Reuters)"
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{
"title": "Photographer shoved by police amid Louisville protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-shoved-police-amid-louisville-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-27T13:44:31.915135Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-10T20:42:55.248470Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-10T20:42:55.162079Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3r5tr\">Photographer Max Gersh was shoved by police with batons while covering protests in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkrrl\">The Associated Press <a href=\"https://apnews.com/ac63cb2f81e1adfba583451aee9115bf\">reported</a> that recent protests in Louisville have centered around the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, both of whom were Black. Taylor was shot eight times in her Louisville home in mid-March by narcotics police who broke down her door. Floyd died on May 25, after a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, kneeled on his neck for several minutes during an arrest. Video of Floyd’s death has sparked protests across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"blng3\">Gersh, a photographer with the Commercial Appeal, a daily newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, had been sent to Louisville to help with the Louisville Courier-Journal’s coverage of protests in the city (both papers are part of the Gannett newspaper chain). At around 11:50 p.m., Gersh and a group of reporters from the Courier-Journal and other outlets were walking down an empty block near the Fourth Street Live Entertainment district when a flank of police officers came marching down the street, occupying the total width of the block, Gersh told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Gersh was wearing a neon reflective vest that said “Press” and had his press ID around his neck on a lanyard.</p><p data-block-key=\"8gonv\">Gersh said that he and the other reporters backed up against a building to stay out of the way but were told by the officers to “get moving” and clear the area. The journalists began to leave, with the officers moving behind them.</p><p data-block-key=\"lca2w\">Suddenly, Gersh told the Tracker, the officers began to jog, forcing the journalists in front of them to break into a run. Gersh, slowed down by his heavy photography equipment, was falling somewhat behind the rest of the journalists when he said several officers began shoving him with batons and telling him to move faster. Gersh said he told the officers, “You don’t need to shove me,” but they kept pushing him along.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Side note: Cops straight shoved <a href=\"https://twitter.com/pd_cameraman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@pd_cameraman</a> twice with their batons while we ran. <a href=\"https://t.co/FJDniuHC0X\">https://t.co/FJDniuHC0X</a></p>— Natalie Neysa Alund (@nataliealund) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/nataliealund/status/1266942943551725569?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=\"h9p0q\">When the journalists reached the corner, they turned to move into another intersection, where the group of officers eventually arrived. Gersh said no reason was given as to why they needed to clear the empty street.</p><p data-block-key=\"r7nr0\">Gersh continued to cover the protests. The following night, while taking photographs of law enforcement, he said a police officer yelled at him unprovoked, “You guys are just as bad as the protesters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"isihx\">“We’re just doing our jobs,” he replied.</p><p data-block-key=\"el3vs\">The Louisville Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"ksowd\">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/Gersh_assault.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"6fz6k\">While covering May 30, 2020, protests in Kentucky, photojournalist Max Gersh documents Louisville Metro Police Department officers clearing the street, including media.</p>",
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Kentucky",
"abbreviation": "KY"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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{
"title": "Journalist’s camera hit by pepper ball in Louisville",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-camera-hit-by-pepper-ball-in-louisville/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-26T12:03:53.631938Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:15:59.875065Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:15:59.775289Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Louisville",
"longitude": -85.75941,
"latitude": 38.25424,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"f61pg\">Journalist Juanita Ceballos’ camera was hit by a pepper ball while she covered protests against police violence in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"c6l1q\">Ceballos, a producer and cameraperson for VICE News, was filming with a colleague near Jefferson Square in downtown Louisville for several hours when police officers declared the demonstration an unlawful assembly and ordered protesters to disperse, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Crowds of protesters were marching in response to the March 13 killing by Louisville police of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, and the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on Memorial Day.</p><p data-block-key=\"swzk6\">At 8:25 p.m., while filming a line of police officers advancing toward a protester, Ceballos’ camera was hit by a pepper ball, she said, adding she was filming from the corner at a removed distance. After reviewing the footage of the hit to her camera — which wasn’t permanently damaged — she said she couldn’t be sure whether or not she had been targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"xq3ge\">“I always make an intentional effort to look officers in the eye. If I have to move I will move,” she said. This time she hadn’t done so, she said, because she felt she was “far enough away that I was not in their way.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xkg8i\">Ceballos said she expected that her equipment and the press identification she was wearing made her clearly identifiable as a journalist. The night before, a reporter and photojournalist from Louisville TV station WAVE 3 were <a href=\"https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2020/05/29/louisville-protests-officer-fires-pellets-tv-reporter-video/5288734002/\">hit by pepper balls fired by police</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"hjjoo\">The Louisville Metro Police Department didn’t respond to a call and email from the Tracker requesting comment. Following the WAVE 3 incident, <a href=\"https://www.wave3.com/2020/05/31/lmpd-officer-who-fired-pepper-balls-wave-news-crew-reassigned-pending-investigation/\">an LMPD official said</a> officers have orders to not shoot pepper balls at members of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"c4y0u\">Ceballos said that after the hit she felt threatened, not knowing whether the attack had been directed toward her or not. The journalist said she stopped filming for nearly half an hour, until she had cleaned the pepper powder off her lens, changed her N95 and gas masks and stopped coughing.</p><p data-block-key=\"sxm3y\">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 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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{
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],
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"name": "Kentucky",
"abbreviation": "KY"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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"targeted_journalists": [
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},
{
"title": "Freelance photojournalist struck with projectiles at Tucson protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-hit-two-freelance-journalists-projectiles-tucson-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-25T15:12:05.860377Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:39:46.746295Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:39:46.647421Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Tucson",
"longitude": -110.92648,
"latitude": 32.22174,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"zsum6\">Freelance photojournalist Brian Norberto was struck several times by crowd-control munitions fired by police in Tucson, Arizona, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"orif8\">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=\"5mevn\">Norberto <a href=\"https://tucson.com/news/local/tim-stellers-opinion-viewed-as-enemy-journalists-attacked-in-tucson-around-country/article_db13509e-4208-5634-8790-0e144391b369.html\">told</a> the Arizona Daily Star he was livestreaming the protests on Facebook when he was struck several times by nonlethal rounds fired by police that evening.</p><p data-block-key=\"cpzg6\">“When I got hit directly, I was continuing what I did before, getting between the crowd and the police,” Norberto said. “It’s hard to say that police were directly targeting the media, but at the same time that night I could feel a difference from the night before.”</p><p data-block-key=\"r8elz\">More details about this incident were not available as of press time, as Norberto had not responded to multiple interview requests.</p><p data-block-key=\"jn4ep\">Tucson Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on this incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"f2vxl\">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": "Arizona",
"abbreviation": "AZ"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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{
"title": "Reporter, news crew chased from Baltimore protest, later assaulted and robbed",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/news-crew-baltimore-chased-away-protest-later-assaulted-and-robbed/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-27T12:55:12.888166Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:39:23.847536Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:39:23.759901Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Baltimore",
"longitude": -76.61219,
"latitude": 39.29038,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4o817\">A group of individuals chased a Baltimore, Maryland, news crew away from a protest outside City Hall on the evening of May 30, 2020. Later that evening, the journalists were assaulted and robbed.</p><p data-block-key=\"l2d2s\">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=\"r1b51\">Dan Lampariello, a reporter for Fox45 WBFF, and cameraman J. Thomas Fisher were standing in front of the police line outside Baltimore City Hall around 10 p.m. when a group of individuals on the other side of the line demanded they move back. “Some in the crowd began getting angry with us,” Lampariello says in a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=296012141795121\">voice-over</a> of tape filmed at the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"l4j0g\">A few minutes later, the situation devolved further, and Lampariello and Fisher were forced to retreat a few blocks from City Hall. “Do not touch the camera,” Lampariello said on the video as individuals push him and Fisher.</p><p data-block-key=\"kzsgl\">Ray Strickland, a reporter for WMAR 2 News, Baltimore’s ABC affiliate, captured the incident on video and posted it to Twitter.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Protesters in <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Baltimore?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Baltimore</a> just chased a camera crew away from city hall <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BaltimoreProtest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BaltimoreProtest</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydProtest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydProtest</a>. It’s tense out here for sure. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WMAR2News?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WMAR2News</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/Rei7hL8nLP\">pic.twitter.com/Rei7hL8nLP</a></p>— Ray Strickland (@realraystrick) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/realraystrick/status/1266924174058160129?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=\"r4i3c\">About an hour later, the crew was chased again, and someone punched Fisher in the face, according to the WBFF <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=296012141795121\">report</a>. A live unit was stolen out of his backpack, along with a microphone. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cameraman-news-crew-chased-from-baltimore-protest-later-assaulted-and-robbed/\">Fisher’s assault and damage to the news equipment are documented here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9fqhf\">Early the next morning, Lampariello 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\">TWICE tonight myself and photojournalist <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jthomasfisher?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@jthomasfisher</a> were chased and assaulted by a group of people while covering the protest outside of <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Baltimore?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Baltimore</a> City Hall. We had equipment stolen & destroyed. Scary and tense moments. I’m just thankful we’re both OK. <a href=\"https://t.co/fp7JbQu8ke\">https://t.co/fp7JbQu8ke</a></p>— Dan Lampariello (@DanFox45) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DanFox45/status/1266965780672937984?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=\"7va6c\">Lampariello, Fisher and the WBFF newsroom did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"82s4z\">“Last night, a FOX45 news crew reporting from the Baltimore demonstrations outside of City Hall was attacked and chased away by a group of protesters who resorted to violence,” Scott Livingston, senior vice president of news for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station’s parent company, wrote the Baltimore Sun in an <a href=\"https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/columnists/zurawik/bs-ed-zontv-reporters-attacked-20200531-oeip7xfdufh4lo7cc2dpzd4dqy-story.html\">email</a>. “Despite this incident, we remain undeterred, and our incredible journalists will continue to fulfill their duties and report live from the protests.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ln06v\">On June 8, a Baltimore pastor was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with five counts, including second-degree assault, robbery and theft under $25,000, <a href=\"https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-west-charges-20200609-toawtkyopngbjmffxpdwkandoa-story.html\">according</a> to the Baltimore Sun.</p><p data-block-key=\"xy3vw\">According to a police report the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker obtained from the Baltimore Police Department, the station was able to recover the live unit using its GPS tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"d3le3\">“Our station will always support the Constitutional right to protest, a fundamental pillar of our democracy. At the same time, we also recognize the necessity of a free press, something that is more important now than ever before,” Bill Fanshawe, senior vice president of WBFF, told the Sun in a <a href=\"https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-west-charges-20200609-toawtkyopngbjmffxpdwkandoa-story.html\">statement</a>. “We ask that protesters recognize the important service that journalists everywhere provide, and should not be targets of anger and frustration.”</p><p data-block-key=\"sg8td\">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": "Maryland",
"abbreviation": "MD"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Dan Lampariello (WBFF)"
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{
"title": "Minneapolis news crew held at gunpoint by one man then menaced with crowbar by another",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-news-crew-held-gunpoint-one-man-then-menaced-crowbar-another/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-22T17:44:35.829005Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:38:52.770336Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:38:52.645591Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wpo0n\">In the span of two minutes on May 30, 2020, a news crew from NBC-affiliate KARE 11 that was covering protests and unrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was held up at gunpoint by one man, and threatened by another man wielding a crowbar.</p><p data-block-key=\"f4114\">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=\"6rv5s\">Investigative journalist A.J. Lagoe and photojournalist Devin Krinke had just driven into central Minneapolis from St. Paul after hearing that there might be "something going on" under the highway underpass of Interstate 35 West around 9 p.m., Lagoe told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He said there were not many police in the vicinity and several people in the area expressed unhappiness at seeing reporters around.</p><p data-block-key=\"kp2im\">A man in the crowd approached Lagoe and started asking him about the bulletproof vest he was wearing, Lagoe told the Tracker in an interview. “He kept saying he wanted it,” Lagoe said. Eventually, the man produced a semiautomatic handgun and demanded the vest.</p><p data-block-key=\"wfitm\">Lagoe was holding his cellphone on the tripod at the time and Krinke was standing a few feet away, holding his camera. “We clearly identified ourselves as press, but that didn’t help the situation at all, it only inflamed it,” Lagoe said.</p><p data-block-key=\"w8u09\">As Lagoe tried to talk his way out of the situation, a man brandishing a crowbar approached him and Krinke, Lagoe recounted. The man, who was dressed in black body armor decorated with a red medic cross, menanced them with his crowbar while shouting, “Give us all your stuff,” before running off and swinging his crowbar at someone else in the area, Lagoe recounted.</p><p data-block-key=\"vnagk\">This provided enough of a distraction to enable Lagoe and Krinke to back away from both men, and round the corner and quickly head back to their car, Lagoe said. They drove a few blocks away and set up to do a live shot, and the man with the crowbar drove by them, swearing at them through an open window.</p><p data-block-key=\"y7b8s\">Afterward, Krinke 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 href=\"https://twitter.com/AJInvestigates?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AJInvestigates</a> and I were threatened at gun point at 2nd ave S and East Lake St. Young man even swung crow bar at AJ. He then swung at another photojournalist and destroyed his camera. Journalist friends please avoid this area. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kare11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@kare11</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/WCCO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@wcco</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FOX9?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@fox9</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/efrostee?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@efrostee</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KSTP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KSTP</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/HcnvevsINg\">pic.twitter.com/HcnvevsINg</a></p>— devinphoto (@devphotoK11) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/devphotoK11/status/1266927932989222917?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=\"oyiiu\">That same evening, the crowbar-wielding man struck the camera of Lucas Jackson, a Reuters photographer, breaking it. Lagoe later retweeted a video of the man striking Jackson’s camera:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is guy who swung crowbar at me & @devphotokare11 <a href=\"https://t.co/8DcxaRdZ2K\">https://t.co/8DcxaRdZ2K</a></p>— A.J. Lagoe (@AJInvestigates) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AJInvestigates/status/1266958187351158785?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=\"zxqin\">That instance of equipment damage is catalogued <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unidentified-man-attacks-reuters-photographer-crowbar-during-minneapolis-protests/\">here</a>, in a separate post on the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"cwswp\">Lagoe told the Tracker that they did not file a police report about either assailant.</p><p data-block-key=\"xlx22\">The Tracker emailed the Minneapolis Police Department for comment about whether anyone has been arrested in these incidents of alleged assault, or if police reports had been filed regarding these matters. The request was not answered as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"pidko\">Mike Max, a reporter for WCCO, a CBS affiliate station based in the city, was <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxmqAkdoQ98\">reporting live</a> a few blocks from the Fifth Precinct police headquarters when he reported that a man wielding a crowbar or cane tried to assault WCCO cameraman Chris Cruz. Max also said the man assaulted another photographer, whom he didn’t identify. Neither Max nor WCCO responded to requests for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"fswzj\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"mlhcb\">Protesters in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
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"protest"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"A.J. Lagoe (KARE)"
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{
"title": "CNN political commentator arrested by NYPD after identifying himself as press",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-political-commentator-arrested-nypd-after-identifying-himself-press/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-18T15:30:32.811697Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:36:28.603176Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:36:28.495959Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"udk1l\">Keith Boykin, a freelance journalist and CNN political commentator, was arrested while covering a protest in Manhattan on May 30, 2020, despite identifying himself as a member of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"j1l7h\">The protest was one of many demonstrations sparked by the May 26 release of a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the prior day. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"5rqk5\">Boykin, who was an aide to Bill Clinton during his presidency, was documenting the protest for his own Twitter feed, as he has done for past protests. On this afternoon, Black Lives Matter demonstrators had gathered at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building in Harlem and marched west, eventually making their way up an exit ramp and onto the West Side Highway. Boykin, who was on his bike, had moved ahead of the protesters in order to photograph them when he encountered a phalanx of New York Police Department officers heading toward the group. They said something to the effect of “Get out of the way,” Boykin told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He identified himself as a member of the media, and the officers walked by him, then turned around and arrested him.</p><p data-block-key=\"1hzwk\">“I said, ‘Why? I’m with the press.’ They said it doesn’t matter,” Boykin said, adding that he had a press ID with him but never got the chance to show it to the officers.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So here’s what happened today. The NYPD arrested me at 96th Street and West Side Highway while I was taking photos and video to post to Twitter. I told the police I was with the Press, they walked by me and then turned around and arrested me.</p>— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1266933018570219520?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=\"ejn5l\">According to Boykin, officers placed zip ties tightly around his wrists and dropped his phone on the ground, cracking its screen. He was carried back to a police van, where they removed his face mask to photograph him, then placed him in the back of the vehicle, which was so hot that Boykin said he worried he would pass out, something he has a history of doing in high temperatures.</p><p data-block-key=\"py9zs\">“Even being in the back of the van was traumatizing, because I thought of Freddie Gray and how he died,” said Boykin, who is black, referencing a black man who died in Baltimore police custody in 2015. “The whole experience was totally outrageous.”</p><p data-block-key=\"n1mhh\">After an hour in the van, Boykin said he was placed on a prisoner transport bus with other arrestees and brought to NYPD headquarters in lower Manhattan, where he was processed and placed in a cell with 34 other prisoners for several hours. Very few of them had face masks, Boykin said, and he worried that these conditions risked exposing them to the coronavirus.</p><p data-block-key=\"frkxx\">“I was in that cell for four hours, never told what was going on, never given an opportunity to make a phone call,” Boykin told the Tracker, adding that he also wasn’t read his Miranda rights during the arrest. He was released at 9:30 p.m., six hours after his arrest, and given a summons to appear in court in September on misdemeanour charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic.</p><p data-block-key=\"yl0t5\">“Mind you, I wasn’t blocking the highway—the police and the protesters were blocking the highway,” Boykin <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=26&v=tojt5i0dNV4&feature=emb_title\">later told CNN’s Don Lemon</a>. “I was in between the two of them, documenting what was happening.”</p><p data-block-key=\"mz5my\">After that CNN appearance, Boykin told the Tracker that he was contacted by the New York City mayor’s office, which apologized to him for his treatment. He has also filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office. But to date, the charges have not been dropped, and he is prepared to fight them in court. He said the NYPD also failed to give him his ID back with the rest of his possessions following his release, and he needs to figure out a way to retrieve that.</p><p data-block-key=\"ix3ds\">The NYPD did not immediately return a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"1hag0\">“I thought it was completely unbelievable and unacceptable,” said Boykin of the experience. “This was a clear violation of my First Amendment rights.”</p><p data-block-key=\"k7qyj\">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=\"qvtgf\">New York Police Department officers are photographed by Keith Boykin shortly before he was taken into custody.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": "1:21-cv-01362",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"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": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2023-11-29 16:59:00+00:00) New York judge dismisses journalist’s lawsuit alleging First Amendment violations, false arrest",
"(2020-09-22 15:45:00+00:00) Charges dropped against CNN political commentator arrested in New York City",
"(2021-02-16 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance journalist Keith Boykin files lawsuit against the city of New York"
],
"case_statuses": [
"dismissed"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Keith Boykin (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
}
]
