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{
"title": "Journalist covering protests hit by foam round at Colorado state capitol",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-covering-protests-hit-foam-round-colorado-state-capitol/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-02T02:10:56.155896Z",
"last_published_at": "2023-07-17T20:21:55.923326Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2023-07-17T20:21:55.786323Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Denver",
"longitude": -104.9847,
"latitude": 39.73915,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"y7qxl\">An investigative reporter for 9News KUSA covering protests outside the state capitol in Denver, Colorado, was hit by a non-lethal round just after completing a live shot on the 10 p.m. news on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"6oxaw\">Jeremy Jojola, who works for Denver’s NBC affiliate, told the Committee to Protect Journalists he was wearing a 9News hat and standing next to his photographer down the hill from the state capitol after completing his live stand up when the incident occurred.</p><p data-block-key=\"rq3jm\">Jojola said he was looking down at his phone when he felt a “hard impact” on his back, hitting the backpack he was wearing. Jojola audibly groaned after being hit, which can be heard in a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNLZ7exVxq4\">video of the incident</a> he posted on YouTube. He then shouted, “I'm media! We're press! We're press! We're press! We're press! Don't shoot at us!”</p><p data-block-key=\"c17s9\">“I knew what it was immediately, it was a projectile and it came from the capitol direction, it came from the hill,” he recounted. “I didn’t hear any warning.”</p><p data-block-key=\"brejf\">He then walked with photographer Austyn Knox up the hill towards the capitol, shouting “media coming through” and came upon a group of about 15 members of Colorado State Patrol, responsible for policing the state capitol, Jojola told CPJ. He asked to speak to a supervisor, and was able to speak with an officer he had previously interviewed. The officer, according to Jojola, said, “I made the call to fire upon you guys, you didn’t look like media.”</p><p data-block-key=\"byjab\">Jojola said he accepted him at his word and left, but on his way down, marveled at how well-lit the area he had been standing was. “I feel that they should have known we were press. We were [just] live on TV,” Jojola told CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"u3hhd\">Jojola <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jeremyjojola/status/1266947819778322435\">tweeted</a> out a photo of an orange, nonlethal round that he found in the area he was standing when he was hit.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I went back to where I was hit and found this. This may or may not be the round that hit me. But it’s right where I was standing. I’m clearly with a photographer and wearing a 9NEWS hat. <a href=\"https://t.co/42BC8jrxLz\">pic.twitter.com/42BC8jrxLz</a></p>— Jeremy Jojola (@jeremyjojola) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jeremyjojola/status/1266947819778322435?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=\"4e45v\">Sergeant Blake White, a public affairs officer for the Colorado State Patrol, said in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the incident occurred while officers were trying to clear the area of protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"0v3cn\">“There was a male, who was later identified as a member of the media, not responding to commands to clear the area,” he wrote in an email. “The male appeared to be rummaging through things, facing away, and wearing a backpack. There were no clear indications the male was a member of the media. A second male was next to him as well with no press markings either. One foam round was fired to gain compliance and struck the first male in the backpack.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e81pc\">“[The supervisor] explained to the reporter there was no indication he was with the media and that the camera was not visible and was apologetic,” White wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"1lm3l\">“We do not and will not target members of the media for capturing what is going on in the state and around the country, and we respect and believe in the freedom of the press,” White concluded.</p><p data-block-key=\"c216u\">Jojola told the Tracker via text that he did not hear any warning from the officers, and the shot was fired a minute and 30 seconds after he went off the air.</p><p data-block-key=\"u7yeo\">“These officers, if they were observant, would have seen me and a photographer. I was also standing in a lighted area.” He said the supervisor offered him an explanation, but did not apologize. He added that he is filing a records request for the Colorado State Patrol’s “less than lethal deployment policy.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hbbnj\">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 here.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/jojola_assault_5-30_CO.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"gcug6\">Jeremy Jojola posted on Twitter that he was fired upon with an object like this. "I was clearly with a photographer just after I went live with a large camera and light."</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Colorado",
"abbreviation": "CO"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jeremy Jojola (KUSA)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "WCCO photojournalist shot with rubber bullet, arrested in Minneapolis",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wcco-photojournalist-shot-rubber-bullet-arrested-minneapolis/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-02T01:48:31.653149Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:06:23.566529Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:06:23.461239Z",
"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=\"69t4b\">WCCO photojournalist Tom Aviles was shot with a projectile and later arrested while covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"h92se\">Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.</p><p data-block-key=\"hggez\">At approximately 8:45 p.m., Aviles was reporting at the intersection of Nicollet and E. Franklin avenues with WCCO producer Joan Gilbertson. In a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wgkGLmphLE\">video captured by Aviles</a>, he is positioned to the side of their news vehicle when a line of Minnesota State Patrol troopers advanced down the street firing crowd-control ammunition.</p><p data-block-key=\"udu7n\">In the video, a shot is heard firing just before Aviles shouts in pain and the camera shakes. Aviles then moves off the street and into a nearby alley way and parking lot.</p><p data-block-key=\"qviv7\">As Aviles repositions to film the advancing troopers, one officer breaks out from the line and approaches him, shouting “Get moving! Get gone! Go!”</p><p data-block-key=\"ca6x4\">Aviles can be heard identifying himself as a WCCO photojournalist and asks the trooper where he should move. He also identifies the vehicle that has moved down the road as belonging to the station.</p><p data-block-key=\"c7xac\">“OK, OK, OK!” Aviles says as two additional officers make their way toward him. He begins to turn around and walk away from the officers and into the parking lot</p><p data-block-key=\"zl7wr\">“Joan! Joan! Get over here!” Aviles shouts to producer Gilbertson, who was presumably still in the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"ott01\">An officer then approaches Aviles from behind and tells him he’s under arrest, forcing him to the ground. Aviles complies and multiple times assures the officer that he’s not fighting.</p><p data-block-key=\"vzdd2\">Gilbertson <a href=\"https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/05/30/wcco-photojournalist-tom-aviles-arrested-in-south-minneapolis/\">told WCCO</a> that a patrolman told her, “You’ve been warned, or the same thing will happen to you.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s3h21\">She said she put her hands up and said, “Don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bwxtm\">Aviles was released approximately two hours later, WCCO reported.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Photojournalist Tom is free, after being arrested and shot with a rubber bullet. This true blue, AMAZING journalist even managed to share a smile. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcco?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#wcco</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/XrbnCKo3tb\">pic.twitter.com/XrbnCKo3tb</a></p>— Susan-Elizabeth (@susanelizabethL) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/susanelizabethL/status/1266945758995062786?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=\"zryqs\">WCCO could not immediately be reached for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"1zunl\">At a news conference late that evening, Minnesota Commissioner of Corrections Paul Schnell said Aviles’ arrest was “regrettable,” CBS News <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-aviles-arrested-wcco-photographer-arrested-and-shot-with-rubber-bullet-2020-05-30/\">reported</a>. He added that it is difficult to identify journalists amidst the challenges of crowds, smoke devices and police tactics.</p><p data-block-key=\"s7mk4\">“We value and know the importance [of journalists],” Schnell said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tgvqj\">The Minnesota State Patrol was not immediately available for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"p41es\">Multiple other reporters were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2020-05-30&date_upper=2020-05-30&city=Minneapolis&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">arrested in Minneapolis that day</a>, and a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-news-crew-arrested-air-while-documenting-minneapolis-protests/\">three-man CNN news crew was arrested</a> by state troopers the day before, on May 29.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1erp\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Minnesota State Patrol",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": "unknown",
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "law enforcement",
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [
"(2020-07-22 13:20:00+00:00) City Attorney drops unlawful assembly, curfew charges from Minneapolis protests"
],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Tom Aviles (WCCO-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "KDKA-TV photojournalist attacked by protesters in Pittsburgh, camera smashed",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kdka-tv-photojournalist-attacked-protesters-pittsburgh-camera-smashed/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-02T01:30:04.749144Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:15:14.638685Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:15:14.507407Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Pittsburgh",
"longitude": -79.99589,
"latitude": 40.44062,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"95lon\">Ian Smith, a photojournalist for CBS News affiliate KDKA-TV, was attacked by protesters while covering unrest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"0c1qk\">Protests in Pittsburgh occurred as demonstrations that started in Minnesota on May 26 spread across the country. The protests were sparked by video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest. Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ejzub\">Smith, who has worked for <a href=\"https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/\">KDKA-TV</a> for 15 years, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was following groups of protesters near the PPG Paints Arena, a hockey arena, after an organized, peaceful demonstration ended.</p><p data-block-key=\"knxec\">He said he was near a police car that had been set on fire when multiple protesters yelled at him that he wasn’t allowed to film. As he started to move away to try to film from a different spot, he said he felt multiple people pull on his camera. After he lost his balance and fell to the ground, a group of people — he estimated between four and six — began punching and kicking him, while others were nearby. He said he heard them chant, “Kill him, kill him.”</p><p data-block-key=\"01ogf\">Smith said his attackers took his camera and “smashed it into 1,000 pieces.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rw9v8\">Another group of protesters intervened, forming a wall around Smith to protect him, then helping him to outside the nearby arena where there was a medic, he said. Those demonstrators told him the attackers were not a part of their group. Smith said he found out later he was helped to a safer area by the CEO of the Pittsburgh Penguins, confirmed by the <a href=\"https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/penguins/2020/05/30/It-was-pretty-heroic-what-he-did-Penguins-president-CEO-David-Morehouse-saves-KDKA-cameraman-amid-violent-protests/stories/202005300079\">Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"3yvin\">Smith was taken by ambulance to a hospital, evaluated and later released. He said he was struck several times in the head and sustained bruises and scrapes on his face, arms and legs.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I’m was attacked by protestors downtown by the arena. They stomped and kicked me. I’m bruised and bloody but alive. My camera was destroyed. Another group of protesters pulled me out and saved my life. Thank you! <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KDKA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KDKA</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/clyANKodth\">pic.twitter.com/clyANKodth</a></p>— Ian Smith (@ismithKDKA) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ismithKDKA/status/1266843839890952193?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=\"ksu7g\">KDKA-TV reporter Paul Martino, who was covering the protests with Smith, wrote in a<a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Paulmartinokdka/\"> Facebook post</a> that demonstrators threatened him as he tried to approach Smith during the attack. He was hospitalized after the incident with severe chest pains.</p><p data-block-key=\"x2ecp\">A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Police Department said police were aware of the incident, and said the department does not discuss ongoing investigations.</p><p data-block-key=\"s7byt\">Smith said he was grateful to the people who had stepped in to protect him.</p><p data-block-key=\"l9bav\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find 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/Smith_PA_assault_5_30.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"0tuls\">Photojournalist Ian Smith shows some of his wounds on Twitter after being attacked by protesters in Pittsburgh on May 30.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": "private individual",
"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": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Pennsylvania",
"abbreviation": "PA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ian Smith (KDKA-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Student journalist chased, pepper sprayed during protests in Columbus",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-chased-pepper-sprayed-during-protests-columbus/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-01T02:02:18.097177Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:14:48.722797Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:14:48.634622Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Columbus",
"longitude": -82.99879,
"latitude": 39.96118,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9lq6x\">A student journalist at the University of Maryland was chased by police and maced three times while covering protests in Columbus, Ohio, in the early hours of May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"epg8w\">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 on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"i5orp\">Student journalist Julia Lerner told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that at about 1 a.m. she was making her way toward her car after documenting protests near the courthouse in Columbus. Three or four people were on the sidewalk near her, but most protesters had dispersed, at least from that area.</p><p data-block-key=\"r4xoe\">Lerner told the Tracker that she had stopped on the sidewalk to put her camera away when she noticed a line of police officers up the block, including two on bicycles. The officers began shouting at those still present to leave the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"du89z\">“[The officers] started screaming. The woman next to me took off running in the other direction and I put my hands up — with my camera in my hand — and yelled, “I’m a journalist, I’m just trying to go to my car,” Lerner said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1pfst\">She said that one of the bicycle officers responded, “It’s too fucking late to leave.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4aoht\">The officer then came at her, Lerner said, and pepper sprayed her, primarily hitting her arms and camera as she held her hands in front of her face.</p><p data-block-key=\"yonx3\">Lerner said the officer pepper sprayed her at least two more times as she attempted to run away, only letting up once Lerner rounded another street corner into an alleyway. She told the Tracker she hid in the alley for approximately 20 minutes before finally making her way to her car.</p><p data-block-key=\"xzke2\">Lerner said that her camera appears to still be in working order.</p><p data-block-key=\"zc8vc\">“As journalists, we have the responsibility to expose violence and corruption within our systems. We have the responsibility to stand steadfast when threatened,” Lerner <a href=\"https://twitter.com/julialwashere/status/1266730683730362369\">tweeted</a> after the incident. “We can’t let cops chase us away.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6uwe1\">The Columbus Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"dc3cc\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find 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/OH_Floyd_assault.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"obnwx\">A Columbus, Ohio, police officer on a bike chased student journalist Julia Lerner and pepper sprayed her multiple times after she identified herself as press.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Ohio",
"abbreviation": "OH"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Julia Lerner"
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},
{
"title": "Raleigh broadcast station offices damaged during protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/raleigh-broadcast-station-offices-damaged-during-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-15T19:52:34.496716Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:09:19.938474Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:09:19.850156Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Raleigh",
"longitude": -78.63861,
"latitude": 35.7721,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"moj8g\">The offices of ABC11, INDY Week and The News & Observer in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, were damaged during protests in the city on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"j7ipn\">Alternative weekly newspaper INDY Week reported extensive damage to its newsroom, while ABC11 and The News & Observer newspaper both had windows smashed as protests stretched late into the night.</p><p data-block-key=\"8wp7x\">The protests in Raleigh echoed demonstrations across the country sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"zn2r5\">The newsrooms in Raleigh were damaged late in the first major day of protesting in the city. Demonstrations had been peaceful through the day, but late in the evening, after police began using tear gas to disperse crowds, a small group of people began destroying property in the city’s downtown.</p><p data-block-key=\"yuvg1\">A reporter for ABC11, Bridget Condon, posted videos on Twitter showing windows smashed out on the station’s street-level studio. Fragments of glass littered the sidewalk outside.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"und\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://t.co/ynDigPKBIN\">pic.twitter.com/ynDigPKBIN</a></p>— Bridget Condon (@BridgetABC11) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BridgetABC11/status/1267031037244211203?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=\"jze7v\">ABC11 didn’t respond to requests for comment about the damage.</p><p data-block-key=\"6crjf\">The three offices were just some of many businesses damaged in the city. According to <a href=\"https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article243135136.html\">an article in the News & Observer</a>, “nearly every” business in Raleigh’s downtown area was damaged overnight.</p><p data-block-key=\"n4nqv\">A spokesperson for the Raleigh Police Department said police were aware of damage to INDY Week and the News & Observer. There haven’t been any arrests related to the incidents, according to the department.</p><p data-block-key=\"rgexs\">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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"name": "North Carolina",
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"WTVD"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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"Equipment Damage"
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{
"title": "LA Times photographer targeted with pepper spray while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/la-times-photographer-targeted-with-pepper-spray-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-07T16:20:24.684725Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-07-08T12:51:57.288584Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-07-08T12:51:56.988242Z",
"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=\"1or3y\">Los Angeles Times photographer Carolyn Cole was one of more than a dozen journalists fired at with crowd-control munitions and pepper spray while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ftpen\">Protests began in Minnesota on May 26, 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=\"8t5aa\">Half an hour after the 8 p.m. curfew began, Minnesota State Patrol officers fired pepper spray and rubber bullets at a group of at least 20 journalists including Cole, according to Cole’s account of the incident <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-06-01/they-came-toward-us-firing-pepper-spray-and-rubber-bullets\">in the LA Times</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"vjdgw\">Cole wrote that many of the journalists were wearing clearly marked press vests, and that another journalist loudly identified the group as journalists. Cole wrote that an officer came very close to the group and fired pepper spray, and that she “could feel the full force of the pepper spray go into my left ear and eye.”</p><p data-block-key=\"73bxv\">Cole wrote that a local resident helped her get to a hospital for assistance after being pepper-sprayed.</p><p data-block-key=\"e2a57\">More than three dozen journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Minneapolis&date_lower=2020-05-30&date_upper=2020-05-30\">assaulted, arrested or had equipment damaged</a> while covering protests that night. The Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota State Police, and Minnesota National Guard did not reply to emailed requests for comment about these incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"i5aw5\">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=\"hey3t\">Minnesota State Patrol advanced on protesters in Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd on May 30, 2020. An officer directly pepper-sprayed Los Angeles Times photojournalist Carolyn Cole that day, causing a chemical burn and corneal abrasion.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [
"(2024-04-05 14:50:00+00:00) LA Times reporters reach $1.2 million settlement with Minnesota State Patrol",
"(2021-05-25 00:00:00+00:00) Los Angeles Times photographer sues Minnesota State Patrol following assaults at protest"
],
"case_statuses": [
"settled"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Carolyn Cole (Los Angeles Times)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Video journalist struck with projectiles at Tucson protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-struck-with-projectiles-at-tucson-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-18T17:46:45.538615Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:11:01.141515Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:11:01.062241Z",
"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=\"ggdf3\">Eric Rosenwald, a freelance video journalist, was struck with crowd-control munitions while documenting protests in Tucson, Arizona, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"0bqle\">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=\"7v0wj\">Rosenwald told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he had been photographing a group of 10 to 20 individuals who had begun violently engaging with police. They had erected a makeshift structure in the middle of the road that they were sheltering behind as they threw rocks and water bottles toward a line of officers some 100 yards away. Nearby, someone had set a dumpster on fire.</p><p data-block-key=\"b6of7\">Rosenwald said he was moving around, photographing other individuals who were throwing rocks from behind a building, when police began to advance toward the makeshift structure. When they advanced, Rosenwald found himself standing very close to the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"nt8gr\">“My backpack got hit as I was moving away,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"d545s\">He was identifiable as a journalist, carrying his cameras as well as a backpack adorned with “PRESS” patches, but does not feel as though he was targeted. “I was so close to the people who were constructing these barrier structures to throw rocks from, that I had no sense I was being targeted.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qe5rr\">Rosenwald did not suffer any injuries from the pepper balls, nor was his equipment damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"yqx7b\">Tucson Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on this incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"rzz9j\">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",
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"tags": [
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"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Eric Rosenwald (Freelance)"
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},
{
"title": "Fox News correspondent, crew chased from park while documenting DC protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-correspondent-crew-chased-from-park-while-documenting-dc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-24T20:31:45.546415Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:44:06.808393Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:44:06.681501Z",
"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=\"s0yp4\">Fox News correspondent Leland Vittert and his new crew were chased out of Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park by a mob of people on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"nwtp0\">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=\"ss1kn\">Vittert told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived with photojournalist Christian Galdabini and two Fox security officers to report on the protests near the White House at about 8:30 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"pafmt\">The protest was “entirely peaceful” during the early evening, Vittert said, but grew more restless later into the night.</p><p data-block-key=\"lrcvc\">Around midnight, one protester wearing a black and white bandana kept approaching them, questioning which outlet they worked for and why they were there.</p><p data-block-key=\"mcfne\">“Typically when that happens in the field it’s not really a good sign,” Vittert said. “My answer typically is to demure and move on and not really address anything.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6a4cn\">An hour later, Vittert said he noticed that the protester had stopped recording them and was looking at his phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"ta4zd\">As photojournalist Galdabini <a href=\"https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news-dc-videographer-recounts-being-attacked-by-protestors\">told Fox</a>, “Somehow he figured out that we were Fox News and decided that that should be announced.”</p><p data-block-key=\"n4b93\">Vittert told the Tracker that soon after, “A crowd of about 50 people surrounded us, a number of them stopped throwing things at the Secret Service [officers] and started beating on us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"srot3\">In <a href=\"https://dailycaller.com/2020/05/30/george-floyd-protest-white-house-fox-news-leland-vittert/\">footage</a> captured by The Daily Caller, Vittert, Galdabini and their security officers can be seen making their way out of the park while numerous voices call out curses and shout “Fuck Fox News!”</p><p data-block-key=\"qly93\">Vittert told the Tracker that while they attempted to leave, individuals threw objects at them, grabbed their microphone and used it as a club against them. One of the security officers was punched in the face, and Vittert received more than one blow to his stomach.</p><p data-block-key=\"zfrok\">A Fox camera was also broken when one of the individuals attempted to grab it. Galdabini’s <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-crew-chased-park-while-documenting-dc-protests/\">assault and damage to the news equipment is documented here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"77mwc\">“What was different here was we became the prey,” Vittert said. “We weren’t reporting on an event, the attack on us was the event. And that was a very big difference.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kvyxu\">The crew eventually found refuge near a police cruiser outside the park, Vittert said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ps5ig\">“We were all pretty roughed up, to the point of — you woke up the next morning pretty damn sore,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"y78mu\">Vittert said that another news crew reporting in the park that night later found Fox’s microphone and returned it.</p><p data-block-key=\"dwf6c\">Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott denounced the assault in a statement published by the outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"enlq6\">“We strongly condemn these actions against FOX News Media reporting teams as well as all other reporters from any media outlets who are simply trying to do their jobs and report the news during an extraordinary time in our country’s history,” Scott said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tsqie\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"tags": [
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"protest"
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Dallas Morning News reporters targeted by law enforcement with tear gas",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/dallas-morning-news-reporters-targeted-by-law-enforcement-with-tear-gas/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-28T19:22:47.358326Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:46:32.554061Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:46:32.464124Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Dallas",
"longitude": -96.80667,
"latitude": 32.78306,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"itnge\">Two Dallas Morning News reporters said a Texas state trooper rolled a can of tear gas at them while they covered protests in downtown Dallas on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"7wxrm\">The protests were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"xf3t7\">On May 30th, Dallas Morning News reporters Jesus Jiménez and Corbett Smith were documenting police efforts to clear out protesters from outside of their newspaper’s office.</p><p data-block-key=\"fvbze\">Smith told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the incident happened just after 8 p.m., when a state trooper, who was standing 20 to 25 yards away, made eye contact with Smith as the pair stood on South Harwood Street near the The Dallas Morning News headquarters.</p><p data-block-key=\"qymjf\">“There's a state trooper who turns and looks right at me,” Smith said, “and pulled the pin on the gas.” The trooper <a href=\"https://twitter.com/corbettsmithDMN/status/1266899262719303681\">rolled the canister</a> toward Jiménez and Smith, but the canister “kind of skittered off to the west underneath a car that was 10 feet away.” The pair was able to quickly retreat, avoiding being enveloped by the gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"ywrny\">There was no one standing between the journalists and the trooper at the time he rolled the canister at them, Smith said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ezksa\">Both Jiménez and Smith said they were clearly identifiable as members of the media. “I feel like they could easily distinguish us as press,” Jiménez said. “We had our press passes on, our notebooks out and we were standing right in front of our office.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wxfgt\">Smith identified the officer as a state trooper, part of the Texas Department of Public Safety, based on the shield he was carrying. The Tracker documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/dallas-morning-news-reporters-targeted-by-state-trooper-with-tear-gas/\">Smith’s assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"8a8ce\">In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson from the Texas DPS wrote in an email that the department “does not have a record of any of our personnel deploying a gas canister in the area of the Dallas Morning News offices in Dallas on the evening of May 30, 2020.”</p><p data-block-key=\"nfd3n\">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><p data-block-key=\"u77d0\"><i>This article was updated to reflect comment from the Texas Department of Public Safety.</i></p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jesus Jiménez (The Dallas Morning News)"
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},
{
"title": "Swiss videographer shot at with crowd-control munitions amid Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/swiss-videographer-shot-at-with-crowd-control-munitions-amid-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-14T15:28:38.147879Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:08:33.947994Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:08:33.865222Z",
"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=\"t5g85\">While covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, three Swiss journalists were shot at with crowd-control munitions shortly after the 8 p.m. curfew went into effect on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"q6cdl\">Journalists were specifically exempt from the curfew by Gov. Tim Walz’s order. The curfew followed protests 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=\"qgte0\">Shortly after 8:30 p.m. in Minneapolis, officers fired foam rounds at the journalists after they held up their press passes and yelled that they were members of the media.</p><p data-block-key=\"q885h\">Massimiliano Herber, the Washington-based television correspondent for RSI (Radiotelevisione svizzera), an Italian-language channel of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, told the Tracker in an interview that he and videographer Jean-Pascal Azaïs had been reporting on protests downtown with Gaspard Kühn, a Washington-based correspondent for RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse), the public broadcaster’s French-language channel. Neither Azaïs nor Kühn could be reached for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"w1wy2\">Police had begun to throw tear gas and shoot foam rounds at protesters, according to Herber. Some of the tear gas wafted toward the Swiss journalists, stinging their eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"l7jfd\">As the journalists attempted to reach their car, he said, they found police lines on either end of the block, preventing them from moving.</p><p data-block-key=\"fg5ji\">Standing in the middle of the road, the journalists held up their press passes issued by the U.S. Congress and shouted, “Media! Media! Press!” toward the police and asked if they could pass by to reach their car. Azaïs was holding a small video camera. They had taken a couple steps forward, Herber said, when the officers told them to “back up”. The officers then began to shoot at the journalists, firing off four or five foam rounds, all of which missed the journalists, Herber said.</p><p data-block-key=\"o12d9\">They were able to flee to the safety of a nearby parking lot, but when they tried to move, the officers again opened fire, firing two to three foam rounds, Herber said. Eventually, with the help of a local resident, they found a safe route back to their car.</p><p data-block-key=\"5kd3k\">The officers in the area were from the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol, Herber said, but he was not sure who fired the rounds.</p><p data-block-key=\"hveq2\">The broadcaster filed a complaint about the matter with the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland on June 1, Herber said.</p><p data-block-key=\"8rryg\">Requests for comment on these incidents sent to the Minnesota State Patrol and the Minneapolis Police Department were not returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"hcpy1\">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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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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"Jean-Pascal Azaïs (Radiotelevisione svizzera)"
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{
"title": "Reuters producer struck with multiple projectiles during Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reuters-producer-struck-with-multiple-projectiles-during-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-07T16:40:25.725658Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:59:32.405686Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:59:32.318630Z",
"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=\"9u0l4\">Reuters producer Julio-César Chávez was struck with multiple crowd-control munitions while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"pkooy\">Protests began in Minnesota on May 26, 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=\"h9k38\">Shortly after an 8 p.m. curfew began on the 30th, police fired rubber bullets that hit Chávez in his neck and left arm, according to an account of the event published by <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protest-update/reuters-cameraman-hit-by-rubber-bullets-as-police-disperse-protesters-idUSKBN237050\">Reuters</a> and a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JulioCesrChavez/status/1266980841441419265\">tweet</a> from Chávez.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tonight I was shot in the arm and the back of my neck with rubber bullets in the middle of covering the Minneapolis protests. My security advisor was shot in the face; his gas mask protected him.<br><br>Here’s what happened: <a href=\"https://t.co/fwwVLAxFIY\">https://t.co/fwwVLAxFIY</a><br><br>Here’s what it looks like: <a href=\"https://t.co/UwSBqpHv5N\">pic.twitter.com/UwSBqpHv5N</a></p>— Julio-César Chávez (@JulioCesrChavez) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JulioCesrChavez/status/1266980841441419265?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=\"huw5v\">“A police officer that I’m filming turns around points his rubber-bullet rifle straight at me,” Chávez told Reuters. According to the Reuters report, minutes later Chávez and Reuters security advisor Rodney Seward were both struck with crowd-control munitions as they took shelter at a nearby gas station.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ptdn\">Seward yelled that he had been hit in the face by a rubber bullet, and was later treated by a medic for a deep gash under his left eye, according to Reuters.</p><p data-block-key=\"bebs7\">Chávez was holding cameras and had a press pass around his neck; Seward was wearing a bulletproof vest labeled “press,” according to their employer.</p><p data-block-key=\"pxpsx\">“We strongly object to police firing rubber bullets at our crew in Minneapolis and are addressing the situation with the authorities,” a Reuters spokesperson told the wire service. “It was clear that both our reporter and security advisor were members of the press and not a threat to public order. Journalists must be allowed to report the news without fear of harassment or harm.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q4aqr\">More than three dozen journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Minneapolis&date_lower=2020-05-30&date_upper=2020-05-30\">assaulted, arrested or had equipment damaged</a> while covering protests that night. The Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota State Police, and Minnesota National Guard did not reply to emailed requests for comment about these incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"qgd3m\">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=\"b1sux\">A photographer runs amid tear gas during demonstrations in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020.</p>",
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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": [
"Julio-César Chávez (Reuters)"
],
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{
"title": "Investigative reporter targeted with pepper spray, tear gar amid Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/investigative-reporter-targeted-with-pepper-spray-tear-gar-amid-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-07T16:54:35.238501Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:04:37.306180Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:04:37.204577Z",
"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=\"1ws4g\">Police attacked dozens of journalists with rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray on May 30, 2020, during protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"w75ev\">Protests began in Minnesota on May 26, 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=\"8ltvn\">Half an hour after an 8 p.m. curfew began on the 30th, Minnesota State Patrol Officers fired pepper spray and rubber bullets at a group of at least 20 journalists including KSTP-TV investigative television reporter Ryan Raiche, according to <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2882143978738897\">social media</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ryanraiche/status/1266919035033264130\">posts</a> by the journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"1kjn8\">“Myself, photographer, and producer just made it back to the car. We were with a group of media and thought we were in a safe spot,” Raiche wrote on Twitter. “We kept saying we’re media. Police tear gassed and pepper sprayed the entire group. Everyone ran. It was insane. It happened so fast.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Myself, photographer, and producer just made it back to the car. We were with a group of media and thought we were in a safe spot. We kept saying we’re media. Police tear gassed and pepper sprayed the entire group. Everyone ran. It was insane. It happened so fast. <a href=\"https://t.co/Wl3Fzzlsnw\">pic.twitter.com/Wl3Fzzlsnw</a></p>— Ryan Raiche (@ryanraiche) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ryanraiche/status/1266919035033264130?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=\"sdbbv\">More than three dozen journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Minneapolis&date_lower=2020-05-30&date_upper=2020-05-30\">assaulted, arrested or had equipment damaged</a> while covering protests that night. The Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota State Police, and Minnesota National Guard did not reply to emailed requests for comment about these incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"frtdh\">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": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ryan Raiche (KSTP-TV)"
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},
{
"title": "Live 5 News producer in vehicle attacked during Charleston protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/live-5-news-producer-in-vehicle-attacked-during-charleston-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2022-03-11T17:03:59.607444Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:26:08.229237Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:26:08.142826Z",
"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=\"pmrlk\">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=\"ebsh6\">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=\"7pup0\">The car carrying producer Allyson Cook and reporters <a href=\"/all-incidents/live-5-news-reporter-in-vehicle-attacked-during-charleston-protests/\">Rob Way</a> and <a href=\"/all-incidents/two-live-5-news-news-vehicles-damaged-one-night-charleston/\">Abbey O’Brien</a> was driving through a crowd to get to safety because downtown Charleston was becoming violent, O’Brien said.</p><p data-block-key=\"8p95k\">“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=\"d1lkd\">Demonstrations had started peacefully but turned violent as the night wore on, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"91dh6\">“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=\"e2sl\">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=\"11fgb\">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=\"3kcu0\">“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=\"pmrlk\">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><p data-block-key=\"a0c29\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"actor": null,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "South Carolina",
"abbreviation": "SC"
},
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Allyson Cook (WCSC-TV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Canadian journalist struck with munitions while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/canadian-journalist-struck-with-munitions-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-07T17:01:21.054911Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:06:00.369669Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:06:00.279389Z",
"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=\"lm5ox\">Police attacked dozens of journalists with rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray on May 30, 2020, during protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"0vxwp\">Protests began in Minnesota on May 26, 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=\"19zy3\">On May 30, police fired a rubber bullet that hit Canadian Broadcasting Corporation correspondent Susan Ormiston in her shoulder, and fired an unidentified canister that hit her in the buttocks, she said <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NatashaFatah/status/1266919824556535808\">in a report</a> for the broadcaster.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloyd</a> Protests: CBC in Minneapolis<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BREAKING</a> The curfew is in effect but protesters are still out so police started tear gas and rubber bullets at them. <br><br>People have been hit including our colleague, CBC Senior Correspondent Susan Ormiston. <a href=\"https://t.co/N8XcXaAyHH\">pic.twitter.com/N8XcXaAyHH</a></p>— Natasha Fatah (@NatashaFatah) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NatashaFatah/status/1266919824556535808?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=\"490pr\">“For the last 10 minutes we have seen a very robust police response,” Ormiston said in her report. “Police came out, they pushed the crowd back, they were firing canister after canister of tear gas and we were right in the middle of it. They were firing rubber bullets: a bullet hit me in the shoulder.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1zg63\">Ormiston said that police opened fire on her and her CBC team while they were in a parking lot filming officers’ actions.</p><p data-block-key=\"836sp\">“The thing is we were in that parking lot all by ourselves with two other people behind us, everybody else was cleared out and they fired at us,” Ormiston said. “We clearly had our television camera visible, so they were definitely taking an aggressive action to move everybody out including us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"qfjjx\">More than three dozen journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?city=Minneapolis&date_lower=2020-05-30&date_upper=2020-05-30\">assaulted, arrested or had equipment damaged</a> while covering protests that night. The Minneapolis Police Department, Minnesota State Police, and Minnesota National Guard did not reply to emailed requests for comment about these incidents.</p><p data-block-key=\"29wwq\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Susan Ormiston (CBC News [Canada])"
],
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},
{
"title": "HuffPost editor struck in the leg with projectile during Capitol protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/huffpost-editor-struck-in-the-leg-with-projectile-during-capitol-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-18T17:52:27.181740Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T18:11:27.424401Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T18:11:27.343842Z",
"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=\"jpaew\">HuffPost editor Philip Lewis was struck by a crowd-control munition while covering protests in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"wicv5\">The protests were sparked by a video showing a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for 7 minutes and 46 seconds during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"syvzu\">Lewis told the Committee to Protect Journalists — a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — he was covering the protests near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute when vandals began breaking out the windows of the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"pzvhq\">Police began releasing tear gas and setting off flash-bang grenades to disperse the crowd, Lewis said, and so he decided it was time to leave the area. As he tried to leave, he said he was struck by a small object in the left leg at around 11:35 p.m. “It was definitely a stinging pain,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"zlcsh\">Lewis did not recover the projectile after it hit him, but said he believed it to be a rubber bullet, due to the size of the mark it left and the fact that he had seen one on the ground earlier in the day. The Tracker could not confirm the type of projectile he was hit with.</p><p data-block-key=\"ch8jy\">Lewis tweeted about the incident a few minutes later:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just got shot in the leg with rubber bullets. Not great!</p>— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/1266938209902252043?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=\"qse6p\">Lewis, who was wearing press credentials at the time, did not believe he was the intended target. The projectile left behind a slight red bruise several days later, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"y3wek\">Kristen Metzger, a D.C. police spokeswoman, wrote in an email to the Tracker that the Metropolitan Police Department has not “deployed rubber bullets during the demonstrations.” In a follow-up email, she confirmed that the department “may deploy … when necessary,” pepper spray, sting ball grenades that expel tiny rubber balls at high velocity and tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"nmtnd\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "District of Columbia",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
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"Assault"
],
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{
"title": "Detroit police officer aims weapon at Free Press journalist",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-police-officer-aims-weapon-at-free-press-journalist/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-29T16:56:45.165120Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:49:41.841202Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:49:41.748635Z",
"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=\"kcstb\">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=\"7bp1y\">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=\"qxeq7\">Detroit Free Press reporter Branden Hunter, who’s no longer with the newspaper, told CPJ in an interview that he’d been reporting on May 30 with a group of Free Press reporters. At about 11:30 p.m., as he was standing near a handful of his colleagues and trying to see through a haze of tear gas, a police officer approached him with a rubber bullet gun and told him to leave, according to a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/JustCallmeBHunt/status/1266955368493711361\">tweet</a> from Hunter’s twitter account and his interview with CPJ. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"eksq4\">“I put my press pass up and immediately stopped what I was doing,” Hunter told CPJ.</p><p data-block-key=\"2cyxb\">Hunter, who is Black, said he felt the officer was “100 percent” going after him because of his race.</p><p data-block-key=\"y7w4z\">In a Facebook Live hosted by the International Center for Journalists on June 5, Hunter <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/icfjorg/videos/858359181234324/?v=858359181234324\">said</a> he’d been wearing streetwear that evening, including a Black Panther jacket, and that, aside from his press badge, he “fit the description of the protesters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oa02g\">According to both Hunter and a video of the incident on his Twitter account that was viewed by CPJ, a tear gas canister rolled toward the journalists from another direction immediately after the officer had stepped away from him.</p><p data-block-key=\"t7prb\">M.L. Elrick, who’d also been reporting that evening with a group of Free Press journalists, also had an officer aim a crowd-control weapon at him later that night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/weapons-aimed-free-press-journalists-covering-detroit-protests/\">documented his assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"th8gc\">The Free Press did not respond to an email requesting comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"eiw8n\">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=\"35mpr\">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": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Branden Hunter (Detroit Free Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Reporter for Finnish outlet struck in face with projectile during Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-for-finnish-outlet-struck-in-face-with-projectile-during-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-09-28T19:49:09.307830Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:48:32.405145Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:48:32.317354Z",
"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=\"c3jhw\">Mikko Marttinen, a reporter for Finnish outlet Ilta-Sanomat, was struck in the face with a crowd-control munition while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 29, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"j6t01\">Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. On the fourth night of protests, the National Guard was called in to disperse crowds and enforce the 8 p.m. curfew in place that evening.</p><p data-block-key=\"2hgq7\">At approximately 11:30 p.m., Minneapolis Police officers near the department’s Fifth Precinct began indiscriminately firing projectiles and tear gas to disperse the crowd, Marttinen told the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"hdz0p\">One of the rubber bullets ricocheted off the ground and struck him in the face. Marttinen said his glasses, which were broken by the projectiles, saved his eye.</p><p data-block-key=\"wghha\">“I only got a few scratches on my eyelid and around my eye,” Marttinen said. “So I was pretty OK.”</p><p data-block-key=\"zlut3\">Marttinen eventually met up with other foreign correspondents in an alley, including an Australian news team sheltering with its security team.</p><p data-block-key=\"r5kwc\">The Minneapolis Police Department did not respond to multiple phone and emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"4nw4n\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Mikko Marttinen (Ilta-Sanomat [Finland])"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Social media journalist hit with projectile while covering Minneapolis protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/social-media-journalist-hit-with-projectile-while-covering-minneapolis-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-05-19T17:22:29.383092Z",
"last_published_at": "2022-03-10T19:37:55.791267Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2022-03-10T19:37:55.732073Z",
"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=\"8qomk\">Brad Svenson, a Minnesota-based journalist who runs the social media outlet Watchdog Citizen News, said he was hit with a crowd-control round fired by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper while covering a protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"zqh6m\">Months of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man, while in police custody. Svenson, who videos and live-streams protests, told the Tracker he was covering a protest near the intersection of Nicollet Avenue and Lake Street in Minneapolis.</p><p data-block-key=\"x7iuo\">He said he was in a parking lot near an apartment complex and saw other journalists who had apparently been hit by crowd-control munitions. As a line of law enforcement officers was coming up the street, Svenson said he and another member of the press went over to see if the other journalists were OK.</p><p data-block-key=\"ajfo5\">Svenson said he was holding up his press badge, a card he made that had his photograph and the word “PRESS” in large letters, to the officers as they advanced. He said he saw that the officers were holding weapons, so he shouted out “press” to identify himself and turned around and started walking away.</p><p data-block-key=\"9yzrb\">As he was walking, he said, a Minnesota State Patrol trooper shot him with a bean-bag round, a crowd-control projectile consisting of a fabric bag filled with lead shot. The round hit him in the back just below his left armpit.</p><p data-block-key=\"bzu99\">Svenson said the impact was painful and it hurt to breathe after he was hit, but he didn’t think it broke a rib. He said he was able to continue to cover protests for the next several weeks. Svenson said he has been in treatment for PTSD after covering protests in 2020, and believes that being shot with the munition was “the catalyst.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8eipn\">Svenson believes he was targeted for being a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"l82yd\">MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Brad Svenson (Watchdog Citizen News)"
],
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"type_of_denial": null
},
{
"title": "NBC News producer hit with multiple projectiles during Louisville protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc-news-producer-hit-with-multiple-projectiles-during-louisville-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-04T16:14:22.825871Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:55:57.503266Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:55:57.416495Z",
"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=\"nlp04\">NBC News producer Kailani Koenig and correspondent Cal Perry were shot at with pepper balls while covering protests in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"cywgc\">Protests in Louisville have centered around the deaths of Breonna Taylor, shot and killed inside her home by Louisville police in March, and the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"kue0e\">Perry told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the news team and their security guard were reporting from a bus stop with plexiglass barriers in downtown Louisville shortly after 8:30 p.m. when police began to disperse the crowd. Both news crew members were wearing press passes, Perry said.</p><p data-block-key=\"xaar2\">The news team took off running, Perry said, and when they made it around the corner and out of the way of the police advance, Koenig turned around and Perry noticed that her bag had been hit with pepper balls anywhere from six to 12 times.</p><p data-block-key=\"hk41l\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CalNBC/status/1267108873216933893\">tweet</a> posted the following day, Koenig’s backpack can be seen with numerous residue marks where it was struck by the less-lethal pepper ball rounds.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Producer <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kailanikm?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@kailanikm</a> backpack marked by the many spots pepper pellets hit as we were running away last night in <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Louisville?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Louisville</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/MSNBC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MSNBC</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/ynQBuDjoQf\">pic.twitter.com/ynQBuDjoQf</a></p>— Cal Perry (@CalNBC) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CalNBC/status/1267108873216933893?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=\"4gszl\">Perry said that while Koenig’s bag had prevented her from being hit by any of the rounds, the security officer with them was struck in the center of his back with a rubber bullet, causing a large welt.</p><p data-block-key=\"6f2jp\">“There was no question: they were moving us along by firing the little pepper rounds and rubber bullets at us,” Perry said. The Tracker documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-fire-pepper-balls-and-rubber-bullets-news-crew-move-them-during-louisville-protests/\">Perry’s assault here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"p0ar8\">The Louisville Police Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"9wni5\">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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"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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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Kentucky",
"abbreviation": "KY"
},
"updates": [],
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"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Kailani Koenig (NBC News)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
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},
{
"title": "Omaha news car spray painted with profanity during late May protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/omaha-news-car-spray-painted-with-profanity-during-late-may-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-12T13:10:27.899511Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:25:30.234354Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:25:30.150850Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Omaha",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qlfj9\">A KMTV 3 News Now car was found vandalized in the early morning hours of May 30, 2020, while the reporter was covering protests against police violence in Omaha, Nebraska.</p><p data-block-key=\"4iwn3\">Reporters from KMTV 3 News Now, a CBS-affiliate station, were documenting protests that began across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"we5wm\">According to the <a href=\"https://omaha.com/news/local/72nd-and-dodge-shut-down-as-tear-gas-protesters-fill-streets-omaha-police-make-multiple/article_85901422-09dc-500c-b016-7d6be516e418.html#1\">Omaha World-Herald</a>, thousands of protesters gathered at 72nd and Dodge, one of Omaha’s busiest intersections on May 29th. Deputy Chief Ken Kanger said that there was generally no violence and harm, according to the World-Herald, but as of 10:30 p.m. Lt. Sherie Thomas said the demonstration was no longer peaceful.</p><p data-block-key=\"28kn7\">KMTV-TV 3 News Now News Director Geoffrey Roth told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the news vehicle was parked about 3 blocks away from the protests as a safety precaution. Roth said a reporter returned to the car shortly after midnight on the 30th to find it spray painted with profanity and what appeared to be gang symbols, but there was no other damage.</p><p data-block-key=\"fy3d7\">“The vandalizing of our news vehicle was only a small part of what happened to our reporters in the field that evening,” he said. “Two were shoved to the ground by police officers while covering the protest that night and another was threatened with arrest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4y9tl\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Documentary filmmaker pepper-sprayed by NYPD while covering Brooklyn protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentary-filmmaker-pepper-sprayed-by-nypd-while-covering-brooklyn-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-07T17:40:27.646609Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:25:13.224793Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:25:13.143989Z",
"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=\"cp3n6\">Documentary filmmaker Christopher Frierson was pepper-sprayed in the face by police while he filmed a protest in the Brooklyn borough of New York on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"g8qc3\">The protest was among the many demonstrations that broke out in response to police violence and in support of Black Lives Matter following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"fkbii\">Frierson, whose work includes the award-winning documentary “The King” and the forthcoming “Don’t Try to Understand,” said in<a href=\"https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/5/chris_frierson_filmmaker_pepper_sprayed\"> an interview with Democracy Now</a> that the May 30 protest in Brooklyn had been peaceful until a woman threw a water bottle toward police from the group he was filming. He said that police began running toward the group spraying liquid at people, including him.</p><p data-block-key=\"wyn08\">The Tracker couldn’t reach Frierson for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"elk11\"><a href=\"https://youtu.be/u8Xvt9L48A4?t=45\">Video Frierson recorded</a> shows an officer in a helmet and face shield approaching and directing a stream of liquid in the direction of the camera from several feet away. The camera points toward the ground and Frierson can be heard groaning. He told Democracy Now that it was the second most painful experience in his life.</p><p data-block-key=\"kyx03\">“I think that it’s more than the pain,” he said in the interview. “It’s just not knowing what’s happening all of a sudden, because you’re robbed of your sight. You’re robbed of your senses.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rbqkz\">Frierson kept the camera rolling after he was sprayed. Shortly after, voices can be heard around him asking if he had been sprayed and helping to treat him. Someone pours a liquid into his eyes and on his face, explaining that it will reduce the stinging, and wiping his face and nose.</p><p data-block-key=\"za7ch\">“They got me right in the face, I saw it happening,” Frierson says in the video.</p><p data-block-key=\"5vc7m\">Frierson was incapacitated, unable to see, for more than 10 minutes after he was sprayed, according to <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/09/protests-pepper-spray-police-george-floyd\">The Guardian</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"d59jo\">The Guardian reported that Frierson was clearly displaying a press badge at the time he was sprayed.</p><p data-block-key=\"1jlnd\">“I’d assumed they wouldn’t do anything to me because I was press and I had a camera in my arms, but I found out that I was wrong,” Frierson told the Guardian.</p><p data-block-key=\"2o9lp\">The New York City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
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"name": "New York",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
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{
"title": "Rubber bullet hits LA Times photojournalist’s camera and arm",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rubber-bullet-hits-la-times-photojournalists-camera-and-arm/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-07T17:04:02.262217Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T17:43:36.105705Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T17:43:35.970803Z",
"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=\"nq70r\">Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco said his camera was struck by a rubber bullet, which also bruised his arm, while he was covering a protest in Los Angeles on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"6nke7\">Sinco was covering one of hundreds of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that were held across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"789r3\">Peaceful protests were held across the city earlier in the day on May 30, but by afternoon, people began looting and vandalizing property in some parts of the city, the <a href=\"https://laist.com/2020/05/30/los-angeles-george-floyd-protests-day-four.php\">LAist reported</a>. Later that day, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, and a curfew was imposed from 8 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. the following morning in LA and the surrounding area.</p><p data-block-key=\"3zzke\">Sinco told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that he was covering a protest that night in downtown Los Angeles. Demonstrators were confronting police, and some people threw objects toward law enforcement, according to Sinco. Police began moving in a line formation toward the group of protesters, where Sinco was positioned, and two officers shot less-lethal projectiles, a category that includes rubber bullets, toward the demonstrators.</p><p data-block-key=\"13y0g\">Sinco said that he was lowering his camera from his eye, holding it near his stomach, when a rubber bullet hit it. He said he could feel the impact of the projectile on the camera. The rubber bullet then ricocheted off and hit him near his elbow on the inner bicep of his left arm, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ef89r\">The projectile ripped through metal alloys of the body of the Canon 1DX camera, according to Sinco. A photograph he<a href=\"https://twitter.com/luissinco/status/1266683997913927680\"> posted on Twitter</a> shows a hole on the top of the camera exposing the interior of the device.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Check this out. Rubber bullet fired by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/LAPD?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LAPD</a> gashes by camera instead of my face during <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydprotest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydprotest</a> in LA. <a href=\"https://t.co/aTh46j2DZa\">pic.twitter.com/aTh46j2DZa</a></p>— luis sinco (@luissinco) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/luissinco/status/1266683997913927680?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=\"cpj5n\">Sinco said he tried to use the camera after it was hit, but it no longer worked.</p><p data-block-key=\"pb4lg\">Sinco believes he was likely hit because he was with the group of demonstrators that police were firing on. He said he does not think he was targeted because he was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"wel7z\">Sinco said he was wearing a press credential around his neck. The situation was chaotic, he said, and he did not identify himself verbally to police or protesters as a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"qjro2\">The camera was substantially damaged and needed to be repaired, Sinco said. He said he had a bruise for several days where the rubber bullet ricocheted into his arm, but it was not very painful.</p><p data-block-key=\"g7i77\">“The camera took most of the force, I think,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vlxur\">The damage to Sinco’s camera was referenced in a<a href=\"http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/146415.pdf\"> resolution</a> the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors<a href=\"https://mynewsla.com/crime/2020/06/09/l-a-county-supervisors-resolve-to-oppose-attacks-on-journalists/\"> adopted on June 9</a> affirming the rights of journalists to report without interference from law enforcement.</p><p data-block-key=\"quz14\">Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for comment</p><p data-block-key=\"l780f\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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{
"title": "Photojournalist hit with multiple projectiles while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-with-multiple-projectiles-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-07T16:52:43.146211Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T21:10:39.641895Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T21:10:39.549116Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"3tqfy\">Independent photojournalist Nick Stern said he was shot by police with crowd-control projectiles twice while covering a protest in Los Angeles, California on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"nbgea\">The L.A. protest was one of many held across the country in response to a video showing the police killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"jfp48\">The demonstration that began in the city’s Fairfax District started out peaceful, but tensions escalated later in the day as police cars were set on fire and law enforcement used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters, according to <a href=\"https://laist.com/2020/05/30/los-angeles-george-floyd-protests-day-four.php\">LAist</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"b8oj7\">Stern, whose work has been published by the Daily Mail and other publications, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he followed the protest from Pan Pacific Park as the crowd moved through the neighborhood, coming to a halt at the intersection of Third Street and Fairfax Avenue around 2:30 p.m. When a line of police formed to block the route along Third Street, Stern said he was among the protesters, at the front of the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"kgu10\">The police would occasionally shout “move back” and use batons to push the crowd of protesters back.</p><p data-block-key=\"v4s5z\">Stern said an officer was very aggressive with him, even though he was displaying press credentials and holding two professional cameras. He said the officers prodded him repeatedly in the ribs with a baton. Frustrated, Stern moved within the crowd of protesters to another area, but a second officer started jabbing him with a baton, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"9h2qp\">The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"biq7r\">Stern said he moved again to another area within the protest group and displayed his press credentials to an officer who led him through the skirmish line, away from the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"agux2\">Stern said he was standing about 10 feet behind the line of police. He said he brought his camera up to his face to start taking photographs of a group of officers carrying crowd-control weapons as they walked under a cloud of smoke billowing from a police car that had been set on fire.</p><p data-block-key=\"izljy\">“As I started taking the picture I realized that one of the cops has got his 40-millimeter gun actually pointing straight at me,” Stern said.</p><p data-block-key=\"38u3t\">Stern told the Tracker he used his other hand to grab his press credentials, which were hanging from his neck on a lanyard, and held it up by the side of his face. He said he also shouted out that he was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"6buu2\">Then the officer fired, shooting Stern on his right thigh with a 40-millimeter crowd-dispersal round, Stern told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"g3zlj\">Stern said he wasn’t near any protesters when he was shot. He said he was the only civilian on that side of the police line and other officers were at least two yards away from him.</p><p data-block-key=\"avede\">About half an hour later, Stern said that he was standing talking with another journalist on the police side of the skirmish line when another round grazed his left knee. He said he didn’t see where the projectile came from, but he said both he and the other journalist were clearly identifiable as members of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"3r6yh\">Stern said he believed he was targeted because he was a journalist. In addition to shouting out that he was a journalist and showing his press credentials, he said he was carrying two large Nikon cameras.</p><p data-block-key=\"k1jof\">“It's clear that I was not a protester,” Stern said. “I see no other reason why I was targeted. I was not chanting, not acting aggressively.</p><p data-block-key=\"trw3w\">Stern said the shot on his right thigh was intensely painful. He had a bruise and said he had difficulty walking for about a week because it was painful to put pressure on that leg.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"cudes\">Los Angeles Police officers respond to protests on May 30, 2020, following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Officers that day shot photojournalist Nick Stern with multiple crowd-control munitions and struck him with a baton.</p>",
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"(2021-05-03 12:29:00+00:00) Photojournalist files lawsuit against LAPD",
"(2024-02-06 16:57:00+00:00) Photojournalist reaches $150k settlement in lawsuit against LAPD"
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{
"title": "Central Track editor hit with flash-bang grenade while covering Dallas protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/central-track-editor-hit-with-flash-bang-grenade-while-covering-dallas-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2021-04-05T18:31:46.778904Z",
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"date": "2020-05-30",
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"city": "Dallas",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"8oyzw\">Pete Freedman, the co-founder and editor of the Dallas alternative news site Central Track, was hit with a flash-bang grenade while he was reporting on a protest in the Texas city on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"qjg7c\">The protest against police brutality and racial injustice in Dallas was one of many held across the country in response to a video of the police killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"7cnv1\">Demonstrators gathered outside City Hall in Dallas early in the afternoon and briefly marched through downtown, <a href=\"https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2020/05/30/protesters-at-dallas-city-hall-say-no-more-and-focus-message-on-police-brutality/\">The Dallas Morning News</a> reported. When the protest returned to the plaza, confrontations escalated with police, and law enforcement used tear gas and flash bangs on the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"stva2\">Freedman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he started livestreaming the demonstration from around 3 or 4 p.m. He said tensions between protesters and police were high, with protesters shouting their frustrations at police, and police shouting instructions at the demonstrators. At one point, he said, a SWAT team arrived in armored trucks, shouting at protesters to move back onto the plaza from the street, and deploying tear gas on the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"itg8i\">Freedman said he was trying to get to the other side of City Hall around the east side of the building, but the police would only allow people to leave by going around the west side. He said he was walking with a crowd of people against the building while police fired flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward them.</p><p data-block-key=\"nct3t\">In a<a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/tv/CA1BfSZBFmw/?igshid=f7dl99kx99wk\"> video</a> posted on Instagram, Freedman can be seen walking with protesters as police move the group toward the City Hall building.</p><p data-block-key=\"hxokd\">“They are literally putting our backs up against the wall here,” he says.</p><p data-block-key=\"goky9\">At the 33:30 mark, Freedman’s camera is pointing out to the empty plaza in front of the building, when a canister can be seen passing by before an orange flash in the lower right side of the frame. Freedman told the Tracker that was when the device hit him in the leg and exploded.</p><p data-block-key=\"e7a3n\">“There's no avoiding it,” he said. “It skirts right into my path and it happens to, like, explode right as it hits like my shin.”</p><p data-block-key=\"x719g\">Freedman said he was wearing a press badge, including his photo, outlet and the words “press” and “media,” on a lanyard. He said he didn’t believe he was targeted because he was a journalist. He said that the use of crowd-control devices seemed indiscriminate.</p><p data-block-key=\"15y68\">“The scary thing to me was that there was no regard for who anybody was,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"eaw6g\">A spokesperson for the Dallas Police Department told the Tracker they couldn’t find any record of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffqbg\">The explosion shocked him, he said. When he looked down a little while later, he said he saw he was bleeding. The device left him with a bruise and a cut, altogether the size of a baseball. He said the wound wasn’t very deep and he was able to follow the protests for the next eight hours without treating it, but it took about a month to fully heal.</p><p data-block-key=\"dfrwc\">Freedman said that he has covered many protests in Dallas in the past, but after he was hit with the flash-bang grenade, he was more alert about how to identify himself as a journalist. A few days later, he said he bought a vest marked “PRESS.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ekaxl\">“Covering the rest of the summer I think I was much more aware of maybe having to better identify myself,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ulak\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p></div>",
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"name": "Texas",
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{
"title": "KATV journalists hit with tear gas while covering Little Rock protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-journalists-hit-with-tear-gas-while-covering-little-rock-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-23T22:06:25.855729Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:24:19.490770Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:24:19.410039Z",
"date": "2020-05-30",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Little Rock",
"longitude": -92.28959,
"latitude": 34.74648,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"pefc8\">KATV News reporter Shelby Rose said she and several colleagues were hit with tear gas deployed by police while they covered protests in Little Rock, Arkansas, on May 30, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"g5ko0\">The demonstrations in Little Rock were among many anti-racism protests across the country that were sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as well as other deaths of Black people at the hands of police.</p><p data-block-key=\"ds2hf\">Rose was covering the protests in downtown Little Rock as tensions escalated between police and protesters. According to the<a href=\"https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/may/31/in-lr-rally-near-capitol-turns-violent-/\"> Arkansas Democrat Gazette</a>, Arkansas State Police used tear gas multiple times that night to disperse protesters who gathered in the city’s downtown.</p><p data-block-key=\"84790\">Rose said she and four other KATV journalists were first hit with tear gas when they stood near a small group of protesters, shortly after the Arkansas State Police arrived. One journalist, digital reporter Paige Cushman, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she had seen police using tear gas indiscriminately in a different area shortly before the news team was hit with it, and said she didn’t believe the news team had been targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"e7jte\">Rose said there were a handful of protesters near where she was standing with her colleagues, preparing for a live broadcast. She and members of her team were clearly identified as journalists. They were wearing polos with the KATV news logo and carrying camera equipment, including a powerful light used to shoot video, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"yiydf\">“There was no warning for tear gas,” she said. “They shot it right at us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"01qeq\">In a live broadcast shot immediately after tear gas was used, Rose walked along a sidewalk, with protesters visible nearby, describing the effects. “My eyes are currently burning right now,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"goj94\">In a clip from a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/KATVChannel7/videos/248916816172334\">Facebook Live video</a> recorded by a colleague, Rose and other members of the team kneel on the ground, as someone helps her pour water in her eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"cmi0g\">Rose said she believes police intentionally fired tear gas toward her. “It was obvious who we were, and we were standing right next to them.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wzg0d\">Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said in an email that the incident hadn’t been reported to the agency. He said police wouldn’t have fired on reporters standing near the police line, because the officers wouldn’t have deployed tear gas on themselves. “I assure you no tear gas was directed at any state troopers or reporters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xlhfe\">He also said police always issue a loud warning to disperse before using tear gas. Rose said she heard no announcement from police before the tear gas was deployed.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9vbx\">About 15 minutes later, Rose was standing on a corner on Martin Luther King Drive with no protesters near her when a tear gas canister landed near her, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ezool\">Video reviewed by the Tracker that was shot as Rose was broadcasting live shows a line of police carrying riot shields, blocking a street. A tear gas canister appears to be shot from the line of police, alight and trailed by a shower of sparks. As she reported on the scene, Rose initially called the canisters “fireworks,” before she realized they were tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"nucht\">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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"name": "Arkansas",
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