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{
"title": "Portland journalist assaulted by police while covering protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/portland-journalist-assaulted-police-while-covering-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-11-03T17:56:11.455839Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T00:13:43.317844Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T00:13:43.234623Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Portland",
"longitude": -122.67621,
"latitude": 45.52345,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"z039s\">Cory Elia, an editor at Village Portland and host of a KBOO podcast, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was assaulted by police on June 2, 2020, in Portland, Oregon, despite clearly identifying himself as press.</p><p data-block-key=\"rvdl6\">The protest was one of many 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 in Minneapolis. The Tracker is <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents</a> involving journalists covering protests across the country.</p><p data-block-key=\"6eu4v\">In Portland, nightly 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. Even after the curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a class action suit the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon filed against the Portland Police Bureau in June.The city agreed to <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/2020-07-16_preliminary_injunction.pdf\">a preliminary injunction</a> in July to not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests or impede their work.</p><p data-block-key=\"yckx2\">“The police physically assaulted KBOO reporter Cory Elia because he was recording them,” the <a href=\"https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf\">complaint</a> said.</p><p data-block-key=\"6lrd3\">On June 2 at 11:34 p.m., Elia posted a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheRealCoryElia/status/1268068558568710150\">video</a> of protesters running from the police, who can be heard declaring the protest an unlawful assembly. Projectiles can be seen landing between the protesters as they run through tear gas, while flash bangs can also be heard.</p><p data-block-key=\"s3vb9\">About 10 minutes later, Elia <a href=\"https://twitter.com/TheRealCoryElia/status/1268071609920716802\">tweeted</a>, “I just got manhandled by police after filming this one even while identifying myself as a journalist and showing my press pass. They slammed me into a wall as I was choking on teargas. An independent journo pulled me away from officers and got me out.”</p><p data-block-key=\"arcdv\">Elia told the Tracker that an officer struck him in the back with a baton, and then he was slammed into the wall head first. He fell over his bicycle and hit his ribs on the handlebars, then officers kicked him as he choked on tear gas, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"zr71e\">A <a href=\"https://twitter.com/caffeinedtv/status/1268079034321133570\">video</a> recorded by reddit user testsubject011 shows part of the assault. The person recording the video approaches Elia, who is straddling his bicycle and holding up his press pass. “I’m a journalist, I’m a journalist. If they start messing with me just keep chasing them,” says Elia, before warning, “They’re coming behind you.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lif0t\">The person continues to record while retreating from police. When Elia comes back into view about 24 seconds into the video, he appears to get pinned against the wall by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"i2k1q\">“If these instances are not seen, not heard about, not reported, they can continue. It results in a very dangerous situation. Any reporter out there can be subjected to this treatment without any kind of consequence or accountability for those actions,” Elia told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"m2x43\">On July 8, Elia and Lesley McLam, a colleague at Village Portland and KBOO radio station, filed a <a href=\"https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/07/two-independent-journalists-file-suit-against-portland-police-county-sheriffs-deputies-and-state-police.html\">civil lawsuit</a> against the city, the state, and multiple law enforcement officers for allegedly violating their constitutional rights and for battery, assault, negligence and false arrest. They are also seeking compensation for their injuries and punitive damages.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1kyz\">The PPB has said they wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation.</p><p data-block-key=\"qmb2l\"><i>Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect that Cory Elia is not a plaintiff in the ACLU of Oregon's lawsuit, but filed an independent civil rights suit with journalist Lesley McLam.</i></p></div>",
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"case_number": "3:20-cv-01106",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
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"state": {
"name": "Oregon",
"abbreviation": "OR"
},
"updates": [
"(2022-04-28 00:00:00+00:00) City of Portland pays two journalists $55,000 to settle lawsuit stemming from arrests, assaults at protests in 2020",
"(2022-07-29 13:19:00+00:00) Independent journalist receives $50,000 to settle lawsuit stemming from arrest, assaults at protests in 2020"
],
"case_statuses": [
"settled"
],
"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": [
"Cory Elia (KBOO-FM)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Detroit Metro Times journalist assaulted while covering civil unrest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-metro-times-journalist-assaulted-while-covering-civil-unrest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-30T14:33:09.798523Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:52:21.983521Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:52:21.892309Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4srue\">On the evening of June 2, 2020, Detroit police <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MCmuckraker/status/1267982859991728130\">assaulted Steve Neavling</a>, a journalist with the Detroit Metro Times who was covering protests against police violence, Neavling told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"zie0x\">Neavling told CPJ that he and other reporters were watching a group of about 150 peaceful protesters along Gratiot Avenue on Detroit's east side when police surrounded the protesters and moved in on them. The journalist said that he was filming the scene when a police officer grabbed him and threw him to the ground.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just got attacked, punched, kneed and elbowed by police, who threw my phone and broke my glasses. More worried about the protesters. Mass arrests. Out of control in Detroit. That was police brutality. <a href=\"https://t.co/o4dSZ8uMVN\">pic.twitter.com/o4dSZ8uMVN</a></p>— Motor City Muckraker (@MCmuckraker) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/MCmuckraker/status/1267982859991728130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 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=\"hq8u7\">“I yelled ‘I’m with the media!’ and [the officer] immediately threw me down, swatted my phone out of my hand and, intentionally or not, ripped the glasses off of my face and they were broken,” Neavling said. “My camera lens was broken during the fall and every time I [said] ‘media,’ I got kicked, punched and elbowed by the same officer,” Neavling told CPJ, adding that his accreditation was visible.</p><p data-block-key=\"30ikc\">Neavling said the officer warned him he would be arrested. Neavling said he then heard another voice saying Neavling should be let go.</p><p data-block-key=\"w1bk3\">“I started walking away without my glasses. I couldn’t see and [the assaulting police officer] kept yelling ‘Get the fuck out of here,’” Neavling said.</p><p data-block-key=\"0qf16\">The journalist, who said he is unable to see clearly further than two feet without his glasses, heard someone say that the police chief was nearby. Neavling said he approached the chief, told him what happened and was told by the chief to speak with the police internal affairs unit.</p><p data-block-key=\"v5yyc\">Neavling said he called the communications point person for Detroit police, who put him in touch with the internal affairs department. An officer in internal affairs was dismissive of Neavling’s complaints and said police had thousands of cases to work through, the journalist told CPJ. Neavling told CPJ in an email on October 13 that he filed a complaint the night of the assault, but four months later had not heard back.</p><p data-block-key=\"kgm3t\">Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood from the Detroit Police Deparment’s media relations team did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"9heu8\">Neavling said that due to COVID-related restrictions he had to wait a week before he could get a new pair of glasses, during which time he was unable to work because he could not see well without his glasses. He also said that he sustained bruises and small scrapes on his right elbow and right shoulder.</p><p data-block-key=\"9tewk\">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 a May 25 arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 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=\"knefm\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"actor": "law enforcement",
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "camera lens"
},
{
"quantity": 1,
"equipment": "cellphone"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Steve Neavling (Detroit Metro Times)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Freelance photographer assaulted by police while covering Detroit protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photographer-assaulted-by-police-while-covering-detroit-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-29T19:35:19.139901Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:06.534403Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:06.390607Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Detroit",
"longitude": -83.04575,
"latitude": 42.33143,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"m6018\">Freelance photographer Sean Work was assaulted by police officers while covering protests against police violence in Detroit, Michigan, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ftp5\">Work told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that he had been following protesters as they marched through downtown that evening. At 8:47 p.m., after a curfew went into effect, Work said he’d been taking photos of police arresting protesters, with his two media passes prominently displayed — one hanging on a lanyard around his neck and another taped to his camera bag. An officer, he said, then came up behind him and forced him to the ground, while a second climbed on top of him while he was lying faceup.</p><p data-block-key=\"mwkgb\">Work said he screamed, “I’m media,” several times while holding up his credential. “Another officer then said ‘he’s media.’ The officer got off of me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"lfqli\">Work said he was then ordered to move back from the scene.</p><p data-block-key=\"u7i1h\">The Detroit Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"k7eyx\">Protests in the city that day were 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. 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=\"leqg3\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "Michigan",
"abbreviation": "MI"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Sean Work (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist arrested during Houston protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-during-houston-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-29T12:11:04.138281Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:47:47.119313Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:47:47.029711Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Houston",
"longitude": -95.36327,
"latitude": 29.76328,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4pka8\">Derrick Broze, co-host of Free Thinker Radio on 90.1 KPFT and a freelance reporter, was arrested in downtown Houston, Texas, while documenting protests on June 2, 2020, according to his and other news accounts of events.</p><p data-block-key=\"jspw8\">Protests in Houston were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd grew up in Houston’s Third Ward and lived in Texas until around 2014, Texas Monthly magazine <a href=\"https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/houston-years-george-floyd-dj-screw/\">reported</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"u19x3\">In a <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/derrickbroze/videos/550241452519771\">video posted to Facebook</a>, Broze narrates that protesters were near the intersection of McKinney Street and Avenida De Las Americas when some individuals began throwing bottles at a dense line of advancing officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"xqqru\">A few minutes later, Broze can be heard saying, “They’re coming on both sides, they’re closing us in.”</p><p data-block-key=\"r7wj4\">In an <a href=\"https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/im-a-journalist-i-was-arrested-while-covering-a-george-floyd-protest-in-houston/\">account</a> written for The Last American Vagabond, Broze said that he had been documenting the protests for approximately five hours before police declared the demonstration an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"4we02\">“The police – dressed in riot gear and armed with live ammunition – surrounded the protesters, medics, and yours truly using a tactic known as ‘kettling,’” Broze wrote. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the arrests and assaults of other journalists within kettles <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?tags=kettle\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"67qtp\">Houston police officers surrounded the group of around 50 protesters and began “violently rushing into the crowd and grabbing people,” according to Broze’s account.</p><p data-block-key=\"osoxz\">“During the chaos I told several officers I was press documenting the situation,” he wrote. “I was told over and over that I should take it up with the courts.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ftawq\">In Broze’s footage, he can be heard identifying himself as a member of the press multiple times and asking whether he can be released from the kettle or speak to a public information officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"x98ry\">Broze <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DBrozeLiveFree/status/1268266166247739392\">tweeted</a> the following day that he was among the individuals “snatched” and thrown to the ground when placed under arrest. His footage of the incident ends before he is placed under arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"vetfr\">Broze added that he was charged with “obstructing a highway/passageway.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">breaking the law. However, me and the other 2 dozen people I was kidnapped with were kettled in by the police as they violently snatched protesters, throwing some to the ground, including me. I was charged with "obstructing a highway/passageway" for being on the sidewalk.</p>— Derrick Broze (@DBrozeLiveFree) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DBrozeLiveFree/status/1268266166247739392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 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=\"9hx03\">In his account of the incident, Broze wrote that he was taken to Harris County Jail and held there for 16 hours.</p><p data-block-key=\"daci7\">The Houston Police Department did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"wy5dn\">Broze wrote, “As a journalist (and an opponent of police violence) I will continue to document the George Floyd protests and other important movements in the United States.”</p><p data-block-key=\"gbtvf\">The Harris County District Attorney’s Office dismissed nearly 800 charges on June 9 against individuals at demonstrations “in the interest of justice,” the Houston Chronicle <a href=\"https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Harris-County-DA-files-dismissals-for-some-15328665.php\">reported</a>. The DA’s office did not respond to a request to verify that the arrest charges against Broze were among those dropped, but the Tracker is marking as such barring further information.</p><p data-block-key=\"t1dad\">The 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": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"q63gq\">Protesters march at a rally for George Floyd on June 2, 2020, in Houston, Texas.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Houston Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-06-03",
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": true,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"state": {
"name": "Texas",
"abbreviation": "TX"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Derrick Broze (KPFT-FM)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reporter hit while covering protests in Iowa",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/waterloo-cedar-falls-courier-reporter-hit-while-covering-protests-iowa/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-22T17:36:29.712966Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:51:39.112894Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:51:39.019789Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Waterloo",
"longitude": -92.34296,
"latitude": 42.49276,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"qdett\">Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier staff writer Jeff Reinitz was struck in the back of the head while covering a protest in Waterloo, Iowa, late on the night of June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"gx5jc\">Reinitz was attacked during protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25. A juvenile was later arrested on charges related to the assault on the journalist, the Courier reported.</p><p data-block-key=\"xn4nu\">Reinitz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering a march through downtown Waterloo on the night of June 2 when a man started shouting at him to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ui4c\">In a video Reinitz livestreamed of the march <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/wcfcourier/videos/941431929639652\">on Facebook</a>, a man can be heard identifying him as an employee of the Courier. “You can’t walk with us, bro,” he shouted. Reinitz responded that he was doing his job.</p><p data-block-key=\"pqh7l\">“You work for the police,” the man said, pointing at Reinitz. “No, I don’t,” the journalist responded.</p><p data-block-key=\"ug818\">Reinitz, who was focused on photographing the demonstrations that evening, said he ignored the man, and picked up his pace so he was walking with a different part of the crowd for the next several blocks.</p><p data-block-key=\"92xvf\">After marching through the city, the protesters congregated on a highway overpass, and the crowd thinned out, Reintz said. The same man who had heckled Reinitz earlier in the evening approached him again.</p><p data-block-key=\"rqrnh\">The man shouted at the reporter again, telling him to leave more aggressively than before.</p><p data-block-key=\"3t9lk\">A cellphone video of the interaction shared on social media showed the man took a swing at Reinitz, according to the reporter.</p><p data-block-key=\"jtj7g\">Reinitz said he backed up to try to de-escalate the situation and to focus on doing his job, and other protesters stood up for him. One marcher got in front of Reinitz to defend the journalist, and the man punched him in the face, Reinitz said.</p><p data-block-key=\"w49bd\">Reinitz didn’t want the protester to get hit again, so tried to signal to him that he was OK. Mixed in the crowd, he felt someone come up near his other side and try to knock his camera from his right hand. Because the strap was tethered to his hand, the camera didn’t fall to the ground. When Reinitz looked to see who had tried to hit his camera, he saw a young man walking away.</p><p data-block-key=\"o7e3r\">Then, as Reinitz turned back to the man who had originally become aggressive toward him, a third person came up behind him and punched him in the back of the head.</p><p data-block-key=\"1fk2g\">A <a href=\"https://youtu.be/-bBl1kMiL3M?t=497\">cellphone video</a> that captured the incident shows a person come up behind Reinitz and strike him. Reinitz stayed on his feet, but staggered slightly, raising his hand up to the back of his head as he moved away and leaned against a concrete barrier.</p><p data-block-key=\"7yuoj\"><a href=\"https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/watch-now-two-charged-in-attack-on-courier-reporter-during-demonstrations/article_89c21198-91a6-507a-a784-e660353a970c.html#tracking-source=home-trending\">The Courier reported</a> that a 16-year-old, who wasn’t identified, struck Reinitz. The youth was arrested on June 4 and charged for disorderly conduct and rioting, according to the Courier.</p><p data-block-key=\"uunj4\">Reinitz said didn’t seek medical attention for his injury. He realized as he left the protest later that night that he was bleeding slightly behind his ear from the blow.</p><p data-block-key=\"e6mx4\">“My main concern was like, how do I go about doing my job without getting hit again?” he said. “I guess part of it's this other concern where you're trying to not be the news and I was just trying to think about, OK, how do I get basically back in the game.”</p><p data-block-key=\"k02t3\">After he was hit, Reinitz continued to follow the protesters through the city. Police used tear gas to try to disperse the demonstrators, he said. When Reinitz was walking through clouds of tear gas near a park, a fourth person who had been involved with the altercation on the overpass came up and shoved him, before running off, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4te1y\">Details about the 16-year-old’s case were not available because the individual is a juvenile, according to Reinitz. The Black Hawk County Attorney’s office didn’t respond to a request for information on the status of the case.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ntvz\">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, following the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and others by police.</p><p data-block-key=\"9jwia\">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 these protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"4ih6w\">While livestreaming a protest in Waterloo, Iowa, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier staff writer Jeff Reinitz was harassed and assaulted multiple times.</p>",
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"name": "Iowa",
"abbreviation": "IA"
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"(2020-10-19 16:44:00+00:00) Man sentenced for attacking reporter at Iowa protest"
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{
"title": "Tampa Bay Times reporter detained during St. Petersburg protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tampa-bay-times-reporter-detained-during-st-petersburg-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-22T15:32:16.964012Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:50.904959Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:27:50.804159Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "St. Petersburg",
"longitude": -82.67927,
"latitude": 27.77086,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"4fh3h\">Tampa Bay Times reporter Jay Cridlin was detained on June 2, 2020, while covering a protest in St. Petersburg, Florida.</p><p data-block-key=\"oku9s\">Protesters had gathered in St. Petersburg and in cities across the U.S. to denounce police brutality following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"r2x8e\">The Times <a href=\"https://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2020/06/03/two-reporters-for-times-placed-in-zip-ties-while-covering-protests/\">reported</a> that Cridlin was covering demonstrations outside police headquarters on First Avenue North when protesters were ordered to disperse. St. Petersburg police officers and Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies then advanced on the crowd to make arrests. Cridlin was detained by a sheriff’s deputy, who placed his hands in zip ties.</p><p data-block-key=\"ey43v\">A St. Petersburg police spokesperson told the Times that Chief Anthony Holloway recognized Cridlin and had a deputy free him right away.</p><p data-block-key=\"9hzsq\">Cridlin told the Times that Holloway, Mayor Rick Kriseman and Sheriff Bob Gualtieri reached out to apologize the following day. Gualtieri also said he was looking into the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"f0rni\">“You guys have a role. This has nothing to do with the media,” Gualtieri said. “It was clearly accidental, and we just need to avoid it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3zgrd\">In a statement the following day, Times Executive Editor Mark Katches objected to the detentions of Cridlin and a second Times journalist, Divya Kumar, in Tampa on June 3. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tampa-bay-times-journalist-knocked-ground-detained-while-covering-florida-protests/\">documented Kumar’s arrest here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"7l9xb\">“Journalists need to be able to do our jobs and report the news without being harassed, detained, intimidated or harmed by law enforcement,” Katches said.</p><p data-block-key=\"s5175\">The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Florida",
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"Black Lives Matter",
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{
"title": "San Antonio Express-News reporter hit by projectiles while covering protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/san-antonio-express-news-reporter-hit-by-projectiles-while-covering-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-15T20:14:59.630907Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:46:16.041513Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:46:15.952092Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Antonio",
"longitude": -98.49363,
"latitude": 29.42412,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"u7jie\">San Antonio Express-News reporter Mark Dunphy was hit by a crowd-control munition fired by law enforcement officers who were attempting to disperse protesters in downtown San Antonio, Texas, on the evening of June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"gsiiv\">Protesters had gathered in San Antonio and in cities across the U.S. to denounce the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died while being arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25.</p><p data-block-key=\"x7ubt\">In San Antonio, demonstrators were marching towards the Alamo, a symbolic site where in 1836 a vastly outnumbered group of Texan settlers were besieged in the mission by 1,500 Mexican troops.</p><p data-block-key=\"voai7\">Dunphy and Spectrum News reporter Lena Blietz were on the scene as protesters gathered by a line of police officers wearing riot gear in front of Alamo Plaza, a commercial center next to the historic mission.</p><p data-block-key=\"1frww\">Blietz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protest was “super peaceful.” As some protesters took a knee and one addressed the crowd near the police line, Blietz said she thought she was about to witness officers and protesters embracing — something that had happened in Fort Worth, Texas, the previous night.</p><p data-block-key=\"48dae\"><a href=\"https://twitter.com/LenaBlietz/status/1268034667770511362\">A video captured by Blietz</a> showed a man standing in front of riot police telling protesters, “put your hands up — let everybody know we’re not here for violence!”</p><p data-block-key=\"to8oc\">As he said that, there is a commotion alongside several bangs and the sound of crowd-control munitions being fired as people scramble to flee.</p><p data-block-key=\"mo7uw\">Dunphy, who was standing near Blietz when police moved to disperse protesters, was hit with a crowd-control munition.</p><p data-block-key=\"oapof\">“Caught one of them to the leg. Free Yin Yang tattoo, I suppose,”<a href=\"https://twitter.com/m_b_dunphy/status/1268029073558851585\"> Dunphy wrote on Twitter</a> alongside photos of a hand holding a wooden projectile and a dark welt on the back of his thigh.</p><p data-block-key=\"r6up6\">Blietz was also struck in the leg with a crowd-control munition. The Tracker has documented that case <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/spectrum-news-reporter-hit-by-police-projectile-amid-san-antonio-protest/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"mkik7\">In another tweet, Dunphy wrote that he saw a plastic bottle thrown at police shortly before officers began firing wooden rounds and using tear gas. In a video shared by Dunphy that night, dots from laser pointers aimed at police officers can be seen. Blietz can be seen standing directly in front of police, filming a protester’s address to the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"xgv58\">In a photo shared by Dunphy the day after he was hit, the welt caused by the wooden round had grown in size, turning purple and red.</p><p data-block-key=\"xrxe0\">After the incident, one of Dunphy’s colleagues at the Express-News tweeted that Dunphy had been hit by a wooden bullet fired by police and tagged San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg,<a href=\"https://twitter.com/JFreports/status/1268032683009024000\"> asking “are you okay with this?”</a></p><p data-block-key=\"kybb1\">“No, I’m not,” Nirenberg responded, “I am asking for more information on these projectiles.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">No, I'm not. <br><br>I am asking for more information on these projectiles. <a href=\"https://t.co/TCEEexVEXZ\">https://t.co/TCEEexVEXZ</a></p>— Mayor Ron | Get vax’d! 💪 (@Ron_Nirenberg) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Ron_Nirenberg/status/1268044774222843904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 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=\"t6tqt\">Dunphy and the Express-News didn’t respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for the San Antonio mayor’s office also didn’t respond to the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"id0b2\">“It is my understanding that two local journalists were hit during the crowd dispersal,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said <a href=\"https://www.sanantonio.gov/SAPD/Press-Releases/ArtMID/7184/ArticleID/19022/Statement-from-San-Antonio-Police-Chief\">in a June 3 statement</a>. “Although this was unfortunate, this was certainly not the police department’s intent. During crowd control dispersal action officers cannot readily distinguish between peaceful protesters, media and agitators once the situation has reached a boiling point.”</p><p data-block-key=\"g0ftg\">McManus added that the police department was and would continue offering journalists the opportunity to cover protests from a “safe zone” behind the line of officers. The police chief advised journalists who cover protests from within crowds to leave if the situation becomes volatile.</p><p data-block-key=\"imah9\">A public information officer for the San Antonio Police Department said they had no additional statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"071o4\">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": "Texas",
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{
"title": "Detroit Free Press reporter detained, pushed to ground while covering a protest for story on police tactics",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-free-press-reporter-detained-pushed-ground-while-covering-protest-story-police-tactics/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-15T19:38:35.861177Z",
"last_published_at": "2021-11-19T16:36:12.299065Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2021-11-19T16:36:12.236157Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"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 had her hands zip-tied and was flung to the ground by Detroit police while reporting on protests in the city on June 2, 2020, the reporter told the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p>Moran said that she was working on a story about police tactics and observed police blocking a line of protesters on Gratiot Avenue and an armored vehicle coming up from behind the protesters.</p><p>Moran said she was standing on a grassy area with other reporters near the Family Dollar store at 10950 Gratiot Avenue while the protesters were in the streets. She stepped slightly away from the group to get a better glimpse of the protesters.</p><p>“All of a sudden there was a rush to my right and I can’t say exactly what happened because it was a little bit of a blur,” she said, stating that protesters might have run up to the curb between the grassy area and the street.</p><p>“What I do know is that police started coming up from the side and not from the spots that we had been facing,” she said. “I turned and as I go to lift up my press badge that’s hanging on my chest, I am pushed to the ground and they start putting me in zip ties,” she said.</p><p>Moran said she had a respirator on at the time and so wasn’t sure if police could hear her yell, “I’m media, I’m media!” Moran said her colleagues behind her were yelling that she was a member of the media and for police to release her once she was on the ground.</p><p>Moran’s colleagues <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o4DcpFLwuA&app=desktop&ab_channel=DetroitFreePress\">posted a video of the incident online</a>. “You can see in the video that he allows me to put my phone in my back pocket,” Moran said.</p><p>Another officer walked up and instructed his colleague to release Moran, the journalist said. Moran said that until she saw the video, she didn’t realize that her second hand was in the process of being zip-tied when the police officer intervened.</p><p>“What’s interesting about this is they had released media passes for these events two nights prior,” Moran said. “[I] had a giant one printed out and used duck tape to strap it on my back, so it was a very large sign that a number of people pointed out would have been visible as I was on the ground being zip-tied,” she told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p>Moran said that the officer who ended the confrontation helped her up from the ground, apologized and then found her later to apologize again. Moran said she had a scratch and some back and ankle pain the next day.</p><p>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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{
"title": "Videographer hit by police projectiles while filming Seattle protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videographer-hit-police-projectiles-while-filming-seattle-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2020-10-13T20:01:53.384695Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:58.218470Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:58.135943Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Seattle",
"longitude": -122.33207,
"latitude": 47.60621,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jfb6j\">Independent videographer Alyse Gallagher said she was hit in the chest with a crowd-control projectile and targeted with pepper balls by police as she recorded a confrontation between law enforcement and protesters in Seattle on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"9nyrl\">The city was in its fourth night of large protests against police violence sparked by the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis. Gallagher, who posts footage of demonstrations on <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRamEAEfFNEs4fKgp5Z01Jg/videos\">her YouTube channel, AlyseUnleashed,</a> was filming the standoff at the intersection of Pine Street and 11th Avenue in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.</p><p data-block-key=\"2toq2\">Police fired tear gas after some people in the crowd threw objects at officers. Protesters retreated about half a block north, as did Gallagher, who stopped in a parking lot where she tried to clear her eyes of tear gas.</p><p data-block-key=\"k2w1p\">She said she intentionally stayed away from the protesters so she wouldn’t be seen as a potential target by law enforcement. Gallagher was carrying and using a camera but said she wasn’t wearing visible press identification and was “going lower profile” that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"wbj8n\">Unable to see and in pain from the tear gas, she put her camera down and reached for her bag to get a bottle of water to flush her eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffie8\">“That’s when I realized I had...flashlights trained on me and I’m like: They think I’m grabbing something,” she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"gxtyk\">She said police fired pepper balls at her. In the video she filmed that night, a white puff consistent with a pepper ball impact can be seen.</p><p data-block-key=\"6boc1\">“I’m not getting anything! I need water!” she shouted<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWAPTMi8LuE\"> in the video</a>. “I’m fucking press!”</p><p data-block-key=\"w2m1v\">Gallagher can later be heard waving off a protester offering help, saying she doesn’t want to be “too associated because they keep shooting shit at me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2yeml\">Less than two minutes later and still having trouble seeing, Gallagher was trying to untangle herself from her camera gear’s cables when she got hit in the chest by what she believes was a 40 millimeter crowd-control round containing a chemical irritant. “I just remember it hitting me in the chest and then like reeling backwards and then just screaming because I hit the ground hard enough that I recoiled. Like I could feel my chest bounce back.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d9fd1\">She said she doesn’t believe police targeted her for being a journalist, but is upset police used crowd-control weapons on her since she had clearly separated herself from the protesters.</p><p data-block-key=\"l34xs\">“That’s the one thing that kind of bothers me: You're going to shoot the one person who’s not behind the wall of shields? Where if you’re up to anything, that’s where you’re going to be?” she said. “I was by myself in that parking lot at that point.”</p><p data-block-key=\"colxf\">The Seattle Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"tess2\">Protests following the deaths of Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and against police brutality have continued in many U.S. cities for months. 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 these protests across the country. <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> Find these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"name": "Washington",
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},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Colorado Springs TV reporter hit with pepper spray",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/colorado-springs-tv-reporter-hit-pepper-spray/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-14T16:02:55.425160Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:34.301931Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:34.219624Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Colorado Springs",
"longitude": -104.82136,
"latitude": 38.83388,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6naf5\">Spencer Wilson, a reporter for local CBS affiliate KKTV 11, was pepper sprayed by police while covering a protest in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"k9158\">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=\"kq8zm\">Wilson had been covering the protest in front of the Colorado Springs police headquarters with a KKTV photographer, Jon Modic, all day, and broadcast much of the demonstrations on <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=329636514690916&ref=watch_permalink\">Facebook Live</a>. The pair were reporting from a barricade in front of the police headquarters, where about 75 people were protesting and about 40 police officers were standing on the other side, Wilson told the Committee to Protect Journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"et7e2\">At around 10:30 p.m., an announcement came over a loudspeaker informing the crowd that the protest was no longer peaceful, and that protesters needed to leave. Wilson heard the same announcement while covering protests the previous night, June 1. On both nights, the announcement angered the crowd, Wilson said, and he saw bottles being thrown at police officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"i27ot\">At this point, Wilson was standing with Shawn Shanle, a photographer for FOX 21, and he began moving back as officers with riot shields moved toward the crowd. Wilson estimated no more than two minutes passed between the dispersal order and the police moving in on the crowd. Then, fireworks exploded and police shouted, “That was not us!” Officers then began pepper spraying the crowd.</p><p data-block-key=\"cl5la\">“I’m walking away from the police. I turn around to start walking backwards, like I’m in a marching band, while I’m holding up my camera on my shoulder,” Wilson said. “A police officer, who is on the very edge of the line, just randomly sprays pepper spray as if it was silly string.”</p><p data-block-key=\"vmpaf\">Wilson said the officer looked directly at him when he sprayed from about 10 yards away. “It was directly aimed at me and that photographer and it wafted over to us and went directly into us.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kt6r5\">Wilson said he was clearly identifiable as a member of the media. He had a large camera on his shoulder, was dressed in a suit and tie, and was wearing a media I.D. on a lanyard.</p><p data-block-key=\"bbcut\">Wilson also had visited the police station earlier in the day to ask where journalists should report from, and where they should move to in the event of a dispersal. When told to disperse, Wilson walked in the direction the police had told him to go earlier in the day.</p><p data-block-key=\"p5jq8\">After he was sprayed, Wilson turned the camera at the police, repeated that he was media, and asked the officer why he sprayed. Wilson says the officer was silent, and continued chasing after protesters who were walking away. Wilson didn’t get the name of the officer, and said he didn’t know whether he had been targeted as a member of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"uagom\">After being sprayed, Wilson said he was separately hit with tear gas deployed by police. A police officer led Wilson — coughing and with eyes stinging from the chemicals — away from the street. He used a water bottle given to him by a protester to wash out his eyes and finished reporting at around midnight.</p><p data-block-key=\"jhoyq\">A spokesperson for the Colorado Springs Police Department declined to comment on the incident, but said the department worked with the media to address safety concerns. The department also <a href=\"https://twitter.com/CSPDPIO/status/1268277781609148416\">said</a> on Twitter that demonstrators are ordered to disperse only when protests turn violent.</p><p data-block-key=\"qhh6y\">In a message sent to members of the media on June 3, the Colorado Springs Police Department said, “Please know that you are never targeted because you are press. When officers are working to safely disperse a crowd, they cannot differentiate media in the crowd (as many protestors also have cameras), and are working to disperse everyone present.” The message goes on to ask reporters to wear clothing that clearly identifies them as press, and that journalists have their credentials on them at all times.</p><p data-block-key=\"38xrx\">The next day, Wilson’s boss bought goggles and reflective vests for journalists to wear for future assignments, so police could more easily identify them. Wilson said he went back to the Colorado Springs police headquarters and told officers about the vests.</p><p data-block-key=\"gt132\">“The officers I spoke with laughed and said, ‘It’s not going to help.’ I was taken aback.”</p><p data-block-key=\"q5tpb\">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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"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,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
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"state": {
"name": "Colorado",
"abbreviation": "CO"
},
"updates": [],
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"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": [
"Spencer Wilson (KKTV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Freelance journalist detained until colleague vouches for her to Los Angeles police",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-detained-until-colleague-vouches-her-los-angeles-police/",
"first_published_at": "2020-08-05T16:14:05.872520Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:14.368071Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:50:14.276908Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"h5sbm\">Samanta Helou-Hernandez, a freelance multimedia journalist, was detained by Los Angeles police on June 2, 2020 while covering a protest near the mayor’s residence.</p><p data-block-key=\"ubjc6\">The protest was part of a wave of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"lgq1u\">The officer has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who were present face felony charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"lq0z9\">The protest in central Los Angeles began at the Getty House, the mayor’s residence, before the city-wide curfew at 6:30 p.m., Helou-Hernandez told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Some protesters wanted to continue demonstrating past curfew and Helou-Hernandez stayed to document them. Around 7:30 p.m., about 100 protesters marched through Hancock Park before turning onto Wilshire Boulevard where they were met by police in riot gear.</p><p data-block-key=\"6470g\">Helou-Hernandez followed the group of protesters onto a side street. Someone yelled, “they’re shooting,” and Helou-Hernandez said she followed a smaller contingent of around a dozen people onto another side street, where they were cornered by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. Helou-Hernandez was cuffed with zip ties. When she told the police that she was press, they moved her aside. She explained that she didn’t have press credentials because she was a freelancer and offered to show LAPD her clips and website on her phone.</p><p data-block-key=\"6i41y\">According to Helou-Hernandez, an officer said something to the effect of, “If you’re press, why did you run away from us? You should have run toward us” if you thought there was shooting. At this point, Helou-Hernandez and protesters were brought to a second location to join a larger group of about 20-30 handcuffed protesters. The officers called their names and directed them to form lines. The group was sent to a third location on 8th and Crenshaw where buses would take them to the precinct.</p><p data-block-key=\"t15wf\">Lexis-Olivier Ray, a journalist for L.A. Taco, was at 8th and Crenshaw documenting arrests. Ray was already in touch with a police supervisor because he and an L.A. Taco colleague had been barred from crossing the police line. Ray heard Helou-Hernandez calling his name.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ympi\">“I grabbed the attention of the supervisor who I had been talking to already ... and I bring his attention to the fact that my friend and fellow journalist Sami is in custody,” Ray said. He also showed the LAPD her website and clips.</p><p data-block-key=\"txkmb\">At 9:36 p.m. Ray <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShotOn35mm/status/1268038752628174848\">tweeted</a> a video of Helou-Hernandez in zip ties with the caption, “My friend and fellow journalist<a href=\"https://twitter.com/Samanta_Helou\"> @Samanta_Helou</a> is currently in custody.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAPDHQ\"> @LAPDHQ</a> is trying to verify her identity. We've shown them her work for<a href=\"https://twitter.com/KCET\"> @kcet</a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/Curbed\"> @curbed</a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAist\"> @laist</a><a href=\"https://twitter.com/LATACO\"> @lataco</a>.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My friend and fellow journalist <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Samanta_Helou?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Samanta_Helou</a> is currently in custody. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAPDHQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LAPDHQ</a> is trying to verify her identity. We've shown them her work for <a href=\"https://twitter.com/KCET?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@kcet</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Curbed?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@curbed</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LAist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@laist</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/LATACO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@lataco</a>. <a href=\"https://t.co/ttLPiynnGU\">pic.twitter.com/ttLPiynnGU</a></p>— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ShotOn35mm/status/1268038752628174848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 3, 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=\"8fu2s\">Ray was told that the media relations officer would make a decision regarding whether Helou-Hernandez would be taken into custody. After 20-30 minutes, the media relations officer arrived and Helou-Hernandez was released.</p><p data-block-key=\"0za7w\">Helou-Hernandez was not given a certificate of release, but estimates that she was in custody for 90 minutes. At 10:02 p.m. she <a href=\"https://twitter.com/Samanta_Helou/status/1268045354701750272\">tweeted</a> that she had been released. The LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"kc0ur\">“Had I not seen a colleague I would have ultimately been taken on the bus downtown,” Helou-Hernandez told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"gzee1\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"case_number": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": null,
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Samanta Helou-Hernandez (Freelance)"
],
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},
{
"title": "KQED journalist briefly detained, another journalist arrested, covering sit-in against San Francisco curfew",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kqed-journalist-briefly-detained-another-journalist-arrested-covering-sit-against-san-francisco-curfew/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-05T21:59:24.334354Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:54.148330Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:54.058777Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Francisco",
"longitude": -122.41942,
"latitude": 37.77493,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"95lg2\">Police detained Sheraz Sadiq, a producer for local NPR and PBS affiliate KQED, while covering a protest against a citywide curfew in San Francisco, California, on June 2, 2020, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"2vnm0\">The curfew was imposed as the city struggled to manage protests 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=\"1rpx6\">After another <a href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Together-our-voices-are-stronger-Hundreds-15312639.php\">day of protests</a> against police violence, nearly 20 protesters led by the Democratic Socialists of America arrived at City Hall to protest the curfew, DSA member Hope Williams told the Tracker. After recruiting more participants at City Hall, the group <a href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11822543/civil-liberties-advocates-raise-concerns-about-curfews-imposed-across-bay-area\">marched</a> to the Hall of Justice to perform a peaceful sit-in after the 8 p.m. curfew.</p><p data-block-key=\"ruy51\">San Francisco police followed the march and formed a cordon around the protesters after they arrived at the Hall of Justice, Sadiq told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"eufll\">Not wanting to be confused for a protester, Sadiq showed officers his credentials and told them he was working for KQED, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"duob6\">Around 9:30, police warned over a megaphone that the protesters were in violation of curfew and ordered them to disperse, Sadiq said. But protesters, ignoring the warnings, responded with chants like “I don’t see no riot here. Why are you in riot gear?”</p><p data-block-key=\"qs1p1\">Sadiq said he tried to leave the cordoned area, but an officer blocked his exit. When he identified himself as a journalist, the officer called over a sergeant.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffpnn\">The sergeant said Sadiq was in a “sanitized zone” and could not leave, according to Sadiq. When Sadiq told the sergeant he was a journalist, the sergeant said they would “sort it out later,” according to Sadiq.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4kjf\">Rebuffed on one side, Sadiq said he tried to leave on the other side of the cordon. But there, too, he was turned back. Sadiq was stuck inside the cordon with the sit-in, now about 30 people strong.</p><p data-block-key=\"ltfuz\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SherazSadiq1/status/1268051221224419328\">video</a> tweeted by Sadiq just before 10:30, police can be seen arresting the protesters one by one. Protesters cheer in support each time it is the next protester’s turn to stand, put their hands behind their back and walk away in the custody of the San Francisco Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"lk9ge\">The city’s <a href=\"https://sfmayor.org/article/mayor-london-breed-and-public-safety-officials-announce-curfew-san-francisco-begin-tonight-8#:~:text=Breed%2C%20in%20consultation%20with%20the,Monday%2C%20June%201%2C%202020.\">curfew order</a> excluded “authorized representatives of any news service, newspaper, radio or television station or network, or other media organization.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cjmze\">But freelance journalist Sakura Sato, who was also inside the cordon, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-detained-one-arrested-covering-protest-against-san-francisco-curfew/\">was arrested</a> with the protesters despite identifying as a journalist, she told the Tracker. Sato, who recently decided to pursue journalism, had not yet acquired press credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"gcm36\">Sadiq, who had a press ID from KQED, was treated differently. With all the protesters and Sato under arrest, only Sadiq remained inside the police cordon. Two officers approached him.</p><p data-block-key=\"on9k2\">“They looked a little bit confused. They had to check with each other. Like, should we get him?” Sadiq explained. “Then I stepped back and they said, ‘Sir, you are going to have to come with us.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"gpvtn\">Sadiq asked why, and the officers said that he was not under arrest but detained until they could check his credentials. The officers asked if Sadiq would resist. He said no, but voiced his disagreement about what was happening, he told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"fo9cw\">“Joe, I’m being arrested!” Sadiq yelled out to his KQED colleague Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, who was reporting across the street. Fitzgerald Rodriguez remained outside the cordon but was flanked by officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"w4ryl\">“What did I tell you?” one of the officers responded, according to Sadiq. “You’re not being arrested. You’re just being detained.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2i1f4\">The officers took Sadiq to a staging area, where he was asked to provide his driver’s license. Sadiq removed the face mask he was wearing to help confirm his identity, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7jrbi\">Sadiq said he asked why he was being detained, and the officers responded that he disobeyed the dispersal order. When Sadiq said he was a working journalist exempt from the curfew order, the police said that protesters had falsely been claiming to be journalists in an attempt to evade arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"81skb\">Sadiq said he was released after about 15 minutes.</p><p data-block-key=\"m6uvi\">Fitzgerald Rodriguez told the Tracker that he shouted across the street trying to vouch for his detained colleague. Eventually an officer, who he believes was a sergeant, crossed the street to talk to him before returning to Sadiq.</p><p data-block-key=\"1r8ov\">Sato and the protesters were released with a citation on charges of violating curfew and resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer or peace officer, Sato and Williams, the DSA member, told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"73z45\">Rachel Marshall, a spokesperson for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, said the cases were discharged. She said Boudin “deeply values the First Amendment—including its protection of the press,” adding that Boudin supports the protests against police brutality and will not prosecute peaceful activity.</p><p data-block-key=\"4h259\">A SFPD spokesperson said the department was reviewing body camera footage but did not respond to specific questions about Sato's arrest and Sadiq's detention by press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"dr1dh\">Sadiq said the police treated him politely but the incident left him questioning why his detention was necessary at all.</p><p data-block-key=\"aa87t\">“It’s not like this was a melee, a chaotic scene that was unfolding, and in the scrum of the confusion, they swept up everybody,” Sadiq explained. “This was a very orderly, very well-organized demonstration.”</p><p data-block-key=\"zwew6\">Yet once someone is inside the police cordon, Sadiq said, they seemed to be treated “almost like an enemy combatant” that the police must “screen and verify and go through their protocols, including detention and possibly arrest.”</p><p data-block-key=\"tdc9c\">Sadiq, who is of South Asian heritage, said he did not see any evidence of racial prejudice during his detention. But he worried throughout that his name would end up on a list that could cause trouble in the future.</p><p data-block-key=\"ay5an\">“As a person of color, especially with the protests that are engulfing the nation around racial inequity, this is a conversation or a monologue sometimes people of color have, especially when being subject to interactions with law enforcement,” Sadiq said.</p><p data-block-key=\"75cx6\">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/Sadiq_CreditFitzgerald_Rodriguez_.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1ycc7\">Protesters perform a sit-in at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice on June 2, 2020, as KQED’s Sheraz Sadiq, standing right, in white sweater, documents the scene. The protesters were arrested and Sadiq was detained.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "San Francisco Police Department",
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{
"title": "Journalists detained, one arrested covering protest against San Francisco curfew",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-detained-one-arrested-covering-protest-against-san-francisco-curfew/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-05T21:52:00.921787Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:35.392755Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:35.275894Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "San Francisco",
"longitude": -122.41942,
"latitude": 37.77493,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"99k6x\">Police arrested freelance journalist Sakura Sato as she covered a protest against a citywide curfew in San Francisco, California, on June 2, 2020, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"ek1vo\">The curfew was imposed as the city struggled to manage protests 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=\"7qeav\">After another <a href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Together-our-voices-are-stronger-Hundreds-15312639.php\">day of protests</a> against police violence, nearly 20 protesters led by the Democratic Socialists of America arrived at City Hall to protest the curfew, DSA member Hope Williams told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. After recruiting more participants at City Hall, the group <a href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11822543/civil-liberties-advocates-raise-concerns-about-curfews-imposed-across-bay-area\">marched</a> to the Hall of Justice to perform a peaceful sit-in after the 8 p.m. curfew.</p><p data-block-key=\"lif0l\">Sato covered the march on her <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IAmSakuraSF/status/1268031100208574467\">social</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IAmSakuraSF/status/1268017523238170624\">media</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/IAmSakuraSF/status/1268043847210156032\">accounts</a>, she told the Tracker. The dual crises of the Floyd protests and the coronavirus pandemic had recently inspired her to pursue a career in journalism, she said. But she was not on assignment for an outlet that night.</p><p data-block-key=\"xlntm\">San Francisco police followed the march and formed a cordon around the protesters after they arrived at the Hall of Justice, Sheraz Sadiq, a producer for local NPR and PBS affiliate KQED who was also covering the march, told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"fiuun\">Sato and Sadiq were both stuck inside the cordon as they reported on the sit-in, now about 30 people strong. Around 9:30 p.m., police warned over a megaphone that the protesters were in violation of curfew and ordered them to disperse, Sadiq said. But protesters, ignoring the warnings, responded with chants like “I don’t see no riot here. Why are you in riot gear?”</p><p data-block-key=\"9z3xj\">In a <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SherazSadiq1/status/1268051221224419328\">video</a> tweeted by Sadiq just before 10:30, police can be seen arresting the protesters one by one. Protesters cheer in support each time it is the next protester’s turn to stand, put their hands behind their back and walk away in the custody of the San Francisco Police Department.</p><p data-block-key=\"36t7w\">Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Sadiq’s KQED colleague who was reporting from outside the cordon, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FitzTheReporter/status/1268050069527203840\">tweeted</a> a photo of the arrests. Sato can be seen observing police take away a protester.</p><p data-block-key=\"xnkda\">Shortly thereafter, Sato was also arrested. She told the Tracker that a group of officers approached her, said she was under arrest and asked if she would resist. She responded that she was a journalist. She was placed in zip ties anyway and taken to a transport vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"vuiwa\">“I said I am a member of the press, and they ignored that,” Sato said.</p><p data-block-key=\"i76l4\">The city’s <a href=\"https://sfmayor.org/article/mayor-london-breed-and-public-safety-officials-announce-curfew-san-francisco-begin-tonight-8#:~:text=Breed%2C%20in%20consultation%20with%20the,Monday%2C%20June%201%2C%202020.\">curfew order</a> excluded “authorized representatives of any news service, newspaper, radio or television station or network, or other media organization.”</p><p data-block-key=\"72mqr\">“The thing that really upset me was that she was obviously functioning as a reporter,” protest organizer Williams said. “There was no reason why she should’ve been arrested alongside us. It’s insane to me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7c5gq\">Footage from the protest filmed by the <a href=\"https://twitter.com/FitzTheReporter/status/1268041685742673920\">KQED</a> <a href=\"https://twitter.com/SherazSadiq1/status/1268048423535603712\">journalists</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/DSA_SF/status/1268044059223879680\">protesters</a> show Sato always standing apart from the protesters, observing and documenting, never participating.</p><p data-block-key=\"kxj9g\">“The police in San Francisco in my experience are loath to make allowances for citizen journalists or for journalists in training,” Fitzgerald Rodriguez, who is also the vice president of the Northern California chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists, told the Tracker. “They tend to only respect a credentialed journalist or a journalist with a SFPD-issued press pass.”</p><p data-block-key=\"boojg\">Sato had not yet acquired press credentials. Michael Applegate, the executive officer of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, said Sato had just joined the Guild Freelancers. The union expedited sending her a press card after her arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"2wpfw\">Police officers also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kqed-journalist-briefly-detained-another-journalist-arrested-covering-sit-against-san-francisco-curfew/\">briefly detained Sadiq</a> after the protesters and Sato were in custody, Sadiq and Fitzgerald Rodriguez told the Tracker. Sadiq, who had a KQED press ID, was released after officers verified his credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"2c07s\">Sato told the Tracker she began to feel sick as soon as she sat down in the police transport vehicle. The zip ties constricted the blood flow to her wrists, and she began to feel weak.</p><p data-block-key=\"cqe3v\">Williams, who was also arrested and placed in the van, said that the protesters asked the officers to take Sato out first when they arrived at Pier 50 for processing.</p><p data-block-key=\"1a8fd\">Sato was given a citation on charges of violating curfew and resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer or peace officer. An officer warned her that if she was arrested again for the same reason, she could be put in jail, she said. Her possessions, which had been confiscated upon her arrest, were returned to her, and she was released after several hours in custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"dfmue\">Williams said the protesters were released on the same charges.</p><p data-block-key=\"8s71i\">Rachel Marshall, a spokesperson for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, said Sato’s case was discharged. She said Boudin “deeply values the First Amendment—including its protection of the press,” adding that Boudin supports the protests against police brutality and will not prosecute peaceful activity.</p><p data-block-key=\"gnzyf\">As of June 19, Sato said she had not heard official confirmation that her case was dropped.</p><p data-block-key=\"brwdr\">A SFPD spokesperson said the department was reviewing body camera footage but did not respond to specific questions about Sato's arrest and Sadiq's detention by press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"spvyo\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"1re28\">Freelancer Sakura Sato, left with backpack, watches as San Francisco police take protesters into custody shortly before her own arrest on June 2, 2020.</p>",
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{
"title": "KATV reporter detained while covering Little Rock protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T14:09:57.876319Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:49:14.490545Z",
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"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "Little Rock",
"longitude": -92.28959,
"latitude": 34.74648,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"g80j8\">Kaitlin Barger, a digital reporter with KATV, the ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas, was detained by law enforcement while covering protests in the city on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ew6o\">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=\"wa7py\">After several nights of demonstrations in Little Rock, protesters again marched through the city on June 2. Barger, partnered with <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-journalist-detained-while-livestreaming-little-rock-protests/\">Paige Cushman</a>, another KATV journalist, followed the march, which passed by the Governor’s Mansion and ended at the Pulaski County Courthouse. In an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Cushman described the march as peaceful.</p><p data-block-key=\"llce1\">At about 10 p.m., two hours past the<a href=\"https://katv.com/news/local/little-rock-tightens-curfew-after-protests-turn-chaotic-threats-reported\"> curfew</a> the city’s mayor had set earlier in the day, a couple hundred protesters had assembled near the courthouse when a small number of them started throwing water bottles at a police car and kicking the car, Cushman said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7agoh\">Suddenly, she said, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies emerged, telling the protesters to disband and steering them away from the courthouse. Cushman said that officers were telling people to leave, but weren’t allowing them a pathway to do so.</p><p data-block-key=\"vyvi7\">Barger and Cushman were caught in a group being ushered toward the Arkansas River. According to Cushman, they informed multiple officers that they were journalists. Under the terms of the <a href=\"https://www.littlerock.gov/media/6956/20-05-clr-emergency-declaration.pdf\">curfew</a>, people, including members of the media, who were out in order to do their jobs were permitted to be on the streets.</p><p data-block-key=\"4g3ys\">Cushman<a href=\"https://business.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2967856710001006&ref=watch_permalink\"> livestreamed</a> the march on Facebook. Once the group of protesters was on a pedestrian bridge, police blocked both sides, Cushman explained in the livestream. Police can be seen in the video ordering everyone to get on the ground, and an officer can be heard telling them they were under arrest for violating curfew and “whatever else we can think of.” About 20 people were on the bridge, Barger told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"hjess\">While sitting on the bridge, the two reporters spoke to an officer, identifying themselves as journalists. The officer can be heard on video responding, “I don’t know you.”</p><p data-block-key=\"upfli\">They told officers that under the rules of the curfew, they were allowed to be out because they were working. “We’re on the clock,” Barger told the officers.</p><p data-block-key=\"h6kil\">After a few minutes, one officer asked if there were TV reporters present. Cushman and Barger identified themselves again and were released. Cushman said the police appeared to have received a phone call letting them know that reporters were on the bridge.</p><p data-block-key=\"jeobv\">Another journalist, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editor Josh Snyder, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-democrat-gazette-journalist-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/\">was also detained</a> on the bridge but was not released at the same time as the KATV reporters, according to Cushman.</p><p data-block-key=\"7alh0\">The <a href=\"https://business.facebook.com/KATVChannel7/videos/2967856710001006/?v=2967856710001006\">livestream</a> shows law enforcement agents in a variety of uniforms. Cushman said it was unclear what authority was responsible for detaining them. Arkansas State Police, the Little Rock Police Department and the National Guard were all present that evening, according to Cushman.</p><p data-block-key=\"3ot9n\">Cushman and Barger were carrying credentials that clearly identified them as KATV journalists. However, they were not wearing any of the station’s logoed gear, a decision Cushman made after protesters had been hostile toward journalists, including <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-assaulted-air-amid-little-rock-protests/\">assaulting one KATV reporter</a>, during previous days of demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"kengo\">Bill Sadler, a spokesperson for the Arkansas State Police, said in an email that the journalists were embedded in a group of protesters that police say were destroying public and private property. He said the reporters had not told police that they planned to be with the group. Sadler said police cordoned off the group and ordered them to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ijq0\">“Only then were voices heard in the group ... claiming to be news reporters,” Sadler told the Tracker. “Once the scene was secure, and guns were removed from two individuals, police did assist the reporters in being separated from the group as they requested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d0pek\">When Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was asked <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=TpW5KrbhQGM&feature=emb_logo\">during a press conference on June 3</a> about the detention of the journalists during the protests in the capital city, he said that police need to protect journalists and that journalists have an “important” job to do.</p><p data-block-key=\"1une9\">“They should not be arrested, but they have to be identified, and when they’re identified as a journalist, obviously, they should go about their business,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"mv9dn\">A spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department said that the department did not detain any journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"cxz45\">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": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"iv4vw\">KATV reporter Kaitlin Barger and a colleague were detained while covering protests in Little Rock on June 2, 2020.</p>",
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"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"name": "Arkansas",
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{
"title": "KATV journalist detained while livestreaming Little Rock protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-journalist-detained-while-livestreaming-little-rock-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T14:02:48.564452Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:48:53.317871Z",
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"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "Little Rock",
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"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"krf3r\">Paige Cushman, a journalist with KATV, the ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas, was detained by law enforcement while covering protests in the city on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"07sni\">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=\"dyv11\">At about 10 p.m., two hours past the<a href=\"https://katv.com/news/local/little-rock-tightens-curfew-after-protests-turn-chaotic-threats-reported\"> curfew</a> that Little Rock’s mayor had set earlier in the day, a couple hundred protesters had assembled near the Pulaski County Courthouse. According to Cushman, a small number of them started throwing water bottles at a police car and kicking the car.</p><p data-block-key=\"lzttc\">Suddenly, she said, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies emerged, telling the protesters to disband and steering them away from the courthouse. Cushman said that officers were telling people to leave, but weren’t allowing them a pathway to do so.</p><p data-block-key=\"6xna0\">Cushman and KATV colleague <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/\">Kaitlin Barger</a> were caught in a group being ushered toward the Arkansas River. According to Cushman, they informed multiple officers that they were journalists. Under the terms of the <a href=\"https://www.littlerock.gov/media/6956/20-05-clr-emergency-declaration.pdf\">curfew</a>, people, including members of the media, who were out in order to do their jobs were permitted to be on the streets.</p><p data-block-key=\"d3j1j\">Cushman<a href=\"https://business.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2967856710001006&ref=watch_permalink\"> livestreamed</a> the march on Facebook. The video shows that at one point, after Cushman identified herself as a journalist and asked where she should go, a line of officers began to move forward, apparently herding the protesters in one direction.</p><p data-block-key=\"8k1zh\">“You’re out here illegally. Move,” one officer can be heard saying.</p><p data-block-key=\"lcqod\">“No, we’re not. We’re authorized to be here because we’re working,” Cushman said.</p><p data-block-key=\"le6ze\">Once the group of protesters was on a pedestrian bridge, police blocked both sides, Cushman explained in the livestream. Police can be seen in the video ordering everyone to get on the ground, and an officer can be heard telling them they were under arrest for violating curfew and “whatever else we can think of.” About 20 people were on the bridge, Barger told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"49ztm\">After a few minutes, one officer asked if there were TV reporters present. Cushman and Barger identified themselves again and were released. Cushman said the police appeared to have received a phone call letting them know that reporters were on the bridge.</p><p data-block-key=\"ij0wh\">Another journalist, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editor Josh Snyder, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-democrat-gazette-journalist-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/\">was also detained</a> on the bridge but was not released at the same time as the KATV reporters, according to Cushman.</p><p data-block-key=\"0sf5q\">The video shows law enforcement officials in a variety of uniforms. Cushman said it was unclear what authority was responsible for detaining them. Arkansas State Police, the Little Rock Police Department and the National Guard were all present that evening, according to Cushman.</p><p data-block-key=\"v0u5c\">Cushman and Barger were carrying credentials that clearly identified them as KATV journalists. However, they were not wearing any of the station’s logoed gear, a decision Cushman made after protesters had been hostile toward journalists, including <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-assaulted-air-amid-little-rock-protests/\">assaulting one KATV reporter</a>, during previous days of demonstrations.</p><p data-block-key=\"y7duy\">Cushman said she was grateful for Facebook Live, because the video she streamed of the night gave “such an unadulterated view” of what happened. While Cushman said she didn’t feel targeted by police during the arrest, she was surprised by how the law enforcement officers responded to the journalists with their badges.</p><p data-block-key=\"poy24\">“The lack of listening kind of surprised me,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b5jrl\">Bill Sadler, a spokesperson for the Arkansas State Police, said in an email that the journalists were embedded in a group of protesters that police say were destroying public and private property. He said the reporters had not told police that they planned to be with the group. Sadler said police cordoned off the group and ordered them to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"dae1m\">“Only then were voices heard in the group ... claiming to be news reporters,” Sadler told the Tracker. “Once the scene was secure, and guns were removed from two individuals, police did assist the reporters in being separated from the group as they requested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"k3c5r\">When Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was asked <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=TpW5KrbhQGM&feature=emb_logo\">during a press conference on June 3</a> about the detention of the journalists during the protests in the capital city, he said that police need to protect journalists and that journalists have an “important” job to do.</p><p data-block-key=\"ik28u\">“They should not be arrested, but they have to be identified, and when they’re identified as a journalist, obviously, they should go about their business,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"n1fo0\">A spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department said that the department did not detain any journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"mpt7w\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"unnl1\">KATV journalist Paige Cushman was detained while covering protests in Little Rock on June 2, 2020.</p>",
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{
"title": "Arkansas Democrat-Gazette journalist detained while covering Little Rock protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-democrat-gazette-journalist-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-07-02T13:53:37.502620Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:45:33.219300Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:45:33.122131Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "Little Rock",
"longitude": -92.28959,
"latitude": 34.74648,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"isz3m\">Arkansas Democrat-Gazette deputy online editor Josh Snyder was detained by police while covering protests in Little Rock on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"9rpms\">Protests in Arkansas began four days earlier as demonstrations erupted across the country, sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died when a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than 8 minutes during an arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"le5bp\">Snyder was covering demonstrations in Little Rock on the evening of June 2 when he was caught up in a group of protesters detained by police on a pedestrian bridge, <a href=\"https://katv.com/news/local/4th-night-of-protests-at-arkansas-state-capitol\">according to KATV</a>. Police detained the group at around 10 p.m., two hours after a curfew went into effect.</p><p data-block-key=\"ke0kt\">Snyder was <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/arkansasonline/videos/3148425058553610/\">livestreaming the protests</a> on the Democrat-Gazette’s Facebook page. In his video, a group of protesters can be seen being led by police to a pedestrian bridge, and Snyder identified himself as press to officers he passed. As they arrived, Snyder shouted out “press!” but no law-enforcement officers appeared to notice, and police ordered the group of protesters to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ih9n\">At one point in the video, Snyder takes a call from a colleague, telling them, “I think I’m being arrested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"jijm2\">Several protesters are visible in the video around him, also on the ground. After more than 10 minutes, he can be heard identifying himself as a journalist to an officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"98nlq\">“I just wanted to give a heads up, I’m press, I don’t know if anybody heard that during all the commotion,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2sjak\">The officer said that he would need to speak with a different officer. A short time later, after several other people can be seen being led away with their hands zip-tied behind his back, police appear in the video to let others in the group, including Snyder, disperse.</p><p data-block-key=\"r5vjz\">Snyder referred the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to Democrat-Gazette Managing Editor Eliza Gaines for comment on the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"tuqj2\">“I honestly think that the police did not hear him,” Gaines said, noting it was very loud.</p><p data-block-key=\"qfhjs\">Gaines said editors had verified with the city earlier in the day that reporters would be exempt from the curfew. Gaines said Snyder was carrying credentials and showed them to police after he had made his presence known.</p><p data-block-key=\"6kj28\">In response to the incident, Gaines contacted the city the following day to establish a point of contact in case other reporters were detained. She said the city was “very responsive” and immediately gave a contact’s phone number for editors to call if it happened again.</p><p data-block-key=\"gxeay\">Two other journalists, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-journalist-detained-while-livestreaming-little-rock-protests/\">Paige Cushman</a> and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/\">Kaitlin Barger</a> of the local ABC affiliate KATV, also were detained on the bridge while they were streaming on Facebook Live.</p><p data-block-key=\"mcgja\">Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said in an emailed statement that the journalists were “embedded” with a group of protesters who police say were damaging public and private property, and didn’t notify police that they would be with the group. According to Sadler, police were told that at least one person among the protesters had a handgun.</p><p data-block-key=\"1o1fz\">Sadler said police became aware of the reporters after the group had been “cordoned off” and ordered to the ground.</p><p data-block-key=\"shxct\">“Only then were voices heard in the group...claiming to be news reporters,” he said. “Once the scene was secure, and guns were removed from two individuals, police did assist the reporters in being separated from the group as they requested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2ig6w\">Gaines disputed Sadler’s characterization of Snyder as “embedded” with protesters. “He was covering the protests,” she said in an email.</p><p data-block-key=\"7ovq9\">In its report on the incident, KATV said the journalists “repeatedly identified themselves as reporters, showed their credentials and complied with officers' orders.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kgxmo\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd and others while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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{
"title": "NYPD officer assaults British photojournalist, breaks camera",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nypd-officer-assaults-british-photojournalist-breaks-camera/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-23T03:13:42.190502Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-14T14:20:59.665284Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-14T14:20:59.467216Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"dow4m\">Photojournalist Jae Donnelly was assaulted by a police officer while documenting protests in New York City on June 2, 2020. His camera and lens were also damaged in the attack.</p><p data-block-key=\"21kpq\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"zp6b6\">Donnelly, who works for the U.K.-based Daily Mail, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting peaceful protests on the Upper West Side at approximately 9:30 p.m. An 8 p.m. curfew was in place that night, though members of the media were <a href=\"https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/executive-orders/2020/eeo-118.pdf\">exempt</a> as “essential workers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"owl6f\">He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was wearing his foreign press pass and had a helmet strapped to his backpack, though he hadn’t used it given how peaceful the protests had been for the previous three hours.</p><p data-block-key=\"qce0k\">The protest was progressing down Ninth Avenue and had just passed near the Midtown North Police Precinct on 54th Street when everyone started running south, Donnelly <a href=\"https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8385147/Photojournalist-tells-beaten-cops-covered-peaceful-BLM-march-NYC.html\">wrote</a> in an account for the Daily Mail.</p><p data-block-key=\"s9v1c\">“I looked back and behind the running crowd, the tail end of the protests, a bunch of NYPD officers were picking off anybody they could get their hands on and arresting them,” Donnelly said.</p><p data-block-key=\"l9gzu\">The final photograph Donnelly captured was of a highly decorated officer coming toward him with a wooden stick taken from a protester.</p><p data-block-key=\"bfq8l\">“I remember trying to get away as he came at me, while explaining, ‘I’m media,’” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ecfje\"><a href=\"http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/view/e926a86d1e7642ee8b3eb5cf97fcb52e?subClipIn=00:00:00&subClipOut=00:01:51\">Footage captured by The Associated Press</a> shows a second officer charging at Donnelly from his left and striking him over the arm and head with a baton. Donnelly then spins around and appears to hold out his press pass. Donnelly told the Tracker that he was identifying himself again as a photojournalist for the Daily Mail.</p><p data-block-key=\"lh3ve\">The officer is then seen charging and striking Donnelly again.</p><p data-block-key=\"nxrab\">“He hit me with such force that I had no control over how I landed,” Donnelly wrote. The next thing he knew he was on the ground on the opposite side of the street, his cheekbone in pain and his DSLR camera and lens smashed.</p><p data-block-key=\"dl41x\">Donnelly told the Tracker that he is sure that the officer deliberately chose to assault him.</p><p data-block-key=\"hp2tx\">“There was absolutely no way he could not have seen me holding up my press pass and shouting that I’m media,” Donnelly said. “He made a decision, and that was to harm me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7intr\">Donnelly said that he tried to find a high-ranking NYPD officer to speak to about the incident. When he asked officers congregating around the precinct how to file a complaint, they told him to call 911 and speak to Internal Affairs.</p><p data-block-key=\"427sa\">“I’ve never felt in fear doing my job but what I was on the receiving end of Tuesday night is setting a really dangerous precedent,” he wrote in his account.</p><p data-block-key=\"e8qm8\">When asked for comment, an NYPD spokesperson directed the Tracker to the “30-minute mark” of <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6eUFc_kltc\">a press briefing</a> held by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on June 3.</p><p data-block-key=\"vygon\">Around that point in the recording, Shea says: “The only thing that I might add on the point of the press: We’re doing the best we can, the difficult situation. We 100 percent respect the rights of the press. Unfortunately we’ve had some people purporting to be press that are actually lying, if you can believe that. So sometimes these things take a second—maybe too long—to sort out.”</p><p data-block-key=\"il4fj\">Donnelly told the Tracker that he has been unable to work since the incident due to the damage to his equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"8q51p\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/RTS3A8XG.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"wqh5d\">NYPD officers detain protesters for violating curfew during demonstrations in Manhattan on June 2, 2020. Photojournalist Jae Donnelly was covering protests in the city that day when an officer charged and struck him repeatedly.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:21-cv-06610",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
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"actor": "law enforcement",
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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{
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},
{
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"equipment": "camera lens"
}
],
"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-08-05 16:42:00+00:00) British photojournalist sues NYPD for assaulting him, damaging his camera",
"(2023-09-05 15:11:00+00:00) Journalists reach 'historic' settlement with NYPD in First Amendment suit",
"(2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD",
"(2025-04-09 00:00:00+00:00) Appeals court affirms photographers’ settlement with NYPD",
"(2023-09-08 00:00:00+00:00) Judge voids First Amendment settlement with NYPD"
],
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"settled"
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"protest"
],
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"categories": [
"Assault",
"Equipment Damage"
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},
{
"title": "Journalist released after waiting two nights in custody for arraignment",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-released-after-waiting-two-nights-custody-arraignment/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-16T16:13:18.140814Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:44:59.419294Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:44:59.315006Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"i7owz\">Anna Slatz, a reporter for the Canadian news website Rebel News, was arrested while reporting protests in New York, New York, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ajs96\">Slatz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she’d traveled to the U.S. to cover the protests that had spread throughout the nation after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. Rebel News featured her coverage on a special page, <a href=\"http://www.stopantifa.com/\">stopantifa.com</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"avjsv\">Slatz first reported from protests outside the White House in Washington, D.C. She said in a<a href=\"https://www.rebelnews.com/rubber_bullets_in_dc_mounted_police_push_back_protest_after_warnings\"> June 2 report</a> that she was nearly arrested by a charging police officer, but he passed her by after she yelled out that she was a journalist.</p><p data-block-key=\"1jaed\">On June 2, she was following a couple thousand protesters<a href=\"https://twitter.com/YesThatAnna/status/1267961005927211018\"> march</a> through Manhattan when she stopped to film a chaotic scene at a Zara clothing store around 9 p.m., she told the Tracker. The glass <a href=\"https://twitter.com/YesThatAnna/status/1267985169488777216\">entrance</a> was shattered. Some were stealing. Others were throwing clothes in the air. One protester body-slammed someone emerging from the store with stolen goods. And then the police swept in making mass arrests.</p><p data-block-key=\"4qoe7\">In<a href=\"https://www.rebelnews.com/nypd_ignored_looters_arrested_bystanders_including_me\"> video</a> of her arrest published by Rebel News after her release, Slatz was soon confronted by several officers screaming for people to go home. The video shows Slatz amid a group of people, including green-hatted National Lawyers Guild legal observers, being forcefully ushered off the block.</p><p data-block-key=\"00pc8\">An officer pushed Slatz hard against her chest with his baton, she told the Tracker. An officer then grabbed her by the throat and shoved her into the street, she said. The video is unclear, but a hand of an officer can be seen reaching out toward Slatz. She shrieks as the footage shakes violently, then stumbles into the crosswalk.</p><p data-block-key=\"82gpu\">An officer approaches and waves at her to keep moving, the video shows. She crosses to the other side of the street, where another officer orders two officers to arrest her. They don’t immediately react to the order, so the officer repeats it more aggressively.</p><p data-block-key=\"dcm1n\">“No! No! Media is exempted! Media is exempted!” Slatz yells in the video. An officer pulls out handcuffs as Slatz pleads, “Stop, stop, stop!” Then the video cuts out.</p><p data-block-key=\"3vs99\">The officers brought her to the ground, breaking her glasses, she<a href=\"https://twitter.com/YesThatAnna/status/1269380409365757953\"> reported</a> after her release.</p><p data-block-key=\"0hiy2\">In the face of the unrest, New York had imposed an 8 p.m. <a href=\"https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/executive-orders/2020/eeo-119.pdf\">curfew</a>, which excluded essential workers, including <a href=\"https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-2026-continuing-temporary-suspension-and-modification-laws-relating-disaster-emergency\">news media</a>. Slatz told the Tracker she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist. But as a new reporter for Rebel News, she had yet to receive a hard press credential from the outlet, though she had a printed copy of it, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"pb2ef\">She also said that the NYPD had stopped issuing press credentials. On June 6, Mayor Bill de Blasio <a href=\"https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1269383306702917633\">tweeted</a> that “being in a crisis is no excuse” for the NYPD to stop processing applications for press credentials. He said he directed the NYPD to expedite applications.</p><p data-block-key=\"wwdbf\">Slatz was taken to Brooklyn Central Booking for processing, she told the Tracker. She was placed in a small cell with some 20 other women, packed “back to chest like sardines” without masks. She was told she would be given a summons and released.</p><p data-block-key=\"9drjn\">Instead, she was transferred to Manhattan Central Booking around 3 a.m. She would remain there without soap, running water, or a bed until her release on June 4, she said. Other women in her cell had been held even longer.</p><p data-block-key=\"ynt3g\">Slatz managed to call her employer on the first night of her arrest, who hired several lawyers, including Michael Weinstock, a New Yorker currently running for Congress.</p><p data-block-key=\"ltky6\">Weinstock filed papers declaring himself Slatz’s lawyer, but due to a likely clerical error, the court appointed a public defender to represent Slatz during her arraignment on June 4, Weinstock and Slatz told the Tracker. The precautions necessary for the coronavirus and the sheer number of recent arrests severely strained the system, Weinstock said.</p><p data-block-key=\"h0nbd\">Slatz said she was released on a charge of obstructing traffic. Her next court date was scheduled for Sept. 3, she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"nxhn7\">The NYPD and Mayor de Blasio’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The Manhattan district attorney <a href=\"https://www.manhattanda.org/d-a-vance-declines-to-prosecute-protest-arrests/\">announced</a> in a press release on June 5 that his office would not prosecute unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct arrests. But Slatz told the Tracker on June 10 that her charges had not been officially dropped.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mdd8\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>\n<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"akpzs\"><i>This article was amended to remove a misstatement about the duration of the penalty carried by an obstruction of traffic charge and to use clearer language about Slatz's scheduled court appearance.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/slatz_arrest_0601.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"lkzcy\">Rebel News reporter Anna Slatz flashes a peace sign shortly after her June 4 release from Manhattan Central Booking.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "New York City Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": "2020-06-04",
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"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
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"updates": [
"(2020-06-12 18:12:00+00:00) Case dismissed as part of District Attorney’s policy to not prosecute low-level protest charges"
],
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"tags": [
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"protest"
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"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
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"Anna Slatz (Rebel News)"
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},
{
"title": "NYPD shoves AP photojournalist, preventing protest coverage",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nypd-shoves-ap-photojournalist-preventing-protest-coverage/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-14T03:55:40.992887Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:44:32.497549Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:44:32.419747Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "New York",
"longitude": -74.00597,
"latitude": 40.71427,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ezkf6\">Two journalists for The Associated Press were assaulted by law enforcement officers and ordered to leave the scene of protests in New York, New York, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"myvyz\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"z5yev\">The AP <a href=\"https://apnews.com/1d2d9e4afdd822b27bfcce570e0cbdb5\">reported</a> that photojournalist Maye-E Wong and video journalist Robert Bumsted were documenting protests in lower Manhattan shortly after the 8 p.m. curfew took effect. Members of the media were <a href=\"https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/executive-orders/2020/eeo-118.pdf\">exempted</a> from the order as “essential workers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e1yrm\">In a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1foAAYPb7kk&feature=youtu.be\">video</a> captured by Bumsted, more than half a dozen officers can be seen confronting the journalists and ordering them to clear the street along with all the demonstrators in the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"xx40o\">“Thank you. Have a good day. Go the fuck home,” one officer can be heard saying.</p><p data-block-key=\"m9nhb\">Bumsted, who declined to comment, can be heard responding that they are essential workers and are therefore exempt from the curfew. The AP reported that both were wearing press credentials and repeatedly identified themselves as media.</p><p data-block-key=\"199h6\">An officer responds, “I don’t give a shit.” Another can be heard repeatedly shouting, “Who are you essential to?”</p><p data-block-key=\"afcc1\">The AP reported that officers repeatedly shoved both journalists toward Bumsted’s nearby car, separating them from each other. At one point, officers pinned Bumsted against his car.</p><p data-block-key=\"ga6i1\">In the video, an officer can be heard telling Bumsted, “You need to get in your car and get out of here.”</p><p data-block-key=\"desib\">Bumsted responds that he needs the keys, which Wong was carrying, so the officers allow her to approach the vehicle.</p><p data-block-key=\"31fl8\">As Bumsted appears to get into his car, he can be heard saying, “Don’t be like that. Respect the press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"oxwd0\">The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"53gy5\">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/RTS3A8FO.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"kj0wz\">Demonstrators gather after curfew in lower Manhattan on June 2, 2020. Although media is exempt from curfew orders, two journalists with The Associated Press were forced by law enforcement to stop documenting the protests and leave the area.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"May-E Wong (The Associated Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Broadcast photojournalist attacked while covering Madison protest aftermath",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-photojournalist-attacked-while-covering-madison-protest-aftermath/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:51:34.939968Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-03T22:50:51.007739Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-03T22:50:50.915322Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Madison",
"longitude": -89.40123,
"latitude": 43.07305,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gayzz\">A TV photojournalist and reporter were assaulted on-air while reporting on the aftermath of protests in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ul8hx\">NBC15 News photojournalist Curt Lenz and reporter Amelia Jones were on State Street in downtown Madison, reporting live for the local station’s morning news after a third night of protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.</p><p data-block-key=\"0nqmo\">In a <a href=\"https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/NBC15-photojournalist-reporter-attacked-live-on-air-during-morning-show-570953951.html\">video clip</a> from the news program from that morning, Lenz’s camera is turned toward Jones, who is holding a microphone and about to deliver a report. Then suddenly the camera pans to show a man on a bicycle approaching, before the live news feed cuts off.</p><p data-block-key=\"m6its\">According <a href=\"https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/newsroom/incidentreports/incident.cfm?id=26575\">to a report</a> from the City of Madison Police Department, the suspect had been going through looted goods from a nearby 7-Eleven. Right after the camera panned, the report said that the suspect charged toward Lenz and the camera, throwing bottles, then grabbing Lenz and “vigorously shaking him and his camera” before leaving the scene on a bicycle.</p><p data-block-key=\"s2e3i\">While neither Lenz nor Jones could be reached for comment by the time of publication, the incident was confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker by NBC15 management.</p><p data-block-key=\"l5zlr\">After a chase, Madison police captured and arrested 40-year-old Michael E. Campbell, for “battery, disorderly conduct, resisting/obstructing, and on a probation hold,” according to the police report.</p><p data-block-key=\"s937f\">According <a href=\"https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/NBC15-photojournalist-reporter-attacked-live-on-air-during-morning-show-570953951.html\">to a news report</a> on the incident from NBC15, Jones and Lenz were described as “shaken” but okay after the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"6wq2r\">The news story said that just prior to the assault, Lenz had been recording people at a 7-Eleven store that had been looted. The suspect saw Lenz and informed him he did not want to be recorded.</p><p data-block-key=\"rjb2b\">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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"denial_of_entry": false,
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"assailant": "private individual",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "Wisconsin",
"abbreviation": "WI"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-05-21 00:00:00+00:00) Man sentenced for attack on photojournalist at Wisconsin protest"
],
"case_statuses": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Curt Lenz (WMTV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Broadcast reporter struck with pepper balls while covering Buffalo protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-struck-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-buffalo-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:44:15.768668Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:50.862316Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:50.772489Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Buffalo",
"longitude": -78.87837,
"latitude": 42.88645,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mornz\">A news crew from WIVB in Buffalo, New York, was struck by crowd-control munitions fired by police while covering protests in the city on June 1, 2020, the same night a Buffalo protester was tackled and forcibly arrested by police while giving an on-camera interview.</p><p data-block-key=\"h4a1l\">The demonstrations that evening were part of a wave of protests resulting from a viral video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"dire1\">June 1 was <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/06/01/us/ap-us-america-protests-officers-struck.html?searchResultPosition=20\">a particularly chaotic night in Buffalo</a>. At one point, an SUV carrying two people who had been shot drove through a line of law enforcement officers, two of whom suffered injuries and were taken to a hospital. Blocks away from that incident, police deployed tear gas to clear the streets. In the midst of that, WIVB reporter Dave Greber and photographer Brad Berchou were caught in a volley of pepper ball fire from police. One of the projectiles hit the camera lens, but it was not damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"p1h8s\">In an interview with WIVB, Greber said that he did not believe he and Berchou were targeted because they were journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"fb13m\">“I think they were firing at anything that moved. And we happened to be moving,” he said. “I would hope, to be honest with you, that they didn’t know who we were. It would be a real shame that if they identified us as media positively, and then pulled the trigger.”</p><p data-block-key=\"s42s8\">At a press conference, Buffalo police captain Jeff Rinaldo said that any harm journalists suffered during the protests from police was incidental.</p><p data-block-key=\"h7xu1\">“We try as hard as we can to make sure that members of the media have access to these events. But when situations like this unfold, when we’re trying to disperse large crowds, there is the potential for media members to become part of the situation,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"w9u1b\">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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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
"updates": [],
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"chemical irritant",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Dave Greber (WIVB-TV)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Independent photojournalist arrested for curfew violation in Los Angeles",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photojournalist-arrested-curfew-violation-los-angeles/",
"first_published_at": "2020-06-10T14:39:12.552200Z",
"last_published_at": "2025-04-04T18:07:11.228699Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2025-04-04T18:07:11.123061Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xmmd1\">Independent photojournalist <a href=\"https://aaronguyleroux.com/\">Aaron Guy Leroux</a> was arrested while covering protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"hq6xg\">Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1fb8\">Leroux told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was walking west on Sunset Boulevard with a colleague approximately 40 minutes after the Los Angeles County’s 6 p.m. curfew — which explicitly <a href=\"https://lasd.org/lacounty-third-curfew/\">exempted</a> credentialed members of the media — went into effect. He said that two Los Angeles Police Department officers had already checked his press pass and allowed him to continue reporting.</p><p data-block-key=\"5irwd\">As they rounded the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street, where LAPD officers were arresting demonstrators, an officer asked if they were press, and they said they were.</p><p data-block-key=\"4tfsq\">“As we were exiting the scene, one last LAPD officer asked again, ‘You press?’’’ Leroux said. “I said, ‘Yes sir.’ He took a look at my credentials then grabbed my elbow and said casually, ‘You’re gettin’ arrested.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"m3mq7\">“I spent the next three hours getting arrested, searched, transferred, processed and cited for ‘curfew violation,’” Leroux told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"rf136\">Leroux noted that his camera bag was thoroughly searched by the officers, but he does not believe any of his photos were deleted. His colleague — whose identity could not be verified as of press time — was also arrested.</p><p data-block-key=\"wx78w\">At around 9:45 p.m Leroux was released from police custody with a citation for curfew violation, a photograph of which he shared with the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"kbrjl\">The LAPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"qrxyu\">On June 8, <a href=\"https://da.lacounty.gov/media/news/district-attorney-jackie-lacey-will-not-file-charges-curfew-violations-failure-disperse\">Los Angeles County District Attorney</a> Jackie Lacey announced that she will not prosecute citations for violating curfew or failing to disperse, while <a href=\"https://www.lacityattorney.org/post/feuer-takes-restorative-non-punitive-approach-outside-the-court-system-for-peaceful-protesters\">Los Angeles City Attorney</a> Mike Feuer said he would resolve cases involving peaceful protesters in a “restorative approach” outside of the court system.</p><p data-block-key=\"f8ztf\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"7jny0\"><i>Editor's Note: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer's name.</i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
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"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"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"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Aaron Guy Leroux (Freelance)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": [],
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Broadcast reporter attacked while covering Madison protest aftermath",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-attacked-while-covering-madison-protest-aftermath/",
"first_published_at": "2021-02-11T18:44:10.178161Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:27.615485Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:48:27.538160Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
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"city": "Madison",
"longitude": -89.40123,
"latitude": 43.07305,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7fx7p\">A TV reporter and a photojournalist were assaulted on-air while reporting on the aftermath of protests in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"geqci\">NBC15 News reporter Amelia Jones and photojournalist Curt Lenz were on State Street in downtown Madison, reporting live for the local station’s morning news after a third night of protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.</p><p data-block-key=\"m1oaz\">In a <a href=\"https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/NBC15-photojournalist-reporter-attacked-live-on-air-during-morning-show-570953951.html\">video clip</a> from the news program from that morning, Lenz’s camera is turned toward Jones, who is holding a microphone and about to deliver a report. Then suddenly the camera pans to show a man on a bicycle approaching, before the live news feed cuts off.</p><p data-block-key=\"8edxi\">According <a href=\"https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/newsroom/incidentreports/incident.cfm?id=26575\">to a report</a> from the City of Madison Police Department, the suspect had been going through looted goods from a nearby 7-Eleven. Right after the camera panned, the report said that the suspect charged toward Lenz and the camera, throwing bottles, then grabbing Lenz and “vigorously shaking him and his camera” before leaving the scene on a bicycle.</p><p data-block-key=\"qt525\">While neither Jones nor Lenz could be reached for comment by the time of publication, the incident was confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker by NBC15 management.</p><p data-block-key=\"trhox\">After a chase, Madison police captured and arrested 40-year-old Michael E. Campbell, for “battery, disorderly conduct, resisting/obstructing, and on a probation hold,” according to the police report.</p><p data-block-key=\"ffzu7\">According <a href=\"https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/NBC15-photojournalist-reporter-attacked-live-on-air-during-morning-show-570953951.html\">to a news report</a> on the incident from NBC15, Jones and Lenz were described as “shaken” but OK after the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"kvae3\">The news story said that just prior to the assault, Lenz had been recording people at a 7-Eleven store that had been looted. The suspect saw Lenz and informed him he did not want to be recorded.</p><p data-block-key=\"hx6eo\">The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\">here</a>.</p></div>",
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"state": {
"name": "Wisconsin",
"abbreviation": "WI"
},
"updates": [
"(2021-05-21 00:00:00+00:00) Man sentenced for attack on reporter at Wisconsin protest"
],
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"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
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"Amelia Jones (WMTV)"
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{
"title": "NBC Bay Area reporter detained by police while covering Oakland protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc-bay-area-reporter-detained-police-while-covering-oakland-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2020-12-01T20:58:13.299843Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-13T17:52:44.662316Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-13T17:52:44.557661Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Oakland",
"longitude": -122.2708,
"latitude": 37.80437,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"evyls\">NBC Bay Area reporter and anchor Terry McSweeney was handcuffed and temporarily detained by police while filming an arrest during a protest in Oakland, California, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"9r8b2\">Protests in Oakland were held for several days in early June amid a national wave of demonstrations against racism and police brutality in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people at the hands of police.</p><p data-block-key=\"22l9x\">McSweeney and an NBC Bay Area videographer were covering the demonstration as protesters started to march from City Hall to the Oakland Police Department, McSweeney told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The videographer followed protesters on foot and McSweeney drove a station van up the street to meet him, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"jwsxp\">As McSweeney turned onto 11th Street from Broadway, he came up behind a van that was stopped in the middle of the street, while police detained two people on the sidewalk next to the vehicle. McSweeney said he began recording the scene on his cellphone from inside the van.</p><p data-block-key=\"2j7ec\">McSweeney said an officer came up to the van — which was clearly marked as belonging to the NBC Bay Area news station — tapped on the hood, and told him to leave. McSweeney said he told the officer he was with the media, but the officer again directed McSweeney to leave and said he would be arrested if he didn’t. When McSweeney responded that he believed he had a right to be there, the officer told him to get out of the van.</p><p data-block-key=\"3zqjq\">The officer took McSweeney’s phone and put his wrists in handcuffs, McSweeney said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ouqkz\">He asked the officer why he was detaining him, and the officer replied, “I told you to move.”</p><p data-block-key=\"ej6t4\">The officer who detained him then asked another police officer to walk McSweeney up to a street corner about a block away, according to McSweeney.</p><p data-block-key=\"7drks\">McSweeney said the second officer asked if he was OK and offered to loosen the cuffs. After stepping away for a moment, the officer removed the handcuffs and again walked away. McSweeney said he waited at the corner for about 10 minutes on his own, before the second officer returned and told him he could go. Police returned McSweeney’s phone, and he drove away.</p><p data-block-key=\"z7mxs\">McSweeney said he immediately called NBC Bay Area’s news director to alert his colleagues to the incident, and the news station has been in contact with the Oakland Police Department. He didn’t file an official complaint with the department about the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"gp7jq\">Oakland Police Department Public Information Officer Johnna Watson told the Tracker the department was made aware of the incident shortly after it happened, and said it was a concern for the department and the relationship between police and journalists. She said the department reviewed the incident and communicated with McSweeney and newsroom supervisors at NBC Bay Area about it, and met with other media outlets in the region about media policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"vz8hk\">“We fully support the journalism and the reporting of journalists. It is really important for us to allow the access to ensure that our media is able to report on what is going on. We want to have that access and that reporting without any barriers,” Watson said.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqebo\">Watson said the vehicle stop McSweeney came across was associated with the investigation into the <a href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/authorities-identify-federal-officer-killed-oakland-during-george-floyd-protest-n1220516\">shooting death of a federal agent in Oakland on May 29</a>, and was considered a “high risk” situation. She said no officers were disciplined related to McSweeney’s detention, however, the department did go over media policy training with officers involved with protests after the incident.</p><p data-block-key=\"pyki8\">McSweeney said he was skeptical about the police department’s comments that officers needed more training, noting that the department deals frequently with protest coverage.</p><p data-block-key=\"u1ayo\">“There was no misunderstanding whatsoever,” McSweeney said. “I told him exactly who I was, who I was with, he knew who I was with and he understood that. And he detained me anyway and took me away from the scene.”</p><p data-block-key=\"i1lru\">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 these protests across the country. <a href=\"/blog/blm-and-unprecedented-aggressions-against-media/\"> Find these incidents here</a>.</p></div>",
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"arresting_authority": "Oakland Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Black Lives Matter",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Terry McSweeney (KNTV)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Detroit News reporter assaulted by police while documenting protests",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-news-reporter-assaulted-by-police-while-documenting-protests/",
"first_published_at": "2021-10-19T15:48:45.722838Z",
"last_published_at": "2024-06-17T15:49:10.695606Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2024-06-17T15:49:10.605942Z",
"date": "2020-06-02",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Buffalo",
"longitude": -78.87837,
"latitude": 42.88645,
"body": "<div class=\"block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"xvdvv\">Detroit News reporter Jordyn Grzelewski was assaulted by police officers and forced to the ground while covering protests against police violence in Detroit, Michigan, on June 2, 2020.</p><p data-block-key=\"ooxet\">Grzelewski told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she had been following protesters as they marched through downtown that evening. As the city’s 8 p.m. curfew approached, Grzelewski was reporting along Gratiot Avenue between Conner Street and Outer Drive, <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2697075327285301\">documenting the scene on Facebook Live.</a></p><p data-block-key=\"4tapc\">In the video, a line of police officers in riot gear can be seen marching along the street and ordering protesters to disperse or be subject to arrest. Grzelewski was standing on the sidewalk between protesters and the police when an officer approached her.</p><p data-block-key=\"ph0ye\">“They told me that I was in their way, grabbed my hands and started to put them behind my back and take me to the ground,” Grzelewski said.</p><p data-block-key=\"vkncz\">In the video, an officer can be heard telling her to get down, to which Grzelewski replies that she is a member of the press. The officer asks for her press pass, and she says she has it in her hand. She is then released by the officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"4mxwk\">Press passes had been issued daily to journalists in the city and were printed with a brightly colored background.</p><p data-block-key=\"fez10\">Grzelewski said that the assault was over quickly, but she was still prevented from doing her job.</p><p data-block-key=\"qf7fm\">“In all, it was just, you know, a few seconds, but it happened,” she said. “It was a short encounter and they did not detain me in any lengthy way but they did attempt to do so.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b2fcd\">Grzelewski said an officer then directed her and other members of the media to get back from the street where protesters were being arrested and detained. She said they were “shepherded” into the parking lot of a nearby Family Dollar.</p><p data-block-key=\"kvyw5\">“They kept telling us to get back, and I said something like, ‘I’m just trying to do my job.’ And he was very insistent, saying, ‘No, you have to stand back,’” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ubpb4\">Grzelewski continued her livestream from the parking lot, documenting as officers arrested or attempted to arrest protesters. Grzelewski confirmed that reporters were not detained, and were free to leave the scene entirely through the other end of the parking lot, but had to remain there in order to continue to report on the protest and arrests underway.</p><p data-block-key=\"zdl38\">“Certainly it felt like I could not get closer to where the arrests were taking place, because the police were basically ordering us to stay away from the area,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"rrr2v\">The Detroit Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment as of press time.</p><p data-block-key=\"7p70b\">Protests in the city that day were 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. 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=\"5ya5a\">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",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
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"state": {
"name": "New York",
"abbreviation": "NY"
},
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"Black Lives Matter",
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],
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"Assault"
],
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"Jordyn Grzelewski (Detroit News)"
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}
]
