Videographer assaulted, his phone thrown over a fence while covering Detroit protest

April 10, 2021
Freelance videographer Brendan Gutenschwager says he was assaulted by people who claimed to be “acting as security” for an anti-evictions protest in Detroit, Michigan, on April 10, 2021.According to The Detroit News, protesters, organized by local activist groups Detroit Will Breathe and Detroit Eviction Defense, gathered beside the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters on Third Street and proceeded through downtown.Gutenschwager, whose videos of protests have been used by Fox News, CNN and ABC News, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that …

Detroit Free Press reporter detained, pushed to ground while covering a protest for story on police tactics

June 2, 2020
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.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.Moran said she was standing on a grassy area with other …

Freelance photographer assaulted by police while covering Detroit protests

June 2, 2020
Freelance photographer Sean Work was assaulted by police officers while covering protests against police violence in Detroit, Michigan, on June 2, 2020.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 …

Detroit Metro Times journalist assaulted while covering civil unrest

June 2, 2020
On the evening of June 2, 2020, Detroit police assaulted Steve Neavling, 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.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 …

Detroit Free Press reporter charged by police, told to leave

May 31, 2020
On May 31, 2020, while covering protests in Detroit, Michigan, Detroit Free Press reporter Mark Kurlyandchik was charged by a police officer, who knocked his phone out of his hands as he was filming, and told by another to leave the area where press were permitted, according to Kurlyandchik’s tweets from that day.Neither Kurlyandchik, the Free Press, nor the Detroit Police Department responded to the U.S. Press Freedom’s request for comment as of press time.According to Kurlyandchik’s Twitter feed, the …

Detroit Free Press reporter shoved by police while covering protests

May 31, 2020
Detroit Free Press reporter Darcie Moran was shoved by Detroit police near their headquarters while covering protests in the city on May 31, 2020, Moran told the Committee to Protect Journalists.Moran said that she was with her colleague Branden Hunter at the time when she received a text from another colleague stating that the police public information officer wanted all media to move to a designated area. But Moran said she didn’t know where that was.Moran said that Hunter told …
More Incidents