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{
"title": "SacBee photojournalist's hand broken, camera stolen while covering protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-sacramento-bee-journalists-hit-behind-their-equipment-damaged-and-stolen-while-covering-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-30T14:08:13.469688Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:21:45.606877Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:21:45.474714Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Sacramento",
"longitude": -121.4944,
"latitude": 38.58157,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"s33jn\">Two Sacramento Bee journalists were assaulted and their work equipment damaged and stolen while covering protests against police violence in downtown Sacramento, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"2qvnp\">SacBee photojournalist Paul Kitagaki Jr. was reporting that night with colleague reporter Sam Stanton. The pair had been following protests at the state Capitol, which law enforcement had dispersed with flash-bang grenades and tear gas at around 11:30 p.m. As the crowd broke up, Kitagaki and Stanton left the area, soon walking past a 7-Eleven a block from the Capitol that appeared to be being looted, according to Kitagaki.</p><p data-block-key=\"xfh21\">Kitagaki told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in a phone interview that the city was loud that night and the journalists didn’t hear as two men ran up behind them, hitting them, in Stanton’s words, “full speed from behind.” Stanton was thrown to the ground, hitting his knee and head, while Kitagaki had one of his cameras yanked off his shoulder, breaking his right hand in the process. Stanton’s <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-bee-reporter-shoved-to-the-ground-while-covering-protests-in-california-capital/\">assault and equipment damage are documented by the Tracker here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"p7me4\">Kitagaki told the Tracker that he got the impression that the attackers, who quickly ran away after the assault, were looters, unassociated with the protesters, and that he and Stanton were targeted because of the camera equipment he was carrying.</p><p data-block-key=\"4e88l\">Kitagaki and Stanton intended to continue working that night, with Kitagaki using his left hand to take photos with a second camera of which he was still in possession. However, within 10 minutes of Stanton <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StantonSam/status/1267342165337796608\">tweeting</a> about the attack, all Sacramento Bee reporters and photographers were pulled out of the area. Reporter Alex Yoon-Hendricks tweeted that the newspaper <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ayoonhendricks/status/1267344884236644353\">was concerned</a> for its journalists’ safety, as looting had escalated and police were hard to find.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">All <a href=\"https://twitter.com/sacbee_news?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sacbee_news</a> reporters and photographers have been pulled out of downtown/midtown Sacramento. Right now, groups of mostly young men are smashing windows, stealing. Few cops along J and K St. Some people were walking dogs right next to people in ski masks breaking into cars. <a href=\"https://t.co/qrjUNoCdk5\">https://t.co/qrjUNoCdk5</a></p>— Alex BOOn-Hendricks 🐝 (@ayoonhendricks) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ayoonhendricks/status/1267344884236644353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lnirk\">Kitagaki reported the assault to the police the following day, and Kitagaki and Stanton were both interviewed about the attack. The Sacramento Police department did not respond to a request for comment for this story.</p><p data-block-key=\"qeisz\">Kitagaki took two months off work to heal his broken hand, and will continue in physical therapy four months after the assault.</p><p data-block-key=\"w3dva\">Protests in Sacramento and across the United States have surged in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following a viral video that showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man, George Floyd, during his arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"hmuke\">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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"quantity": 1,
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"name": "California",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"robbery"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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"Paul Kitagaki Jr. (The Sacramento Bee)"
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},
{
"title": "Reporter covering Iowa protests struck by rubber bullet",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-covering-iowa-protests-struck-rubber-bullet/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-26T14:31:06.448199Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:15:03.579578Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:15:03.495630Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Des Moines",
"longitude": -93.60911,
"latitude": 41.60054,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dl29q\">A photojournalist covering protests in Des Moines, Iowa, tweeted that he was hit in the thigh by a rubber bullet fired by police on May 31, 2020.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I was hit in the thigh by a nonlethal projectile (rubber bullet) while covering the protests last night in Des Moines. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydProtests</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/desmoines?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#desmoines</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/SEfcKDfTi9\">pic.twitter.com/SEfcKDfTi9</a></p>— Bryon Houlgrave (@bryonhoulgrave) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bryonhoulgrave/status/1267426107026006016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"0hdop\">The journalist, Bryon Houlgrave of the Des Moines Register, declined to comment further about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"1rly7\">Demonstrations that night included a march starting at Evelyn K. Davis Park, a candlelight vigil, and protests outside Merle Hay Mall and Des Moines police headquarters, the Register <a href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2020/05/31/after-nights-mayhem-more-protests-planned-des-moines-sunday-george-floyd/5301568002/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ysna4\">Register reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-pepper-sprayed-arrested-amid-protests-des-moines/\">Andrea Sahouri was pepper-sprayed and arrested</a> while documenting the Merle Hay Mall demonstration.</p><p data-block-key=\"ehkxq\">The journalists were covering the third night of protests <a href=\"https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2020/05/31/register-reporter-arrested-while-covering-protest/5304560002/\">in the city</a> in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. 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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"state": {
"name": "Iowa",
"abbreviation": "IA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Bryon Houlgrave (The Des Moines Register)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Detroit Free Press reporter shoved by police while covering protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-free-press-reporter-shoved-police-while-covering-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-15T19:44:59.019924Z",
"last_published_at": "2020-10-15T19:44:59.019924Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2020-10-15T19:44:58.942464Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Detroit Free Press reporter Darcie Moran was <a href=\"https://twitter.com/darciegmoran/status/1267256747783270401\">shoved</a> by Detroit police near their headquarters while covering protests in the city on May 31, 2020, Moran told the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p>Moran said that she was with her colleague Branden Hunter at the time when she received a text from another colleague stating that the police public information officer wanted all media to move to a designated area. But Moran said she didn’t know where that was.</p><p>Moran said that Hunter told her he heard police announce that they were going to use tear gas, so they decided to find the media area and stay there.</p><p>“We went over there [when] some officers came and started pushing us,” Moran told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “They were pushing us back toward Detroit police, which was confusing because there were police on both sides so we didn't really know where to go.”</p><p>The journalist said she kept saying that they were members of the media, but the officers persisted.</p><p>Detroit Free Press colleague Mark Kurlyandchik, who was standing nearby, was charged by police at this time, Moran said. “I was concerned he was about to go head first into a ticket vestibule,” she said. The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-free-press-reporter-charged-police-told-leave/\">Kurlyandchik’s assault here.</a></p><p>Moran said she was pushed, but “not far,” despite yelling that they were members of the media. “I don’t care,” one of the officers shouted back, according to Moran.</p><p>The Detroit Free Press reporters were stuck as police jostled them around, Moran said.</p><p>“It was difficult because we wanted to see the direct interactions between protesters and police, but we were now kind of stuck behind police,” Moran said. “We did some interviews with some stragglers there and saw some arrests taking place.”</p><p>At one point that evening an officer began yelling that Moran and several of her colleagues were going to be arrested for being out. Moran said that they replied that they’re members of the media, but the police officer said that didn’t matter.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We were in the designated media area. Police started shoving us and said they didn’t care we were media. One reporter went down hard. He is fine.</p>— Darcie Moran (@darciegmoran) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/darciegmoran/status/1267256747783270401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p>Moran said they observed the detention of reporter Christine MacDonald that evening and were able to make it back to the newsroom. The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-news-journalist-captures-her-own-detention-livestream/\">MacDonald’s arrest here</a>.</p><p>The Detroit police did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Darcie Moran (Detroit Free Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Freelance photojournalist struck with baton while covering DC protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-struck-with-baton-while-covering-dc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:02:12.576205Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:32:34.701189Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:32:34.607864Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"5x7hs\">Freelance photojournalist Matthew Rodier was struck with a baton while documenting protests in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2020, the third evening of widespread demonstrations in the nation’s capital after the death of George Floyd.</p><p data-block-key=\"ubxiz\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of 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=\"s8eqr\">Rodier, who frequently contributes to the Sipa USA agency, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email that at about 10:30 p.m. he’d found himself in the path of a line of advancing officers on H Street. “When they got really close I put my hands in the air and shouted ‘I’m a journalist’ multiple times,” Rodier recounted. He said an officer in front of him “spun me around and hit me with a baton in my posterior hard enough to drop me to the ground.” Rodier said he yelled, “I’m a journalist,” again and that the officer responded, “I don’t care. Get out of here.” A protester helped Rodier up.</p><p data-block-key=\"5n54y\">Rodier was unclear what law enforcement agency the officers belonged to. Later that evening, an individual assaulted Rodier and broke his jaw. The Tracker captured that incident <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalists-jaw-broken-at-washington-dc-protests/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"svdy9\">D.C. is notable for the <a href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/05/protests-washington-dc-federal-agents-law-enforcement-302551\">large number of different police forces</a> that operate within its borders. Requests for comment from the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police were not returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"9oh5d\">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": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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},
{
"title": "Voice of America video journalist punched in face, toes fractured while covering protests in Santa Monica",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/voice-america-video-journalist-punched-face-toes-fractured-while-covering-protests-santa-monica/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-14T15:23:23.586230Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:14:42.015887Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:14:41.903079Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Santa Monica",
"longitude": -118.49138,
"latitude": 34.01949,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"26dwx\">Voice of America video journalist Khrystyna Shevchenko was punched in the face and fractured three toes while covering protests against police violence in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"gkdyj\">Shevchenko told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview that she and a friend, Christian Gomez, had been filming along the Third Street Promenade in downtown Santa Monica that afternoon when individuals split away from the protesters and broke into various stores, taking shoes and other items.</p><p data-block-key=\"tc1sp\">As Shevchenko was setting up her frame, an unidentified man charged toward her and punched her in the face, she said. She immediately blacked out, and her camera and tripod fell on her foot, fracturing three toes and breaking the camera’s viewfinder. Gomez told the Tracker that the assailant then punched him in the face as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"mo5qr\">“My friend fought back,” Shevchenko said. “But then that guy started to call for help, so [other individuals] started to kick my friend without any analysis of what was going on.”</p><p data-block-key=\"rdkid\">Gomez told the Tracker that he had pinned the assailant down, but then released him to check on Shevchenko, who had regained consciousness. The assailant ran away with Gomez’s gimbal and lens. Gomez then helped Shevchenko to his car and drove her to the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center emergency room, where a doctor diagnosed the three fractured toes and a minor head injury, Shevchenko said. Shevchenko underwent surgery on her foot two weeks after the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"3jgpy\">Shevchenko said she couldn’t be certain if she was targeted specifically because she was a journalist, though she surmised that the assailant attacked her in order to take her camera and other equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"vjupu\">After returning home from the ER, Shevchenko filed her<a href=\"https://ukrainian.voanews.com/a/5444822.html\"> story</a> for Voice of America’s Ukrainian service.</p><p data-block-key=\"qi8mk\">“I was so shocked—I couldn’t think that I would go through all of that and not have the story air,” Shevchenko said of her need to get the story out despite the pain she was in. “I had to write the story.”</p><p data-block-key=\"k23t5\">In early June, Shevchenko and Gomez filed a report with the Santa Monica Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"ng16z\">“He [the unidentified man] is in my footage and my friend recognized him,” Shevchenko explained. “However, the police said that because I didn’t document the action of punching, they cannot confirm that he did it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2x2st\">Additionally, Shevchenko made clear that Gomez was a witness to the incident, but the police department never reached out to him after taking his initial statement, according to Gomez. Shevchenko’s case is pending, but as of early October, she said she has yet to receive new updates.</p><p data-block-key=\"pg77q\">The Santa Monica Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"qlyye\">“It’s an injustice,” Gomez stated. “She went through neuropathy for a month, and it seems like there’s no recourse to alleviate financial hardships or provide any help at all. It’s not just a physical thing that she had to overcome. It’s emotional, mental.”</p><p data-block-key=\"joaeu\">Shevchenko told the Tracker that she still experiences post-traumatic stress and is unable to walk independently.</p><p data-block-key=\"ceo32\">Numerous protests across the Los Angeles area ensued following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. In a widely circulated video online, a white police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck, ignoring his calls that he could not breathe. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"j64gm\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"da59r\">Khrystyna Shevchenko, a Voice of America video journalist, was injured by an unknown assailant while covering protests in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 2020.</p>",
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{
"title": "Mercury News reporter ordered on ground by law enforcement during San Jose protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/mercury-news-reporter-ordered-ground-law-enforcement-during-san-jose-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-13T18:53:04.693651Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:14:25.040315Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:14:24.956511Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Jose",
"longitude": -121.89496,
"latitude": 37.33939,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"m0b6a\">Maggie Angst, a city reporter for the Mercury News, was ordered to get on the ground by law enforcement despite repeatedly holding out her press badge while covering protests against police violence in downtown San Jose, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"xsw85\">Earlier in the day, City Manager David Sykes had <a href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=59288\">announced</a> the implementation of a citywide curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Notably, media outlets were deemed “essential businesses” and exempt from the measure.</p><p data-block-key=\"701df\">The night’s protests started at City Hall, Angst told the Tracker in a phone interview. When curfew went into effect, she said, demonstrators continued to march around the downtown area, eventually making their way into the neighborhoods near San José State University. Police officers soon announced over loudspeakers that the protesters were violating curfew.</p><p data-block-key=\"ooeh4\">“I turned down a street and there was a line of cops on motorcycles and in cars on both sides,” Angst said. “We got kettled. The protesters started running into yards and houses.”</p><p data-block-key=\"w61dh\">Angst said she followed several individuals into a backyard, but stopped when some started to jump over the fence. She said she debated walking back out to the main street, but officers had begun to fire rubber bullets and tear gas. So she decided to wait in the backyard instead, which is where she met another reporter, Luke Johnson from the San José Spotlight. Anticipating that the police would soon be entering the backyard, Angst held out her press badge.</p><p data-block-key=\"brfzh\">“They just started to charge at us and were screaming to get on the ground with our faces down,” Angst said. “I tried to explain that I was with the media and show my badge, but they screamed more and were waving batons, so I got down.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ugikc\">Angst said the officers surveyed the backyard and asked what she and Johnson were doing there. Again, Angst announced she was a reporter with the Mercury News. She said one officer finally looked at her ID, but no further instruction or permission to leave was given. The Tracker has <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/san-jos%C3%A9-spotlight-reporter-detained-despite-press-exemptions-for-citywide-curfew/\">documented Johnson’s detainment here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"zs4ed\">After several minutes, Angst told the Tracker, the officers left the backyard. She was unsure if she could leave the area and did not know if officers were still firing rubber bullets or tear gas on the main street, which she later learned is where they’d detained protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"fkwt1\">“I was pretty freaked out,” Angst said. “Eventually, another reporter that was there with me talked to the cops. She said to walk out slowly with my hands up, so I did that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d1r9u\">Angst <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MaggieAngst/status/1267319075723608064\">tweeted</a> about the incident that evening, writing, “Unfortunately, I was too shaken to try and record a video or take down badge numbers. Noted for the future. One officer came back with a flashlight in the backyard at one point — while I was still sitting on the ground — to pick up his dropped sunglasses.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f3d1u\">The mayor and several city council members reached out the following day, according to Angst. She also said she spoke to San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia, who shared that some officers may have been put out on patrol but inadequately informed about media exemptions from the citywide curfew.</p><p data-block-key=\"7aeb3\">On September 3, the San Jose Police Department released a 243-page <a href=\"https://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/sjpd-report-reviews-its-handling-of-the-george-floyd-protests/\">“preliminary After-Action Report”</a> analyzing law enforcement’s response to the “civil unrest” that followed George Floyd’s death from May 29 through June 7. In it, the SJPD detailed numerous incidents with members of the press and concluded that the department needs additional formalized training, clear instruction of protocols for interacting with media and a comprehensive review of procedures regarding use of force and crowd control.</p><p data-block-key=\"zdzyj\">One recommendation raised in the report suggests providing “identifiable reflective vests” to reporters, so they are “more easily distinguishable in a crowd.” However, Sergeant Christian Camarillo told the Tracker that he personally believes that police-issued vests could risk journalists being targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"qrfny\">“One of the things I wanted to improve on after reading that after-action report was sitting down and having a dialogue with some of our local media reporters on how to keep them safe,” Camarillo said. “We want to have input from the people out there doing the work.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1t32b\">Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed 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.</p><p data-block-key=\"gutv7\">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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"arresting_authority": "San Jose Police Department",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Maggie Angst (The Mercury News)"
],
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},
{
"title": "San José Spotlight reporter detained despite press exemptions for citywide curfew",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/san-jos%C3%A9-spotlight-reporter-detained-despite-press-exemptions-for-citywide-curfew/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-13T18:49:15.751128Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:14:06.799898Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:14:06.671892Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Jose",
"longitude": -121.89496,
"latitude": 37.33939,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dy08m\">Law enforcement ordered Luke Johnson, a San José Spotlight reporter, to get on the ground with his face down while he was covering the third consecutive night of protests against police violence in San Jose, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"9awj0\">Earlier in the day, City Manager David Sykes had <a href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=59288\">announced</a> the implementation of a citywide curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Notably, media outlets were deemed “essential businesses” and exempt from the measure.</p><p data-block-key=\"8j4y6\">When curfew arrived that evening, demonstrators remained on the streets. Johnson confirmed with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview that he’d been following a group marching in neighborhoods near San Jose State University. At around 9:30 p.m., he said, police began to surround them, scattering the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"c49bs\">“I followed them into a driveway that led to a backyard parking lot for a couple housing units,” he wrote in a <a href=\"https://sanjosespotlight.com/im-a-journalist-who-was-detained-by-san-jose-police-for-doing-my-job/\">piece</a> for the Spotlight. “However, once they started hopping fences into other backyards, that’s where I decided to draw the line and stop following them."</p><p data-block-key=\"n2oax\">Johnson said he was waiting in the area with Maggie Angst, a journalist from the Mercury News who’d also been covering the protests that evening, when, with batons waving, officers rushed into the backyard area and ordered both journalists to get on the ground with their faces down. The Tracker <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/mercury-news-reporter-ordered-ground-law-enforcement-during-san-jose-protests/\">documented Angst’s detainment here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"0xjcb\">Johnson told the Tracker that officers then scoured the area and asked the journalists several times what they were doing there. He said he repeatedly verbally identified himself as a journalist and had a camera hanging around his neck. Johnson said the officers did not provide any further instruction and were unclear about whether or not the journalists could get up and leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"8qphe\">“Some of the officers were telling me to go home and some were saying to stay there. After a while, it went quiet,” Johnson said. “I looked back and they weren’t even there anymore.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jrvhb\">Johnson recalls that he and Angst were on the ground for several minutes. After noticing that the officers had left, he gathered his camera and belongings and prepared to go home. One officer, Johnson remembered, returned to retrieve his sunglasses but did not make any verbal contact.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">UPDATE: Police told me to get on the ground, face down and hands out. They held me there for about two minutes. I identified myself as a reporter.<br><br>They told me to remain in a backyard. About 20 minutes later, police left the area without further instruction.</p>— Luke Johnson (@Scoop_Johnson) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Scoop_Johnson/status/1267323497249792000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ngyfw\">Afterward, Johnson said, residents in the area offered support to the journalists, sharing water and food.</p><p data-block-key=\"s7wzs\">The following day, according to his piece in the Spotlight, Johnson and his editor, Ramona Giwargis, spoke on the phone with San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia.</p><p data-block-key=\"d066n\">“He wanted to share his team’s side of the story,” Johnson told the Tracker. “There was a lot of confusion going on. Some of the officers were put out there before the curfew was put into effect. He was thoroughly apologetic.”</p><p data-block-key=\"t5uxn\">Garcia explained that many officers were experiencing a citywide curfew for the first time and that it is not protocol for officers to leave individuals on the ground without further instruction, according to Johnson’s account in the Spotlight.</p><p data-block-key=\"c9t5z\">On September 3, the San Jose Police Department released a 243-page <a href=\"https://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/sjpd-report-reviews-its-handling-of-the-george-floyd-protests/\">“preliminary After-Action Report”</a> analyzing law enforcement’s response to the “civil unrest” that followed George Floyd’s death from May 29 through June 7. In it, the SJPD detailed numerous incidents with members of the press and concluded that the department needs additional formalized training, clear instruction of protocols for interacting with media and a comprehensive review of procedures regarding use of force and crowd control.</p><p data-block-key=\"qo2qc\">One recommendation raised in the report suggests providing “identifiable reflective vests” to reporters, so they are “more easily distinguishable in a crowd.” However, Sergeant Christian Camarillo told the Tracker that he personally believes that police-issued vests could risk journalists being targeted.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ibmq\">“One of the things I wanted to improve on after reading that after-action report was sitting down and having a dialogue with some of our local media reporters on how to keep them safe,” Camarillo said. “We want to have input from the people out there doing the work.”</p><p data-block-key=\"pgzda\">Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed 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.</p><p data-block-key=\"bzpve\">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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"arresting_authority": "San Jose Police Department",
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Luke Johnson (San José Spotlight)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Detroit Free Press reporter charged by police, told to leave",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-free-press-reporter-charged-police-told-leave/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-06T15:12:56.002115Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:13:42.241135Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:13:42.150101Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"nnanf\">On May 31, 2020, while covering protests in Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Free Press reporter Mark Kurlyandchik was charged by a police officer, who knocked his phone out of his hands as he was filming, and told by another to leave the area where press were permitted, according to Kurlyandchik’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MKurlyandchik/status/1267259635293204481\">tweets</a> from that day.</p><p data-block-key=\"zd2mv\">Neither Kurlyandchik, the Free Press, nor the Detroit Police Department responded to the U.S. Press Freedom’s request for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"17ysh\">According to Kurlyandchik’s Twitter feed, the incident occurred after police had deployed tear gas and as he was putting on his goggles to protect against the gas.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I just got charged by a DPD officer as I was putting my goggles on to protect against the tear gas they shot. Knocked my hat off my head and phone out of my hands. Another officer tried to make us clear the area even though we were standing in the press zone.</p>— Mark Kurlyandchik (@MKurlyandchik) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MKurlyandchik/status/1267259635293204481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cvxrk\">Tweeted <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MKurlyandchik/status/1267359959089586176\">video footage</a> from his phone shows dozens of riot police holding shields running toward the camera. After Kurlyandchik appears to collide with an officer, the phone falls to the ground, filming the sky.</p><p data-block-key=\"18g6r\">It wasn’t clear if there were protesters around. Kurlyandchik said in a separate tweet that he was with three other Free Press reporters and that another officer had tried to “force” them away from the area. “Said a guy with TV camera was fine to stay but he didn’t believe we were press despite all of us showing our badges,” Kurlyandchik tweeted. “I’m fine, but it shouldn’t take a big news camera to exercise our constitutional duty.” It wasn’t clear where exactly the incident took place.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mksj\">The protests in Detroit that day 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=\"9ircl\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Mark Kurlyandchik (Detroit Free Press)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "KPCC/LAist reporter shot in throat with rubber bullet while covering protests in Long Beach",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kpcclaist-reporter-shot-throat-rubber-bullet-while-covering-protests-long-beach/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-05T14:53:04.056869Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:13:22.452387Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:13:22.359181Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Long Beach",
"longitude": -118.18923,
"latitude": 33.76696,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"osyid\">KPCC and LAist education reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez was shot in the neck with a rubber bullet while covering protests against police violence in Long Beach, California on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"wzaph\">When reached for comment about the events of that day, Guzman-Lopez directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to previous news coverage, including in the LAist; his tweets from the day; and an essay he wrote about the incident in July.</p><p data-block-key=\"lltun\">According to those accounts, at around 6:30 p.m. on May 31, Guzman-Lopez had been finishing an interview with a protester at the intersection of Third Street and Pine Avenue in Long Beach. He was one of only a few people standing in the area, as a crowd of about 200 protesters were on their knees while in a face-off with police, the <a href=\"https://laist.com/2020/05/31/reporters_injured_protests_police.php\">LAist reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6e1wz\">As he was typing the protester’s name into his phone, he recalled in <a href=\"https://laist.com/latest/post/20200723/adolfo-guzman-lopez-long-beach-police-essay\">an essay published by the LAist in July</a>, he heard a “loud pop,” then felt an impact low on his neck. At that point, he wrote, he and others started running in the other direction.</p><p data-block-key=\"wdi1o\">The impact of the projectile left a bloody mark at the base of Guzman-Lopez’s neck, near his collarbone. At 6:40 p.m., he posted photos of himself on Twitter.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I just got hit by a rubber bullet near the bottom of my throat. I had just interviewed a man with my phone at 3rd and Pine and a police officer aimed and shot me in the throat, I saw the bullet bounce onto the street <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LAist</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KPCC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@kpcc</a> OK, that’s one way to stop me, for a while <a href=\"https://t.co/9C2u5KmscG\">pic.twitter.com/9C2u5KmscG</a></p>— Adolfo Guzman-Lopez (@AGuzmanLopez) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AGuzmanLopez/status/1267269781805137920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"693m0\">“I just got hit by a rubber bullet near the bottom of my throat. I had just interviewed a man with my phone at 3rd and Pine and a police officer aimed and shot me in the throat, I saw the bullet bounce onto the street,” he wrote. “OK, that’s one way to stop me, for a while.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4gvy9\">After he was struck, Guzman-Lopez <a href=\"https://omny.fm/shows/news-reports/kpcc-laists-adolfo-guzman-lopez-talks-about-gettin\">went live on air</a> on KPCC’s special coverage of the protests to report on what had happened. He noted in the clip that he was obviously conducting an interview at the time he was hit. He was also wearing credentials on a lanyard around his neck, though he observed that the credentials were not as bright as a previous version.</p><p data-block-key=\"r9pqd\">Guzman-Lopez went to the emergency room for treatment for his injury. A CT scan found the impact of the shot knocked the fillings from his teeth, according to an LAist article. He took four weeks off to recover.</p><p data-block-key=\"w8cdu\">“Regardless of whether I was targeted or not, being shot by a police foam round shook my life,” he wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"md6q2\">The LAist<a href=\"https://laist.com/latest/post/20200723/agl-lbpd-foam-round\"> reported in July</a> that Guzman-Lopez had been hit with a 40mm foam round fired by a Long Beach Police Department officer. According to the LAist, Police Chief Robert Luna told Guzman-Lopez that the department’s investigation found that he had been “inadvertently” struck by a round that had likely ricocheted off of something else.</p><p data-block-key=\"zfa8f\">Luna said that the department couldn’t determine which of two officers had fired the shot that struck the journalist, according to the LAist. Both officers fired rounds within four seconds of each other after two men threw bottles at police.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffcz4\">In a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J63KXK92ja4&feature=youtu.be\">video briefing</a> released on July 24 about the incident, the police department released footage from body cameras some officers were wearing at the time, though the cameras were partially blocked and do not show the full scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"l4ak4\">The videos show that two bottles had been thrown toward the line of police officers before the shots were fired, which prompted the crowd to disperse. Guzman-Lopez “was not the intended target” of the rounds, a narrator said on the police video.</p><p data-block-key=\"xa3n8\">As of late September, the department’s review of the incident was in its final phase, a spokesperson for the Long Beach Police Department told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"9vaey\">The incident prompted apologies from local officials and attracted international attention. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia apologized to Guzman-Lopez following the incident, the<a href=\"https://laist.com/latest/post/20200601/long-beach-rubber-bullet-response\"> LAist reported</a>. Guzman-Lopez was among several journalists mentioned in a<a href=\"http://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/146415.pdf\"> resolution</a> the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed on June 9 affirming the rights of journalists to cover protests and opposing the use of force against the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"f9fd1\">The protests in Long Beach that day 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=\"ehnnj\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"2tca9\">While covering Long Beach, California, protests on May 31, KPCC/LAist reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez was hit by a rubber bullet fired by police. He posted this selfie shortly after, and was treated at a hospital for the injury.</p>",
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"tags": [
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"shot / shot at"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
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{
"title": "DC police threaten Turkish VOA reporter, team with batons",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/dc-police-threaten-turkish-voa-reporter-team-with-batons/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-02T14:25:15.352119Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:20:56.233459Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:20:56.143145Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"yeql9\">Police brandished batons and forcibly moved three journalists for Voice of America’s Turkish service — after they identified themselves as members of the press — while they covered protests against police violence in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2020, <a href=\"https://www.voanews.com/press-freedom/covering-us-protests-journalists-find-unexpected-threats\">according to a VOA report</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"xeat6\">Reporters Mehtap Yilmaz and Uzeyir Yanar and camera operator Tezcan Taskiran were reporting that Sunday night on demonstrations near St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square, near the White House.</p><p data-block-key=\"tow1z\">Yilmaz told VOA that at about 10:30 p.m., police officers at the scene raised batons and advanced on her, her colleagues and others standing in the area and ordered them to leave, despite the fact that Yilmaz’s colleagues were carrying video cameras and that the team identified themselves as journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"wn5cx\">“There was a harsh intervention of the police against journalists during the protests. Although we showed our press cards, we were drastically removed from the protests in front of the White House,” Yilmaz told VOA.</p><p data-block-key=\"y9qrn\">A spokesperson for VOA declined to comment to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker on the incident. The agency also declined to make Yilmaz, Taskiran or Yanar available for interviews.</p><p data-block-key=\"emnw2\">Yilmaz was one of several VOA journalists, some of whom have covered conflicts around the globe, who told the news service they were surprised by the violence they encountered at the hands of both police and demonstrators taking part in this year’s protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"fucp8\">“Becoming a target of either police or protesters is not something new to me,” Yilmaz told VOA. “But it was both surprising and anxious for me to encounter the incidents I witnessed as journalists in America for the last three days during protests in Washington,” said Yilmaz.</p><p data-block-key=\"bblgb\">It isn’t clear from Yilmaz’s published account of the May 31 incident which law enforcement agency approached her crew.</p><p data-block-key=\"y1ej0\">The same day that VOA journalists were forced from the area around St. John’s Church, fire was set to a nursery room in the basement of the church’s parish house. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which didn’t spread to other parts of the building.</p><p data-block-key=\"2dm6j\">On June 1, St. John’s became the backdrop for a controversial photo op for President Donald Trump. National Guard troops used tear gas and pepper balls to clear protesters from the area before Trump posed for cameras while holding up a Bible.</p><p data-block-key=\"fwdyi\">Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed 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.</p><p data-block-key=\"tibqq\">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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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Broadcast anchor attacked while covering protests in Birmingham",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unknown-assailants-attack-reporters-covering-protests-birmingham/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-21T20:50:56.359829Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:20:36.518129Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:20:36.401108Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Birmingham",
"longitude": -86.80249,
"latitude": 33.52066,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"aybw4\">Stephen Quinn, an anchor and reporter for television station ABC 33/40, was attacked by unidentified assailants while covering protests in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"p96b3\">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. They were sparked by 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.</p><p data-block-key=\"bod9d\">Quinn told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was livestreaming scenes of protests and looting in the city’s downtown, near the site of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Linn Park. Two days later, the statue was <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/06/02/867659459/confederate-monument-removed-after-birmingham-mayors-vow-to-finish-the-job\">removed</a> by order of Mayor Randall Woodfin in response to the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"van8f\">After police officers had dispersed the crowd gathered in the park, the protesters had moved to the surrounding streets. Some were breaking the windows of buildings on Sixth Avenue, Quinn said.</p><p data-block-key=\"wxjpj\">At around 10:45 p.m., an unidentified individual knocked the phone Quinn had been using to livestream out of his hand. Quinn said he picked the phone off the ground and resumed filming, but shortly after another man grabbed his wallet from his pocket and ran away. Quinn chased but failed to catch the man. In the process, he was tripped by another individual, causing him to stumble.</p><p data-block-key=\"8j220\">Quinn then returned to where other members of the media were gathered. He said that shortly afterwards, another man hit him in the back of his head with what he believed to be an ice-filled styrofoam soda cup. A different man then tried to hit him, but missed.</p><p data-block-key=\"4yzqx\">A second journalist, AL.com social media manager Madison Underwood, tried to shield Quinn, but was knocked to the ground, kicked and punched repeatedly by several unidentified men who had surrounded the journalists. The Tracker has documented that assault <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-assaulted-while-covering-protests-in-birmingham/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"yzaop\">In a livestream <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/aldotcom/videos/vb.9586347482/297910334549112/?type=2&theater\">video</a> of the incident recorded by AL.com journalist Ivana Hrynkiw, the incidents are shown occurring over about three minutes. AL.com said in a tweet and a later <a href=\"https://www.al.com/news/2020/06/watch-as-george-floyd-protests-around-alabama-turn-violent.html\">article</a> that its reporters, including Hrynkiw, who was heard on the livestream screaming as the attack occurred, left the scene after the attack and were OK.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">To everyone who has reached out- we are okay. Thank you. Thank you. ❤️</p>— Ivana Hrynkiw Shatara (@IvanaSuzette) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IvanaSuzette/status/1267311435253723136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"hgc4a\">Quinn told the Tracker he also left the scene and returned to his station’s vehicle. The reporter said his injuries were mild — some bleeding from a cut on his right ear and temporary redness on his neck — but, at the instruction of his network, went to the hospital to be checked as a precaution.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Took a couple blows to my head and my wallet is gone but I’m okay. Thank you to <a href=\"https://twitter.com/BhamPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BhamPolice</a> for your help. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/abc3340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@abc3340</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/spann?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@spann</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloyd</a> <a href=\"https://t.co/955myya7hG\">pic.twitter.com/955myya7hG</a></p>— Stephen Quinn (@StephenQ3340) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StephenQ3340/status/1267305480738742274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ads7x\">Quinn said he believed he was targeted because the people breaking windows didn’t want their faces on camera. They could see he was a member of the press because he wore a polo shirt with the logo of his network, he said. Three days after the incident, a local community member recovered and returned the stolen wallet, which he told Quinn he had spotted while someone tried to sell it in his neighborhood, the reporter said.</p><p data-block-key=\"oc5tj\">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": "private individual",
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"state": {
"name": "Alabama",
"abbreviation": "AL"
},
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"tags": [
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"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
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},
{
"title": "Miami social media producer arrested for curfew violation while covering protests; charges dropped",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/miami-social-media-producer-arrested-curfew-violation-while-covering-protests-charges-dropped/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-21T20:18:32.022251Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:13:02.488960Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:13:02.399770Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Miami",
"longitude": -80.19366,
"latitude": 25.77427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"njzep\">Joel Franco, a social media producer with WSVN 7News, a Fox affiliate station based in Miami, Florida, was arrested while covering protests in the city on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"37bwy\">Franco <a href=\"https://twitter.com/OfficialJoelF/status/1267483526917754880\">reported the arrest on Twitter</a> the morning of June 1, writing: “I was arrested last night as I was walking to my car after covering the protests in Downtown Miami. Charged with violating curfew. The curfew ordinance exempts media (I had my credentials).”</p><p data-block-key=\"8bvv0\">Franco, contacted on Twitter by the Committee to Protect Journalists, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. WSVN also did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment, sent via Twitter direct messages and email. The Miami Herald reported that Franco no longer works for WSVN.</p><p data-block-key=\"m1563\">On June 1, in an <a href=\"https://wsvn.com/news/local/charges-dropped-against-7news-social-media-producer-after-being-arrested-and-jailed-while-covering-protests/\">interview</a> with WSVN, Franco recounted how he’d completed a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/OfficialJoelF/status/1267257762435612672\">livestream of protests downtown</a> and was headed back to his car when he noticed a line of police vehicles that appeared to be looking for people who were in violation of the city’s 9 p.m. <a href=\"https://www.miamidade.gov/releases/2020-05-31-mayor-curfew-exemptions.asp\">curfew order</a>. He said he began to film the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"awi6m\">“That’s when they noticed I was filming,” Franco told WSVN. “They just swarmed me, got out of the pickup truck, threw me against their pickup truck, raised my arms behind my back and put a little zip tie on me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"un46t\">In his account to WSVN, Franco said that he told police he was a member of the press and that he had his work ID on him. He said police “grabbed” the ID and his phone case and started “acting clueless.”</p><p data-block-key=\"uy5jc\">Franco’s girlfriend was with him at the time. She was not arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"cx3k0\">WSVN reported that Franco spent nine hours in police custody before he was released on bond for the charge of curfew violation. WSVN reported that the charges were subsequently dropped.</p><p data-block-key=\"0ivku\">WSVN also noted in its June 1 report that the Miami-Dade Police Department was investigating Franco’s arrest. When reached via email for comment by CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, the department instructed CPJ to submit a media request on its website. CPJ submitted a request for more information on Franco’s arrest, specifically asking whether an investigation into his arrest had begun or been completed. The department did not respond as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"gw1rj\">According to WSVN, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released a statement at the time saying, “Working journalists, who pose no threat to law enforcement or public safety, have a First Amendment right to keep us all informed of public developments and public news in our community and in every community in America.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9miog\">Speaking at a <a href=\"https://miamidade.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=6131\">press conference</a> on June 1, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said of Franco’s arrest when questioned about it: “That was a mistake. He should not have been. The media is exempt from the curfew.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dzwfs\">On June 2, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists released a <a href=\"https://nahj.org/2020/06/03/nahj-asks-for-investigations-into-abuse-of-power-and-racial-profiling-of-latino-journalists/\">statement</a> condemning assaults by law enforcement on journalists covering protests and asking for investigations to be launched into the unlawful arrest of journalists, particularly journalists of color, including Franco.</p><p data-block-key=\"gkk0i\">Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"7omu0\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"arresting_authority": "Miami-Dade Police Department",
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"state": {
"name": "Florida",
"abbreviation": "FL"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Joel Franco (WSVN)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "KSHB news vehicle vandalized, set on fire during Kansas City protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kshb-news-vehicle-vandalized-set-on-fire-during-kansas-city-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-18T17:18:55.998779Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:20:09.567772Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:20:09.479634Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Kansas City",
"longitude": -94.57857,
"latitude": 39.09973,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ihgah\">At least two news vehicles were vandalized amid protests against police violence in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"vum27\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"ab1l4\">KSHB 41 Action News <a href=\"https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/news-vehicles-vandalized-set-on-fire-amid-unlawful-assembly\">reported</a> that one of its vehicles was parked near the intersection of 46th and Main streets when it was vandalized and set on fire. In its request for tips, the Kansas City Police Department <a href=\"https://twitter.com/kcpolice/status/1271171503615356929\">posted on Twitter</a> that it occurred at around 9:30 p.m.</p><p data-block-key=\"3elp3\">KSHB reporter Megan Strickland published a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/StricklyMeg/status/1267292468686532608\">video</a> of the burning car on Twitter. Lines of spray-painted graffiti were also visible on the hood and passenger doors of the Ford SUV.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-image\">\n\n\n<img src=\"https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/IMG_1872.2.width-828.jpg\" width=\"828\" height=\"621\" alt=\"KSHB 41 Action News/Kathleen Choal\">\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"o13q4\"><i>A KSHB 41 Action News team films a standup in front of the burned out remains of its news vehicle after the car was vandalized amid protests on May 31, 2020. KSHB 41 NEWS/KATHLEEN CHOAL</i></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"cv5ll\"></p><p data-block-key=\"qh12c\">Station General Manager Kathleen Choal told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the station took additional precautions — including hiring security for each field crew — to ensure the journalists’ safety while covering protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"20zlf\">Choal told the Tracker that prior to the fire, several KSHB journalists had rocks, bricks and water bottles thrown at them, but no one was injured.</p><p data-block-key=\"7e9hj\">“Journalists find themselves facing more aggression and hostility while documenting history,” she said. “However, this has not diminished their passion to tell the stories of the amazing Kansas City community.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xnuj4\">KCPD spokesperson Capt. Dave Jackson told the Tracker they were working on the cases, but that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had taken the lead on the arson investigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"zsf61\">A KMBC 9 News vehicle was also vandalized that night. The Tracker has documented that case <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kmbc-9-news-vehicle-vandalized-during-kansas-city-protests-on-may-31/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"2e5xk\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_48.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"vbk4k\">A 41 Action News vehicle burns at the intersection of 46th and Main streets after it was vandalized and set on fire during protests on May 31, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "vehicle"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Missouri",
"abbreviation": "MO"
},
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"KSHB-TV"
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"arson",
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{
"title": "Photographer says he was targeted by police with projectiles and tear gas during Portland protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-says-he-was-targeted-police-projectiles-and-tear-gas-during-portland-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-16T20:11:48.867487Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-03-12T16:26:55.247275Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-03-12T16:26:55.150711Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7ut0k\">Independent photographer Mathieu Lewis-Rolland said he was fired on by police and targeted with tear gas at close range while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"vyv23\">Lewis-Rolland, based in Portland, was covering one of the many protests that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man. A viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"ebysq\">In Portland, protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Around 10:40 p.m. on May 31, Lewis-Rolland went to investigate a loud bang at the intersection of Southwest Salmon Street and Southwest Third Avenue, on the same corner as the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. Lewis-Rolland is a plaintiff in the case, which led to an <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/en/press-releases/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-aclu-case-protect-journalists-and-legal-observers\">agreement</a> by the Portland Police Bureau in July not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests.</p><p data-block-key=\"3on33\">The intersection by the U.S. Courthouse was mostly clear of protesters when Lewis-Rolland arrived, according to his <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-06-30_-_lewis-rolland_decl.pdf\">case filing</a>. As he began photographing, an officer aimed a gun directly at him. Shortly after, the officer fired several projectiles toward him without warning, according to the filing.</p><p data-block-key=\"82uud\">The police also threw tear gas, according to the suit. “Mr. Lewis-Rolland was overcome by the effects of tear gas and was unable to continue documenting protests or police action at that location, but he attempted to continue operating his camera to the best of his ability while recovering from the effects of the tear gas,” says the complaint. “He was able to capture a visual cloud of gas hovering over the intersection he had just retreated from.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bp715\">Lewis-Rolland later posted a photo on <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218303968214256&set=pb.1342929165.-2207520000..&type=3\">Facebook</a> showing the officer just before he fired. “He could see I was holding a camera as well as I could see he was holding a gun,” Lewis-Rolland said in the post. He added that while he wasn’t injured, he felt shrapnel hit his body.</p><p data-block-key=\"y0twj\">About an hour later, he was photographing a protest around the corner from the first incident, at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Southwest Taylor Street, when a different officer threw a canister of tear gas designed for crowd control at his feet, according to the suit. The photographer was again momentarily incapacitated by the effects of the tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"m0zev\">When he started covering the protests on May 30, Lewis-Rolland wore a shirt and jeans and carried a Nikon camera with a telephoto lens, he <a href=\"https://cpj.org/2020/08/were-scared-shitless-out-here-four-reporters-on-covering-the-federal-response-to-portland-protests/\">told</a> the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, in a recent interview. “Before this I covered local music, festivals, local business editorials, landscapes, and weddings,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mdjd0\">Lewis-Rolland told CPJ that he later had a T-shirt printed with the word “press” on the front and back and received a press pass from the Portland Mercury. He couldn't be reached for further comment about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"c7egu\">The ACLU class-action complaint said that during the May 31 incident, Lewis-Rolland was “unmistakably present in a journalistic capacity” since he was carrying a “large Nikon D850 camera with a 70-200mm lens and a flash.”</p><p data-block-key=\"m7zm9\">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": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2020-06-01T000000Z_1935920057_RC2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"9pk2w\">Police at a protest in Portland, Oregon, on May 31, 2020, following the murder of George Floyd. Photojournalist Mathieu Lewis-Rolland was documenting the demonstration when he was hit with projectiles and tear gas fired by police.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [
"(2025-03-05 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists settle with Portland, Oregon, over 2020 protest violations"
],
"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": [
"Mathieu Lewis-Rolland (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Video journalist hit by thrown object during Boston protest; individuals try to steal camera",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-hit-thrown-object-during-boston-protest-individuals-try-steal-camera/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-11T17:56:24.514292Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:12:27.022531Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:12:26.931337Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Boston",
"longitude": -71.05977,
"latitude": 42.35843,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mj5ra\">Video journalist Jack Sorgi said he was hit on the head by what he believes was a frozen water bottle while filming protests in Boston, Massachusetts, on the night of May 31, 2020. Individuals also tried to prevent him from filming by blocking his camera and attempting to steal it.</p><p data-block-key=\"mb1kd\">The protests were held in response to 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=\"529n2\">Beginning around 11 p.m. on May 31, Sorgi, who owns and runs Boston Stringer Media, which sells video footage to news outlets, <a href=\"https://youtu.be/gowfvnEmEyc\">filmed a series of tense standoffs</a> between law enforcement and protesters in downtown Boston, the journalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email.</p><p data-block-key=\"qm0rv\">Sorgi said he believes he was hit accidentally by one of the individuals facing off against dozens of officers that evening. “Throughout the escalating demonstration people repeatedly threw objects (water bottles, fireworks, rocks and pieces of bricks),” he wrote to the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"sh3pi\">“I have no reason to believe I was targeted by any member of the crowd and was hit merely for being close to the police line where objects were being thrown.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3b819\">Sorgi said he was wearing a helmet emblazoned with the word “PRESS” and was not seriously injured.</p><p data-block-key=\"xh3bv\">Later that night, while Sorgi was filming people looting a store whose glass front had been shattered, a man held up his hand to block the lens, the journalist said. A few seconds later, another man came from behind him and tried to grab the camera, a Panasonic AG UX90, out of his hand.</p><p data-block-key=\"wfkli\">In a separate incident earlier that night, Sorgi was pepper-sprayed by police. The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-hit-pepper-spray-while-covering-boston-protests/\">that incident here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"eyn1t\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Sorgi_block_camera_0531_Boston.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"q31cx\">Jack Sorgi was filming protests for Boston Stringer Media on May 31, 2020, when a man blocked the camera and another tried to steal it. Earlier in the night the journalist was hit with a flying object as well as multiple rounds of pepper spray.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
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"state": {
"name": "Massachusetts",
"abbreviation": "MA"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jack Sorgi (Boston Stringer Media)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Video journalist hit with pepper spray while covering Boston protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-hit-pepper-spray-while-covering-boston-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-11T17:46:39.284704Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:12:10.296989Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:12:10.210079Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Boston",
"longitude": -71.05977,
"latitude": 42.35843,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"bdvsl\">Jack Sorgi, a video journalist for Boston Stringer Media, which sells video footage to news outlets, was pepper-sprayed by police while filming protests in Boston, Massachusetts, on the night of May 31, 2020, according to Sorgi and video of the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"wrlh2\">The protests were held in response to 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=\"zdkee\">Beginning around 11 p.m. on May 31, Sorgi <a href=\"https://youtu.be/gowfvnEmEyc\">filmed a series of tense standoffs</a> between law enforcement and protesters in downtown Boston, the journalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email. In one chaotic scene, with sirens blaring in the background, bottles of water and other objects can be seen being thrown at officers with bicycles. In another, the windshield of a squad car is damaged with what appears to be a trash can.</p><p data-block-key=\"ew7vd\">Later in Sorgi’s footage, canisters of colored smoke can be seen landing near protesters, some of whom appeared to then kick or throw the canisters back at police. Sorgi said he believes these were a mild form of tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"4f0nn\">For a time, Sorgi said, police remained mostly stationary. At one point in Sorgi’s footage, an officer can be heard using a bullhorn to tell the demonstrators to disperse. Shortly thereafter, Sorgi captured officers advancing toward the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"oo471\">According to Sorgi, officers started to use pepper spray after a protester approached them and gestured in a hostile manner. From that point on, Sorgi said, one or two officers would deploy pepper spray to the line of people closest to the front of the police line, where Sorgi was filming.</p><p data-block-key=\"rzjml\">Sorgi, who said he was wearing a vest, goggles and a helmet emblazoned with the word “PRESS,” told the Tracker that the first bursts of pepper spray didn’t affect him. But then, he said, police “deployed a different type of pepper spray” that seemed “to seep into my skin and burn much more intensely than the other sprays combined.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8f7sp\">“I was completely unable to see,” Sorgi told the Tracker. “I ran away shouting, ‘Press’ as I was unsure if the police were rushing the crowd.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tzvq2\">In Sorgi’s footage, the journalist can be heard shouting, “Water, water, water!” as he turns and runs from the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"tvr3b\">Sorgi said another photographer grabbed him and poured Gatorade in his eyes, which helped him to see slightly. Then, he said, a group of protesters took him by the arm and shepherded him into an alleyway, where he was then let into the back entrance of a hotel by a doorman. Sorgi said he sat in the hotel for about 25 minutes while the doorman brought him towels and water and some protesters stayed by his side. Sorgi said he then returned to the streets to continue filming.</p><p data-block-key=\"6i8n3\">Sorgi said the police generally seemed to be respecting journalists and that it was unlikely that he was targeted by those using pepper spray. He said he later contacted the Boston Police Department about the incident and that a representative denied that officers had targeted journalists and apologized that he was hurt by the pepper spray.</p><p data-block-key=\"k89c1\">The BPD did not immediately respond to an email from the Tracker seeking comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"c6sqk\">Later in the evening, Sorgi was hit on the head by a bottle of frozen water and harassed by individuals who tried to take his camera. The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-hit-thrown-object-during-boston-protest-individuals-try-steal-camera/\">that incident here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"go93c\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Sorgi_pepper_spray_boston_0531.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"57743\">While filming protests on May 31, 2020, for Boston Stringer Media, Jack Sorgi captures the moment before he was caught in pepper spray for the sixth time. “I was completely unable to see,” he said.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Massachusetts",
"abbreviation": "MA"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jack Sorgi (Boston Stringer Media)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Videographer hit by police projectile during Portland protest on May 31",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-hit-police-projectile-during-portland-protest-may-31/",
"first_published_at": "2020-09-01T16:05:33.417642Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T23:03:21.266837Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T23:03:21.174013Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"a9o37\">Independent journalist Mason Lake said he was shot by law enforcement officers with a projectile that injured his arm while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"4x673\">Lake, a videographer based in Portland, was filming one of the many protests that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man. A viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"dd5vg\">In Portland, protests over the death of Floyd began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare an 8 p.m. curfew that lasted three days. Lake, who wasn’t wearing anything to identify himself as press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting protesters at Southwest Main Street and Southwest Third Avenue around the time the curfew was going into effect on May 31.</p><p data-block-key=\"woiyk\">Lake said law enforcement officers began using force against protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"4d84e\">“The police gave no announcement. They were shooting tear gas with no warning,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ej1wj\">Derek Carmon, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman, disputed Lake’s version of events. He told the Tracker that it is “not our practice to use any crowd-control device without warning. Multiple announcements were given in the area during that time frame.”</p><p data-block-key=\"svff9\"><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo8NgCky3kA\">Video taken</a> by Lake at around 8:05 p.m. shows protesters in a haze of tear gas. One of the law enforcement officers stationed at the Multnomah County Justice Center can be seen throwing a flash bang grenade at protesters, and an announcement can be heard warning that the officers will use force if the demonstrators don’t leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"rr9oj\">In <a href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zgQ-bR4Gad6KYZGxzXx15BrMX0a4DeXQ/view?usp=sharing\">another video</a> Lake sent to the Tracker, at around 8:10 p.m., he filmed demonstrators kneeling and chanting across from the Justice Center building. Somebody near Lake yells, “incoming!” Then the video goes askew as Lake yells in pain.</p><p data-block-key=\"pt43k\">When Lake recovers, he films his injured arm and says, “I just got shot by the Portland police.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bd3v0\">“It shoved my hand and left me with welts,” Lake told the Tracker. “I stayed for a little bit to keep recording, but the tear gas came on, and I had to leave and recover.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oru5e\">Lake said he believes he was hit by a “foam baton,” a projectile used by law enforcement officers for crowd control, due to the sound it made. The Tracker couldn’t independently verify what kind of munition was used.</p><p data-block-key=\"rx842\">He said both the Portland Police Bureau and Multnomah County Sheriff's Office policed protests that day. It isn’t clear which agency the officer who fired the shot works for.</p><p data-block-key=\"22pwt\">On June 6, Lake filed a lawsuit against the city of Portland over the alleged battery by the police that occurred on May 31, seeking up to $450,000 in damages. “Mr. Lake believes he was specifically targeted by City of Portland police officers because he was a photographer documenting police brutality,” the lawsuit states.</p><p data-block-key=\"rjbye\">Portland City Attorney Tracy Reeve told the Tracker she couldn’t comment on pending litigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"47roy\">In an emailed response to questions about Lake’s allegations, Carmon of the Portland Police said: “If it is Portland officers in the video who use force, they know that all uses of force are required to be documented in a police report and administratively reviewed per our policy to determine if they meet our standards. If there is a determination that something was out of policy, it would follow the process for investigation with [Independent Police Review]/[Internal Affairs] to determine if discipline is warranted.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oy8pg\">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><p data-block-key=\"5vcwy\"><i>Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect information gained from a copy of Lake's lawsuit against the city of Portland.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"tfzin\">Protests in Portland, Oregon, on May 31, 2020, against the police murder of George Floyd. Independent journalist Mason Lake said he was shot by law enforcement officers with a projectile while documenting the protests that night.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [
"(2025-01-29 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist’s suit against police in Portland, Oregon, dismissed"
],
"case_statuses": [
"dismissed"
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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{
"title": "Univision reporters hit with pepper ball rounds during Vegas protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/univision-reporters-hit-with-pepper-ball-rounds-during-vegas-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-18T18:59:27.822184Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:28:13.139818Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:28:13.036235Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Las Vegas",
"longitude": -115.13722,
"latitude": 36.17497,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"edvb4\">Univision reporters Fernando Rentería and Alexander Zapata said they were fired on with what they believed to be pepper ball rounds by police while covering the arrest of a civilian protester in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"12phs\">The protest that day 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 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=\"n8jaq\">Zapata and Rentería had been <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/noticiasunivisionnevada/videos/253889532501939/UzpfSTM5NDg2OTg5ODA0NzM4ODo2NDIxNDkwNzMzMTk0Njg/\">streaming live on Facebook</a> as night fell on May 31, covering protests along the Strip. About an hour into their stream, the reporters can be seen making their way north on Las Vegas Boulevard when Zapata explains that tear gas had been fired on the crowd but that it was not very intense. Shortly thereafter, the reporters walked toward a group of officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Zapata can be heard saying, “It looks like they are arresting a civilian.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">➡️ Equipo de noticias de Univision en Las Vegas recibe balas de gomas de parte de la policía en medio de las protestas por la muerte de <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloyd</a>. <a href=\"https://t.co/zJV0YHXoa1\">pic.twitter.com/zJV0YHXoa1</a></p>— Univision Noticias (@UniNoticias) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/UniNoticias/status/1267415830632988674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4vlho\">In the video, reviewed by the Tracker, an officer can be seen moving toward the journalists. Several shots can be heard, after which Zapata can be heard groaning. He says on the livestream, “They have just shot us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"34lrl\">Zapata then said to his audience, “Police officers from Las Vegas just shot us. Police officers from Las Vegas Police Department are attacking the press. I repeat, my partner, Fernando Rentería, and I were hit by the police.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lltam\">Rentería told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, “I was hit by pepper bullets on my abdomen and one of my elbows. It wasn’t very painful but it’s unexpected, so it’s frightening, and since I wasn’t the only one hit and I heard people around me screaming, it was a very tense moment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"xknih\">The LVMPD responded to requests for comment by emailing the Tracker <a href=\"https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Press%20Releases/PO%20132%2006-19-20.pdf\">two</a> <a href=\"https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Press%20Releases/PO%200128%2006-15-20.pdf\">press releases</a>. Neither addressed Zapata or Rentería specifically, or members of the media more broadly, nor did they address the use of particular munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ag8z\">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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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault"
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"Fernando Rentería (Univision)"
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{
"title": "Public radio reporter pepper sprayed, knocked to the ground in Richmond",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/public-radio-reporter-pepper-sprayed-knocked-ground-richmond/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-21T15:35:45.060516Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:07:52.309188Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:07:52.208237Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Richmond",
"longitude": -77.46026,
"latitude": 37.55376,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"wx9q7\">A Virginia public radio reporter was pepper sprayed and knocked to the ground by police officers while covering protests in Richmond on May 31, 2020. The journalist had identified himself as a member of the press before the assault, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ml1rx\">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=\"5lphq\">On the evening of May 31, VPM News reporter Roberto Roldan and photographer Crixell Matthews were covering protests that moved from the site of the Robert E. Lee Memorial toward the Virginia State Capitol building in downtown Richmond. A line of police officers formed behind protesters on East Broad Street. At around 9 p.m., after an 8 p.m. curfew had gone into effect, the line of officers fired tear gas into the crowd, Roldan told the Tracker.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cops are now firing tear cas at protesters from the back of the crowd. Now moving down Broad toward Shockoe.</p>— Roberto Roldan (@ByRobertoR) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByRobertoR/status/1267260825955438597?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qqs2x\">Though they were not directly hit, Roldan and Matthews coughed and experienced sinus drip from the effects of the gas, said Roldan, who typically covers Richmond City Hall.</p><p data-block-key=\"bz33b\">Roldan helped Brian Palmer, a Richmond-based photographer <a href=\"https://richmond.com/news/local/lohmann-this-richmond-based-award-winning-photojournalist-and-the-great-grandson-of-slaves-views-the/article_2d635b6d-a2d7-5f68-bfaf-e8b04255c74d.html\">covering the protests</a>, rinse pepper spray out of his eyes, Palmer told the Tracker. When Palmer said he was feeling better, Roldan and Matthews decided to move on from what had become a “chaotic situation,” Roldan told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"5y3n3\">Then the two journalists turned off East Broad Street and walked around the corner to East Marshall Street to take cover. While walking on East Marshall they encountered a line of police officers who were blocking the street and not allowing anyone to advance, Roldan said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1oco8\">Seeking to leave the area, Roldan, who was wearing a reflective vest and his press badge around his neck, approached the line of police officers with his press badge in his hand and verbally identified himself as a member of the press, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"7t59f\">”As soon as I said ‘I’m with the press,’ an officer on the police line who had a tank of pepper spray in his hand released the pepper spray at us,” Roldan said. Roldan was hit across his face and hands, though protective glasses shielded his eyes, the journalist said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2v9cu\">Matthews told the Tracker that she was behind Roldan when the pepper spray was fired and hit with residual spray. “The spray mostly hit my arms with some of it hitting my face,” Matthews said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7wtjp\">Disoriented from the pepper spray, Roldan stopped and bent over at the waist in front of the line of officers. As he looked up, he said he saw a large police officer run toward him. The officer “shoulder-tackled” him to the ground, Roldan said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ngpk6\">Matthews helped Roldan off the ground and the two of them approached the police line again. This time they were permitted to pass. Roldan said he tried to explain to an officer on the other side of the line what had happened. The officer asked to see Roldan’s press badge, and then offered no response, Roldan said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vi0qe\">As they continued down East Marshall Street, Roldan and Matthews saw an officer who they recognized as the person who had shoved Roldan to the ground, the reporter said. Roldan said the officer refused to stop or respond when Roldan asked for his badge number. Roldan noted the numbers on the back of the officer’s helmet. He then posted to Twitter about the incident.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After showing my badge and yelling “I am with the press” a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/RichmondPolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RichmondPolice</a> officer sprayed pepper spray in my face and shoved me to the ground. Had “3397” on his helmet. I’m out. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/myVPM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@myVPM</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Richmond?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Richmond</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloydProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloydProtests</a></p>— Roberto Roldan (@ByRobertoR) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ByRobertoR/status/1267264167314182144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jttd9\">The two journalists then asked a VPM News editor who lived nearby to pick them up and drive them home. While in the car, Roldan said he received a telephone call from Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney who had seen his tweet. The mayor apologized for what had happened and said he would call for an investigation, Roldan said.</p><p data-block-key=\"tocr5\">The following day, Stoney confirmed he had spoken with Roldan and had ordered the investigation, according to <a href=\"https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/1-complaint-filed-against-richmond-police-over-handling-of-protestors\">news reports</a>. The mayor also tweeted, “There is NO reason this should have happened to a member of the press. No reason. It is absolutely unacceptable, and we are investigating the matter.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There is NO reason this should have happened to a member of the press. No reason. It is absolutely unacceptable, and we are investigating the matter.</p>— Levar M. Stoney (@LevarStoney) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LevarStoney/status/1267454494931066880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7xne5\">In a press conference on June 1, Police Chief Will Smith said the incident had been “<a href=\"https://richmond.com/news/local/at-least-125-press-freedom-violations-nationwide-have-been-reported-since-friday-two-were-in/article_101b7e73-ebbf-5348-9ca8-e567419b881b.html\">completely accidental</a>” and that the officer “was actually running, and sadly is not as agile as we would like. We weren’t throwing [Roldan] to the ground to effect arrest. It was really in a very tense moment and we were trying to affect other things.” Roldan told <a href=\"https://vpm.org/news/articles/13906/police-say-theyll-investigate-violence-against-vpm-reporter\">VPM news</a> that while he doesn’t know what the officer was thinking, “the tackle felt intentional.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ch6w0\">“My skin was definitely burning for a while after leaving the scene and getting back home,” Matthews told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"vxiex\">While her camera equipment was not damaged, there were “residual chemicals on at least the lens hood that I hadn't thought to wipe down,” Matthews said. “I realized it after those chemicals were reactivated by my sweat a few days later during a separate event when I had it sitting on my arm.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7bo7a\">The Richmond Police Department did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"19w3p\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"http://pressfreedomtracker.us/george-floyd-protests/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"xhbce\">Protesters rally around the memorial of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, in mid-June 2020.</p>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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"state": {
"name": "Virginia",
"abbreviation": "VA"
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"chemical irritant",
"protest"
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{
"title": "Australian news crew cameraman detained while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/australian-news-crew-cameraman-detained-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-21T14:05:51.296432Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:10:26.881088Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:10:26.792122Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gi5l3\">Minneapolis police briefly detained a Nine News Australia news crew and security guard in the early hours of May 31, 2020, the outlet reported. Cameraman Adam Bovino and U.S. Correspondent Tim Arvier were covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"4p8cq\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"mzonk\">Arvier <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267178660500590598\">reported</a> that police and the Minnesota National Guard deployed throughout Minneapolis on the night of May 30 in an attempt to assert control. The Nine News crew documented protesters <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TimArvier9/status/1266910436215132169\">marching</a> in defiance of an 8 p.m. curfew as the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267062595778949120\">police pushed</a> back with less-lethal projectiles and tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"7namr\">The crew was driving to find a backdrop for a live interview when they heard gunfire and encountered a police roadblock, Arvier told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"nk4w0\">“We didn’t want to approach the roadblock, or drive up to it because obviously we’d seen numerous examples in the past 48 hours of how jumpy the police were,” Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"a4b36\">So Bovino stopped the car short of the roadblock and waited for the police to notice them, Arvier told the Tracker. As the police officers approached, the crew held their hands out the windows and shouted that they were press.</p><p data-block-key=\"wbu44\">Two officers seemed calm, Arvier said, but a third yelled at them to get out of the car and drew his firearm.</p><p data-block-key=\"98vz2\">“That’s when I hit record on my phone and held my phone up in my hand to record all this happening, just to have a record,” Arvier said. The crew tried to remain calm to avoid misunderstandings that could have escalated, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ff5hn\">The security guard, who the crew hired after observing street violence, informed the police that he had weapons in the car, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"57cpf\">In Arvier’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267062595778949120\">video</a>, a police officer warns other officers to not let the journalists and the security guard drop their hands because there are guns in the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"dmgra\">Arvier asks an officer in the video if it is okay to keep holding his phone in his raised hands. The officer responds, “You’re good.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9e9zh\">Bovino, who declined an interview because Arvier had already spoken with the Tracker, said in an email that the officer who drew a firearm handcuffed him. Officers escorted Bovino and the security guard in handcuffs to the curb.</p><p data-block-key=\"2h15t\">A third officer searched Arvier, who continued to film. Additional <a href=\"https://www.9news.com.au/national/usa-riots-minneapolis-george-floyd-black-man-death-police/ada0a989-1201-44a2-b9e9-ff2d4a04cb39?ocid=Social-9News\">footage</a> shows Arvier holding his credentials in one hand as he’s searched. As he is patted down, Arvier explains to the officer that he is wearing a bulletproof vest.</p><p data-block-key=\"h0isv\">In the video, an officer explains why the Nine News Australia crew was being treated carefully. “You can hear all the gunshots going off all around us. It’s like a warzone,” the officer said. “And here you guys are in bulletproof vests with a rifle in the car.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c7fpk\">Arvier was escorted to the curb, but he was not handcuffed like his colleagues. After the police checked their press credentials, the crew was released. Arvier said the crew was carrying press passes issued by the Los Angeles Police Department since their bureau is based in Los Angeles.</p><p data-block-key=\"zy3uw\">The police warned the journalists that it was dangerous to be out and advised them to return to their hotel for their safety, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"cle2j\">Arvier said they had been treated respectfully and he understood why the police would be anxious. But it was unclear why they had to be detained and handcuffed. They had previously been pulled over to have their credentials checked without issue, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"0lt5y\">“If it wasn’t for the one police officer there, I get the feeling that the other ones would’ve handled it a lot more calmly and we probably would have been fine like we were the first time we were pulled over,” Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"71des\">Minnesota Police Department spokesperson John Elder told the Tracker he was unable to comment about this and other incidents involving the press. He said, “Every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q004x\">The crew’s detention on May 30 was one of several incidents involving the police during the days of protests, Arvier told the Tracker. On the night of May 29 the crew was pinned down in a parking lot in the 5th Precinct as police confronted protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, Arvier said. They were trying to return to their car to send footage back to Australia, but the police line blocked their way. When the crew tried to approach the line while identifying as press, the police yelled at them to get back. Police eventually escorted Bovino to the team’s vehicle to retrieve the equipment they needed. The vehicle had a large dent that the journalists presumed came from a tear gas canister strike.</p><p data-block-key=\"55fgw\">On May 31, the crew was filming <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsSyd/status/1267431786893717504\">police push back protesters</a> near a highway, Arvier said. The crew positioned off to the side so that they could either fall back on the highway or behind police lines to stay safe, Arvier said. But Nine News footage shows Arvier and Bovino forced by police to run through tear gas. “That is ugly, ugly scenes,” Arvier said in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TimArvier9/status/1267254264679694336\">video posted to Twitter</a> as he struggled with the effects of the tear gas.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"uypp0\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": "Minneapolis Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Minnesota",
"abbreviation": "MN"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Adam Bovino (Nine News Australia)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Univision journalists hit with pepper ball rounds during Vegas protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/univision-journalists-hit-pepper-ball-rounds-during-vegas-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-10T21:54:07.828247Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T16:19:32.164488Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T16:19:32.077095Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Las Vegas",
"longitude": -115.13722,
"latitude": 36.17497,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9x2im\">Univision reporters Alexander Zapata and Fernando Rentería said they were fired on with what they believed to be pepper ball rounds by police while covering the arrest of a civilian protester in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"8fjv4\">The protest that day 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 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=\"m7z56\">Zapata and Rentería had been <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/noticiasunivisionnevada/videos/253889532501939/UzpfSTM5NDg2OTg5ODA0NzM4ODo2NDIxNDkwNzMzMTk0Njg/\">streaming live on Facebook</a> as night fell on May 31, covering protests along the Strip. About an hour into their stream, the reporters can be seen making their way north on Las Vegas Boulevard when Zapata explains that tear gas had been fired on the crowd but that it was not very intense. Shortly thereafter, the reporters walked toward a group of officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Zapata can be heard saying, “It looks like they are arresting a civilian.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">➡️ Equipo de noticias de Univision en Las Vegas recibe balas de gomas de parte de la policía en medio de las protestas por la muerte de <a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/GeorgeFloyd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#GeorgeFloyd</a>. <a href=\"https://t.co/zJV0YHXoa1\">pic.twitter.com/zJV0YHXoa1</a></p>— Univision Noticias (@UniNoticias) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/UniNoticias/status/1267415830632988674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4jcp8\">In the video, reviewed by the Tracker, an officer can be seen moving toward the journalists. Several shots can be heard, after which Zapata can be heard groaning. He says on the livestream, “They have just shot us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dpq1n\">Zapata then said to his audience, “Police officers from Las Vegas just shot us. Police officers from Las Vegas Police Department are attacking the press. I repeat, my partner, Fernando Rentería, and I were hit by the police.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ihwr3\">The LVMPD responded to requests for comment by emailing the Tracker <a href=\"https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Press%20Releases/PO%20132%2006-19-20.pdf\">two</a> <a href=\"https://www.lvmpd.com/en-us/Press%20Releases/PO%200128%2006-15-20.pdf\">press releases</a>. Neither addressed Zapata or Rentería specifically, or members of the media more broadly. Nor did they address the use of particular munitions.</p><p data-block-key=\"9iqqi\">Zapata told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, “I believe no reporter or member of the press should become a victim of these kind of attacks from any kind of authority. Our job is to narrate the events that take place during situations like these. We are not standing up for any side. We just tell the community what is happening.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ffh7o\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Nevada",
"abbreviation": "NV"
},
"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": [
"Alexander Zapata (Univision)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Primer Impacto reporter injured by rubber bullet during protests in Santa Monica",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/primer-impacto-reporter-injured-rubber-bullet-during-protests-santa-monica/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-10T19:26:29.071238Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:44.577791Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:44.498819Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Santa Monica",
"longitude": -118.49138,
"latitude": 34.01949,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"lcf13\">Paula Rosado, a reporter for Primer Impacto, a Spanish-language evening news program broadcast by Univision, was hit with a rubber bullet as she covered protests in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"rs7g9\">Demonstrations that day were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"g7497\">Rosado had been narrating a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/359772106595/videos/2555589674702920\">livestream on Facebook</a> in the late afternoon of May 31. A little over 12 minutes in, shots can be heard, followed by a loud scream from Rosado, who then said she’d been hit in the leg.</p><p data-block-key=\"3nqo1\">The assault occurred as law enforcement tried to disperse the demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets, Univision <a href=\"https://www.univision.com/shows/primer-impacto/el-momento-en-el-que-una-reportera-de-primer-impacto-fue-alcanzada-por-una-bala-de-goma-durante-las-protestas-en-los-angeles-video\">reported</a> the next day.</p><p data-block-key=\"983ae\">Rosado was taken to an area hospital. In a later <a href=\"https://www.univision.com/shows/primer-impacto/el-momento-en-el-que-una-reportera-de-primer-impacto-fue-alcanzada-por-una-bala-de-goma-durante-las-protestas-en-los-angeles-video\">video</a>, she compared the day’s events to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles in 1992, after four policemen had been acquitted of beating Rodney King.</p><p data-block-key=\"55dqr\">In her next on-air appearance, Rosado can be seen on crutches. She tells her audience: “We left a dangerous situation safe and sound, so that we could tell our story and do our job. We know we are not the only ones, but there’s an entire nation in conflict and we hope with the strict curfews, the city comes back to normal.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gjxiq\">Rosado, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Santa Monica Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"qrk5o\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": null,
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"image_caption": "",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"case_number": null,
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"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Paula Rosado (Primer Impacto)"
],
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},
{
"title": "BBC videographer slammed by officer’s shield during DC protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/bbc-videographer-slammed-by-officers-shield-during-dc-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-08T12:45:43.287587Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:27.081029Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:26.997085Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mltgi\">Peter Murtaugh, a freelance videographer with the BBC, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was assaulted by a police officer while covering protests in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"rbhg2\">Murtaugh, who has filmed for the BBC for decades, was in the nation’s capital to document demonstrations held in response to a video of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"hkv45\">Murtaugh told the Tracker that at about 9 p.m. he had been on H Street in front of Lafayette Square, a short distance from the White House. Murtaugh said that some protesters had set debris on fire in the middle of the road and, in response, a line of officers in riot gear from the U.S. Park Police had advanced, clearing the street and securing the area. In a video Murtaugh shared with the Tracker, a woman can be seen approaching the officers and attempting to talk with them. An officer can be seen shoving her back with their shield, to which she responded by yelling, “We aren’t doing shit to you!” In the video, some objects, including what appear to be firecrackers, are tossed at officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"4lqkn\">While he was filming this altercation, Murtaugh said an officer rushed toward him and slammed their shield into him. Murtaugh said that he was clearly identifiable as a member of the media — his credentials were visible, and he was holding a large camera with a light atop it. The assault was captured by his camera and later posted to Twitter by Mutaugh’s colleague Aleem Maqbool:</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This was before curfew and our cameraman <a href=\"https://twitter.com/p_murt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@p_murt</a> clearly a member of the press, a block away from the White House this evening... <a href=\"https://t.co/X7oQqZm8eW\">pic.twitter.com/X7oQqZm8eW</a></p>— Aleem Maqbool (@AleemMaqbool) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AleemMaqbool/status/1267319521486004225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7irez\">Murtaugh said his camera was not damaged and that he was not seriously injured or even knocked down. He said the officer returned to their place in the line without a word after the attack. Still, Murtaugh said he felt it was noteworthy because “this officer seemed as if he was intentionally gunning for me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"szu3c\">The videographer has covered a number of high-profile and combative protests in places like Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland. “I've been banged around by the police a little bit, but it’s never felt like it was intentionally directed at me as a journalist, and this one was,” he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"hzm6x\">Murtaugh also told the Tracker that he was struck by so many pepper balls in the course of the evening that his green flannel shirt was “white with powder” by the end of the night. He said, though, that he didn’t suffer any serious injuries; he’d been wearing a long-sleeved shirt, goggles, and a helmet.</p><p data-block-key=\"usp0v\">The U.S. Park Police did not respond to emailed requests for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"66kw2\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screen_Shot_2020-08-08_at_8.40.56.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1xg71\">A still image from the video taken by Peter Murtaugh while filming for the BBC in Washington, D.C. on May 31, 2020.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
"abbreviation": "DC"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Peter Murtaugh (BBC News)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Australian correspondent detained while covering Minneapolis protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/australian-correspondent-detained-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-21T14:07:42.292929Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:07.191296Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-14T18:09:07.086198Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Minneapolis",
"longitude": -93.26384,
"latitude": 44.97997,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"olikg\">Minneapolis Police briefly detained a Nine News Australia news crew and security guard in the early hours of May 31, 2020, the outlet reported. U.S. Correspondent Tim Arvier and cameraman Adam Bovino were covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p><p data-block-key=\"tsdc3\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"g0665\">Arvier <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267178660500590598\">reported</a> that police and the Minnesota National Guard deployed throughout Minneapolis on the night of May 30 in an attempt to assert control. The Nine News crew documented protesters <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TimArvier9/status/1266910436215132169\">marching</a> in defiance of an 8 p.m. curfew as the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267062595778949120\">police pushed</a> back with less-lethal projectiles and tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"lcrtr\">The crew was driving to find a backdrop for a live interview when they heard gunfire and encountered a police roadblock, Arvier told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ni7eg\">“We didn’t want to approach the roadblock, or drive up to it because obviously we’d seen numerous examples in the past 48 hours of how jumpy the police were,” Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ss07\">So Bovino stopped the car short of the roadblock and waited for the police to notice them, Arvier told the Tracker. As the police officers approached, the crew held their hands out the windows and shouted that they were press.</p><p data-block-key=\"1lvf7\">Two officers seemed calm, Arvier said, but a third yelled at them to get out of the car and drew his firearm.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ndhk\">“That’s when I hit record on my phone and held my phone up in my hand to record all this happening, just to have a record,” Arvier said. The crew tried to remain calm to avoid misunderstandings that could have escalated, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"dstah\">The security guard, who the crew hired after observing street violence, informed the police that he had weapons in the car, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mbdkk\">In Arvier’s <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsAUS/status/1267062595778949120\">video</a>, a police officer warns other officers to not let the journalists and the security guard drop their hands because there are guns in the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"b59yu\">Arvier asks an officer in the video if it is okay to keep holding his phone in his raised hands. The officer responds, “You’re good.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0v6cc\">The officer who drew his weapon searched Bovino and escorted him handcuffed to the curb, Arvier said. The security guard was brought by another officer to the curb handcuffed as well.</p><p data-block-key=\"l3oxo\">A third officer searched Arvier, who continued to film. Additional <a href=\"https://www.9news.com.au/national/usa-riots-minneapolis-george-floyd-black-man-death-police/ada0a989-1201-44a2-b9e9-ff2d4a04cb39?ocid=Social-9News\">footage</a> shows Arvier holding his credentials in one hand as he’s searched. As he is patted down, Arvier explains to the officer that he is wearing a bulletproof vest.</p><p data-block-key=\"gh7db\">In the video, an officer explains why the Nine News Australia crew was being treated carefully. “You can hear all the gunshots going off all around us. It’s like a warzone,” the officer said. “And here you guys are in bulletproof vests with a rifle in the car.”</p><p data-block-key=\"0iw68\">Arvier was escorted to the curb, but he was not handcuffed like his colleagues. After the police checked their press credentials, the crew was released. Arvier said the crew was carrying press passes issued by the Los Angeles Police Department since their bureau is based in Los Angeles.</p><p data-block-key=\"czt7u\">The police warned the journalists that it was dangerous to be out and advised them to return to their hotel for their safety, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ruoef\">Arvier said they had been treated respectfully and he understood why the police would be anxious. But it was unclear why they had to be detained and handcuffed. They had previously been pulled over to have their credentials checked without issue, Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5opvm\">“If it wasn’t for the one police officer there, I get the feeling that the other ones would’ve handled it a lot more calmly and we probably would have been fine like we were the first time we were pulled over,” Arvier said.</p><p data-block-key=\"66a5s\">Minnesota Police Department spokesperson John Elder told the Tracker he was unable to comment about this and other incidents involving the press. He said, “Every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cl2a0\">The crew’s detention on May 30 was one of several incidents involving the police during the days of protests, Arvier told the Tracker. On the night of May 29 the crew was pinned down in a parking lot in the 5th Precinct as police confronted protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, Arvier said. They were trying to return to their car to send footage back to Australia, but the police line blocked their way. When the crew tried to approach the line while identifying as press, the police yelled at them to get back. Police eventually escorted Bovino to the team’s vehicle to retrieve the equipment they needed. The vehicle had a large dent that the journalists presumed came from a tear gas canister strike.</p><p data-block-key=\"r0i1c\">On May 31, the crew was filming <a href=\"https://twitter.com/9NewsSyd/status/1267431786893717504\">police push back protesters</a> near a highway, Arvier said. The crew positioned off to the side so that they could either fall back on the highway or behind police lines to stay safe, Arvier said. But Nine News footage shows Arvier and his cameraman forced by police to run through tear gas. "That is ugly, ugly scenes," Arvier said in a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TimArvier9/status/1267254264679694336\">video posted to Twitter</a> as he struggled with the effects of the tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"rzaxf\">Arvier told the Tracker he recognized the risks the police were facing and did not feel bitter toward them. But he noted their attitude toward journalists seemed different than in previous protests he has covered.</p><p data-block-key=\"14qqi\">In other protests, “the cops just sort of let you work through it and we don’t get in their way and they don’t get in our way and everyone is fine,” Arvier said “But that certainly seemed to be a different state of affairs in terms of the police attitude in Minneapolis.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7jfs6\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "VICE News journalist hit by projectiles while covering protests in DC",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-news-journalist-hit-projectiles-while-covering-protests-dc/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-06T18:29:47.842441Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T17:54:49.252172Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T17:54:49.148586Z",
"date": "2020-05-31",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"h1qnh\">VICE News journalist Todd Zwillich told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was hit in the head by multiple projectiles during a chaos-filled night of protests in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"41r2j\">The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.</p><p data-block-key=\"hiajm\">According to his Twitter feed, Zwillich had spent much of the evening of May 31 covering protests in Lafayette Park, near the White House. He told the Tracker that at around 11 p.m., the start of the city’s curfew, he’d been filming a line of law enforcement officials as they marched up 16th Street to clear protesters from the area, saying that the scene was not particularly crowded and that his credentials were visible.</p><p data-block-key=\"6twn0\">He said that shortly thereafter an officer aimed at him and fired two projectiles. On Twitter he posted that he’d been “hit with a rubber bullet,” but he clarified to the Tracker that he wasn’t sure what the projecticles were. He was hit in the head, though did not suffer serious injury.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Police moving protesters up 16th st. I just got hit in the head with a rubber bullet. My press credentials are out. I’m fine. <a href=\"https://t.co/x6PVf1MnDS\">pic.twitter.com/x6PVf1MnDS</a></p>— Todd Zwillich (@toddzwillich) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/toddzwillich/status/1267293699630866433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"shn1w\">“I don’t know what they saw. I don’t know what they thought,” Zwillich told the Tracker. “I know what I was doing. But I don’t know how it was perceived.”</p><p data-block-key=\"wp5oi\">Zwillich said he was not certain which agency the officer was with. D.C. is notable for the <a href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/05/protests-washington-dc-federal-agents-law-enforcement-302551\">large number of different police forces</a> that operate within its borders. Requests for comment from the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police were not immediately returned.</p><p data-block-key=\"xja8p\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
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"state": {
"name": "District of Columbia",
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"Assault"
],
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"Todd Zwillich (Vice News)"
],
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]
